The Diet - pre surgery

The diet plays an important role in hospitalization. Many people find it difficult to eat because hospital food is tasteless, bland and monotonous. Initially I liked the food and then I too got tired of it. The hospital does not allow family members to carry food for their patients, expect fruits. So frankly there is no relief in the food front.

Anyway, when I first got hospitalized I was put on liquid diet. Water, coconut water, juice & soup. I had to take laxative before going for CT Scan and a night before my surgery. I had to drink 2 liters of laxative in 2 hours. Uphill task – but then I drank it. The malignant tumour was sitting in the colon and blocking the stool from coming out, thus the laxative before the surgery. After the onco surgeon met us he prescribed semi liquid diet – this included  kichdi, egg white, ice cream, dry fruits etc. Eating ice cream was fun – imagine a doctor telling you to eat ice cream‼! The hospital did not give dry fruits so I was told to get it from outside. The semi liquid diet would help me recover fast post surgery, specially the high protein egg white. When I frst tasted the egg white after 2 days of liquid diet it seemed like the most tastiest food on earth.  And yes, keep drinking water.  My water intake was stopped before certain procedures like CT Scan and the surgery.

The dietician visited me everyday. I would always share the doctor’s prescribed diet with the dietician to be doubly sure.  Most of the time dieticians are aware of the prescribed diet but I never let anything to chance.

Lesson learnt:

Good food can wait. The surgery and getting back to health is more important.

Tips:

I had some scraps with the dieticians because sometimes they would serve un-prescribed food. I wish I was a little more calm. So always listen to what the doctor is prescribing and be alert. And yes, be a little calm, donot get hyper like me ;) . But in case you feel things are getting out of control then involve your family member – let them solve it for you rather than you getting hyper. They will deal with it in a practical and calm way.  Remember mistakes happen, we are all humans.

Please do not get outsode food without asking the doctors or nurses. If you are hospitalized for a long time and don’t like the food you can always request the doctor for home food – I never tried this but you can give it a shot – never know if they suddenly allow for a day :D

Don’t feel too low about the diet – it’s the smallest element in the entire ordeal. Just go with the flow. Once you go home you will find many interesting recipes within your dietary restrictions. I found an entire world of yummy food when I started my chemo. Chemo diet is very restrictive – but that did not stop me from exploring. I customize the recipes as per my requirement. I always follow the dos and donts of the prescribed diet very strictly.  Later in the blog I’ll share my rendezvous with food. Thats it as of now.

I called this painting of mine as 'The Uglies'. It was one of my fav. The poached eggs added to the entire look. The backdrop was done using Scotch Brite.