09:09 GMT
Yesterday can be described simply
as very wet ! The afternoon
reached 9° C, and at about 5pm the
temperature rose to 10° C.
This morning has started with
some drizzle, but light rain should
take over soon, and the light rain
should continue until 9pm. The rest of
the day should be dry. This morning
the temperature is 9° C, and for a few
hours in the afternoon it will be 10°
C. After that the temperature will
slowly fall, and reach 7° C by 11pm.
The highest temperature tomorrow could
be just 8° C, and much of the day will
feature more light rain or drizzle.
An early start tomorrow
will mean I may not be able to write
anything until much later in the
day. I am being transported to Kings
College Hospital for another
pre-assessment for my TAVI
procedure. That should take place on
Tuesday 27th.
Yesterday was a satisfactory
day, or maybe it was a bit better than
satisfactory. I did some useful stuff,
and did some stuff that made my chest
hurt, but being at home it was easy to
take a rest for as long as needed when
my chest hurt. The curious thing is
that although I had my chest hurting,
it didn't seem to be that bad. It was
almost as if things which should be
able to heal were actually healing a
bit.
In between an assortment of
snoozes, and quietly reading, I
decided I could have a go at doing
more laundry - almost enough to
completely get rid of any backlog. The
last of the backlog is things like
sheets or duvet covers. I could
probably manage sheets now, but it was
always my intention to wait for much
better weather so I can dry them on
the washing line.
I did not attempt to do the
laundry non stop, and I think I rested
three times while doing it. That made
is seem easy enough to do without
getting any chest pains (although I
could feel they were about to start
and that was my cue to stop and have a
rest. I think I started before lunch,
and did the final rinse in the evening
before hanging everything up to dry on
the big clothes horse in the front
room. Once again I speeded up the dry
by using a fan heater on the lowest
setting (1kW). My next electricity
bill is going to be horrendous, but I
started this winter with a fair bit of
credit on it.
My lunch was possibly slightly
healthy if you bend the rules a bit.
It was a toasted Pannini roll with
cheese and a slice of ready, thin
sliced beef from Tesco. Of course I
added some horseradish sauce, and this
new invention of mine seems to be very
tasty. My belief that it was semi
healthy was actually confirmed this
morning when I did my health readings.
My dinner was roasted
"Mediteranean style" vegetables, also
with some sliced beef. I have to say
it was rather delicious. it is a pity
that each bag of those frozen
vegetables only has enough for two
meals. One more meal like that and
I'll have to make another painful walk
to Tesco.....probably. My new heart
valve should be fitted on the 27th,
and that will stop the pain, but then
I will have to take things ultra easy
for as much as 3 or 4 months before I
am back up to speed, and I think it
says that walks should be kept to less
than 15 minutes in the first weeks
after the procedure. 15 minutes is
adequate, but then it says I should
not attempt to carry more than 2kg !
The most enjoyable thing I did
yesterday was one that I often hate.
It was going online to my banks to
check and pay off my credit cards. I
feel this is important when stays in
hospital could possibly miss
deadlines, and incur penalties. It was
the most important reason why I
"sneaked out" of hospital to go home
on Xmas day. (Actually I didn't sneak
out, I just said I was going out for
some fresh air, but didn't admit where
I was going).
Paying off my credit cards on
Xmas day was a good idea. When I went
to pay one of my credit cards
yesterday I found I owed nothing at
all. That must be the first time I've
seen that since I first got the card.
Of course I have not been around to do
stuff like order stuff from Amazon,
and until I have a better idea about
when I will be in and out of Hospital
I won't be making any orders for stuff
that will be delivered.
My other credit card did have
£52 on it, and I fully paid that off.
That £52 was partly from buying some
super expensive stuff from the Vending
machine in the hospital. It charged
nearly double the shop price for a
500ml bottle of Diet Coke. There was
also the £40 and a bit charge for my
first visit to Tesco this year (just a
few days ago). Apart from the looming
electricity bill, I feel my finances
are very stable at the moment - a good
place to be !
I've already described my
dinner, which I ate while watching the
BBC 6 O'clock news, but I didn't
mention I also had some plain Vanilla
ice cream for dessert. Once again I am
trying to keep my ice cream portions
down to safe-ish levels, and so far I
am only about a quarter way through
the 900ml tub (I thought it was a
litre until I checked). I have a
cunning plan to get more ice cream
without having to go to Tesco again.
There was one interesting thing
I did while watching some less than
scintillating TV last night. I
checked, and took pictures of two
important health indicators.
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On the
left is my Pulse Oximeter that
checks how much my blood is
saturated with Oxygen, as well as
showing a few other things like my
pulse rate. It should also show a
trace representing my blood
pulsing through my finger, but
that looks a mess because I was
twisting around to take the
picture. 98% oxygenation is very
good, even if I was sitting
quietly watching TV. It was
interesting that my pulse rate of
63 was not only a very relaxed
pulse rate, but not very different
to the 64 shown on my blood
pressure meter on the right.
109/55 is a nice relaxed blood
pressure, although some might say
that 109 is a little bit lower
than ideal. I might argue it was
pretty good considering I have a
leaking heart valve.
As I said, some of last
night's TV was less than
scintillating, and I was happy to
cut my viewing short to go to bed.
I think it was about 10pm. As far
as I can remember, it was not long
after turning out the light that I
fell into a semi deep sleep. I
still woke up a few times for a
pee - which was actually a good
thing. I do remember quite a lot
of a dream I had. Not all of it is
easy to describe, and I won't try
to. I'll just give a sort of
overview with a few relevant bits
described in greater detail.
I am unsure how the dream
started, but the first I remember
was being with Jodie in Catford,
and for some unknown reason want
to go to Croydon. The simple thing
would have been to get the train
to Elmers End, and then the tram
into Croydon. I suggested we
should go via London Bridge and
change there for a train to East
Croydon. I think it was Jodie who
suggested we got a bus to Forest
Hill, and then the train from
there to East Croydon.
For some unexplained reason
I like the idea of going via
Forest Hill. We boarded a 114 bus,
a bus I have never heard of, and
certainly does not go from Catford
to Forest Hill in reality. As we
approached where my Dad's old shop
used to be I suggested we get off
the bus and walk the last bit so I
could show Jodie where the shop
used to be. I think in the dream
the shop was still being operated
by someone I knew. We got off the
bus but for some reason I could
not see the shop. I thought it
might be up Siddons Road - a road
up a hill that was next to the
shop.
There were more shops up
Siddons road than I remember, and
the last one was some way up the
hill. It was a secondhand/junk
shop. We decided to take a look
inside. There was one open fronted
cabinet with some technical stuff
in it. One such item was a laptop.
Despite in real life Jodie having
very little interests in PCs she
decided she liked the laptop. We
got it down, and pressed the power
button. It booted up, and that
proved the battery had at least
some life in it. I think it had
Windows 10 on it - an operating
system I have never used before.
The laptop was only £80, and I
suggested Jodie should buy it, and
I would put Linux Mint on it - an
operating system than canned be
skinned to look a lot like
traditional Windows XP (or Windows
7), and would run a lot faster on
the older machine. The dream seem
to fade out at that point.
One useful thing is that I
peed several times in the night,
and twice in the morning - the
first time being after I woke up
earlier than desired, and then
went back to sleep again for
another hour. I then had another
pee. As yet I have not had a poo.
Nevertheless, when I weighed
myself I found I had lost 600gm.
That was rather good, and heading
in the right direction. Another
5kg and I'll be back to what I was
when I left hospital. Clearing out
the food that was on or even
slightly past it's use by date
when I came home from hospital was
good in one sense, but maybe it
was too much of a feast.
My blood glucose continues
to be good, and it is rather good
this morning. I got readings of
6.2, 6.4 and 5.9mmol/l on my three
blood glucose meters. Some of my
eating has been healthy ! The
average of all three is 6.17mmol/l
and that is a bit less than
yesterday's 6.77mmol/l.
(Yesterday's average was higher
than some previous days, but only
by a very trivial amount).
My blood pressure is very
slightly high this morning, but
I've let it stand (I frequently
take a few more breaths to relax
me and try again). 127/47 despite
being slightly higher thane the
last few days, is actually still a
very good pressure, and a pulse
rate of 60 is very acceptable.
The main entertainment
today should be an after beer
tasting session, but there is a
catch. Tomorrow I have to be up,
washed and dressed to get my
Patient Transport to Kings College
Hospital at 8:45am (for an 11:45am
appointment). It would probably
not be good to have a hangover
considering I am being assessed
for my TAVI procedure. I have
messaged Jodie and Michael that we
can go ahead as normal, but I will
only be sampling tiny amounts of
strong beer, and will mostly be
drinking water or a couple of non
alcoholic beers. It is going to be
weird, but fortunately Mark may
Join me and Michael, and between
the two of them they should keep
me amused while Jodie is lost in
her mobile phone.
Don't forget that I'll be
too busy to write anything
tomorrow morning, but I may write
something when I get home from the
hospital, or if it is late, Ill
describe it all the morning after.
2024 words today.
