There was, and still is now, some very light mist, but that is what is forecast, and if the forecast continues to be right it should dissipate by, or maybe a bit after, 9am. Today should be dry, and there could be sunny spells this afternoon, although the latest revision now shows them for only 3 and 4pm. It is going to be a cool day with a maximum of just 8° C, and a minimum of 7° C. Tomorrow could be nice and sunny, but still rather cool with a max of just 9° C.

    Yesterday was a generally good day, but there were a few things that were less than satisfactory. It felt wonderful to have a good shower, and wash my hair in the morning. I was feeling quite smelly and greasy after my stay in hospital. Had I stayed in one extra day I would have had a shower there, but they only offer basic shower soap and shampoo.

  After getting clean and dressed I looked forward to seeing how I felt on a walk to the station. I have to admit it was not perfect, but at least the Angina pains didn't resurface. The cool air caused some rather quite mild chest pain when my old scar tissue complained a little bit. The worst thing was a sort of weakness of my legs. It felt like I had walked for 3 or 4 miles by the time I was waiting on the platform for a train.

  I hope that leg tiredness is a transient thing brought on by lack of exercise, and maybe partly the result of laying on my back most of the time I was in hospital (albeit only just over two days in total). It caused me to slow down a bit when I reached the station, and by the time I had picked up two copies of The Metro newspaper, and walked over the bridge to the other platform, my train was mere yards away from entering the platform. I couldn't seem to get my camera ready to take a picture before it was almost level with me, and I only got half the front of the train in the frame - and it was the side which hasn't got the number on it.

  It felt like I hadn't been in the pub for weeks when I arrived - even though it was only a week ago since I last drunk in there. I was really looking forward to my first pint of Guinness, and tackling the crossword in The Metro.It all seemed quite idylic, but there was a double problem. Part of the problem was that Kevin said he expected to be able to meet me because he had to pick up something from the hospital pharmacy.

  Drinking with Kevin usually involves more than my typical 2 pints of Guinness on a Wednesday lunchtime (although sometimes I do have a third if I need extra time on the crossword, or the banter in the pub is just too enjoyable). Then there was the warning that I only found out of curiosity when glancing at the leaflet in my newest drug (as prescribed by the hospital), It warned to not drink when taking it because it can cause the effects of alcohol to be stronger.

   I had to admit that the drug did seem to make three pints feel a bit like four pints, but that was no great worry. I have walked home without incident after drinking four pints on some semi-rare occasions. It is the one(s) for the road with Kevin, which could be as many as 3 or 4 double whiskies, when I have had trouble !

  Yesterday I insisted on putting a three pint limit on the session. Now I have felt the effect of the drug with booze, I think I would be happy with four pints. Three pints seemed enough time for a good chat, although I don't think we reached any conclusions about anything. It was still enjoyable. The walk home was less enjoyable. Going by train only shaves of a few hundred yards of walking, but it does split the journey in two. I found my legs to be really aching by the time I got home.

  It is going to be painful doing it, but I really have to start forcing myself out for some walks to try and get my stamina back. At least with the Angina held at bay by the new drug, there won't be one source of pain. It is mainly my legs that will ache. It will still be cold, but tomorrow should be bright and dry. Maybe I will try and force myself out for a proper walk tomorrow. It may help to stop frequently to take pictures, but I still can't imagine doing more than 2 miles.

  It was good to get home after the pub, but mainly to rest my legs. I didn't seem to feel cold up in my bedroom, or at least not chilly cold. I still put the heater on low. I definitely felt hungry, and had some rice crackers with cheese before having a nice nap. I may have been asleep for as much as an hour. I filled in a bit more time catching up with some stuff on the internet, but then I had to think about dinner.

  One potential dinner that I could had the day before yesterday was the pork stew I had made using the slow cooker. It smelled OK, but it had been sitting in the slow cooker (with the heater off) all the time I was in hospital. The lid is not a tight fit (it has to let steam out), and any bug might have got in there, and feasted on that stew. It seemed a shame to waste it, but I decided it was too risky to try and eat it. As I write this I haven't yet thrown it away, but I will later today.

  I gave consideration to order a takeaway for last night, and I would have enjoyed a shish kebab or two, but then good sense took over, and I used some stuff I already had in the fridge and freezer. I cooked roasted/grilled diced lamb on sprouts. It is a meal I invented, and I quite like it. The only unknown is how much sugar is in it. On the face of it most green leaf vegetables have very little sugar in them, but it is possible sprouts are an exception, The nutritional information panel says sprouts have a fair bit of sugar in them, but I can't quite seem to relate to how much I ate last night, and the amount of sugar per unit amount (probably 100gm). Did I eat more or less than 100gm ? I really have no idea !

  In theory the lamb and sprouts were all I needed, but I still felt hungry - or thought I did, so I had a few sugar free, or no added sugar biscuits. I think the "no added sugar" small Oreo biscuits may not be as harmless as they look. It was several hours later that I found what I thought were mild hunger pains were really something very different !

  There seemed to be nothing on TV last night, and for some amusement I watched an old recording of an episode of The Avengers. It was a bit of a weak episode, but it passed 45 minutes or so. It wasn't quite 8pm when I brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I read for maybe half an hour, and was probably asleep easily before 9pm. About an hour later I woke up again, and the reason seemed to be that I had started to fart a lot, and my guts were gurgling and churning.

  I went to the toilet and nothing happened apart from releasing a bit more wind. Sometime later, perhaps half an hour or so, I was back to the toilet, and this time I "went", or should I say I "went" !! It started with, as I described to the nurse who quizzed me about it, a perfectly normal, medium sized stool, but what followed that in rather quick succession was very "loose", and splattery.

  It was a bit like food poisoning, and could have been the reheated chicken I had the night before, although I would have thought that I would have thrown that up if it was "off". As is often the case when suffering such a torrent out of my backside, there would be a follow on a little bit later. It was probably about 20 minutes later before I was back on the toilet. That seemed to be it, but I stayed up another half hour before I went back to bed. From then on I seemed to sleep very peacefully for the rest of the night.

  One of the odd things is that it felt like, even if that wasn't reality, that I was peeing very little. Considering I had three pints of Guinness at Lunchtime, I expected to pee a lot more. If, as I seemed to think, I hadn't peed much beforehand, I definitely made up for it from about 4am when I had to get up to pee twice. I wasn't not sure how my blood glucose level was affecting me at that time. I thought, based on what I ate, my blood glucose would be no more than moderately high.

  It seems I am still under the curse of the hospital. This morning my blood glucose is unacceptably high, but not high enough this time to do more than tickle the underside of the danger zone.  The Contour meter read 9.8mmol/l, but the GlucoRX meter read a more reasonable 8.9mmol/l. Sadly the Sinocare meter seemed to suggest that the Contour reading was probably a true indication of how high my blood glucose really is. That Sinocare meter gave a reading of 10.0mmol/l - right on the red line.

  In an ideal world I would fast now until dinner time, and then have a very simple and light dinner - probably beef and pak choi stew. Unfortunately it is a Thursday, and this afternoon Jodie should be over for a beer drinking session. It would be useful if Jodie brought a few beers with her because my stocks are running low. On the other hand, Jodie's current taste in beers clashes a lot with mine. Some of hers can be really tart, and cloudy as pea soup.

  This afternoon should be a good test of my alcohol tolerance. Being at home it doesn't really matter if I get light headed, dizzy, or fall down. I don't want to do these things in public, but in the privacy of my own home I just have to try not to injure myself as I go down, but I feel even falling down is unlikely. I have a fair tolerance to the effect of alcohol - except for memory loss in the morning after some really good sessions !
     







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