I started out with good intentions yesterday. I decided I would rest my damaged toe, and my slightly sore feet, and not go for a long walk. Instead I had some bold ideas for doing stuff at home. I even imagined painting another wall in the dining room, but first I did some more mundane stuff.  I started by washing a white t-shirt, and a hand towel, as I described yesterday (because I did it early in the morning).  I didn't really pay that much attention to it at the time, but I did get some warning signs that ended up rather limiting my day.

  It seemed like the world had gone topsy turvey. I should have had aches in bits associated with walking - legs, knees, ankles, hips and stuff, but I seemed to have lots of upper body aches. My neck, and upper back seemed very stiff and creaky. My left elbow was definitely complaining, although I am not 100% sure it is the elbow or the muscle just above the elbow. Back in the mists of time, when I was about 2 years old, I was severely scalded, and one area that still shows the scars is above my left elbow. As well as the surface scars, which are now very faded since it happened so long ago, the shape of the muscle seems slightly lumpy. It has never caused any trouble in the past, but maybe it is now.

  I would be able to check out all my upper body strength an hour or two later when I washed a double duvet cover. To do one by hand needs a lot of manhandling. Just pulling the duvet cover out of the water is heavy lifting until some of the water has drained away. If it were not for continually reminding myself that it is unfair to let my legs get all the exercise I might have had a 30 minute rest between each rinse. I managed to wash that duvet cover in one continuous session 0ne wash, three rinses, and then fabric conditioner. I will admit it was hurting a lot by the time I finished.

  My troubles were not over when I had finished the wash. I then had to drape the duvet cover over the clothes horse which I had put on the lawn. Trying to get the cover evenly spread over the clothes horse while not letting any bit of it dangle onto the grass was a minor feat in itself, but I did it - more or less. It was a shame that once it was half dry, which didn't take long at all, it blew over in the wind. Fortunately nothing stuck to the cover, but it now has a tiny green blotch on it. Ah well, it will have to stay. I won't be washing that duvet cover again until it has spent many sweaty days on my bed !

   I allowed myself a good rest (maybe a whole hour) before I decided to get busy again. I had some overblown ideas of what I could do in the garden. All I ended up doing was some weeding. I concentrated on the end of the garden where I have some stuff in pots, and a few things sown directly into the ground. I didn't get every weed out, but I pulled up enough to fill a bucket. By then my back, neck, and chest ribs were really complaining, and that just about finished me for the day.

  I was quite happy to get back to reading a book even though I knew that laying on my bed for hours on end was a major contributor to my upper body aches and pains. The very hardest thing was trying to forget about food. I had to do something to reverse the trend of my weight slowly creeping upwards. It was also desirable to try and get my blood glucose a bit lower than "good enough". I managed to resist until 2.30pm when I gave in and had two small Breaburn apples and a chunk of cheese. Those apples were very ripe, and were very sweet tasting.

  I was then able to resist eating until dinner time. Dinner was a ham salad, and should have been fairly healthy. The sugar free chocolate chip cookies should have been healthy too, but sometimes sugar free doesn't always mean what it says. The other thing I consumed yesterday was a few cans of beer. Even when I slowly write it out it doesn't seem much, but it would later have some perplexing results.

   I seemed to get a lot of sleep last night. I feel sure it was at least 9 hours sleep, and I may have only got up when I did because I was feeling cold in bed. The temperature did drop a lot last night, and it was only about 13° C this morning. It wasn't that cool in my bedroom because I had the window shut, but I had been sleeping on the bed, and not under the duvet. Even pulling the duvet over me didn't seem to feel much warmer, and I wondered if I had a fever, but apparently not. My clinical thermometer said my temperature was just 35.1° C - well below fever level.

  Taking good care of what, and how much I ate seemed to have the right effect on my weight. It had dropped a few hundred grams since the day before, but my blood glucose had shot up into the danger area, 10.3mmol/l ! It is difficult to know what to attribute that to. One possibility is it was the result of what I had eaten the previous day, although that seems unlikely. I am trying to believe it wasn't the beer I drank causing this high reading. If it was then it is going to cause a lot of trouble.

   I think that today I am going to have to force myself to go out for a walk. I really don't feel like it at the moment, but I hope once I get started all the creaky bits will free up, and with some help from friendly sunshine, I can enjoy a walk, and maybe even make it a long walk. I have this idea I want to push my explorations more to the east next having done long walks to the north, south and west recently. The aches say it is unlikely, but experience shows that I should be OK once I get started. All I have to do is keep reminding myself of that fact.....