Category Archives: Health

Tendonitis (in my thumb)

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I went to the GP yesterday because the pain in my thumb wasn’t going away. It was a normal cycle of stuff for me, started about 4 weeks ago, perhaps 5. A slight pain in my left hand, I get it every now and again, either hand. I use computers too much, it’s no surprise. Usually it’s in the wrist, but this time it was nearer my thumb. Anyway I used the compression bandage we have for a few days, but it didn’t really help. In fact, it seemed to make it hurt more (which I can understand now, knowing where the injury is). So I took it off, and left it for a week or so. That’s my initial – it’ll get better and go away on it’s own – cycle. 99% of the ailments I get do that.

But this one didn’t. So, I spent a couple of days looking around on the web. It’s worth saying that I’d chatted to Grete and we’d both concluded it was Tendonitis. I’d taken some Ibuprofen and it helped a little. Anyway, I did some searching and some checking, but couldn’t find anything specific. I found a couple of pages which had recommendations on bindings for thumb injuries. What was bugging me most was that the pain wasn’t always in the same place, wasn’t consistent, and didn’t seem in proportion to the amount of force I was exerting on the thumb.

We looked for hand/wrist supports with a thumb covering but couldn’t see any, so a few more days had passed. Eventually we found some binding tape in Tesco, like the stuff fabric plasters are made from but in a long reel. I bound my thumb, and then strapped around my hand down to the wrist. My thumb was still free to move, but bending motion was restricted and it was held straight ‘at rest’. More importantly, it reminded me that I had a sore thumb so I didn’t use it without thinking.

It was an instant relief. No random pain, still some pain trying to tie laces or buttons and stuff, but a lot better. Prolonged typing made it ache, and certain grasping actions were out of the question, but it was a great improvement. So, now to keep it bound during the day, free overnight, and let it rest until it goes away.

Which it didn’t.

If anything it was worse in the mornings, and unbound was very painful. So after a total of about five weeks I went to the GP. I didn’t feel bad it had been so long, I think it’s important to try and make yourself healthy, not just rely on someone else all the time for any old ache or pain that comes up. I described the pain, I could be pretty specific since I knew exactly where it hurt, doing what and what didn’t hurt. Tendonitis he concluded after a few moments (although, he’s an NHS doctor, so he actually said ‘it’s probably tendonitis and probably not anything else’, heaven forbid he get it wrong and someone suit him).

We then had what for me is a first. We reviewed all my medication. I’ve never had ‘medication’ before while suffering something else. Being diabetic means checking everything I’m on, making sure they aren’t the cause and making sure anything he prescribed wouldn’t react. It was ok, he was pleased at my sugar control (not my regular GP) and seemed happy I knew not only the names of my drugs but why I take them and what they do. I do wonder how many people just take what their given without understanding it.

Anyway, 3 x 50mg anti-inflammatories a day, on top of the 3 x 500mg metformin, 1 x 20mg simvstatin and 1 x aspirin. Yay, I feel more and more like a jar of pills.

Took one anti-inflammatory yesterday, and 2 so far today and …. it feels better. Using the thumb can still hurt, but it doesn’t hurt if I just rest it at an odd angle or catch the knuckle anywhere. Many people may have gone to their GP earlier, but I really feel that we owe it to ourselves and to the NHS to at least attempt to resolve these issues on our own first. I’m not saying we should have life threatening ilnesses quietly, or that we should ignore obviously serious issues (lumps, for example), but for aches and sore fingers, I don’t think we should expect the GP to be the first port of call, they’re already too busy.

I’m not hypoglycemic

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it just feels like it. Almost as soon as I started bringing my blood sugar under control I started suffering uncomfortable symptoms, usually between lunch and evening meal. As the evening meal got closer, I would feel more and more uncomfortable, and checking various lists of symptoms they most closely matched hypoglycaemia (hypo) which was a bit worrying. However, I do test my blood (obviously) and it was never low enough to be classified as hypo nor low enough to be dangerous.

We surmised that my body basically wasn’t used to having ‘normal’ blood sugar or long periods between meals. It was also possibly even related to the idea of having food. For example, sometimes if I knew it was going to be a while before I ate (going to the cinema or shopping) the symptoms wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad until after that activity. It was almost as if my body was acting hypo to get my attention.

Anyway, I had a regular diabetic checkup a month or so back, blood sugar average still really good (I may have blogged it?), and I spoke to the nurse about a few things. She confirmed that in some people who’ve had high blood sugar untreated for a while, they can suffer feelings of hypoglycaemia while having normal blood sugar levels. At the time it was good to hear.

Doesn’t make me feel any better when I find I’m shaking while trying to cook something or I end up being dozy and not remembering things people have said to me. I’m going to try and increase the distance between my breakfast and my lunch, at the moment they’re far too close together through habit. That will in turn reduce the time between lunch and my evening meal hopefully reducing the feelings I get. We’ll see how that works out.

Since it’s been a few weeks since my checkup I’m also entering the ‘I’m not doing well’ stage where I decide I’m eating the wrong stuff and my blood sugar average is going to be terrible. Even though I do spot checks and my sugar is usually pretty well within the right range and what I’d expect I still start to doubt myself and second guess and worry. The annoying thing is that it doesn’t really change what I eat, or if it does it can have a negative effect (stuff it, I’m having some biscuits my average is already shot). But I guess I just have to recognise the problem and stay on top of it. Grete’s great as always.

I have moments where I look back and wonder how it’s not worse than it is. I can recall some days in 2004 where I might get to work, have a 500ml bottle of coke with breakfast, have another can of coke in the run up to lunch. Have some lunch, not actually too bad, but with some kind of sweetened drink either more coke or a non-fruit fruit juice. Perhaps share a couple of packets of chewy sweets with the rest of the team, or eat half a packet of wine gums during the afternoon. Of course that would be washed down with another can of coke. Those moments help me realise that staying on track isn’t actually going to be that hard. I don’t drink regular coke any more, I haven’t had a sugar-based sweet since I was diagnosed, and I avoid any fruit drinks other than actual bona fide fruit without anything added.

Which means the big culprits are bread and erm, bread mostly. I’ve virtually given up white bread, instead sticking to Tesco’s Finest Rustic Multi-grain, which is tasty and doesn’t usually appear to impact my sugar badly.

My two most deadly nemesisses (hah and it’s a real word) are Pizza and Bacon Sandwiches. I mean come on, you can’t have bacon sandwiches in multi-grain bread. It’s got to be white.

And so here we are again

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Considering it’s been 6 or 7 months since I last blogged anything, I can’t believe anyone is still reading this (in fact, I can’t believe anyone was ever reading this) so I wonder why I’m still writing it. I’m still Diabetic, I know it never goes away, but everyone has to have a dream. Had good news earlier in the year, my 3 month average blood sugar test was excellent. The bad news is that every day between 3 month checks just leaves me worrying about it and the further I get from the last check the more I worry.

Perhaps that’s good, if I stop worrying I guess I’ll stop trying to manage it, although I don’t think I’m any good at managing it anyway. I have good days and weeks and bad days and weeks. Working from home is bad, it ruins the routine, working from the office is good, the routine helps and I manage to get out every lunch for a 20 minute walk which can’t be hurting. Some days I think I’ve been good and it’s bad, some days I think I’ve been bad and it’s good, and some days I try not to think about how bad I’ve been.

I just wish I didn’t spend most of every day scared of the consequences of being diabetic, worried about every ‘symptom’ I currently have. But then it’s always been my nature to worry.

One of the reasons I’ve started blogging again is I finally migrated to Google’s new blogging feature and that includes labels, something I’d wanted to have on my review page for a while. I thought I’d bring the review site up-to-date and that led to blogging something here first.

House news, thanks to my amazing wife, we finally got someone to come and look at the ‘damp’ in the dining room. It’s not damp, and much to our embarassment, the guy pointed to a hole in the wall between the door frame and the brickwork. Every time it rained, water had been running in, and rotting the wood, floorboard, etc. So we filled the hole and we’re letting the woodwork dry out, and we’ll full that with woodfiller soon. We’ve finally made a move on the front door as well, double glazing folk have been, we’ve had the phone wire moved, and they’re coming to replace the door next week. Hopefully it’ll look ok, I have no faith in double glazing companies, but fingers crossed it’ll be good enough.

Here’s the bit where I make a vague promise (but I’m not sure who to?) to update this more often.

Frustrating day

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I’m trying to stick to being good about the diabetes, I really am. But it’s getting frustrating. So I had four slices of toast at the weekend and my blood sugar was over nine mg/l two hours later. Ok, I get that bread is bad. Today I thought I’d try harder, was pretty high after breakfast but under 9, wasn’t too bad after lunch, was pretty good when I got home. Felt like I was making progress. Had tea, went for a walk, out of the house for nearly an hour. Got around to checking it again at 10:40pm, and it’s over 8 mg/l 🙁 Four hours after I ate, and it’s well above what it should be even two hours after I ate. I don’t get it, and not getting it makes it very frustrating. Also, I’m feeling really hungry and basically with my blood sugar that high I shouldn’t really eat anything to give it a chance to drop before I go to bed.

Anyway, the walk was nice, we wandered along the canal (pictured left) which is about 800 metres from where we live. It looks nice most of the time, plenty of wildlife which I think is good considering it’s right next to a main road and a school. We were passed by a narrow-boat while we were feeding the wildlife (pictured belowI think). The swans, ducks and other stuff seems pretty well trained to come to people and beg for bread. The big swan you see actually swam up and started hissing until we fed it, so someone’s trained it to beg I guess. Still, at least they’re not struggling to survive against the toxins in the water like they may have been a few years ago.

It was a relaxing walk I thought, and I’d hoped it would go some way to helping with blood sugar. Perhaps we walked too soon after we’d eaten? Ah well, just have to see how tomorrow goes I guess. My fingers are sore from all the testing I did today, and I’ll just have to do the same tomorrow.

BBQ

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The BBQ last week was cool, just 3 of us (me, Grete and a friend), but it was still relaxing. We sat out until about 11pm – just amazing weather. We ate too much and we burned the ribs and the wings, all traditional BBQ activity.

The only thing that was missing was me dropping a charred-on-the-outside but raw-on-the-inside chicken leg on the floor and then fobbing it off on the person you don’t like. Since there wasn’t anyone there we didn’t like and since we didn’t have any chicken legs, we couldn’t do that bit.

Otherwise, 100% traditional UK BBQ without the rain 🙂

Back!

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Back, scan done, found a vendor selling Turkey Salad Sandwiches (I think the Turkey meat drops in Jaggedpine) and Cold Flasks of Water which was a bonus. Vendor diving rocks.

(Yeh, EQ in-jokes, sorry)

hhuuuuunnggrryyyy

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So, I’m having a liver scan today because when I first got diagnosed with diabetes they also noticed slight liver anomolies in my blood sample (slight as in 5% or less, not sure how you give them a percentage but there you go).

Anyway, they’ve cleared slightly but the GP still wants a scan.

Sooooo the reason for the post – fasting since 10am for the 4pm test.

No food or drink.

No water.

During the hottest period the UK has seen since like EVER.

Gah and all I can do is think about food and water.

You are thirsty.
You are hungry.
You are out of food and drink.

Hospitals and Budgets

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It’s 23:29 on Sunday, after a weekend of eventfulness. At 20:05 yesterday, Grete got some chest pains, pretty severe and sudden. We gave it a few minutes, and after they weren’t getting any better called an Ambulance. The ambulance team were fine, arrived quickly and calmed Grete down, took some ECG’s and other measurements and suggested it was probably pretty bad but non-fatal acid reflux.

I’d already packed a bag of stuff after calling them, had the cat in, everything locked. After about 40 minutes it looked like we weren’t going anywhere, but then the pain flared up again and quite rightly the ambulance team weren’t prepared to leave it at that. At 21:25 we arrived at the QMC.

I like the NHS, I think I’ve said it before, and I sympathise with their situation of massive underfunding, massive overspending on stupid stuff imposed by their structure and the general complexity of running and funding an organisation their size.

But that sympathy vanishes when I’m on the receiving end of their under-staffing and lack of involvement of the patient in their activity.

It turns into anger when it’s my wife on the receiving end.

We waited in the initial A&E area, with nurses (excuse my lack of NHS knowledge, anyone who isn’t a doctor or a porter is a nurse) wandering by, the ambulance guy with all the paper work just standing with us. Grete on a stretcher in pain. Me looking dumb. No one seemed to have a process for ID’ing new arrivals or starting the process of getting people looked at. Eventually a nurse asked, in passing to our Ambulance guy, has anyone done ob’s (observations) on your patient? He said no, so she looked over the sheet he had, and said ok I’ll do some, he asked her to sign so he could hand the patient over, and she agreed after checking she was allowed to.

So she signed, and our Ambulance guy headed off, it was around 21:50 by now. Why is the process for getting signed in so random? I can’t believe it’s intended to be ‘just turn up and stand around and hope someone who passes by says hello’. Anyway, she read the sheet, took some obs and rolled us into a cubicle. Chest pain sets off about a thousand alerts in the NHS, so I’m sure we got seen quicker than most people in A&E. Another nurse came in to get some blood samples. It’s a small thing, but the difference between, “Hi, I’m here to get some blood” and “Hi, I’m here to get some standard blood samples, we do them as standard for everyone who comes in with chest pain, nothing to worry about”. We got the former, I asked why, she gave us the second response. I know they’re busy, understaffed and short of time, but people need the second, it’ll help them get better quicker. The first nurse came back and did another full ECG (or that may have been before the blood tests, I’m a bit unsure).

We sat around for a bit more, waiting for a doctor to review the obs and check Grete out. Not enough doctors in A&E. Plenty of nurses, all busy, but not enough doctors. I’m sure if they had more doctors it may not help because there’s no where to ship all the patients to anyway, but it would probably increase the throughput for those patients who don’t need moving on to another ward.

Eventually the doctor came to see Grete, she was nice, explained everything she was doing. She listened, took more obs and concluded that the measurements suggested it wasn’t anything heart related, but all the symptoms Grete described suggested it was. They’re advised to treat the patient not the readings so she suggested an overnight stay. There’s a blood test they do 12 hours after heart-trouble which reveals if the heart released any chemicals indicating heart trouble. She suggested a chest x-ray and then left.

We got moved down to x-ray, pretty quickly, they did the job and sent us back to A&E. And this is where it gets really frustrating. It’s about 1am now. The whole process has taken 3 and a half hours. Most of that spent waiting for the doctor, getting more obs, etc.

So we’re now standing in A&E, Grete on a stretcher, me standing. She’s still in a little pain and now getting uncomfortable (from 9pm to 1am on a stretcher). She needs the loo, but we’re not sure what’s happening, if she gets up and goes, will they try to move her while she’s not there, etc., etc. Finally I grab a nurse and ask, she says “just waiting to move you to the ward, go to the loo, no problem”. So, we head to the loo and back. And wait some more. Eventually I ask another nurse, 2am or so by now. Grete is marked as discharged on their chart (i.e. discharged from A&E). So he scurries around for a bit to find out why we’re still here. The first nurse comes over, agitated now and says ‘yes yes, we’re just moving you now’. She wheels us to the AMU (acute medical unit).

You know, myself and Grete are the patients, we didn’t ask to be ill, we didn’t ask to be in hospital, we didn’t ask to be admitted, we didn’t ask to need treatment. We’re being admitted because the doctor thinks it’s necessary, because of an illness we had no control over. We get wheeled into the AMU, it’s a small ward, about 8 treatment rooms, it’s darkish. Most of the people already here have been our neighbours from the A&E. Our nurse wheels us into a little cubicle and then hands the paperwork over to a stressed colleague behind the desk. There’s no chair in the cubicle, Grete’s oxygen which she’s been told to use has run out, the AMU is behind a locked door, and the nurse has told us nothing.

No idea how long we’ll be there, what ‘being there’ entails, how I get in or out, if there is a chair I can use, where the loo’s are, nothing. So I stand at the desk, while she and her colleague discuss how busy they are, and how it’s a crazy night. They ignore me. Eventually they stop, our nurse leaves. The colleague continues going through the paperwork, ignoring me. I’m pretty agitated now. I ask, in agitated tones, “Excuse me, can you tell me why we’re here, how we get in or out, if there are any spare chairs, you know, include us actually in the process”. She’s obviously pissed off by my need to know what’s going on, blurts out something about just finding a spare chair (which means going into occupied cubicles and taking chairs), explains the method of getting in and out (ask the receptionist, buzz back in) – reception is around the corner, not visible from where we were, and no signposted. I mention the oxygen, she looks hassled.

She comes over and sticks the heart rate monitor on Grete’s finger ‘to see if she still needs to use the oxygen’ and then wanders off, to spend 10 minutes talking to another nurse in the room about how busy they are. Grete is dozing at this stage, and it’s about 2:30am. I take the heart rate monitor off her finger since it’s restricted her movement. Finally the nurse remembers what she was doing and comes back, sighing that I’d removed the monitor and puts it back on for 40 seconds, announcing that she doesn’t need the oxygen since her heart rate is fine.

I settle Grete and try and find the loos and a drink of water. The water machine in the AMU is out of order, after walking most of the floor in the QMC trying to find some free water, I fail so I head back, buzz in and ask the receptionist. She points at the out of order water dispenser and then notices it. “All the taps are drinking water”, she advises. I wait, and then ask “so do you have any cups”, she sighs and goes to get me a plastic cup. It’s not her fault the water dispenser is out of water and cups, but neither is it mine. She has cash and access to the staff facilities, I have no money on me, no idea where anything is, a wife who may be having heart trouble and wants some water. I’m sorry, it’s not good enough to sigh and make me feel like it’s my fault or too much trouble.

Other people in the AMU are confused, several people ask the same questions I did when they get abandoned by their nurse. A couple ask if their daughter can have a blanket ‘why, is she cold?’ asks the nurse. Who cares! Get the girl a blanket! Other requests for pillows and water follow, and the nurses look more and more stressed. I’m sorry they’re under staffed, really I am, but the people in the room are scared, lost, ill and need taking care of for which the national health service is responsible!

More time passes, I’m vaguely aware we’re waiting for a move to the final ward. Another new nurse comes and takes regular measurements from Grete, BP, heart rate, etc. It’s around 3am now. We’re both trying to doze. She’s stuck in an uncomfortable stretcher, and I’m stuck on a horrific plastic chair. It’s too warm in the AMU.

At 4:30, they come to move us to the ward. It’s about 100 feet away in the same section. Grete finally gets a bed, I finally get a chair which is padded. It’s getting light outside. We stayed because we wanted the blood test, because although we both feel Grete is ok, we want the final all clear on the heart result. But the stress of being a patient is almost worse. I understand they want to make sure Grete is ok, but they’re making her more sick than if they’d sent her home and sent the results to the GP.

We have to ask for painkillers at some point between 3am and 4:30am because her back is sore from the stretcher. The nurse at least doesn’t seem to blame us for that, and brings them without complaint.

Anyway, time passes, we both doze, at about 6:30am the ward is woken up by the tea lady offering drinks. Grete gets a coffee, we doze a bit more. At around 7:30am they take the blood test, the nurse is efficient although we’re both so sleepy we’re really not aware of much. The day-nurses seem less stressed, one of them takes the time to explain that the doctors usually come around between 8am and 9am, and that she’ll review the blood test and see how things are. I doubt the results will be back by 9am, but we nod, and she wanders off. At around 7:45am they come to change all the bed sheets, I take the chance while Grete is resting in the chair to go and find some food.

I get back around 8:10am, Grete gets offered some toast and the doctor(s) arrive at 8:30. The rest results aren’t back, how silly, but the doctor is virtually convinced it’s acid reflux, the chest xray is clear, now they just need the results and they can discharge us. We asked a nurse how long it’s likely to be, and she gets defensive, “It’s Sunday these things can take a while …. etc.”, I explain we’re just trying to get a rough idea so that we don’t need to sit on the hot ward, we can go for a walk, let Grete have her first cigarette in 12 hours, get a drink and some food etc.

She doesn’t know, at least 2 hours. We spend an hour or so wandering the QMC, getting some fresh air. Grete’s a lot better, no pain although her chest is tender (probably from all the prodding). We get back to the ward at around 10am. At around 10:30am the nurse says the results are back and clear, and a doctor is just writing a note for the GP. We’re relieved. Another few minutes pass and a doctor comes over to tell us the same thing. After a while, the nurse comes back and tells us again.

I make a joke to Grete about how they ignore us for 11 hours but now they’re all telling us stuff and she makes the connection, it’s good news, everyone wants to bring good news.

Eventually at 11am they sign us out, remove the stuff from Grete’s arm, and send us on our way. We walk outside and straight into a cab, get home about 11:30am.

It’s been a surreal weekend. And it’s confirmed one of the things that I feel is weird about the NHS, although I can probably understand it. The ambulance crew said acid reflux. The nurse said acid reflux. The doctor said acid reflux but too risky to let you go home. Then 8 hours pass where you receive no treatment. The new doctor said, acid reflux lets make sure with the blood test results. The blood test results say acid reflux.

No one during the process had the confidence to say ‘it’s acid reflux, go home, if it gets worse, or comes on again, come back or see your emergency GP’.

I understand why, I’m not griping about making sure, staying to find out for definite, but when staying to find out makes you feel like it’s your fault the NHS is busy or short staffed, then resentment builds.

If YOU tell me I need to stay, then YOU should take care of me during that process.

Some of the NHS issues can be solved by throwing money at them. I’m sorry that the NHS is so big and inefficient but more staff, more beds and more buildings would mean you could treat more people during the A&E process. Two doctors instead of one would have doubled the rate cases would have been seen, although whether there were any beds to send them to is another question.

Finally, seeing policemen wearing stab-proof vests in the A&E room is a sad sight. But it’s not as scary as wandering the QMC at 3am, wandering into staff restricted rooms (mostly tea making facilities) and not being questioned by one person, and not seeing one person related to security.

I suggest that,

1. as soon as you move into A&E someone takes your details, gives you wrist tags (to patient and family) and gives you a number so you know when you’re going to be seen and free’s up the ambulance crew.
2. every single location after reception is behind a set of access restricted doors.
3. the NHS should employ more staff
4. the staff should try and remember, hard as it may be, that their patients don’t choose to be there on the whole, and they and their family are probably scared and tired.

Blood Sugar

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My blood sugar average for the three months before this one was 6.3ish.  That is, in the words of my GP, “Bloody Brilliant”.  It’s basically a non-diabetic blood sugar average, so the drugs and changes to my diet have finally come together (without neededing to change the dose).

Now I just need to work out which of the changes are the effective ones and keep at it to keep the sugar down, which hopefully mitigates / slows the effects of diabetes over time.

So, I suck

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I know, I know, I suck. Entire months pass before I get around to writing new blog entries. And then when I do, they’re mostly apologising for not writing blog entries. Other people seem to write exciting things or funny things, or deep-thinking things, and I just spend my time apologising for not getting around to writing any boring stuff about my life that none of you are interested in reading anyway 🙂

We painted some of the small bedroom over the last couple of weeks. Sanded some woodwork, painted the window sill and the radiator. We’ve bought the paint for the ceiling and walls, so they’re next on the list. Once that’s done hopefully we’ll be able to move some stuff into the room semi-permanently (exactly what is still open for debate) to free up space in the big room, and allow us to do something with that. Feels good to be doing something with the house, after such a long time.

Nearly finished paying of the loan, omg that’s such good news. 7 years we’ve been paying that back, and only 1 or 2 payments left to go. I’ve got high hopes for the extra spare cash but I suspect it’ll be going on bills for a while yet, but fingers crossed it should make things a little easier.

My diabetes is still there and still meaning lots of of changes to what and how I eat, still not under control enough to keep the doctor happy but blood sugar average has been down for the last 3 tests (8 months) so as far as I’m concerned, that’s the right direction. Had my eye test last week, and it’s clean, no eye damage which was a huge relief.

We’re thinking about considering thinking about possibly going to Maelstrom this year, but time scales are already tight, and cash is even tighter. We’ll see.