Category Archives: Life

It’s almost comical really

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You can track my blog posts by when I’m on holiday. Once I’m back at work, they dry up. Go to work, come home, play EQ, avoid the world, that’s the plan.

Probably doesn’t sound very healthy I guess?

Anyway, here’s my half-year update for the 2 people left who still read the blog. Had two weeks holiday, felt relaxed, got back to work and now it’s nearly the weekend. Yay. We’ve landed on our feet with car stuff. The Mondeo is getting long in the tooth. Gear box is on the way out (struggles to go into first and reverse), we’ve banged it, scratched it, bumped it, dragged it, the boot arms can’t hold the boot open any more, the rust is starting to spread, the fan’s picked up a cute high pitched whine. Last MOT cost us a bit to get it through the emissions and I basically said then that the next major mechanical failure and we’d dump it. It’s dragged on another 10 months though, bless it’s huge two litre soul. Anyway, we know someone who sells cars (fairly recent thing), and they had a Renaul Migane up for sale, and we finally had a bit of spare cash, and the numbers matched up.

The Mondeo was due tax at the end of March and we basically managed to get it sorted so they took the Mondeo yesterday, we got the Migane, good timing and a decent car. It’s second hand so there’s the usual array of ‘little things’, but it’s mechnically sound and hopefully it’ll do us as long as the Mondeo did (seven years)!

For the historically minded, here’s my ‘blog’ post from the day we got the car,

[29th September 2001 – 20:31]
Ages

Once again, ages since the last update. But, here I am.

Still have a house I don’t want – are you sure you don’t want to purchase it? 3 bedroom terrace, Stockton-on-Tees?

Got my tax return in and done in the end, and in time for them to work out how much I owe, rather than having to do it myself. Their on-line system leaves a lot to be desired, only covers 1/10th of the forms and you have to work your tax out yourself. Hmm, might start scouting around for some tax-aware home-finance software at some point.

Got a new car, probably didn’t mention it previously, 2 litre Mondeo. Nicer than the previous cars, seems ok. Too expensive, but then all cars are.

Work alternates from being terrible to terrific in the space of 30 minutes, which is interesting. We’re moving desks at the moment, so Monday may be hectic.

Rented Shaft and Pitch Black on DVD, both of them quite entertaining, although Pitch Black was probably more enjoyable overall.

Lord of the Rings – the trailer looks amazing! I have very high hopes. I mailed National Amusements in the UK (they run our local cinema), asking if they had plans for Lord of the Rings, and got a very nice reply telling me that if I wanted tickets for the Harry Potter movie, I should simply purchase them at the right time. Oh well 😉

You should notice a theme with how that blog started!

Back to work

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Nearly a month without a blog entry, ah it’s good to be back on form. I’ve got a sore left thumb/wrist and it’s been sore now for too long. I did go to the GP, and he pre-scribed some anti-inflmmatories and I thought they were working. But then they ran out and the pain was still there. The day before my two week holiday, both my wrists were agony, although my right wrist cleared up in a couple of days.

I know I don’t do myself any favours with my sitting position, and playing EverQuest non-stop when I’m not at work. So, I’m going to the doc’s again tomorrow to have another chat, maybe it’s some damage or just over-use. I guess if he tells me to totally rest it, I’ll have to see what I can achieve without going insane.

If I was a keyboard ‘picker’ it wouldn’t be so bad, but I was taught to type, I always have both hands on the keys and although I’ve bastardised the original typing layout and style, it’s very hard to stop doing it. I may try and revert to correct typing for a bit which reduces wrist / thumb movement.

Otherwise things are ok, been on holiday for two weeks and fairly relaxed as a result. Played a lot of EverQuest, as I always do when I’m on holiday. Got a couple of things around the house sorted, but probably not as much as I hoped. I may spend some time over the next two weeks getting the ‘room’ between the front door and the inner door sorted for the winter, that may let me rest my hand from keyboard duty as well.

We did move the old mattress to the tip, which was ‘exciting’ having it tied up in the back of the car, hoping it didn’t break free during the drive!

Mattress Verdict

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It’s extremely comfortable 🙂 I admit, some of that is because the old mattress was tatty, compressed and in a pretty bad way. It’s one of those things that deteriorates slowly enough that you don’t really notice it. Not like one night it’s fine and the next you get into bed and you find you’re on the floor. A mattress just slowly dies, gets less springy, less comfy, just gets less. So the new one is more, and some of that is because it’s new and bouncy, but a large part of it is because it’s just good! There’s an inch or two of memory foam on the top which just relaxes into the shape of your body as you lie down.

So far, every time either of us have gotten into bed with the new mattress, we have always sighed in comfort as the foam gently gives way. It’s like being hugged.

But beneath the foam is a foot of well built, springy, sturdy sprung mattress stuff, which gives the whole thing a bounce and support. I’ve never tried an all foam mattress but I imagine in my head that once the foam has relaxed into your body shape, there’s not much spring or bounce. Not so with a combination mattress, all the bounce you could want, all the support you need and all the comfort of relaxing memory foam on top.

Best purchase for ages.

Happy Mattress Day

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We ordered a new mattress and it arrived today 🙂 Yippee. Delivery was ‘between 7am and 8:30am’ – boo. It arrived at 8:00am – yay so not too bad. It’s very very comfortable. Deep mattress with a layer of memory foam on top. Looking forward to going to bed tonight 🙂

Deja blog

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I have this feeling, after posting my comments about bread yesterday, that I blogged something very similar a while back. Oh well. My first deja blog experience but probably not my last. Autumn is definately upon us, random use of the central heating, morning breath in the air, that smell that can only be described as the earth taking a breath and getting ready to be freezing cold (well ok, it could be described as other things, but I enjoyed the irony of describing a smell using sounds, and the arrogance of assuming the entire earth is in winter at the same time).

That’s something that while I know it, it doesn’t really sink in. It’s summer in parts of the world while it’s winter in others. And they call it summer, it’s not like December is a warm winter month in the southern hemisphere, December is actually in their summer. How weird is that. December is a cold month, it’s part of my inherent ‘knowing’ of things. I hear the word February and it conjures up cold dark nights and biting wind. That’s not memory, that’s something in my soul which says that is how February is. But it’s obviously not. It’s a weird feeling, I probably can’t explain it in terms that won’t make you point and laugh but there you go. It’s just weird. I can cope with timezones, I deal with them a lot, but I still struggle to get my head around the concept of the seasons being different in different parts of the world.

Cats

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… and, Cats. Ours decided to get us up at 6am this morning. Obviously it was incredibly important that she was outside. So, I was in the office by 7:15am. Which of course means now I’m knackered.

When I was 17 this wouldn’t be an issue. Now it’ll take me like 5 weeks to get over one early start. This is her, playing in the mulch. Cute you might say, but try thinking that at 6am when she’s meowing in your ear non-stop for 20 minutes.

Thumbdate

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Yeh it’s weak, but it was the best pun on Thumb Update I could come up with. Within 1 day of taking the tablets the ‘contact’ pain was gone (i.e. if I banged my thumb it didn’t hurt), and only stressing the tendons still hurt. A few days in now, and the pain comes and goes. I’m obviously still using my thumb too much, because at the end of the day it’s pretty sore. I need to try and relax it more I guess. Not easy to do in my line of work. Today the skin where the tendons go from my thumb, past my wrist to my arm is very tender, I wonder if that’s referred or if it’s the actual tendons themselves I can feel which are sore.

Anyway, overall I’d say it’s making good progress. How exciting for you all 🙂

In other news, got back in touch with my oldest friend from school – which can only be a good thing. I’m very happy about it.

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.