Second day running that I’m 89kg on the bathroom scales so that looks like it’s for real. No bouncing up and down with this, I went straight from 90kg to 89kg and it’s stayed there. So first target of moving from 95kg to 90kg complete, and now into second target of 85kg. I’m hoping to achieve that in the next couple of weeks before the family gets back from Australia, but I’d also be happy getting near it.
I’m NOT patting myself on the back here, but I’ve been on the steroids for 3 weeks now and I’ve not really been hungry in that time, and when I have I just grab a coffee or some water and carry on working. Maybe it’s early days and it will get worse, or maybe it’s my pure bloody minded determination this time round.
When I took Prednisolone in April for a month I wasn’t really bothered about putting back on the weight I’d just lost as I saw it as a temporary thing. I ate constantly and couldn’t rid myself of the hunger. Now I’m a little bit more sure I need to drop the weight for good so that’s what I’m focussing on, and I’m eating different foods now, which I have no doubt has helped me. Not having the family here has helped a lot too as I’ve been eating when I’m hungry rather than at mealtimes. I think the problem is that in the past I’ve eaten when I’m hungry – which I’ve always thought was the right way of doing things – and THEN sat down to eat a meal at dinner. Sort of doubling up, and that’s where I think has been my downfall. I can’t wait for the family to come back, but I’m gong to have to keep up this new lifestyle so it will be a minor upheaval I reckon and I’ll have to continue to do my own thing.
It’s a bit hard when you like minced beef and onion pie and chips fro the chipy, and cake and ice cream, not to do that any more. Or at least greatly reduce it. No pie for 4 weeks and hardly any chips. I still let myself have a small apple pie and a bit of ice cream every other day though.
I’ve been mostly eating things like porridge in the mornings, changed from larger sliced white to smaller whole bread slices and limited my consumption of that to no more than 4/day, but usually just a couple of slices. Luckily for me, I REALLY like baked beans which it turns out don’t have as many calories as you think. So I can help myself to two smaller slices of wholemeal bread toasted and buttered with beans on and I feel really full up afterwards – and I’ve enjoyed the meal. It was a nurse at my local GP advised me to switch to wholemeal as it takes longer to digest and fills you more. She also advised me to eat boiled potaoes instead of mash – which I’ve always preferred anyway – and to leave the skins on for extra roughage. So I’ve been doing that, scrubbing them and boiling them and they’re great. I haven’t quite worked out how many to put in the pot yet and so tend to do too many, but I then chill any that’s left and occasionally take a bite from the fridge.
I’ve also prepared myself for some “grazing/snacky” food and been eating diced apples, bananas and I have a honeydew melon to slice up. Also more tomatoes, cucumber, that kind of thing. But I’ve not been overdoing it on the snacky front, I’ve been pretty damn good really. I’d be very annoyed with myself if my calorie input went up because of grazing food. Yeah I’m a bit determined, have I said?
Going for my daily brisk walk in a bit as it helps pump my metabolism up. Then I’ll shower and go through my daily new cleansing ritual of steroid cream (betamethasone valerate and clioquinal) and Cetraben on my skin. I like the Cetraben – it’s got paraffin in it and stings for a few moments but then feels great and seems to calm my skin right down. In fact I’d really like to only use the Cetraben as I can just slather it on as a barrier protection for my skin until it heals. The steroid cream takes ages to apply and rub in as I have to be careful not to over do it.
It’s early days of taking the immunosuppressant – Mycophenolate MoFetil (MMF) 500mg – just 5 days so far and it takes 4 months to get working properly, but when it does in say a months time I’ll have to avoid the sun or cover up as MMF can cause skin cancers as melanin production (your suntan) is controlled by the immune system. I’m probably fine at the moment, but it’s on my mind as it’s just gone sunny outside while typing this.
No sign of the upper arm trembles I experienced a couple of days ago, so I was probably correct in my thought that my body was either adjusting to the higher dose of steroids as they settled in, or it was an emotional thing. Yeah I’ve been a bit emotional about it all. It will pass I know.
