During my stay at hospital after the operation, my weight dropped from 81kg to 75kg, but one of the reasons was that Dr. M had instructed me not to eat all the hospital food. For patients after pancreaticoduodenectomy, I was instructed to eat only half of the hospital food because eating all of it often causes stomach pain, so I left half of my meal until the day I was discharged. I was instructed not to force myself to eat for a while after being discharged, but I had lost so much weight and I probably exercise more than other patients, so I decided that it would be better to eat more, so I started eating normal amount of meal after being discharged, but just as Dr. M had said, I suffered from stomach pain after eating. Even if I had stomach pain, the pain would go away if I lay down and rested for about 30 minutes, so I continued to eat normal amount of food for a while, hoping that the stomach pain would go away eventually, but there was no improvement and I gave up after about a week. Since I knew that I would have pain after eating, I started to dislike eating food altogether.
So, I decided to cut my food intake by half to avoid stomach aches by accepting reduction of my weight till 70kg. At the same time, I bought various kinds of nutritional supplements. While cutting my regular food intake by half, I took supplements with high calories such as Maybalance with every meal. As a result, CalorieMate jelly was the best choice. Maybalance may have a better nutritional balance, but CalorieMate jelly has refreshing flavors such as lime and apple, and is easy to drink. It has the same 200kcal as Maybalance, so I chose this one because my main goal was to get more calories, and I thought I could drink it every day.
At the same time, I found information online that cancer patients should not consume too much sugar, but I started eating sweets and cakes to prioritize my calorie intake, and my weight loss stopped at about 72kg. I started anticancer drugs at the beginning of April, but fortunately I didn’t experience any side effects, so I continued to maintain my weight with small meals and CalorieMate for a while.
As a result of this diet, I no longer felt stomach pains after lunch and dinner, but for some reason I continued to suffer from stomach pains after breakfast. Then, I suddenly realized that maybe I was exercising before lunch and dinner, so I was less likely to get stomach pains. Around the end of April, I had recovered enough to go on a hot spring trip with my wife, so at the beginning of May I joined a 24-hour gym. I changed my lifestyle to waking up at around 6am, training at the gym, stretching, taking a bath, and then eating breakfast, and this was a great change. The stomach pains after breakfast that I had been suffering from every day decreased, and I was able to eat more food little by little.
Thanks to the daily gym training, my health improved rapidly, and by the end of May I was able to participate in soccer training. When Dr. M saw my blood test results, he was surprised that it was rare for blood test results to be so good three months after that surgery. At the end of May, my daughter who lives in the United States brought her grandchildrens back to Japan, and with the healing power of my grandchildrens, I was able to not only play soccer but also work in the fields as usual.
However, because I felt so well, I started to work harder, going on business trips, working overtime, and skipping lunches, instead of the usual teleworking from home that I had been doing up until then. As soon as I did that, I started to lose weight. Perhaps it was also due to work-related stress, but in a week I lost nearly down to 70kg. I had been able to maintain a healthy weight by training, going for walks with my grandchildren, and working in the fields, but work-related stress seems to be a bit different. Even though I had recovered enough to play soccer and work in the fields, it seemed a bit too early to push myself at work.
My daughter and grandchildren were staying in Japan for about a month until the end of June, so I stopped pushing myself at work and started enjoying time with my grandchildren, who would say things like, “I’ll take a bath with you, grandpa.” I easily got back to my original weight of 72kg.
It was an experience that made me realize that the healing power of grandchildren is truly powerful.