08:34 GMT

  This morning has started with a sunny spells. The sky is currently about 80% cloud, but that does leave quite a few blue patches where sunshine could get through. The forecast does predict sunny spells/intervals for most daylight hours. This morning it about the 6° C forecast, and this afternoon may see 10° C. By the end of the day it will be back down to 8° C, and the night, like last night, may feature rain. Tomorrow may feature mostly light rain all day long, and the temperature may peak at just 9° C for one single hour !

  Yesterday was an odd sort of day. It wasn't good and it wasn't bad. I ended up doing very little except maybe eating a little more than was ideal, but I'll explain the why of that further down the page.

  In anticipation of going out somewhere I had a shower and washed my hair yesterday morning. That would turn out to be the most productive thing I did all day. After I had finished with the bathtub I got my big builders buckets out and put in what turned out to be mostly a big pile of smelly underpants in to soak in detergent. It seemed such a good idea at the time, but it is still there, untouched, blocking the bath this morning.

  I can only assume it is the effect of my faulty heart valve, but I seem to have very little energy recently. Except that is not strictly true. I think I have a lot more energy than I give myself credit for, and maybe 50% or more is SAD (seasonally affected depression). On the other hand I do seem to plenty of capacity for thought and learning - all indoors, low energy pursuits.

  It could be said that most of my day was taken up with waiting for my next meal time. This is not supposed to happen when taking Mounjaro, but the affects Mounjaro has on me do not give me a sense of fullness, even though I may actually be full, but more a constant reminder about the pleasures of eating.  After writing I think I spent the rest of the morning trying to distract myself by reading, but still waiting for lunch time.

  I never think of lunch as a substantial meal, and I used to be able to skip it quite easily before I was on Mounjaro, but there are times (usually after a shopping trip) when lunch is more substantial than it should be. I had not been shopping, and to be honest I can't quite remember exactly what it was I ate, but I seem to think I had eaten more than needed.

  That would have it's consequences and they were all bad. The first is that it felt like I should relax and let my food digest before going back to the laundry I had left soaking earlier. I didn't do it consciously, and probably didn't even do it at all, but it seemed a bit like I forced myself to be distracted away from getting back to my laundry even after enough hours had passed to let whatever I ate digest. I think the main thing was a pasta "salad" with chicken and bacon.

  One thing I did quite a few times yesterday was to go to the Hermes parcel tracking web site to see if there was any movement on a parcel I am expecting today. I found that many times the website seemed not to be working, but later I did get some semi good news. The parcel seemed to have ended up at the final depot and was ready to go out for delivery - presumably in the deliveries going out some time this morning. I am now waiting for confirmation, and an estimated delivery time - another thing that has consequences.

  Maybe the only notable thing I did in the afternoon was to let Fluffycat in, and put some food down for him. I was sure he was asking for food, but he was evidently not that hungry, although he was more than happy to have a couple of treat sticks. They must have catnip of something among the ingredients. For a little while he was happy to get into his box, and have a good wriggle around.

  Some of that wriggling was maybe joy, and some was a sort of lure for his taste in human flesh !  He was purring away, and I was stroking him, but not on the belly as he seemed to be offering - I've been fooled by that before ! At one point he wiggled around and softly grabbed my hand in his front paws, without his claws out, but then tried to bite me. When I resisted a claw came out and scratched the back of my hand before chewing on it again.

  I am sure if I held my hand still he would quite happily eat it ! I have started to try and train him not to eat my hand. Using my free hand I hold his head, and lightly squeeze it enough to hold it still. I don't think I apply enough pressure to bruise or cause any damage, and he doesn't really complain, but he does seem to momentary realise I am the master, and will let my hand go. He usually gets a treat for doing so, but no more stroking.

  One little thing I did later in the afternoon was to send a message to Angela with a summary of my latest health. In particular how I had already had some feedback about my last blood test, and that three tests came back as "normal". Also how one test, currently unknown, has caused a request to book a telephone appointment to discuss it with a doctor. I think I have mentioned it a day or two ago that I will be having the telephone consultation on the 23rd of the month - and so obviously nothing important.

  As dinner time approached I had a sort of plan for a slightly unusual, and very, very slightly semi healthy dinner. that plan half worked ! I had bought a baguette for Patricia because I know she usually likes a bit of bread with her meals, or at least some of them. She couldn't visit on the 30th November, when she said she probably would, and she is now probably back in Argentina. The bread was never used, and neither have the Indian ready meals - neither will be wasted.

  During my last shopping trip to Tesco I bought some sausages. It seems like ages when I last had some sausages. My plan was just to cook a few of them, and make a sort of hot dog by eating them in some of the baguette. Unfortunately that bread is already stale, and so was too tough to enjoy with the sausages. I had cooked more sausages than I needed, and after trying one in a bit of baguette I abandoned the bread, and ended up eating all the sausages by themselves (I was intending to only eat half of them for dinner, and maybe make more sausage and baguette "hot dogs" to eat today.

  I anticipated that a diet heavy on sausages might cause some problems, and it did, although I am not sure they can take the entire blame for later problems. After dinner I just lazed away watching the usual weekday evening TV before going to bed. I think I was in bed soon after 10pm, and I read in bed for maybe half an hour. It felt like I was more than ready for sleep after that.

  I could not have been more mistaken. I put the book down, turned the lights out, and tried to sleep. If only it was that simple ! I had great difficulty getting comfortable. it was one of those nights when every move to get one limb, or bit of limb, or even neck or stomach comfortable triggered off a different ache. I am not sure why I included my stomach in that list. I don't think it was ever actually uncomfortable, but it is necessary to distinguish between belly and stomach - the actual stomach is actually in the chest.

  When I tried for sleep there were two things that initially were uncomfortable. One was my right shoulder, and the other was my left arm and hand. I still get a few after effects from when the nerve running through my left elbow was damaged when I was being operate on during my quad bypass operation. For years after the operation I had numbness and pain in my had and arm. That has mostly all gone, but it is still a sensitive area.

  I kept finding my arm, and hand was "going to sleep" - presumably from some pressure on the elbow even if I didn't think I was putting pressure on my elbow. I moved position and got instant relief, but then my right knee and left ankle seemed to hurt. It was not a bad pain, but just enough to distract me from sleep. I tried many other positions and something always seemed to hurt.

  I think I did manage to fall asleep for a short while, but then woke up again, and it was probably because I needed to burp a few times. One of the things about Mounjaro is that it is supposed to slow down the speed the stomach empties, and this is supposed to make you feel "full" and less inclined to eat. It just makes me think of food and I eat more than I should.

  While the food is in the stomach it can ferment and cause gas. One of the worst things is that it can be smelly (eggy flavour !). That was no obvious problem last night, but the burps turned out to be acid - almost like the first sensation when vomiting.  I knew the only thing I could do was to get up and chew on some antacid tablets before that acid started to burn me, and cause heartburn - a sensation that is remarkable similar to angina or other heart problems.

  It may have been half an hour, maybe even 50 minutes before I felt ready to go back to bed. This time I guess I was so tired that I did fall asleep, but while I can't remember the exact details, I did have a dream, at least I think it was a dream, very much like what I had earlier experienced. other than that, and getting up 3 or 4 times to pee, it was a reasonable night - or what was left of it.

  I naturally managed to sleep a little late this morning, but not for very long. I got up and went to the toilet. I peed OK, but apart from some gas, I didn't poo, although it felt like I needed to - another effect of Mounjaro. It was a second visit where I did poo. I then weighed myself, and I did not like what I saw. I seemed to have put on a bad amount of weight. It was not long before I was back on the toilet, and finally did a poo.

  I still didn't feel comfortable. That first poo was "firm", but the next one was very soft and runny. It was not long before I was back on the toilet for more. I don't think I can blame the sausages for it, although I suppose they, being the last major think I ate, probably take some blame, but maybe it was actually more a Mounjaro thing - it also slows down the evacuation of the bowels, and that is somehow supposed to make you feel less hungry - at least I suppose that is supposed to happen.

  After my third visit to the toilet I was feeling much better. Best of all was when I weighed myself. I make that sound like it was something wonderful. It washn't, but at least I can say it was exactly the same weight as yesterday - not that that was very good. In fact it was very bad !

  On a more cheerful note, my blood glucose was very good this morning. The Contour meter read 6.2mmol/l, and that is indeed rather good. The GlucoRX meter read a completely splendid 5.7mmol/l. Readings starting with a five are still quite rare, but at least I now get one at odd times instead of never for  long time. The GlucoFix meter read 6.4mmol/l, and like the Contour meter reading, that is also rather good. That makes an average of all three of 6.1mmol/l - a very rare low figure, only beaten once in only November this year. My second lowest reading ever since I started all this blood glucose metering. Maybe it was the result of having my first 7.5mg injection of Mounjaro yesterday.

  I could probably describe myself as feeling "edgy" this morning....which probably doesn't convey the slightest idea of how I feel, and it is partly because I am not sure how I feel. As already noted, my blood glucose is very good this morning, and so a bit of me is in good health. My weight is not good, but it has been worse (albeit not much worse). My blood pressure is "high normal", and that is possibly a good thing.

  I think I feel very non motivated. Even so I will force myself to be motivated to finish wash the laundry I started yesterday. Fortunately I probably do not have a big need to have a shower today. I was not going to go to the Jolly Farmers because Ayse (my favourite barmaid) is off on holiday. I sounded out Kevin to see if he fancied a drink somewhere, but he is not up to it. I am not sure I am up to it to tell the truth.

  I am starting to think that maybe I still have not completely emptied my bowels this morning, but surely one more visit to the toilet would prove that one way or another. I don't think I feel like going out anywhere, and there is nowhere I feel I want to visit anyway. Apart from the temptation to stay in and eat, not going out has one good plus point - I have no reason to fear missing my parcel delivery today (although it would be good to finally hear it is out for delivery, and an estimate of what time to expect it).

  One curious thing about this morning is that as a sort of penance I only had one small packet of instant noodles for breakfast. I am now trying to amplify the idea that I don't feel hungry now. I almost don't, or maybe I didn't - having thought of the subject of food, I can't help myself from thinking that lunch time is only a few hours away now. Maybe if my parcel delivery arrives sooner than it currently seems (ages away) I should try and convince myself that what I need is a walk in the cold sunshine.








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