Weigh In Friday - Square One

Friends,

It's October and only 2.5 months since my stomach/wind/headache issues surfaced but it feels like an eternity. I'm honestly back to square one again. The probiotics have stopped having the magical effect on me. Almost everything I eat has an effect on me. I no longer know what's safe and what's evil. The only food that seems to have no negative effect on me are oats products and apple juice. I'm happiest in the morning because I wake up feeling great - like a normal human being. No stomach problems, no headaches. I love Morning Jane. So free and full of hope.

I kept my promise and went to the polyclinic on Wednesday. I booked my appointment online, made sure I reached 15 mins before my appointment and it was a breeze. Just a short waiting time and everything went perfectly. The polyclinic was quite empty. Not SARS-empty. Usually it's packed. Maybe the haze kept people away from the polyclinic which is not air-conditioned?

At the polyclinic, you can't choose your doctor. It's really a matter of luck or bad luck which doctor you get. Remember my googling doctor? This time, as if there is some divine intervention, I got an experienced doctor. Dr Sandeep was firm but nice and a very good listener. He went through my test results thoroughly and told me he disagreed with Dr TingTing's last diagnosis of IBS. He said there was no way I am suffering from IBS because I do not suffer from any diarrhoea. The probiotics that I had been taking? He didn't believe they were helping my condition in any way. However, they weren't harming me either. His diagnosis is gastritis. He went through all the meds I had taken before and said the medication I took for 2 weeks after my gastroscopy was the right medication for my condition. Dr Sandeep said if he were my doctor, he would ask me to take that same medication for 2 whole months. And since he is my doctor (for that day), he asked me to take the proton pump inhibitor for 2 months.

Here it is. All 140 capsules. Dr Sandeep also gave me a referral to a specialist at a hospital. The waiting time is probably 3 months. By then, the meds would have run out and if I were still in trouble, I could get my case treated by the specialist. The whole visit was quite cheap - under $35. Oh, my gallbladder thing? Dr Sandeep rubbished it saying the size is too insignificant to cause any problems. Does that mean I get to keep my gallbladder?

My feelings on this? I keep hanging on to hope that I will recover. Every day through the terrible wind, the little headaches, the big headaches, I keep hanging on. I can't believe I cannot be cured. Also, so far no doctor has said to me - it's not curable. So once again, I am hanging on to a sliver of hope. I mean, if Matt Damon could survive on Mars... The only thing I don't like about the meds? I can't sleep like a pig anymore. I wake up a few times through the night but strangely when I wake up, I don't feel tired.

I have to keep to a low acid diet. Absolutely no tea, coffee or spicy food. My diet has been pretty low acid all these while but occasionally I cheated. I'm going to have to be stricter with myself.

On Monday I cheated with Chicken-Up Korean Fried Chicken. It was hub's idea. The old Jane would have pigged out. But having eaten healthy food for many weeks, I found fried chicken unsavoury. I could barely eat one wing and found it too fatty and oily. There was no joy eating it. What has happened to my body?

We had dancing crab and other seafood on Tuesday. The sauce was cajun and quite spicy. I usually don't eat spicy food so staying off spicy food isn't a problem for me. 

At dancing crab, we had the option to have the food poured on the table and eat off it. Have you eaten off a table before? It was rather liberating.

Oh, I finally cooked my own quinoa. Quinoa is not cheap. Fortunately, you don't need to eat a lot of it for each meal. I watched this video which gave very good instructions on how to cook quinoa. I followed it and it worked perfectly. This is what 1 cup of quinoa gives you. I eat it over 3 days!

Quinoa is a protein but I treat it like rice eating it with vege and some seafood, stir fried.

Sometimes I eat it with a salad. You know, the old Jane hated salad. I am such a different person now!

Since my last run on Sunday, ST Run 2015, I haven't done any running because the haze came back with a vengeance. But I've been diligent with my Pilates. I should run every day because running gets all the wind pounded out of me and I feel so much better after running. But with the haze constantly at an unhealthy level, it would be crazy to go out at all.

Weigh In time. The past 7 days, I worked really hard to make sure I have 3 meals a day. It paid off. This morning I weighed 56kg. My weight has stopped dropping. Last Friday, I weighed 55.9kg. This means I gained 100g.

2nd Oct 2015 - 56kg
25th Sep 2015 - 55.9kg
18th Sep 2015 - 56.4kg
11th Sep 2015 - 57.1kg
4th Sep 2015 - 57.8kg
28th Aug 2015 - 58kg
21st Aug 2015 - 58.8kg
14th Aug 2015 - 58.9kg
7th Aug 2015 - 59.9kg
21st July 2015 - 63kg

At the polyclinic, a nurse took my height and weight. It seems for my height, my ideal weight range is between 51kg and 63.1kg. So I could still afford to lose 5 more kg. But I think that would be too hard without starving myself. And Dr Sandeep says I must make sure I don't go hungry. Something about the stomach producing acid when I'm hungry.

As you can see, I'm taking the doctor's advice seriously and making sure I'm fed constantly.