Today marks a change in the weather. This morning started off almost warm, but wet. As the day progresses the cloud will apparently thing out, and the temperature will drop from 11° C to just 5° C by midnight. The latest revision changes things a bit. The afternoon temperature may be a very slightly improved 9° C, but the window in the clouds that may allow some sunny periods seems to have moved, and will now start an hour later - which means the second hour will be after sunset, and so is not relevant, although there may be possibilities for a colourful sunset. Tomorrow is forecast to start and end very cold, although probably a degree or two above where frost might form. The afternoon may see 8 or 9° C, and sunny intervals are possible through daylight hours.
  I started yesterday with my two most important health indicators looking good. My blood glucose was a nice and low 5.7mmol/l, and my weight, which I don't usually give a figure for, was down to 127.6kg. I was able to set off on my walk to the hospital, and appointment with the dietician, with some confidence. It turned out to be very justified confidence. The nurse I saw was very pleasant, and totally unlike the Cardiac Rehabilitation nurse. In a roundabout way I mentioned my displeasure with that miserable sow, and the dietician asked if I could remember her name. I couldn't, and so the Dietician offered two options - the white nurse or the one who looked Indian/Asian. I said the latter, and just got a sort of knowing smile back.

  One thing I didn't have to do this time, maybe because I was already on their books after my visit to the Diabetes nurse back in October, was to go through a pre-screening where all my vital statistics were recorded. I was asked if I had brought my blood glucose readings diary, and I had. Once the Dietician realised I had my own home meter, which, as requested, I had also brought with me, she took the meter to another room to download it's memory. No more than a minute or two later she was back, and the reading were displayed on her computer.

  The readings were presented in a calendar, and colour coded. Green for good, and red for too high. The limit for good was 10mmol/l (milli mols per litre), and in the three months I had been taking readings, I only had about three red readings. Not only that, but the general average was about 7mmol/l. I was sort of congratulated on my blood glucose control. We also discussed weight. On the last visit to the department my weight was recorded (clothed, but shoes off) as 136.9kg. Yesterday it was 128kg exactly (once again shoes off, but fully clothed). I didn't think the loss was particularly impressive, and I had been hoping I would have achieved much more, but the Dietician thought it impressive.

  I guess the Dietician sees people in a far worse state than me, and many who have no idea about how to lose weight and/or control their blood glucose level. I think the appointment was booked for a full hour, but after as little as 20 - 25 minutes the Dietician concluded that I didn't really need any help or advice. She didn't even want to know what I was eating because it was obvious that I was eating correctly - which may not be strictly true. I should probably add a tiny bit more carbohydrate to my diet to remind my pancreas of what it's job is.

  The Dietician said that if I was happy, then she was happy to discharge me from her care, but did say I could always ask for a new appointment directly if I felt I needed advice. I presume she meant that  could apply directly to her department rather than having to be referred by a doctor. I must admit I didn't think that possible. Maybe it applies to other departments too. I must bear it in mind in case anything arises in the future.

  I made my way home again, by a slight longer route than the most direct (as I had done when going there). I was feeling good, and the total walk added up to 1.48 miles - a useful addition to my walking logs. Once I got home I ate something to celebrate, and it was some baked, flatbread savoury biscuits. I bought them out of curiosity, and for a time when I thought I could dare eat them as carbohydrate filled snacks. Yesterday was the day !
  Once I had eaten my snack I went for another walk. This second walk, a tiny bit longer than the first, was to go to the pub with the hope of seeing Angela. A bit later I was to learn that Angela was off work sick, and feeling quite poorly. It was a disappointment not to see her, but I can't blame her. So I had one pint of Guinness on my own, and then made my way back home.
  I wasn't really expecting to see anything worth taking pictures on what was quite a gloomy sort of day, but these ducks on an exposed bit of shingle in the river seemed nicely grouped for a photo.
  I haven't seen the police horses in the park for ages, many years maybe, but they were there yesterday. It was unusual to see the riders dismounted, and the horses eating the grass. I have no idea if the lady with her back to me was a copper or just a horse lover. She looked like a jogger to me - of which there are hundreds who run around the park (but I suppose it is no sillier than me walking around it).

  It was as I walk the last half mile or so towards home that I began to feel rough. My feet were beginning to feel heavy, and other bits of my were starting to ache. Worst of all was that I was sweating a lot. It wasn't warm out, but it wasn't cold either. It is not unusual, even in cold weather, for me to develop a bit of sweat when trying to walk fast. Yesterday I was sort of feeling unusually hot, and sweating more freely. As soon as my t-shirt started to get damp I could feel my chest getting chilled. The aches that caused were not pleasant.

  When I got home I first had to cool off, but I went from feeling hot to shivery really quickly. In the space of maybe half an hour I went from no heater on, to heater on full blast. To feel even better I had two cans of hot soup. I felt better, but still not good after that. By 3.30pm I decided I had better send an email to say that I was not feeling up to going out for my first Thursday drink of the year.

  Another half hour passed and I thought I would have some booze at home, and I thought that it was an excellent occasion to finish off a bottle of jack Daniels "Tennessee Fire". There was only about half a tumbler left in the bottle, but it went down nice and easy, and left a warm path in it's wake. I was then able to relax more, but not a lot. I guess I was still buzzing a bit from my very satisfactory appointment with the Dietician. It didn't seem like there was much to look at, but I probably spent most of the next two hours flicking through stuff on the internet.

  Finally 6pm, and dinner time, was almost upon me. After drinking that sweet Jack Daniels, plus the soups and savoury biscuits, I didn't dare check my blood glucose with my new meter, which can't hold any secrets when it is downloaded at the hospital, and so I used my old meter (with new, up to date test strips). It gave a reading of 9.0mmol/l - amazingly still below the 10mmol/l threshold that the Dietician, and probably the Diabetes Nurse, consider as going into the danger zone. Of course they are not worried about one off excursions, and this morning my "official" reading was a comfortable 7 again.

  I had already precooked my dinner, and it just needed another 10 minutes in the oven/grill to warm up. It was a plateful of "southern fried flavour" chicken thighs and drum stick. Despite it being "supermarket" flavour, and a very poor relation to something like Kentucky Fried Chicken, I was really looking forward to it, and I really enjoyed it. I felt quite full after stuffing that lot down. later on I would snack on some peanuts. Later still I would burp and suffer some acid reflux. There was no harm done apart from the awful taste, and it was all taken care of by a couple of antacid tablets.

  It seemed like TV was over at 8pm, and I could think of nothing better to do than to go to bed. I read in bed for perhaps 40 minutes, and I am sure I was fast asleep by 8.45pm. I was woke up an hour and half later by a phone call from someone who should know better than to phone me after 9pm. The good thing was that I was feeling much better for that 90 minutes of sleep. The bad thing is that the call left me feeling wide awake again, and it seemed to take half an hour or more to get back to sleep.

  From then on I lost track of time. It may have been 2 hours later when I woke up with a dry mouth, and worse, a dry throat. That kicked off some dry tickly coughing. I think it must have been some sort of sympathetic reaction to the cough that Angela had reported. I can imagine, from plenty of previous experience, that her cough, being a smoker, was, and most probably, still is, far worse than mine. Once again I managed to get to sleep for a few more hours. I can't remember when it was, but sometimes in the night I would feel a bit sweaty, and sometimes I would have the curious sensation of my back feeling like it was burning up, while my chest, being fully exposed to the air, felt rather cool.

  I probably woke and git back to sleep a few more times until I realised that it was broad daylight, albeit overcast daylight, outside. It was rather curious in that I felt a lot better, but had more definite symptoms compared to the previous evening. For a while, but not in the last hour, my nose was running a lot, and now and then I would need to clear my throat. I didn't have, and still don't have, what I would call a cough, but on the those occasions when I feel/felt the need to clear my throat I have usually coughed up a little mucus. At this point I don't know if I am already starting to get over this cold, or whether it is still maturing.

  What I do know is that nothing, not the cold, or what naughty things I may have eaten yesterday, has affected my blood pressure. It is nice and low this morning. That reminds me. At some time last night my blood pressure must have been very low. I got out of bed too quickly, and had a very wobbly walk to the toilet. It was more amusing than scary. Back to this morning, and my two key indicators are looking good still. My blood glucose, as I have mentioned, was back down to 7mmol/l - lower might be better, but it is otherwise very satisfactory. What was more amazing still is that I seem to have lost a few hundred more grams. I must eat crap food more often !

  I have no idea what I will be doing today. I know I ought to nurse this cold, and hopefully keep it on the path to getting better. On the other hand I feel like I would like to stretch my legs. If the weather forecast has any credibility it should get a bit lighter soon, and maybe some of the dampness will dry up. I may take my new bad weather coat out for a short walk. I know that under all that insulation, doubly so if I zip it up, as I probably should, I will sweat like I am in a sauna in it. That will be both unpleasant, and maybe beneficial. The good thing is that if I am going nowhere, and seeing on one, then it doesn't matter how drenched with sweat I get, and I can have a nice cleansing shower when I get home again. On the other hand, I might just stay in and be very lazy. As I say, I have no idea what I will end up doing today !