Jake & Me

Today is Sunday, so Jake has been hanging out for a few days now.


His first day he stomped all over me and made me feel like shite.


Thursday he wasn't much friendlier - and given we're going to be together for 3-4 months, you'd think he'd start to make an effort.


Friday, he seemed to be running the show. I had no ability to make decisions and when I decided to test him, he delivered a telling blow.
Ruth and I were going to have steak & kidney casserole on Wednesday night - my first real feed since the teeth.  Events overtook that, with the hospital moving the procedure forward.  So, safe at home, we decided Friday night would be the goer.
Jake had his strawberry smoothie mid afternoon, and taking on board Wendie's comment not to underestimate how this would fill me up, having a normally timed dinner around 6:30 didn't seem unreasonable.


Breakout - seems the hospital got it wrong about my feeding regime.  When the time comes and I need to use Jake in earnest, I'll be supplied with a small drip stand, 1 litre bags of food and hook myself up when I go to bed.  Drip will be set to do its thing over a 8-10 hour time frame, so I'll get up in the morning, flush Jake and move on.


Back to it.  Thoroughly enjoyed the casserole and I swear at about the time I took my last mouthful, my whole stomach seemed to spasm.  Breathing became difficult, the shoulder pain kicked in for good measure and I suddenly felt 110% bloated.


OK, so given I hadn't been eating anything you'd even call borderline substantial for over a week, my stomach might have shrunk a bit, but still I didn't even have more than 1/2 - 3/4 of what size meal I normally would have.


I've now decided Jake has an evil streak.  Friday night (made getting anything resembling comfortable in bed rather painful to achieve) and all day Saturday all I wanted was a combination of good burps and farts to try and loosen up the bloated feeling.  I punished Jake by not giving him anything to eat at all on Saturday and early evening I had my only solids for the day - a cookietime cookie.


Mr Stein had rung during the day and I told him of my predicament and he said it normally takes a few days to settle down and to call him if it was still an issue on Monday.


Attempts to loosen the bloating came to nought - some normal coke did provide temporary relief - but at around 8pm last night, I woke up (on the couch) and suddenly felt a little less tension/pressure.  Was Jake conceding he'd been a tad mischievous?  Was he as hell.  Still couldn't loosen more and while it was marginally better, the whole bedtime thing was still a mission.


Sunday - the day of rest - yeah right.  Bloody bloating is really getting me down, I'm now totally exhausted and just going through the motions of normality.  Decided to change from the paracetamol/codeine mix painkillers to just paracetamol to see if that helps ease things.  Also, as the dietitians want me to weigh myself weekly, I bought some scales yesterday and when I weighed myself fully clothed seemed to have lost about 2 kg over the last couple of weeks.  When I repeated the exercise this morning, dressed just in my pyjamas, I got a tad concerned.  Overnight there had been a quite substantial loss of weight.  Sure the clothing vs pj's would have had some effect, but when I reweighed myself later in the day fully dressed, there was still a sizable drop, so it wasn't a false reading.


Normally, I'd jump for joy, but in this case, this said to me that my body was not getting anywhere enough nutrients and I need to make sure it does before I step into the ring with TC.


So, Jake had chocolate for breakfast, to hell with any other consequences.  By the time I took my 2nd round of painkillers, I was starting to feel a little better.  Ruth arrived with some de-gas pills while I was feeding Jake, so I popped a couple of them as well.


Progressively during the day I've started to feel better.  Still some pain in the shoulders, but am now burping regularly and feeling considerably less bloated.


Which of all these changes has brought about the relief, I don't know, I'm just glad I've finally got some.


I hate being idle, but over the last couple of days I've felt like a passenger along for the ride.  Concentration levels are well down, I've had absolutely no desire to do any work (and believe me I was keen to), but even if I did find the desire, discomfort levels would have screwed it up.  


Where to from here?  What I need is a really good pain-free night's sleep.  If I don't get it, I'm working from home tomorrow.  No way am I subjecting myself to the commute feeling like I do right now.  Washed out is a mild description of how I feel right now.


Food wise, think it will be softly softly for the next couple of days.  See what the system will tolerate and find out what portion sizes work.  Tonight will be a single slice of toast for me (Jake's already had his meal for the day) and depending how that sits after an hour or so, will try another one.


Jake has proven his point in two ways.  Firstly, the reason he is there has already been driven home - I need nutrients getting in one way or another.  Secondly, if I look after him,  I'm actually helping myself.


So, where is my relationship with Jake right now?  He doesn't eat much, is cheap to feed (state provides all his meals), eats whatever you want to give him, doesn't argue about what's on TV, doesn't drink my beer or use all the hot water and is clean and tidy.  You could call him a perfect housemate.


Maybe he won't be such a bad fellow to have around for a few months after all.