Category Archives: Health

HbA1c test

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This is a good description of the test I’m due tomorrow.  From the article,

In the blood stream are the red blood cells, which are made of a molecule, haemoglobin. Glucose sticks to the haemoglobin to make a ‘glycosylated haemoglobin’ molecule, called haemoglobin A1C or HbA1C. The more glucose in the blood, the more haemoglobin A1C or HbA1C will be present in the blood.

Red cells live for 8 -12 weeks before they are replaced. By measuring the HbA1C it can tell you how high your blood glucose has been on average over the last 8-12 weeks. A normal non-diabetic HbA1C is 3.5-5.5%. In diabetes about 6.5% is good.

Placebo effect? Who cares!

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Today has been a good day.  It’s gorgeous, a little too warm in general for my liking, but clear skies, crisp and cool this morning and dry all day.  We had our regular weekend high class Tesco breakfast before our Saturday shop, and then we headed straight over to B&Q for some random DIY purchases.  We needed more woodchip for the border in the garden, and while we were there found some plastic border things which are better than the ones we were using.

I think I blogged about the last lot when we did the border, this lot are short sections, hammer-in, much sturdier and more durable and look a lot better.  So when we got back, since the weather was so decent we ripped up the old stuff and I hammered the new ones in.  We ended up doing about 5 hours of gardening, which included pruning the small apple tree right back now the leaves are starting to fall off (I have no clue what the best time of year to prune is, so don’t feel you need to correct me, we prune, when we want to prune).  Then we had to chop those branches up and get them into the brown bin ((our council collects garden refuse once every two weeks in a brown wheelie bin)).  Since we were doing that, I chopped up the bigger logs almost from the pruning we did in the front garden a few weeks back that have been lying in the other border.

Then we decided to finally tackle the small shed’s load of cardboard.  We cleared out 70% of the cardboard that was in there a couple of years ago, it’s been there since we moved in.  But as we got near to the bottom it got more and more hairy to move it without freeing up about 100 spiders, so we stopped.  We really want to be able to use that shed for the lawn mower though, it’ll be much easier to get in and out than the other shed, so we sucked it up and pulled all the cardboard out.

Some of those spiders are the size of squirrels.

I’m not arachnaphobic.  I don’t like being surprised by something that’s moving quickly, no matter how big it is, but if I can see a spider and know which way it’s going they don’t frighten me as such, even if they’re on me.  It’s when I’m not sure if they’re on me, or not sure where they’re going to come from or where they are headed that just surprises me and gives me that fright.  Grete is arachnaphobic, but can overcome that with the sort of aggression only usually seen in gladiatorial arenas or bad cases of PMT.

Anyway, once all the cardboard was out, Grete set about chopping it up into sections.

As well as not being arachnaphobic, I’m not claustraphobic either.  However, I think it’s perfectly normal to be a little bit squicked out when you’re in a tight space and surrounded by spiders or other small insects you can’t see but which may be dropping onto you and wandering around your head.  It’s that which to date has stopped us squeezing between the shed and next door’s shed to cut down the sycamore which is regrowing at the bottom of the garden.  Last year, our next door neighbour had the hedge removed and put a fence up.  It’s a nice fence, we weren’t sorry to see it going up and we didn’t like the hedge.  We were a bit sad that she wanted us to have the sycamore chopped down, but we also agreed it wasn’t something either of us could managed.  We paid her contractors to sort the tree, while she paid for the fence.

Now the sycamore is back, not really our fault, but it’s now stuck at the bottom of the garden with no access, because the new fence goes up to our shed and leaves a gap a little less than a foot.  Once past that, there’s more like a foot and a half of space between the sheds, but as you can imagine, it’s pretty well populated with wildlife of the small and creepy kind.

However, it was time to give it a shot and I was pleased to find out I can squeeze through that gap, and as long as I didn’t think about it too much I was ok once I was in the narrow space.  So a bit of chopping and sawing later and the sycamore is back to a tiny stump, and as we know, since nature always prevails, it’ll be back soon enough.  But now we know we can get to it.

We tidied up, put loads of stuff in bags, sorted the cardboard, and have a whole bunch of stuff for several tip runs tomorrow.

I don’t know if using the Wii Fit for 14 days has given me more energy or not, but it certainly feels like it’s done so, and that’s what matters.  I’m not sure I would have been up for 5 hours worth of gardening a few weeks back.  We’ve made huge inroads into some of the stuff that’s been bugging us for ages, and the garden hasn’t looked better than this, including when we first moved in.  Most of that effort is down to Grete since she mows the grass, weeds the border and keeps it in good shape, I’m more of a desctructive energy gardener, but still.  Five hours, and although I’m knackered, I’m not falling over dead knackered.

So, placebo effect or not, 30 minutes of exercise a day (spread out over 40 to 60 minutes as it is with the Wii Fit) certainly feels like it’s elevated my mood, given me more energy in general and made a serious difference.  I don’t even really care if I’ve lost weight I just feel better.

Fingers crossed it’s having a beneficial effect on my blood sugar levels (which reminds me, my HbA1c blood test appointment letter came through, fingers crossed).

Hesitation, sensation, and the trickle of blood

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I’ve probably tested my own blood more than 300 times now.  16 strips per thingy ((tub? tube? barrel? canister? whatever)), 3 thingies per box, easily had 8 boxes.  Which means I’ve made over 300 holes in my fingers.  After much trial and error I found that my left little finger is the best candidate.  Doesn’t get used for much typing, heals pretty quick.  When I started out, I’d spread it around (although I was testing a lot more then) and do a couple of shots in each finger, but eventually my fingers would hurt too much.  Which is when I learned to concentrate on just one finger.

Anyway, after all this time, and over 300 goes, I still hesitate before I click the plunger and send the little needle into my finger.  I still pause, I still wonder if this is going to hurt (it doesn’t really unless my fingers are cold).  Something in my brain still shouts ‘why are you doing this fool?’

And then I bleed a little and my brain goes ‘see? see what you did!’

The post that never was

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I was going to blog about my Wii Fit high scores, except I can’t find a way of seeing the high scores without doing each of the events.

And I’m not doing 3.5 hours of exercise just so I can write down all my scores :p

Worst. Flapjack. Ever.

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I love flapjack, but as you can imagine it’s loaded with sugar, and even though oats are nice and friendly and low GI, on the whole, flapjack isn’t the kind of snack I should be seeking. It’s the one thing I truly miss that could be considered a sweet snack.

So, I bought some honey (low-medium GI) and some Maple Syrup (pure) which is low GI and I tried to make some flapjack without sugar.

Worst.
Flapjack.
Ever.

The top is crusty and nice but hardly sweet, and the base is like a thick gloop of stodgy gloop which tastes like raw oats, which suggests to me it’s raw oats!

So, maybe I’ll have another shot. I’ve got some options like including some Splenda[tm], more syrup, less honey, baking it for longer, etc. Neither syrup nor honey are that cheap, so either I’ll find a recipe which works soon or I’ll have to re-mortgate the house.

I’m trying not to think about the 125g of butter you’re supposed to use per batch.

Sore fingers

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When I was much younger, I had an electric guitar for a short period of time, and I wasn’t any good at playing (not enough practice). Grete took guitar lessons a while back and has flirted with picking it up again, so there’s a guitar in the house.

With my new found Rockin’ Guitar Skillz (Guitar Hero 3) I picked it up last night (the real guitar) to try out some chords. I can play chords.

But it MAKES MY FINGERS BLEED!

They still hurt this morning, and I only did like 15 minutes.

So, three days in

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I’ve had breakfast at home before setting off for work 3 days in a row now. No bacon cobs at work, so far so good. Tuesday morning I actually forgot and only remembered as we were about to leave the house but I managed to resist and scarf some toast before rushing out, instead of just going for the easy option. This morning I had scrambled egg and toast (Burgen low GI bread). Made Chilli con Carne on Monday night (all pointed up so Grete knew how many points she was having) and had the remains of that for lunch at work on Tuesday, and had sandwiches today (Burgen bread again), so hopefully that’s all better for me than the shop bought sandwhiches at work (blood sugar and fat-wise).

And yeh, I am dieting after a few weeks of indulgence. There’s a difference between knowing you should lose weight and feeling like you’re prepared to put the effort in to lose some weight. I’ve got a goal in my head but I’m not telling you what it is.

I’m also doing this because it helps Grete, and she deserves all the help she can get because she’s been trying so hard for two or three years. So if me watching my food helps her then it’s all good. It means I’ll have to be cooking more often in the evening but hopefully my reduced EQ / MMORPG playing time will give me more energy / time to cook.

The hardest thing for me is that a reasonable amount of what is considered low GI food is sometimes low GI because of the higher than average fat content (fat slows down carb absorption). So balancing low GI and low fat leads to boring food if you’re not careful. The chilli worked out pretty well, used the lowest GI rice I could find and added some corn chips (which are low GI because of the fat) and plenty of protein in the chilli itself helps as well.

So there, yeh, I am ‘on a diet’, but since I’ve been ‘on a diet’ since I was diagnosed as being type 2 diabetic, I guess it’s no change, the only thing that’s changed is I’m trying to reduce portion sizes and eat even less processed food to reduce my calorie intake as well as control my blood sugar.

Two balls in the air now, we’ll see how my juggling can cope.

Thumb progress

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I thought I’d update you all (since this blog still seems to get most of it’s visitors because of the post about tendonitis of my thumbs) that since I cut back on my EQ play time, and bought a gel wrist wrest, both my wrists and thumbs have been fine.

I still get twinges if I spend too long running anywhere in Lord of the Rings online, but there’s nothing like as much pain as there used to be. Which is a good thing [tm].

Blood sugar woe

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It’s been a few days of random blood sugar. Very low a few days ago, high ever since. Not sure if I’ve got some kind of bug which is affecting my sugar, or if my diet has worsened, or if the few pounds I put on in Brighton has tipped me over the equilibrium I’d developed.

Frustrating and worrying whatever it is. I’ll have to try harder.

When I wasn’t sick

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I was going to start this post with the phrase ‘when I was young I never got ill’, but then I remembered that this wasn’t true. When I was young I used to get heat-rashes which were never really well explained, but if I experienced serious changes of temperature I would get a very itchy rash on my wrists and arms which lasted only about 20-30 minutes. Sometimes it would reach my shoulders and neck. I took antihistamines while I was younger, and continued buying my own and taking them while I was at university, and then eventually I just got bored and stopped buying them, and found the issue had gone away. I also had a reaction to the test at school for the tuberculosis antibodies, although I’d never had an infection personally, I did have to take tablets every day for a year to make sure (and I never had to have the BCG). I actually have a scar from the ‘flower prick’ test they used, I have 6 holes in my arm which have slowly migrated away from my wrist towards my elbow. Oh, and I broke my arm as well. Other than that though, I wasn’t at the doctors all the time, as far as I remember.

So anyway, then I went to university and I didn’t register with a GP, spent four years at University without going to the doctors, and then I moved around a bit, for a few years and never registered anywhere either. So that would make no GP visits from around 1987 to 1998. In ’98 I had Bell’s Palsy, and had no choice but to finally sign up with the GP. Then there was another long gap until I was diagnosed with diabetes, and since then it feels like I’ve been in every other week.

So I was going to write this great blog post about how I wasn’t really sick until I found out I had diabetes and since then I’ve been to the docs’ all the time, and how interesting that was and maybe it was because when you’re 20 you’re invulnerable and you just ignore being ill. But as I wrote, I realised that it was only actually 10 years where I never used the services of a doctor and the whole blog post idea came crashing down around me.

Still, I guess when I was in my 20’s I really did just ignore not being well, or maybe I was never not well and hence there was nothing to ignore.

And this all started because I was back in the doctor’s surgery today for a couple of things that have been bugging me for a few weeks. I moved our 27inch CRT TV around a couple of times, and I’ve had abdominal pains since then and discomfort, GP suggests it’s pulled muscles, and I have a cream for my foot.

A cream which I have to keep in the fridge! I’ve never had medicine that I have to keep in the fridge before. Because I knew I was going to the docs today I put my regular prescription in, and then the GP prescribed the cream (and some antihistamines, which is what prompted me to write this), so I got carrier bag of medical supplies from the pharmacy. I feel all grown up and adult now that a trip to the pharmacy results in an huge bundle of drugs.

I guess I should be happy that we have a free health service and that diabetes means I’m exempt from prescription fees.