07:43 BST
Yesterday started
off dull and wet - as forecast - but it seemed
to finish raining a bit earlier, and there was
some sunny spells before 11am when they wee
forecast to start. There were supposed to be
no sunny spells between 1pm and 5pm, and I do
recall there were some dull periods, but I am
sure I can also remember some sunny periods.
From later afternoon/early evening there was
definitely more sunshine until sunset. The
temperature was supposed to peak very briefly
at 21° C, it might have been for longer, or
maybe it was a bit higher.
There was rain forecast for the night,
but a lot of the time the sky must have been
clear because this morning started of almost
cold at just 13° C (that is cold with reference
to what we would expect - in winter it would be
like a heatwave). The forecast says full
sunshine until 9am, but there are a few clouds
in the sky, and one might blot out he sun for a
while. From 10am only sunny spells are forecast,
but even those are supposed to warm the day up
to a peak of 23° C. From 5pm until sunset there
could be full sunshine. It looks to be another
clear night and tomorrow may start cool again at
14° C. It may also start with full sunshine, but
much of the day may actually be quite dull. Even
so, the temperature may rise to 25° C. Like
today, it should be a dry day.
Yesterday I met a wonderful young woman
who wants to mend my broken heart. Unfortunately
it is not the start of a great romance. The
woman is a doctor, and it is my physical heart
that (probably) need some repair, or more
accurately, probably some minor arteries to it
need unblocking.
Yesterday seemed to start with a rush,
and then it was relaxed, and then it was most
definitely a rush. I did my best to make an
early start yesterday so I could do all my
health checks (blood glucose, blood pressure,
and weight), and then starting this daily
electronic diary early. I originally thought I
would never finish it in time, and would have to
come back to it later in the day, but I seemed
to write the 2,086 words quicker than expected.
After writing I only had the briefest
time for my usual rest, and it might have been
only about 10 minutes before I headed to the
bathroom for a wet shave, shampoo and
conditioner, and a shower. After all that I
suddenly realised I did not have much time left
before I had to go out. I blowed dry my hair to
about 95% dry, and spent 5 or 10 minutes on the
toilet trying to get comfortable before I
grabbed my stuff, and headed to the doctors
surgery, still worrying that maybe a few more
minutes on the toilet might have been very
useful.
I didn't exactly rush to the surgery, but
I didn't dawdle either. I arrived feeling
slightly hot and damp, and starting to breath
quite heavily. After checking in I waited and
waited. It was during that long wait that I
realised I had left my phone at home, and I had
no idea how long I was waiting. My appointment
was supposed to be at 11am, and the check in
screen said "on time"! I thought that meant the
doctor was on time, but it evidently only
referred to me.
The long wait, maybe around 20 minutes,
was useful in so much as I cooled down again,
and my heart rate and stuff returned to normal
after the brisk-ish walk there. Finally I was
called to room 8, and met Dr Arthur for the
first time. She didn't look young enough to be
freshly out of medical school - unless she
decided to be a doctor later than some. She
definitely had that enthusiasm that new doctors
have, but lose after a few years at a busy inner
city surgery.
As expected, we chatted about my past
history. I referred to my quad heart bypass
operation, and she referred to it as my CABG
(coronary artery bypass graft) - pronouncing it
as cabbage ! That was mildly annoying because it
sounds far less impressive than quad heart
bypass operation (even if that is actually
inaccurate because obviously the heart itself is
not bypassed).
I had the usual problem of describing my
symptoms because they tend to be variable, and
very subjective. One minor breakthrough came
when she was listening to assorted parts of my
chest, front and back, while a pulse Oximeter
was measuring my blood oxygen saturation. I was
a bit disappointed that it started at just 97%
saturation, but after taking "a few deep
breaths" it did manage 98%, and very briefly
99%.
I told the doctor that on a few occasions
I had come home feeling a bit breathless, and
the first thing I did was to use my Oximeter to
measure my oxygen saturation, and it said 100%.
That simple bit of information made everything
very slightly more simple. As I correctly said
to the doctor, it was as if there was some organ
in my body that felt it needed more oxygen, and
that organ was probably my heart. It does tie in
nicely with my MRI scan last year.
That scan showed some areas of my heart,
fed from small arteries, was being starved of
oxygen. She decided it pretty much ruled any
other trouble except for my heart. Her initial
plan was to set up an appointment for an echo
cardiogram. It uses the same ultrasound machine
as used on pregnant women. I don't think it has
enough resolution to show any but the major
arteries, and measure the blood flow through
them, plus blood flow through the heart and
operation of the heart valves.
She told me that she hoped I would get an
appointment through in maybe 3 weeks. We then
said good bye, and I left the surgery feeling
fairly good about it all. I certainly started
off with more enthusiasm from the doctor than I
seem to be getting from the hospital Cardiology
department. Later on the doctor phoned me to say
she had also referred me to some group whose
name I didn't catch, that specialise in heart
problems. She did warn me that they usually only
deal with more serious cases, but she though it
worth having a go at getting them involved. Once
again, she suggested that if I do hear from them
it should be within 3 weeks.
After leaving the surgery I went around
the corner to Aldi. There were a few things I
wanted from there, and I also wanted to see what
it was like after their 5 day shutdown for a
refit. I found that the biggest change was that
many shelves, where it is useful to keep some
stuff cool, or chilled, have clear plastic
(looks like, but is lighter than glass) doors
now. Most things are where I expected them, but
a few things have changed positions, but not
enough to be annoying.
I seemed to accumulate quite a lot in my
shopping trolley, although it was actually a
cheaper shop than many times I have been
shopping in there this year. In most cases I
chose stuff that had a lower sugar content, but
I did buy a tub of choc chip and mint ice cream.
That was far from sugar free, or even low sugar,
but "high sugar" probably describes it. I did
buy a few unwise items because like most times I
leave the surgery I feel I deserve a treat.
When I left the store I had two medium
heavy shopping bags, and quite heavy rucksack,
That had 4 two litre bottles of Diet Coke in it,
plus a one litre bottle of sugar free cream
soda. That added up to around 9kg to carry on my
back. I didn't walk fast, but I didn't walk
slow, and I walked non stop almost all the way
home. I did have a minor rest when in sight of
my front door when I had a brief chat with my
postman.
It almost felt odd that the walk home
from Aldi hardly felt taxing at all. It almost
feels like my body may somehow be repairing
itself. My blood glucose being low again this
morning, despite some dubious eating choices
yesterday is another strong indicator that
something had changed.
All my eating choices were not that
dubious. Two items I bought from Aldi I had not
seen there before. Like Sainsbury's seemed to
pioneer, and some of the bigger Tesco's started
stocking (except Catford), Aldi now do a Greek
inspired salad, and an Italian inspired salad
(although they only describe the latter as
tomato and mozzarella). They were not as good as
the Sainsbury's originals, but were still very
nice, and theoretically very healthy....although
they did seem to have a lot of baby tomatoes,
and they can have quite a bit of sugar in them.
After eating both salads I felt like I
wanted to be "naughty" and I had a small amount
of the very sugary choc chip and mint ice cream.
I have to say it was very hard to keep it down
to maybe something small like a 50gm serving. It
would have been far too easy to eat half or more
of the one litre tub ! I think I stopped eating
after that, and had a long rest. I wanted to
have a snooze, but while I did seem to have my
eyes shut for a while, I don't think I actually
fell asleep, although maybe more time had passed
than I could account for.
I didn't really do any more after that
attempt at a snooze. I read more of my book, and
also read some news and stuff on the internet.
Soon it was getting close to 6pm when I wanted
to watch the news, and to eat some dinner. I had
had earlier thoughts that I might skip dinner,
but those thought had no basis in reality. I
even had a pre dinner snack of a slice of angel
cake.
Dinner itself was a couple spicy
breadcrumb coated reformed chicken into an
approximation of a chicken breast shape. I had
both from a pack of two. I had a big dollop of
"creamy cheese coleslaw". with the chicken. The
chicken was not really hot and spicy, as
proclaimed on the packet, but I guess it did
have hints of it. It wasn't bad, but I don't
feel any urgency to buy any more. I don't think
I ate any more for the rest of the evening.
As usual, the 6 O'clock news was followed
by Star Trek: The New Generation, and Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine. neither really held my
attention, and I turned the TV off soon after
Deep Space Nine started. I retired to me bed to
read, but I kept my eye on the time so I could
go back to the TV for an edition of Have I Got
News For You. That finished at 10pm and by then
I was feeling very tired. I read a page or two
of my book and then turned out the light and
very quickly I fell asleep.
I did not get a good sleep last night. At
around 2am I woke up feeling a bit stiff and
aching, but that alone should not have stopped
me getting back to sleep. I tossed and turned
until just gone 3am. At that point I gave in to
one thing. My thermometer said the temperature
in my bedroom had dropped a couple of degrees,
and while it would have been great in winter, it
was starting to feel like it was getting chilly.
I turned the heater on low, and probably before
it had warmed the room by much, I was fast
asleep again.
This morning, after getting up, the day
started both good and bad. The first bad,
although it was not unexpected, was that my
weight still seems to be stuck at around the
same amount after it suddenly shot up on the
morning when I saw the nurse last Friday. I
blame it on two things. One is the water
retention, mostly in my left leg. Even the
doctor noted that it was very soft and puffy
(although still mild compared to some legs I
have seen - mostly old woman wearing skirts).
The other was because I did not pee that much
last night.
It seems I did not pee that much in the
night because to my continuing surprise my blood
glucose was very low (for me) again. In fact it
was even lower this morning. The Contour meter
read 6.5mmol/l. A really excellent figure and
not a lot higher than many who are not diabetic
inclined. The GlucoRX meter really excelled
itself. It gave a reading of 5.8mmol/l, and I
have not seen a figure that low since the very
earliest days when I got things under serious
control soon after being diagnosed as diabetic.
The Contour Plus meter was not as good, but
6.7mmol/l is still very good.
It is seeming like the harder I try and
raise my blood glucose, to make me pee more in
the night, so I weigh less, the lower my blood
glucose goes. This defies science, and so I
think I'll blame it on aliens. It is always
aliens. It was an alien that also made this
morning rather bad. The alien was a black
spider, with muscular looking legs, that has
been living in my bathroom for some weeks now.
It has always been out of reach,
usually up near the ceiling, but this morning I
saw it next to what I suppose is a sort of soap
dish at the tap end of the bath. I quickly
grabbed the glass and beer mat, kept handy for
such occasions, and got the glass over the
spider. I was working where there was not a lot
of room for manoeuvre. I just about managed to
slide the beer mat under the glass, and tried to
pick the whole lot up one handed. A few second
later and the spider should have been thrown out
of the bathroom window. What actually happened
was the beer mat slipped, and the spider bit my
finger.
It was surprisingly painful, and I had to
flick the spider off my finger. Once that was
done the pain almost went away. I had hoped to
flick the spider into the bath so I could try
and capture it again, but it somehow hit the
side of the tub, and scuttled down the outside,
and behind the cabinet next to the bath. So now
I have a very angry spider lurking in my
bathroom, and one with a taste for human flesh !
Possibly 2 hours later the area of the bite is
slightly sore if rubbed, and there is a small
red mark that looks a lot like one of the
pinpricks I do for a bead of blood for the blood
test meters. There seems to be no inflammation.
I don't think I'll be losing a finger to
necrosis this time (finger crossed).
There are several things I could do
today. One could be to go to Savers where I
could usefully buy spare bleach, Lysterine, and
a few other similar things. If I did that I
could also wash some clothes, and hang them on
the washing line to dry. The other thing I could
do would be to go for a walk, and maybe a semi
long walk. The exercise would probably help the
water retention in my left leg, and it would be
a good chance to give my TNG spray another try.
The only flaw in that plan is that it is likely
to be my legs aching that would reduce my range
rather than things the spray would help with
(angina pains, and to some extent a shortness of
breath). I have largely managed to avoid angina
and to some extent breathlessness too, by trying
to walk slower, and take as many short breaks as
seem possible,