Still struggling

We have been home for just over 4 days now, and it is still a struggle for Husband. He eats regularly, does his best to remember to drink, takes his meds, but he is still so incredibly weak, and has absolutely ZERO energy. It takes him all his energy just to get up and eat a bowl of oats porridge. And that just depresses him so much.

I reminded him this morning of how weak he was after his bout of dengue, and, believe me, the dengue did NOT take as much out of him as the 3 weeks of diarrhoea and puking did. And, yet, he took at least 3 weeks to recover after the dengue had released its hold on him. It has now been just 4 days since he really started on the path of recovery from these 3 weeks of puking and purging, and it is going to take AT LEAST 2 weeks more to get him even half way back to the energy level he had before. It doesn't help that his taste for sweet stuff has almost completely gone - so he finds it hard to drink 100-plus, Ribena, glucose drinks, etc, all of which normally work really well in boosting his energy level. Of course, knowing all this in his head, does not actually help emotionally, so he is still awfully depressed.

Food-wise, he is doing quite well. Breakfast at 8am is usually oats porridge. Then mid-morning (around 10.30am or 11am), he will have either 2 boiled eggs or 1 boiled egg with a slice of buttered toast. Around 1.30pm is lunch - which has been mostly stews (either chicken or beef, loaded with potato and onion and carrot). Then at 3.30pm, he has a big cup of Prosure (a protein rich drink specially for people who have cancer induced weight loss). Then at around 6 or 6.30pm he will have a couple of bananas. Then at 8.30pm another bowl of stew. In between, he quite often has a small bowl of fruit cocktail or sliced peaches in syrup - he says it helps to freshen his mouth!! Since he has never ever had any blood sugar problems, I am fine with him having syrup stuff - at least it gives him some immediate energy. Yesterday he even had some chocolate!! Kit-kats - first time in several WEEKS that he has had any.

Our next visit to the gastro doc is on Wednesday 25th Nov morning. And that will be a good time to get clearance for Husband to go back to drinking milk! He LOVES milk, and it helps hugely to build his strength back up, but he has been told to avoid all dairy products until his stomach and intestines are all back to normal. I'll be glad when he can drink milk again - it works much faster than anything else I can think off to build his strength back again.

Well folks, that is it for now. Please continue to keep Husband in your prayers that he should get steadily stronger - to the point where even HE (my beloved pessimist) will realise that he is actually getting better!

Till next time, stay safe, stay HEALTHY!