Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Good news and bad news

He went to the doctors for a check up before one left and finally got round to seeing him for the results. The good awesome news was that He is no longer diabetic and no longer has hypertension. That means that He is no longer on meds for the hypertension... he didn't last long on the diabetic meds due to those unfortunate side effects. In fact He has surpassed the doctors expectations... it seems that he doesn't get so see anyone clean up their medical issues with diet and exercise very often.

This experiment with diets has also been interesting in other ways. See when He was first diagnosed with the diabetes we cleaned up the diet and he lost a little weight... which made no difference to his medical issues at all. It wasn't only that... He was miserable as well and it wasn't long before he slid off the diet wagon and back into weight gain. What changed all of this was finding the right diet for Him.

In this case it has been very low carb and very high protein diet... to the tune of nearly half a kilo a day of assorted meats, eggs and seafood. The sort of diet that should make any apex predator extremely happy... and it did. He likes having a smorgasbord of meats in the course of his day. There are some days when He trots off to work with gourmet lunches of boiled eggs, roast duck sandwiches, cold roast meats and a small side salad.

Ironically all this meat and eggs has lowered not just his risk of dying, but his cholesterol levels as well. Now that last one is interesting to one small slave because... well... not to put too fine a point on it one has shocking cholesterol levels. It will be interesting to see how they have gone at the end of this journey of dietary changes. Of course those high levels are hereditary... the difference is that father, who cooks enormous meals in an inch of bacon fat deserves his... and what keeps one off meds for it is the fact that one has incredibly low blood pressure and exercises.  

And that of course does bring us to the bad news. Father is taking a turn for the completely expected worse. The surgeon gave him a 50/50 chance of getting out of the hospital and into palliative care. Personally if one was a gambling woman one would have kept the surgeon on as a bookie... he gave optimistically good odds. As it stands he is bleeding again and the baby sister has once more had to fly down to be with him. The prognosis is not good. He's stopped eating and is on a course of fast and slow morphine. Sighs so now we wait and see...

5 comments:

ancilla_ksst said...

That is the kind of diet I'm on too. Lots of meat, some cheese, a few vegetables and fruits. A rare treat of sugar or bread. It seems to work.

ancilla_ksst said...

I'm very sorry about your dad not doing well. :(

Master's piece said...

They are very efficient diets, it's why body builders use them to strip down for comps. He's lost over 20 kg (about 48 lbs)since September and is going strong.

As for father... well it is only a matter of time. We knew it and the family all said he was only holding on to see one in person (a terribly romantic notion). But dying people do strange things sometimes so maybe they're right. It's a waiting game at this stage... just rough on the baby sister who is there doing it :(

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your father.

That is the diet I have been on and now use to maintain my weight loss (50lbs). That along with brisk walking for exercise has also lowered my cholesterol and blood sugar/blood pressure to the healthy range.

Master's piece said...

That's wonderful results. You must be pleased... well apart from the not being able to eat Christmas treats thing ;)