Excavations and blood-letting - 5

OK - I won't deny it - the muscle tissue biopsy site on my thigh hurts. I should have left the hospital before the Lidacaine wore off but I didn't so by the time I reached the road walking was painful. The tummy wound is fine but has a beautiful bruise the size of a tennis ball! I told him I wanted to take Arnica but the very idea was scoffed at.

Apparently the thigh pain will last 24 hours.

Blood-letting and excavations - 4

OK - the excavations have been done - painlessly, apart from the little scratch when the local anasthetic went in.

The adipose fat collection was fine and it's a small incision on my tummy but apparently I have fat that is 4cm deep (personally I think that's nonsense - surely he means 4mm!) on my thigh so to get the muscle tissue he had to go quite deep to get through the fascia (spelling?) which coats the muscle. Both incisions are covered with dressings and I have on a compression stocking, and spare dressings to take home with me. I'm also carrying home an empty petrol can, 4 ice packs and a conveniently shaped jug!

When they said I would be out of here by 14:30 I thought I could have gone to work - but there's no way I'm taking the petrol can with me to the office.

I've had something to eat and I'm on my way home now. Catch up with more news tomorrow when I'm back for more tests and measurements but no excavations until Thursday!

BTW - they need more volunteers!

Blood-letting and excavations - 3

My BMI and my body fat percentage have been measured and I have been found to be fat – no surprise there then, and I’ll admit it – 27.5 and 41.75%. My blood pressure has been taken, and my height (169cm) and my weight (79.9kg) noted.

I’ve been in a Calorimeter (20 boring minutes of plastic hood over head and  no talking) to check my resting breathing levels, and I’ve had three MRI scans – body fat,  lower left leg, and liver – whilst listening to Adele’s 21 album.  

Next up – the excavations. Biopsies of adipose fat and muscle tissue – and they keep asking me if I’m happy to have them done. I keep telling them that ‘happy’ is not really the word I would use!

Blood-letting and excavations - 2

So far I have spat a lot of spit into a vial, had enough blood taken for 18 samples to be shipped to various centres around Europe (this is an EU research project), had the insides of both cheeks scraped with a toothbrush – orange for right, blue for left – and now, deep joy, I find I have to save all my pee for 24 hours which means I have to decant it all into an orange petrol can and carry it back with me tomorrow. At least I won't have to carry today's output around Westfield on my way home as they're giving me a second petrol can!

I haven’t eaten since 20:00 last evening, my stomach is rumbling and it’s only 09:40 L

Blood-letting and excavations - 1

My food diary is printed, my note-book charged, poo and pee collected, and I'm almost ready to go, but first of all I want know which stupid man designed the pee-catcher?

I'm usually pretty bright in the mornings but when the alarm went off at 06:00 and I staggered to bathroom it wasn't until I was mid-flow that remembered that I had to take a sample. Clamp on the pelvic floor muscles and reach behind me for the apparatus. Rip it open and try to read the instructions without my glasses on, but manage to work out that the yellow half-pear shaped bit with the tiny hole plugs into the vial, once the top of the vial is off. Once assembled the whole thing measures about 20 cm and I have to get that beneath me (do stop reading now if this is too much information!) and into the toilet bowl, angled so it would catch the pee.

To cut a long yarn short, I am very glad that my bathroom is very small and the hand-wash basin can be reached whilst sitting on the loo!

I reckon it should take me about 30 minutes to walk up to hospital so I'd better get going. Wish me luck!

Guinea-pig Week 1, Day 3 - nutrition chart

I was told to keep a food diary, but never one to do things by halves I am also recording in a spreadsheet the nutritional value of what I eat. I was surprised to find I was eating less that the recommended intake of 2,000 calories! So why am I fat?

Guinea-pig Week 1, Day 4

It's terrifying how 2 slices of cheese can increase one's fat intake!

Since Monday I have been recording what I eat in a spreadsheet, complete with pie-charts - what other kind would be more appropriate? It's a real eye-opener and it's out with the hummus and in with the tzatziki!

Trying to have the recommended ratio of 3:1:1 of carbs, fat, protein is difficult when you don't want to eat white carbs, but it's making me more adventurous in trying different things out.

Now I'm off to weigh myself!