I have noticed over the last couple of weeks that my trousers are all feeling a little tighter around the waist than they did before. They still seem looser everywhere else, but the waistband is definitely tighter. My immediate response to this was the thought that I must have been undoing all my previous good work, and over-eating. After all, it’s very easily done.
So I stood on the scales, only to discover that I’ve neither lost nor gained any weight at all recently. I’m still the 90Kg that I have been for the last month or so. Now, in the grand scheme of things this isn’t too bad – I’m not specifically dieting while I’m on the chemotherapy drugs; the doctors tell me I need to keep strong and healthy, and weight loss programmes should come a distant second to that. And I’m lucky to be able to eat, and not be wracked with the sickness that many people suffer with chemotherapy, so I’m trying to steer a sensible balance at the moment and either stay stable, or perhaps lose weight very gradually.
Which leaves me with the puzzle of the waistband. However, a careful examination shows that my ileostomy is now on its own little mound of tummy; it almost has its own little one-sided pot-belly. Which is not how I remember it when I first acquired it.
So the current question is, have I lost weight all around it, with it remaining proud of my abdomen, or is it actually becoming more prominent? If the latter, this kind of begs the questions is this normal, and how much worse will it get? My background concern is whether or not the ileostomy is herniating in some fashion – so tomorrow I think I’d better give the stoma nurses a quick call, if only to set my mind at rest.
And in the meantime I re-instigated my exercise programme, and went for my first bike ride in a while, on the basis that (a) I need to improve my stamina, (b) the weather was nice for it today, and (c) maybe it will help trim the tummy a little, even though I know it’s the wrong sort of exercise for that! In the end I spent 30 minutes cycling down to the sea, which was glorious. And as I arrived the sun broke through the clouds and bathed the coastline in sun. Lovely.
Mind you, having got there I was completely exhausted, and needed 20 minutes rest before spending nearly an hour cycling slowly home again. And this afternoon I’ve managed to achieve precisely nothing apart from a couple of naps. However, I’m pleased to have nearly tripled my previous longest distance, managing a 13 miles round trip. If tomorrow is sunny I’ll aim for sometime a little shorter – perhaps a 10 mile loop – and try not to completely wear myself out in doing it.
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