After yesterday's sunshine it seems a shame to start today with rain, although it hasn't actually started as I write this, but the sky is far from clear. The Met Office continues, in their latest revision, to say there will be just two hours of rain, and after that it will be sunny for the resat of the day. The BBC say it will rain until 1pm , and there will, of course, be some thunder and lightning (The BBC love throwing in a few lightning bolts to their forecasts !). Both forecasters agree the temperature will reach 22° C by early afternoon. Both forecasters disagree about tomorrow. The BBC says sunny spells for most of the day, and the Met Office say it will be dull all day. Both say it will be 21° C.

   Yesterday was a good day, and my stress level dropped to possibly lower than usual. There was a consequence to that which I'll describe later. It was one of those days where I achieved three good things, although the last one was instrumental to the consequence I will be describing later.

  The important event of the day was my diabetic eye exam at 10.55am. It is such a routine event after doing it yearly for the last 15 or more years that I have become very blasé about it. I sometimes think I see it as a nice walk through the park earlier in the day than I usually go out. Of course being bright and sunny did have it's downside on the way home.
 
 While I waited to be be seen for the preliminary check I managed to do almost all the quick crossword in The Metro. The preliminary check includes having drops put in both eyes to dilate the pupils. This is so the camera they use to photograph the retina and back of the eye gets a better view of the inside of the eye. The result of the drops can be seen in the photo to the left. It causes very blurry vision, and it also causes the world to look twice or many more times as bright as usual - and I needed dark glasses as I walked home through the sunny park to reduce the glare. While I waited for the drops to take effect I managed to solve quite a few cryptic clues in the cryptic crossword, and to finish the quick crossword.

  I felt almost proud of getting through so much of the crosswords in what was probably a fairly short time. I think I had the preliminary check about 15 minutes late, and then it was around 15 after getting the eye drops that I was called back in for the photographing process - two shots at slightly different angles of the interior of each hour, and each one taken with a bright flash straight into the eye !

   Most of the photographers give an instant unofficial diagnosis, and yesterday's did. She said she couldn't see any obvious problems, but the images would be checked by an expert later. It usually takes 3 or 4 weeks to get a letter with the official view. I am expecting the same old form letter - "We can see some very minor trouble, but no immediate problems, and we'll check again in 12 months time".

  As I said above, walking back through the sunny park was not a nice experience. My Poundshop mirrored sunglasses help to take the glare of the bright sunshine, but I couldn't wait to get home and rest in a shaded room. I actually gritted my teeth and went the very slightly longer way around via the Group Practice where many doctors are rumoured to work (but none have been seen since the Covid outbreak).

  I wanted to see the receptionist to ask about getting the forms for a diabetes blood and urine test. I had been sent a text message reminding me my annual check was due, and it then went on to provide a link to a website where I could book a visit to the vampires up in the roof of the Group Practice. The link seemed to take me to a website that seemed to be offering American services to doctors !

  I thought it was all arse-about-face to book the appointment before I had the paperwork (and urine sample tube) for it. When I finally got to speak to the receptionist after a 10 or 15 minute wait, she didn't even blink an eye. She just said "hold on a minute". She disappeared behind a screen, and emerged a minute or two later  and went to the printer behind reception. She then fed in the special forms, and the printer spat out the printed forms for me. I hope they are accepted because the printer was obviously about to run out of ink or toner, and the printing is a bit feint, and patchy in places.

  Once I got home I called the phlebotomy department (the posh name for the vampires) to book an appointment. It may have taken 5 minutes on hold to get through, but once I was speaking to a human I had the time and date in a minute or so. My appointment with a vampire is at 10.45 this morning ! After that I could lie down and rest my eyes for an hour or two. My right eye was still a bit blurry then, but I thought it was good enough to go shopping in Aldi.

  Now comes the bit where maybe my stress levels had dropped too far, although there was also the fact that going shopping in Aldi can be sort of exciting when I haven't been there for ages. I ended up spending far too much money on stuff that was not good for me, but looked tasty. I seemed to buy far too many snacks, or stuff that could be used as snacks. I also bought 3 bottles and 4 cans of beer, and so my shopping was quite heavy when I walked home again.

  I did very little when I got home except to eat a small (or medium ?) Quiche Lorraine. That was not good for me, but it was sort of nice, but it was far too close to dinner time. My dinner was even worse for me, and in more than one way. It was a large helping of spicy chicken wings. They were coated with breadcrumbs that I strongly suspect had a lot of sugar in them (to help them going a nice golden brown when cooked) as well as some mild spice.

  One of the worst aspects of those chicken wings is that there were too many of them. I went for the whole pack because I was not sure they would keep for long, and I didn't have anything I could have with them. They seemed very nice at first, but maybe they last few tasted very ordinary, and maybe even boring. I went to bed early again last night, not long after 8pm, and that was only a couple of hours after eating.

  Within ten minutes of laying down I was suffering from acid reflux. It was partly because those chicken wings were rather rich and greasy, but also because I decided I should drink a lot of water last night. The water was to try and go for purer blood for when the vampires take the blood sample this morning. The water I was drinking was deliciously chilled, and I had drunk over half a litre before going to bed. One good swig while I was in bed seemed to overload my stomach, and my "acid reflux" was almost a like mild vomit that didn't quite reach the top, but the taste of that chicken was very strong.

  I actually slept quite well last night with no significant periods of insomnia, and I think I fell asleep quite quickly once I put my book down, and turned out the light. I had one series of dreams where I was back at work. I was part of a team trying to get video out of a very low powered processor. I was doing a lot of the hardware, and my colleague was doing the programming of the tiny microprocessor we were using. We did eventually manage to get video out, but it was extremely low resolution, and a tiny image too - quite useless, but a minor triumph to do it at all.

  The truth about my bad eating was revealed this morning by three very high, and also strangely different blood glucose readings. My new meter said 11.6mmol/l. That is insanely high, and well into the danger zone. The old meter was a bit more forgiving, but 10.6mmol/l is still far too high, and is also in the danger zone. Curiously my oldest meter gave the best reading of 9.8mmol/l. That was just on the edge of being acceptable provided it was a rare occasion.

  It doesn't feel like a good day to give my blood sample with my blood glucose level being so high, but fortunately the important test is a sort of average reading going back as much as over the last couple of months. Hopefully one high reading is going to be lost in the average of the rest of that period. My monthly rolling average for this month is now very average after those high readings, and in the past that average figure has been described as my having very good control of my diabetes.

  Next on the agenda is to have a shower, and get ready to go out to see a vampire. Typically I should be out of there in 10 minutes. I am not sure what I will do for the rest of the day. I was considering going for a walk in the sunshine we are supposed to get after this heavy rain that looks more like sunshine to my untrained eye !