Monthly Archives: October 2009
HbA1c results are in
5.8, which is really good. My GP is pleased, talked again about decreasing my metformin dose, but I’m loathe to jinx something that’s working. Maybe if I lose a stone or two I’ll change the dosage. He did say I could give up the aspirin if I wanted, since a) my sugar is under control and b) recent research suggests it’s not as useful in pre-heart-attack victims as it was once thought to be. I’ll see how it goes. Out of all of my medication it’s the one thing that has an obvious impact due to the blood thinning.
The other thing is that it’s HbA1c, not any other combination of those letters and numbers even though I can never get it right. More than half my blog posts and tweets refer to it as Hb1Ac or something like that. It’s HbA1c. I’ll get it into my thick skull eventually.
5.8 – I’m chuffed!
Photo Past
I’ve just been sent this photo.
What’s the first thing you think when you look at it? My first thought was, wow, look how boxy those cars are, this must be from the 70’s! Actually, it’s from 1990. That’s the street in which the house I lived in during my second year at university was placed. I think it was Briar Road in Sheffield.
You can use Google Street View to get roughly the same view as the above photo, using this link. I see both the trees are still there. And generally, the cars don’t look as boxy. Thanks to Andrew for sending this photo (and a few of the inside of the house, which I might post and laugh at later!)
Pain killers @ Tesco
So yesterday I tried to buy 2 packets of Nurofen (Ibuprofen) and 1 packet of Paracetamol at Tesco. Nurofen is the quickest thing I can take to combat the migraine-like headaches I get. I wanted the paracetamol because I’d had a slight temperature on Friday night, and the only other paracetamol we have in the house is part of Grete’s prescribed stuff, not really that useful. The cashier told me I could only buy two packets of pain killers. Let’s not worry about the fact that it’s perfectly possible to take Nurofen and paracetamol at the same time. Let’s just count the actual packets that might even possibly be a pain killer and limit them to 2. I could have bought 1 x ibuprofen, 1 x codeine and 1 x paracetamol and been perfectly safe taking them at the same time ((this is not medical advice, I do not give medical advice, you should seek medical advice before taking any tablets)). But ooohh nooo, the nanny state or nanny Tesco says I’m only allowed to buy 2 packets of pain killers at once.
Because I’m clearly too stupid to walk outside and go to Boots or Superdrug or Asda and buy more.
It really annoys me. I tried once to buy 3 packets of Nurofen, and they stopped me and only allowed me 2, but I assumed that since I was trying this time to buy tablets that don’t conflict, it would be okay. The time I tried to buy the three Nurofen I was so pissed off by their actions that I bought 2 packets, and then walked back in and bought another from the same store. I wondered if their POS system would somehow do a check, but of course it doesn’t.
Yes, I know there’s research which suggests if you reduce the number of tablets in home medicine cabinets it reduces the suicide rate based on overdoses. Yes, I know that if I took two boxes of Ibuprofen and one box of Paracetamol it would do me some harm. But please, I just wanted to buy some pain killers.
Pease Pudding results
Made the pease pudding, used too many split peas, and overall it’s turned out a bit bland. Not totally sure what I can do about that other than getting a different source of flavour. Anyway, the good news is that the resulting soup (using some of the water from the gammon+split peas stock) is super delicious.
Crap iPhone photo, sorry.
Got two of those tubs out of the batch. Think I’ll work on it.
Pease Pudding (again)
I haven’t tried making pease pudding since a couple of goes in 2000 where it was okay, but not brilliant. Since then however, I’ve perfected making the soup my mum makes, albeit with my own twist and variation. And tomorrow, I’m going to try making some pease pudding in roughly the same way she makes it.
Basically, take your soaked yellow split peas, put them into a muslin bag, and boil them with the ham (gammon in my case) until they’re soft and then beat them into a paste.
Fingers crossed, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Got cats?
So I’m playing a computer game (yes, Lord of the Rings online as it happens) and Bubbles decides she wants to sit on my lap. She’s taken to jumping onto my desk and sitting, staring at me until I move by chair back far enough for her to get to my lap. I guess it’s getting toward winter.
Anyway, yesterday I was a little busy, so I ignored her for a few moments. But she decided that wasn’t good enough. Click for the full images.
It’s not easy taking photo’s of your left arm, with your iPhone in your right arm when you can’t see the screen.