weekend 17/18 April 2010

Saturday was quite lazy really; Pete manfully cycled firstly into town, to fetch more oats and ingredients to make muesli, and then with his trusty bike trailer to Pets at Home, to purchase cat litter and bikkit, thus dealing nicely with both ends, as it were. I caught up with some Desperate Housewives, tried some low GI-ish sort of baking, and went for a walk through the cemetery, which is full of lovely spring flowers. And dead people.  This brought me out at the end of Princes Avenue on the side of the road I never go – dangerous.  I found two nice shops selling bits – and bought some lovely red beads in the form of a necklace and a bracelet, and some nice greetings cards. Oops.  I was going to go home via the park, but I stopped in the local Sainsburys for some stuff, and the incredible string bag was a bit heavy, so I only did a couple of miles. That was my activity for the day, as far as I recall. Watched the rubbish Doctor Who, cooked a prawn and fennel risotto (with 20% less rice than usual), and a rhubarb crumble (with wholemeal flour and oats), which will do us three days instead of the usual two.

river near DriffieldOn Sunday, we ventured forth to Driffield, a market town in the Yorkshire Wolds. Had a mooch around the town, then set out along the canal for a bit – about 5 miles all told, I’d say. There’s a set of photographs on Flickr if you’d like to see more – a lovely walk, and we shall go there again.

We stopped in Beverley on the way back, as I wanted to pop into Lakeland (it’s quite dangerous living within spitting distance of a Lakeland shop). We bought a new pair of oven gloves (planned), and some small plastic boxes for the freezer, but woe – they have discontinued the range I love, and replaced it with horrible ones with rounded corners, and taller lids, and they won’t stack like the old ones 🙁 I shall write and complain.

Then into Julian Graves for supplies of ground almonds (low carb),  dried cranberries, some yellow raisins, and some chocolate ginger (which ought to be for Pete, but they’re hard to resist …)

Supper was lasagne (with half the amount of pasta I usually use) followed by teeny portions of the rhubarb crumble), but that’s OK because breakfast was three crispbread with marmite and a boiled egg, and lunch was a cereal bar in the car (felt a bit odd after the walk) and half a wholemeal banana muffin. We watched The Dark Knight – at least, Pete did. Far too noisy and splody for my liking, and a bit violent for its 12 rating, I thought, so I gave up about 40 minutes in.  He loved it though, so I’m probably a philistine.

And today, my scales tell me I am no longer officially overweight.  And I don’t care what anyone else’s say.

progress …

I have been to the doctor. I told her I was concerned about having diabetes. “Oh yes”, she said. “You’re right to be concerned – those glucose tests are very imprecise”. So WHY THE FSCK didn’t they call me in for a proper test?

I’m having a fasting blood test on Wednesday, which will be fun, because I’m very close to phobic about needles; I’ll need to lose that fast if I’m diabetic.

The doctor tells me that the “current thinking” is to put everyone with diabetes on Metformin. I don’t want Metformin – I want to try diet and exercise. She explained to me how diabetes is a lifelong condition, how it doesn’t get better, etc., but even so – it’s my body, and I want to manage the condition myself, so I can see some battles there too.

What really bothers me is that she thinks it’s quite possible I am diabetic, and yet the surgery was quite happy not to do a proper test; I think that’s appalling.

hmm …

I threw caution, and the diet, to the wind over the weekend.  There was a couple of glasses of wine on Friday night, and (I’m ashamed to say) a frenzied attack on a packet of Cadburys chocolate fingers.  On Saturday there was fruit cake, and fish and chips, and ice cream in the form of a Magnum; Sunday was better – cereal for breakfast, half a baguette (white) with chicken and cucumber and mayo, lentils and rice for supper.  But another couple of glasses of wine, and a singleton faux Bahlsen chocolate bikkit (from Aldl, or possibly Lidi).

And my word – I felt like shit this morning.  No energy, bloated and miserable – didn’t even go swimming, which I’d planned to do.  So back on the diet I go – don’t like feeling like this.

And you will be pleased to know (well, those who give a toss :), that I have made an appointment to see the doctor on Friday.

false alarm

I took a second urine test into the surgery two weeks ago; I had no feedback on the result, and nothing about the letter than the optician had written about the pressure in my eyes, so I called in yesterday on my way to the local hustings (more about that later, possibly).

They’ve sent the letter off to the opthalmic department at the hospital – why they can’t tell you these things, I have no idea.  And the second urine test showed no problems.

I was astonished. After the first one, I did a lot of research, and I was positive that I was diabetic.  I had a raft of symptoms to back it up – the eyes, constant weeing, lethargy, prickly feet, headaches.  And so, I decided to start behaving as it if were a definite diagnosis – changed my diet, started doing exercising etc.

Surely just one week couldn’t have been enough to push it down below the trigger level? I think I’d better make an appointment with the doctor to discuss it, don’t you?

Bulletin

On 19th March, a routine visit to the surgery gave me a fright – a standard test indicated Type 2 diabetes.  I’m waiting for the diagnosis to be confirmed, but I decided that I would take control, and act as though it has been.

So I upped my exercise levels (I had made a vague stab at starting running a couple of weeks before), and started eating a more healthy diet.

Since 19th I have lost 1.5 kgs.  Since 23rd, when I started tracking it via Runkeeper.com, I have walked, cycled and swum 35.7 miles.  I feel better than I have for years, and have dropped  a dress size.

I am dead chuffed with myself!

I’m going to do one of these postings at the end of every month, just for my own records.

the silent epidemic

I don’t hold with doctors – haven’t been to see one for about eight years, so I suppose I should be grateful that my contact lens contract with SpecSavers requires me to have a sight test every two years. The glaucoma puffy test threw up a reading that was just over the limit, and the optician has to write to my doctor.

So I went and registered with a doctor, and had a first appointment with the nurse, and the sample says “diabetes”. She was very soothing, said it might be a spike, said to drop of another sample in a week. But I’ve done a lot of research, and I’m in no doubt; I have loads of symptoms, apart from the eye pressure, all of which I put down to just getting older and being overweight; constant tiredness, tingling feet, excessive weeing.

No doubt it’ll take a while to properly diagnose, and no doubt they’ll tell me to try diet and exercise first. Ironically, I’ve started exercising – doing the Couch to 5k running thing, and working out with the Hannah Waterman DVD. I shan’t be hanging about with regard to diet either – I’ve already embarked on a suitably low fat regime.

It’s very frightening; I wobble wildly between thinking “oh I can manage that” and panic and rage. But really, mostly, I’m awfully glad I found out now.

ouch

I spent a contorted night, with Many Cats fighting forbed space and duvet, and generally they won.

Woke this morning with what felt like a raging hangover; deeply unfair, as no drink taken. My knees are very bad at the moment, due to the cold.snap. And today my shoulders are very achey, due to the aforementioned cat wrangling. I suspect some of this skeletal stuff is down to stress too, of which I am suffering an excess.

I have taken 2 ibuprofen, 2 mugs of Earl Grey, and a crumpet. Hope it eases up soon, because it is No Fun At All.

waiting lists

perlmonger‘s appointment for his MRI scan came through on Friday – it’s for 16th June, which is remarkably prompt, and much quicker than we thought.

which is good, given the story here. Although, of course, in a “that’s not a light, it’s a train” fashion, they could be doing it as an emergency …

he also has two followup appointments at the Eye Hospital tomorrow, with two different consultants. So at least we may know more after them.