08:48 GMT

  With just 4° C forecast for this morning I wondered if sheltered spots might see a touch of frost. I didn't see any, and that is because I think the morning started closer to 6° C. It is certainly very dull outside, and it looks like it should be raining. Despite the look of the sky, the first rain may not fall until 9pm, and then only as drizzle. Nearly the whole day is forecast to be 7° C (it is 6° C as I write this). Update: The forecast has been revised, and now the first rain may fall at 7pm. Tomorrow is forecast to be very wet, and a "weather warning" has been issued with warning of flooding etc. The current forecast for tomorrow shows a 100% chance of heavy rain until 11am. After that the rain may start to dry up, and by 4pm it could be dry (until midnight). The morning may start at 6° C, and most of the afternoon could be 9° C.

  Yesterday could almost have been a day of rest, but things did get slightly busy in the afternoon. I might have felt very good in the morning if it were not for some annoying, but not very uncomfortable constipation. That seems almost a way of life these days. I can now understand why old people keep on about their bowels. It is probably because I am one of them now.

  Once I had finished writing I had a lie down on my bed yesterday morning. I think I had a nice snooze, but I couldn't let myself relax too much because there were things I needed to do. One such thing was to have a shower. I think I was going to wash my hair, but that never happened. After I was clean, dry and dressed I had the usual Sunday tasks to do - generally doing washing up, and making sure the beer glasses were washed and polished for a Sunday afternoon beer tasting with Jodie.

  The one unknown was whether Jodie would be joining me. There were engineering works, apparently taking place at Catford Bridge, that meant no trains, but Jodie later confirmed she would get the bus here. Once the beer glasses were cleaned and polished, and the dining room table tidied a bit there was not much else to do, and I chanced another short snooze.

  I was effectively on holiday yesterday, and so when Jodie arrived I decided I would have some beers with her. Last Thursday, with an appointment for my Pre-TAVI assessment at Kings College Hospital the day after, it seemed prudent to drink the bare minimum  of any alcohol containing drink (I topped with a lot of water). Sunday afternoon was a fairly typical beer tastings session.

  Jodie spent much of the time effectively ignoring me as she scrolled through loads of stuff on her phone. I let her choose the beers, and she did say a few words while pouring them, and stuff. As usual, some were nice, and some less so. Fortunately there were none that needed pouring down the sink - although there was one I thought was quite a nice lager that Jodie said she couldn't finish. She poured some in my glass, and the rest down the sink - an very odd change of circumstances.

  While we drank I cooked my dinner. It was a "controlled calorie) Shepherds Pie. Sometimes I though the mashed potato topping may have been of mashed sweet potato. It did seem to have a golden sort of colour. Maybe it was a mix of sweet and ordinary potato. It was rather tasty, and that was important because today I can't eat all I would like (for reasons I will soon explain).

  Jodie left to get the bus back home at about 6.30pm (I think), and that is when I had my dinner. Being a Sunday there was not a lot on TV, but the E4 channel were showing a few brand new episodes of The Simpsons, and a quite good episode of Have I Got News For You. I could have watched an episode/edition of QI after, but I decided I felt tired, and slowly headed to bed.

  Once I got into bed I made the fatal mistake of allowing my brain to start thinking. Once again I started thinking about all the positive staff I had met in Hospital - many nurses, and even at times the sometimes grumpy cardiologists. I was (and I still am) very positive about my heart valve replacement procedure tomorrow, and I decided I would make a point of telling the Cardiologist doing the important part of the job. I did have an ulterior motive in that I was hoping to get him to do some commentary as the job progressed. It is boring and annoying to feel like a sack of meat that is having things done to you.

   It makes it seem more human if I am treated as a human. It was something I discussed with the lovely Lucy, the staff nurse who did my Pre-TAVI assessment. She thought it a good idea, but did warn me that the cardiologist wil be concentrating on the job a lot, and may not have time to talk. However, she did think I could get some words out of him if I asked - and I will.

  I seemed to take ages to get to sleep last night because my brain would not shut up. I think it was maybe 1 or even 2am when I got up and had a couple of large tots of rum. I am unsure if it helped, but it seemed to do no harm, and it was not that long after going back to bed that I did seem to fall asleep. Even then it was a fairly disturbed sort of sleep. That wouldn't have mattered if I didn't have an extremely early start tomorrow.

  I eventually did get some sleep, but I woke up around 7am feeling quite groggy (and not from the rum). I got up and had a pee. I felt like I wanted to poo, but nothing was moving. When I weighed myself I saw I had gained a little weight. Maybe as much as an hour later I finally passed quite a hard stool. I weighed myself again, and my weight gain was a little less. One thing I did last night was to take a couple of laxative pills, but they didn't start to work until I had passed the hard stool (poo). I then went twice more, and weighed myself again. Now I showed no weight gain at all !

  My blood glucose was good enough this morning, but I am due another dose of Mounjaro, and the last one is wearing off. I think I have about half a dose left in the syringe, but I won't take that until after my "procedure". I will also try and get in touch with the diabetes nurse at the group practice, and get the next, probably stronger, syringe ordered. That stuff may not be the miracle weight loss drug for me, but it is brilliant at controlling my blood glucose.

  As the effect of the dose I took a week ago wears off my blood glucose is higher than recently, but is still very acceptable. Two of my meters gave identical readings of 7.9mmol/l, and the other read 8.0mmol/l. That gives an average of 7.93mmol/l, and that is quite good enough, but a reminder that yesterday it was only 6.9mmol/l. At least my blood pressure is very good this morning at just 115/44. That might be a little lower than ideal, but I think it is fair enough.

  I did have reason for high blood pressure this morning, At 9am I had to phone "Patient Transport" to arrange, at shorter notice than they like, transport to Kings College tomorrow morning. I explained to the man that it was only on Friday that my 8am appointment was confirmed, and that by the time I got home the Patient Transport office had closed. The man on the end of the line was very understanding about it, and having confirmed the reason for my appointment, agreed it was a very important appointment. My transport is now booked, but I was warned to be ready to be picked up as early as 5am !! Once again it is likely to to be a multi pickup trip, and so a bit slow and tedious, but on Friday they got my to my appointment a full hour before it was due. I can imagine that happening again, but better early than late, and miss my appointment.

  My "holiday" continues today, but there are a few things I have to do today. One thing is to try and get as much sleep in as possible to make getting up around 4am (for a 5am pickup) as easy as possible. I need to pack my rucksack with the usual stuff for a hospital stay - although if there are no complications it may only be a 1 or 2 night stay. I'll take at least one pair of clean underpants, plus some pyjama bottoms. My phone charger is an essential, but I doubt I'll have any use for for shower gel or shampoo. I will take a brush for my hair to try and look a bit more presentable while in the hospital. I'll also be taken a couple of 500ml bottles of Diet Coke with me.

  Other stuff to do today is to try and eat food very sparingly so I (hopefully) don't feel any constipation in the morning. After what I have done today, and I am thinking that I may do more, I will hopefully feel comfortable in the morning, and for the rest of the day. When it comes to food and drink, I am ordered not to eat or drink anything after midnight. I am going to try to make lunch my last meal of the day. Not drinking is a bind, but when I had my endoscopy I was told that after midnight I could still take very small sips of water if my mouth was dry. I intend to do the same tomorrow morning.

  Sometime tomorrow morning (or possibly a little later) I should have my new heart valve fitted. Apparently I should notice an almost instant improvement, although while sitting quietly, or even sitting here typing, I am not really aware that my heart valve is leaking (which is the fault). It is when trying to do a bit more that it can become very apparent. It could be tempting to try too much too soon, but I am aware it should be a gradual recovery - as much as a few months before some sort of normality happens. The first couple of weeks could be quite frustrating.

  Reading through the notes I have been provided with, it seems the biggest worry is not about the heart, but about where the new heart valve is inserted into the body to be pushed up an artery to the heart. The input are will be in the groin (or more likely by my own description, the very top of the leg). Apparently that can be the main point of weakness. I suspect it can be a very variable quality, and if I am lucky I will not get any great problem there. If I am OK I can start to take 15 minutes walks after a week, and maybe less. That is easy enough to do my shopping, and halfway to the Jolly Farmers. If all goes well, and I push myself to the limit, but never cross it, I could recover my stamina quite fast - as was suggested by the nurse who did my assessment. I am really looking forward to getting back to normality - I just hope I can rein myself in, and not go too mad too early !

   2,088 words today.