Yesterday was very mixed up. There were some nice sunny spells, and some heavy rain. I think there were only a few periods of heavy rain, and they didn't seem to last long. The BBC almost got their wish for thunder and lightning. I never saw any flashes, but I did hear a few peels of thunder - probably from some way from here. The morning started off very cool, but in the sunshine it did feel almost hot. There wasn't quite enough sunshine to make the day feel generally warm, but I think the temperature reached somewhere around 20° C - a couple of degrees higher than forecast.
       

  The forecast has been revised twice since I took the screenshot above. It is looking like one of those days when the forecasters can't make up their minds. The Met Office now predicts a light shower for 8am, and the BBC predict it for 9am. I was hoping for some sunshine early this morning, but it seems there will only a be a few sunny spells later in the day. However, it does look like that most of today will be dry, and I'll be unlucky to be caught in a shower. The afternoon temperature should reach 20° C today. Tomorrow could be a degree or two warmer, and a lot sunnier.

   I didn't expect to write anything before I came back home from having my 8am CT scan at the hospital, but it seems I am ready, or almost ready enough, early to have enough time to write a few words, but most of what I write will be after I get home. Although I thought I had taken enough precautions by being selective about what I ate yesterday, it seems I am going to the toilet a lot more often then is desired. I should be empty now, but I think I will make one more visit to the toilet to make sure.

  09:26 BST

  I'm now back from the hospital, and I have had a big breakfast because I was hungry after fasting since about 7pm (and that was just 4 ginger biscuits because my blood glucose was down to just 6.9mmol/l at the time). I got to the hospital on time, and checked in at reception. Everything seemed fine until I had my pre-scan check, and accidently admitted that the last time I had X-Ray contrast dye injected it had made me feel very itchy several hours later.

  They said they were very glad I had told them because the first time sensitises you for a much worse reaction a second time. My scan was cancelled, and now I am being referred back to the Cardiology department. It seems they could send me off for another MRI scan, which uses a different type of contrast dye, of they could pump me full of steroids, and anti-histamines before another go at a CT scan.

  Anyway, back to Yesterday.......

  The most significant thing about yesterday was the weather, and how it seemed to choose bits of the BBC forecast, and The met Office forecast, but didn't really follow either of them. I was lucky. I think it was around 11am when I had showered, and got dressed to go out. It rained while I was showering, but the sun soon came out again. I decided to take a chance on going to Poundland, or TwoPoundland as it should be called now.

  I was lucky. I walked both to and from Poundland with no coat on, and it was rather nice. When I caught the full sun on me it felt very warm, although the air temperature was only about 16° C - or a couple of degrees higher than forecast. It was not all that long after I got home that the sky became very dark, and the next band of rain passed over us. An hour or two after that there were distant peels of thunder, and some moderately heavy rain here.

  My shopping trip to TwoPoundland was very successful. As I think I mentioned yesterday, top of my shopping list was some "Vanish" stain remover. I didn't actually need any, but having used my last bottle I wanted to get a couple of spares in because it doesn't always seem to be available.  I also got some new Raspberry flavour shampoo and conditioner. That I do need because I used up the last shampoo and conditioner the day before.

  A quite important, or if not "important" then highly useful purchase was some sugar free biscuits. They included two small packs of small sugar free chocolate chip cookies. They would be useful mid afternoon. I also bought a few other odds and sods, and I guess the most notable was some trainer socks - which have gone up from 5 for £2 to just 4 for £2.

 I was back home in time for a very slightly early lunch. All my meals, except breakfast, were at altered times yesterday. This was because of two reasons, although maybe they had a common reason. My instructions for the CT scan said no eating later than 4 hours before the scan. My reason was to try and see if I could be sure I was comfortable during the scan - not farting, and no wanting to go for a poo. As I mentioned the other day, I usually have my first poo round about the time I expected to be halfway through the scan.

   What I tried to aim for was some food that would not generate too much poo. What was probably a very fanciful idea. My slightly early dinner was two of the Sainsbury's salad that had been in the fridge for almost 2 days. The bulk of those salads was salad leaves, and I guess they probably promote poo instead of otherwise. It was about 4pm when I had my dinner. That was just going to be plain vanilla ice cream, and from the same tub where a previous big helping didn't seem to effect my blood glucose readings the next morning.

  I had a bit more hope that ice cream, which basically melts down to a liquid, would not generate much poo the next morning. I was just going to have the ice cream, but I decided I would follow it with about five small, sugar free, choc chip cookies. I had hopes that all the food I ate yesterday would not raise my blood glucose very high, and maybe it would not have, but I did have a little more to eat at about 7pm.

  It was close to 7pm when I got curious and checked my blood glucose level. I just took a single reading using the Sinocare meter. Once upon a time I had doubts about it's accuracy. It still very occasionally produces a result that is a lot higher than the other two meters, but more often that not it can closely agree. I was shocked when the reading I took at about 7pm was just 6,9mmol/l. That seemed very low, and I assumed that if I would be fasting until this morning it would be a lot lower still.

  I had fears that it might go low enough to cause me some problems when walking home from the hospital. I considered what I had available for a small boost, and decided on some old, but not quite stale ginger biscuits. I had found them in a camera bag, well sealed in a plastic bag - possibly left over from some outing years ago ! I think I had 4 or 5 of them, and I have to admit they were very nice.

  One thing I had started at about 5pm was to only drink water. Once again the orders were no caffeinated drinks for 12 hours before the scan (and it might also have said no fizzy drinks).  I guess I am practised at having nothing to drink but water after my spells in hospital, and it wasn't so bad, although a fizzy drinks seems much more refreshing.

  It was my intention to try and get to sleep early last night because I needed to be up early this morning. One thing stopped it being that early. I am getting very near the end of the book I am reading, and at any other time I may have wedged my eyes open with matchsticks, and continued into the night until the book was finished. With maybe a dozen pages still to go I decided not to keep reading, and try for sleep.

  It seems I was not very sleepy last night. Even when I did get to sleep I rarely managed more than one hour of sleep before I woke up again. It was usually because I needed a pee. I seemed to pee an awful lot last night. It was almost as if my blood glucose had gone really high. I wondered if the ice cream, which does seem to report quite a high sugar content, had some sort of delayed action fuse.

  It was not that long after 5am that I gave up trying to sleep, and started to get up - a good hour before I intended to. When I checked my blood glucose level this morning it was good, but slightly high. The Contour meter read 8.1mmol/l. Both the GlucoRX and Sinocare meters read 7.8mmol/l, and that is pretty good. Those readings do suggest that all the peeing in the night was nothing to do with very high blood glucose levels.

  One interesting thing is that all that peeing seemed to almost cure the recent rise in my weight. It was as if I had some sort of water retention problem, although I can't think of any cause for that. Ultimately my weight was also reduced by many visits to the toilet for a poo before I went out. I was happy to have finally have finished before I had to go out. Once again, I am not sure where it all came from considering I had been trying eat less solid stuff yesterday. Evidently I deluded myself,

  The next bit of my account of this morning is at the top of the page, and so now it is time to say what I will be doing for the rest of the day. For the next few hours I shall go into full lazy mode, and lay on my bed either reading or sleeping. later this afternoon Jodie should be over for a beer tasting session. I think everything is ready for that, but I may have to set a little bit of time aside to prepare some sort of post booze dinner. I am unsure what it will be, but I think it will include some boiled new, or baby, potatoes. 


 





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