141 – Circling the Drain, Part 8: 8 January 2025

This was me in November 2015, three years before my November 2018 Chain Saw operation.  I was in relatively good health then.

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The deterioration of my health in June 2021 was significant and I approached ever closer to the Death Drain.

The extent of me deterioration is highlighted by this Table of my scheduled exercise compared to the exercise I was in fact able to do in the three weeks after my hospital discharge in June 2021.  This Table cannot show my ever increasing pain and my ever increasing difficulty in doing the exercise I actually managed to do.  I used unrelenting willpower and forced myself to do exercise in that terrible month of June.  I was barely able to do the reduced exercise I in fact did.

Saturday 12 June 2021 to Friday 19 June 2021
Date	Scheduled Exercise	Actual Exercise
Saturday 12 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	Nil
Sunday 13 June 2021	3 ½ hours at Morialta	1 hour “Perimeter Prowling”
Monday 14 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	½ hour “Perimeter Prowling”
Tuesday 15 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; nil yoga
Wednesday 16 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; nil yoga
Thursday 17 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; nil yoga
Friday 18 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; nil yoga

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Saturday 19 June 2021 to Friday 26 June 2021
Date	Scheduled Exercise	Actual Exercise
Saturday 19 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 ½ hours walking at Morialta
Sunday 20 June	3 ½ hours walking at Morialta	1 hour walking at home
Monday 21 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; nil yoga
Tuesday 22 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; nil yoga
Wednesday 23 June	1 ½ hours yoga in studio	1 ½ hours yoga in studio
Thursday 24 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	Nil
Friday 25 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; nil yoga

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Saturday 26 June 2021 to Friday 2 July 2021
Date	Scheduled Exercise	Actual Exercise
Saturday 26 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	Nil
Sunday 27 June	3 ½ hours at Morialta	1 ¾ hours at Morialta
Monday 28 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	Nil
Tuesday 29 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	1 hour walking at home; nil yoga
Wednesday 30 June	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	½ hour walking at home; nil yoga
Thursday 1 July	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	Nil
Friday 2 July	1 hour walking at home, plus 30 minutes yoga	Nil

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I completely gave up on trying to go to bed during this three week period.  The pain and coughing made sleep impossible and the only result of me going to bed was a guarantee that Margaret’s sleep was destroyed as well as mine.  Instead of going to bed, I stayed sitting on the sofa doing crosswords, reading or listening to music through headphones.  Occasionally, I was able to doze for an hour or two while sitting upright. 

Those three in June were so very, very hard.

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The more severe my symptoms became, the less I was able to eat.

This Table identifies specific meals my symptoms prevented me from eating in those three weeks June 2021 after my discharge from hospital.

Week One: 12 June to 18 June
Date	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Saturday 12 June		None	Nil
Sunday 13 June		None	Bowl home made soup
Monday 14 June	1 ½ slices toast	None	Bowl home made soup
Tuesday 15 June	1 ½ slices toast with 2 boiled eggs
Wednesday 16 June			1 corn on the cob
Thursday 17 June
Friday 18 June

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Week Two: 19 June to 25 June
Date	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Saturday 19 June		None	Nil
Sunday 20 June			Bowl home made soup
Monday 21 June
Tuesday 22 June
Wednesday 23 June		None	Bowl home made soup
Thursday 24 June		1 apple	½ slice feta and spinach pie
Friday 25 June

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Week Three: 25 June to 2 July
Date	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Saturday 26 June		None
Sunday 27 June		None
Monday 28 June		None	None
Tuesday 29 June
Wednesday 30 June
Thursday 1 July	1 slice of toast with 2 boiled eggs	1 biscuit
Friday 2 July

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 The less I was able to eat, the more weight I lost

June 2021
Date	Weight
Friday 4 June	77.9 kilograms
Saturday 12 June	76.5 kilograms
Tuesday 15 June	75.2 kilograms
Friday 18 June	75.5 kilograms
Friday 25 June	74.9 kilograms

By the morning of Friday 2 July 2021, my health was dreadful and I clung to life by the thinnest of threads.