After a very chilly start, yesterday turned into a nice and warm, sunny day. I would still suggest it was still a bit poor for a June day, but it wasn't bad. The temperature peaked at 23° C.
       

  After yesterday, today is going to be a big disappointment. Both forecasters broadly agree that there will be a few hours of sunny spells this morning, and from then on it will be dull. The Met Office includes a few very dull hours. The BBC says a max of 19° C, and The Met Office says 20° C. I have a feeling that the forecasts may change a fair bit over the next 4 or 5 hours. Tomorrow may be similar to today, but with one important difference - a few random showers during the day.

   Yesterday was another day that started great, and ended as a disaster. The day started with all my usual health indicators looking rather good, That included nice low blood pressure, but only while not doing anything, and nicely relaxed. A few hours later and it was probably through the roof.

  As I mentioned yesterday, I could not easily take my t-shirt off during the night because it was all sort of tangled up with my 24 hour blood pressure monitor. It meant that when I went out to take the blood pressure monitor back to the hospital I was wearing the same t-shirt for over 24 hours, and I could only flick a damp flannel in a few places as a substitute for a shower. Fortunately I didn't have to interact with anybody.
  It was almost nice to walk through a sunny park to get to the hospital. It would actually have been nice it it were not for the angina pains. The day was only just beginning to warm up, but it still felt very comfortable. One of the positive, or potentially positive things about the walk was passing the doorway in the picture above. The sign by it says CT Scanner 2, Outpatients. This might be where I have to go in a fortnight, but my appointment letter just says "Imaging department" and no further information about what zone it is in, or what floor it is on. Most of the scanners are pretty heavy, and it is likely to be on the ground floor.

  I didn't consciously plan it to happen, but the very last reading the blood pressure monitor took was a minute or two after I reached the place near cardiology where there is a letter box set in the wall where the monitors can be posted. When that last reading was taken I had walked through the park, rested for a minute or two in the park, and then had crossed the bridge into the hospital grounds, entered through the main entrance, and went up to the first floor, via the stairs to the cardiology department. I was very uncomfortable, and my blood pressure would probably have been super high.

  Taking off the monitor was easier than I thought, although I am not sure I could have put it back on so easily if I had taken it off at home while taking a shower. Except while trying to sleep, and a few other things, it was almost unobtrusive. For instance I was almost not aware of it while walking through the park. Despite that, it still seemed like a great relief to get it off me. I almost felt light as I walked back home, and curiously enough I ended up with less pain from angina on the walk home. Maybe I had managed to slow down a little, but only a little bit.

  Although the pain took later to come on, and was maybe a bit less severe, I was still very glad to get home, and rest....but initially not much of a rest. The first thing I did was to get my t-shirt off, and change to indoor trousers. Then I went to the toilet and tried for a poo I thought I needed, but nothing happened. I then made a couple of simple sandwiches for my lunch - Polish sourdough bread with mayonnaise and salami. That sandwich "recipe" seemed perfectly safe the day before.

  A quick note about the trousers I wore on the walk to and from the hospital. They were a pair of jeans that I was sure I had put aside for a day when they might fit me better. I could be mistaking then for another pair, but my memory is that they once felt rather tight, and rather stiff. That stiffness was because they seemed tight around my upper legs. Yesterday they seemed to be a perfect fit, and when I got on the scales after getting home from the hospital, and just standing in my underpants, I noted my weight was the lowest it has been since 2020, but the change was only a few kilograms !

  One thing I didn't do before or after my lunch was to have the shower I missed having in the morning. I did feel sort of grubby, but after my very poor sleep while wearing the 24 hours blood pressure monitor I felt tired. Maybe the word "tired" is not strictly accurate, and "couldn't be bothered" would be closer to how I felt. That was a bit unfortunate because I had forgotten that Jodie would be popping in for a drink.

  In fact it would be Jodie and a bit later, Alan too. I think I thought that they may not pop in because they were off to a gig, but the gig I was thinking of is actually this coming Wednesday. Jodie arrived over half an hour later, and Alan maybe half an hour after that. Prior to Alan arriving we had opened two cans of "beer". One was a typical sour beer that Jodie likes, and I hate. The next "beer" was more like an alcoholic milk shake.

  That "milk shake" was quite nice, but I have a suspicion it might have had a lot of sugar in it. It, or maybe another beer, might have been instrumental in upsetting my guts later. When Alan arrived he had a bag of beers for me. They were from beer orders Jodie had made to be delivered at Alan's house. Thy were part of a regular subscription thing that would typically have a lot of beers Jodie and Alan like, but also a few they rejected as being too much like traditional ales. The only one I tried last night was a Stout that was made, like all good stouts, in Ireland. Sadly it was not very nice.

  Jodie and Alan left at almost 7pm, and once they had gone I made my dinner. It was two more sandwiches, only this time I added some wild rocket to them. That made them seem a little bit lighter, but maybe too much of a good thing meant the novelty factor was over, and they were not exciting. I did feel a bit full after eating them, but it didn't seem to indicate anything out of the ordinary.

  I was almost a couple of hours later when I was really looking forward to going to bed, and I got into bed, read for 10 or 15 minutes, turned out the light, turned over, and started to feel uncomfortably bloated. At first I thought it was indigestion/heartburn, and I took a few antacid tablets, but they just seemed to make me burp more. By midnight I was feeling worse, and I anticipated trouble that would be made easier if I tied my hair back.

  Maybe 10 minutes later I was copiously sick - fortunately while I was in the toilet, and I managed to get it all down the pan. That made me feel a bit less bloated, but I still felt pretty awful. I can't be 100% sure, but I think I did get a bit of sleep, although the only clue was a vague idea that something I seemed to be thinking about what more likely to have been dream...on the other hand, the theme was lifted directly from the book I was reading. I think I choose that only my dreams feature such imagination.

  It most have been around 2am when I had to go to the toilet again, and this time it was for a poo. That relieved a bit more bloat, and I was able to get some more short periods of sleep. Until I got up I seemed to be alternating between periods of sleep, and periods of wakefulness. I doubt I got much more than 3 hours sleep last night, and most of it was in small amounts. I seem to feel almost OK while writing this - at least in terms of sleepiness.

  The reality is that I feel pretty bad in other ways. My guts still felt a bit sore, but a visit to the toilet to deposit a medium to big poo helped a bit more, and some instant noodles, without added chilli sauce this time, seem to have settled my guts a bit more. Despite the extra "output" from more than the approved orifice, it seems like I put on a whole one kilogram of weight in the last 24 hours (and this was before breakfast). It could have been the sandwiches I had, or it could have been one or more beers.

  The sandwich idea seems a bit less likely considering most of what I three up was those two sandwiches I had for dinner. The previous day I had noted that an identical pair of sandwiches had no special adverse effect on my morning blood glucose readings. This morning my readings had shot up. The Contour meter was in the pink zone with a reading of 9.7mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter was similar with a reading of 9.6mmol/l, while the Sinocare was just into the red zone with a reading of 10.0mmol/l.

  With such high readings I should not have had a double portion of instant noodles, but I wanted to settle my stomach. it was feeling a mixed mess of empty, acidy, and something else - probably a few strained muscles from the effort of powerful vomiting into the toilet. I shall probably have to skip anything to eat now until this evening, and possibly make that a very light meal.

  I am not sure what I am doing today. I had considered going out, but on such a dull day the furthest I expect to go is Tesco - and there are quite a few things I want to buy from Tesco.  I expect a lot of what I do may be just quietly reading and snoozing, although I may wash a few t-shirts and underpants today.


 





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