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lexin: (Default)
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021 06:49 pm
I went back to the diabetic nurse who put me on yet another drug, this one injected and called Ozempic. At least, I think it’s called that, I just put the reminder on the fridge door and can’t refer to it. It has to be injected once a week. At the moment I’m also testing my blood sugar up to five times a day to see if it’s working, which it does seem to be. Fingers crossed, because if this drug doesn’t work the next stage is insulin injections and I don’t much fancy that.

Smokey is a good kitty, at the moment asleep on the carpet and ignoring her dinner. She’ll eat over night, which seems a bit strange but I suppose it’s up to her. She’s not in competition for her meals so she’s quite laid back about it.

Weather in Bangor seems warm and rather humid.
lexin: (Default)
Saturday, February 20th, 2016 01:56 pm
Again I’ve been silent for a while; it’s curious that having had all this work done, the flat doesn’t feel like it’s ‘mine’ any more, and I’m waiting for this feeling to pass off. Which I’m sure it will.

The illness I mentioned last time is still with me; I’ve been to the doctor and he sent me for blood tests, which I did a week ago. My HbA1c result was not good – which didn’t surprise me, given what I’d been mostly been eating during that period.

It should improve when tested next because I’m currently bothered by a lack of appetite. I’m managing very small meals of not very interesting things. So instead of breakfast being one or two portions of porridge, it’s one and I can’t always finish that. Grump. I can’t manage anything sweet, either. People would say that I could stand to lose a bit of weight, but I’m bothered about it not being exactly my choice.

The rest of the blood test results the doctor didn’t tell me in detail, though I gathered my white blood cells are either low or high or something they shouldn’t be, but he has decided that the upper respiratory tract infection I have can’t be viral because it should be self-limiting and isn’t being. I’ve had it since the middle of December. So he’s prescribed an antibiotic in the hope that will work. Fingers crossed.

It is good to have Smokey back, she’s been home about a week or a little longer. She’s getting used to the changed flat quicker than I am.
lexin: (cartoon)
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013 02:39 pm
Well, it could have been a lot worse. The cost of my new glasses without the government contribution for 'complex prescription' was £418 ($630). With the contribution it was £213.40 ($320). So there's some money left over in my 'spectacle savings' for a set of prescription sunglasses, which I've been needing for a couple of years. My current set of prescription sunglasses is about five prescriptions old, which means I probably shouldn't be wearing them at all, for anything.

Interestingly, with my diabetes settling down, my eyes have settled to pretty much the same, with the exception of the astigmatism, which is still 10 on one eye and 180 on the other. Or something like that.

The reason for my dislike is that I went for my appointment and arrived exactly on time at 10:55. I wasn't out of there until 13:20, what with their messing about with lenses that have to be ground for me in the factory, and putting them on their computer under 'misc'. It seems complex prescriptions like mine are quite rare, or they'd know what to do with them. Plus, there is the irritation of having to have your face measured.

I'll try to remember and next time allow two and a half hours for it all.
lexin: (Default)
Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 08:40 am
For those who are more expert than me in diabetes - is it usual for your blood sugar to be really high if you've got a cold or are otherwise ill? Mine was 9.6 this morning and 10.2 yesterday, which is high even for me.
lexin: (Default)
Friday, June 15th, 2012 02:57 pm
Good news on the dental front – I haven't got to have any dental work done. All he did was 'tidy up' a filling on my front tooth which was staining. Let's see how that works out. I did get a lecture-ette about not going for two years.

He couldn't help with my dry mouth thing and has suggested I go back to my doctor about it. Which I will.

Ho hum.
lexin: (Morgoth)
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012 04:48 pm
Even the diabetes books don't tell you how rubbish having diabetes actually is, and I suspect it gets even worse if you have any of the complications that can come about from having it ill-controlled.

I visited my optician yesterday. The bad news is that my prescription is out of date – my right eye has changed again. My eyes always change from one appointment to the next; that's why I can't have lasik or any of those nice things. But she won't issue new glasses until my diabetes is under control. This is not entirely bad news – I am thus saved £300 – but it does mean that I'm sometimes struggling to see properly.

Next week she will do a diabetic retinopathy test. She insists. So I've booked it in for the latest appointment she'll reasonably do it, which is 3pm.

Meanwhile, this morning, I get a letter from the local NHS clinic, for, guess what? A diabetic retinopathy test. And yes, I have to go to both; they won't rely on my optician to notify my doctor. The second test is on 5 July and it's in the morning, so I've booked the afternoon off as leave. I suppose I can listen to a talking book while being unable to see properly. Or even less properly than I can already see. If you see what I mean.

Plus, Tesco, bless their little cotton socks, did not send me sufficient salad to keep me going until the weekend so what I'm going to eat, I don't know.

Friday, I have to go to the dentist and I'm shaking in my shoes. I don't know what he'll find as I haven't been for more than two years.

OK, first world problems. I know there are people who would give their eye teeth to have my life.
lexin: (Default)
Thursday, June 7th, 2012 02:53 pm
I don't usually look forward to my appointments with my opticians. For one thing, they usually end up costing me an arm and a leg.

But I keep getting outbreaks of blurred vision, which is probably part of the diabetes but is worrying me rather. So I'm anticipating going, just so I can raise it.

It's particularly bad today. Looking into a computer screen is very difficult and irritating.
lexin: (Default)
Wednesday, June 6th, 2012 01:42 pm
I am supposed to be drafting instructions to the Ministry of Magic's' lawyers, but the subject matter is such that I can feel my brain cells dying as I type so I'm taking some time off to mull things over.

I had a very pleasant long weekend, the longer because we Ministry of Magic witches and wizards had an extra day because of the Queen's Birthday and I took mine on Friday. That meant I had a full five days in which to relax.

I met [livejournal.com profile] gloria1 on Sunday morning for breakfast, which was very pleasant as always. Then [livejournal.com profile] julianj2 came over on Monday to watch some films.

We saw something he'd brought first, a film called "Nice Girls Don't Explode", which was very…odd. I don't think I got as much out of it as I would have if I was from the US. I thought some of the jokes were above me.

Then we watched "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", the version with Gary Oldman as Smiley. Neither [livejournal.com profile] julianj2 nor I could remember the identity of the mole, though I've both read the book and seen the previous TV version. The film requires 100% of your attention; you can't look away for a minute or you'll miss something. Not even the minute in which you're admiring the faultless attention to detail in the interiors, and wondering how we survived the 1970s in those ugly surroundings.

And finally, brains turned to mush by watching Tinker Tailor with exaggerated attention in case we missed a moment of Gary Oldman with a thoughtful look on his face, we watched a film called "Centurion", starring Michael Fassbender as a Roman, Quintus Dias.

There were no thoughtful looks in this. Fassbender was ripped, well worth a leer, but I'm afraid the Romans behaved almost completely unlike any Romans I've ever been told about on Time Team or elsewhere. So bad was that that [livejournal.com profile] julianj2 said we didn't have to watch it if I wasn't enjoying it. But I actually was having a good time ripping it to bits. I particularly loved the way that the women characters, none of whose names I can remember, managed to keep their hair, make up and nails perfect while being (variously) warriors on the range or a weird witch of the woods.

In health news

The tablets I'm taking seem to be having no effect whatsoever. I feel exactly the same as I did before, right down to the tendency to fall asleep at odd moments.

I therefore assume I'm one of those people for whom diabetes has no obvious symptoms.