Yesterday was certainly nice and warm, and there was possibly a few extra sunny spells than forecast, but there were times when it looked like it would soon be raining. However it did stay dry, and the temperature reached 24° C.
       

  There are a few gaps appearing in the hours of sunny spells shown for today. Yesterday the forecast for today predicted the afternoon would be dull, but still with the temperature reaching 27° C as in the current revisions. Maybe the duller spells will be short enough to not be noticed. Tomorrow could be very similar. 27° C is still predicted for the afternoon, and probably for three of more hours of the afternoon, but the current version of the forecast shows it to be dull from 3 to 6pm.

   Yesterday was a pretty good day, but the ending was a complete disaster. There were hints about it earlier in the day, but those hints didn't really suggest any changes I could make to lessen the disaster of the night....except maybe not to eat any dinner, but after a lot of booze that was unlikely !

  I didn't really rush things in the morning, and I only had a shower in time to go shopping as late as 1pm (or was it half an hour before that ? - who knows, and who cares ! I made two definite decisions. One was that the day seemed enough like summer that I would wear my shorts. After the last time I wore them they seemed to be a bit grubby (I think I managed to get gravy or something on them), and I washed them. I think I used some new Conditioner on them, and I didn't really care for how they smelled. It was a sort of laundry like smell, and so nothing nasty, but I just didn't care for it.

 The other decision I made was to do my shopping in Aldi. They have stuff in there that Tesco don't stock (and vice versa), and while it was nothing exactly essential that I wanted, it was nice to have the choice, plus there are always the unexpected things in Aldi. Yesterday they had two flavours of Koka brand instant noodles - usually they don't stock any good instant noodles. I bought 4 packs of Tom Yun flavour, and 4 packs of the other flavour (which I can't seem to remember as I write this, but I am fairly sure it was another flavour that Tesco don't stock).

  Top of my (imaginary) shopping list was ready made salads and stuff to put in them. I bought two ready made salad, and some ready cooked and sliced chicken plus some potato salad and coleslaw. I also bought a few snack items, two 500ml tubs of ice cream, two 2 litre bottles of Diet Coke, 4 cans of soup, and a few other things. It all added up to a fair weight to carry home, and while the walk there was most pleasant in the sunshine, I did start to get a few pains on the way home.

  I am unsure what type of pains they were. Probably not angina because the pain didn't seem to travel up my neck, and down towards my arms. It did seem to flow to just my right shoulder, and so it could have been angina from a minor blocked artery. It could also have been acid reflux/heartburn, but that seemed unlikely too. Maybe it was actually the return of my famous "twisted rib, and/or scar tissue inflammation. The latter is possibly more likely because it seemed many hours before the pain started to fade to nothing.

  After putting my purchases away I had my lunch. It was slightly unusual in so much as it started with a small packet of what was essentially air fried, very thinly sliced bacon. It was sort of nice, but I don't think I will be tempted to buy any more. The main part of my lunch was ice cream, and it might have been the worst choice possible. I don't think it made any claims to be low in this that or the other. To make matters worse it was loaded with broken up chocolate pieces. Somehow it didn't seem to taste that sweet, and the listed sugar content was lower than many ice creams I have checked.

  After my lunch I indulged in a lay down and some reading. I think I might have even dozed off for 10 or 15 minutes. When I got up again my chest pain had returned in a very mild way. I actually decided to have a whisky before Jodie arrived for our Sunday afternoon beer tasting. Jodie messaged me to say she would be a bit late because she missed her train, although the train she did get was about the right one to get her here at about 3.30pm  - the once typical start time of the boozing session.

  One reason she might have been late was if she did what she does a lot now - go shopping for her lunch in Catford before coming here. I am unsure of the circumstances, but Jodie didn't have a hangover when she got here, and seemed to be in a very good mood. She was quite talkative, and quite happy to open a few rather strong stouts - something she is not always keen on. Most were extremely good, but one tasted a bit "thin" with a sort of hint of metal about it. It was still OK, but failed to be wonderful.

  I was suitably, but not excessively drunk when Jodie left to go and meet Alan in Croydon somewhere. I was looking forward to my dinner. It was supposed to be healthy, and maybe was. It was a rather basic ready made salad with the cucumber removed (I can't stand the taste of cucumber since I lost my taste during Covid), and with bbq flavoured ready cooked and sliced chicken and potato salad. It was very nice, although I don't think the potato salad was all that good, The whole thing left a sort of odd taste.

  I can't describe the odd taste except it did seem like the precursor to indigestion - and indeed that was what I got. I was burping up that flavour for half or more of the night. Things got a bit vague at this point. I am fairly sure, but not actually certain that when I went to bed, just before 9pm, I did sleep for an hour or two before waking up with my chest hurting. Once again it didn't seem quite right for angina, but it didn't seem 100% right for heartburn either.

  The fact that antacid tablets, and even a 300mg soluble aspirin dissolved in water, only helped a little made me think it might have been a little of either or both, but with a big helping of "twisted rib" or scar tissue inflammation. The only thing that helped initially was sitting upright in my computer desk chair. That did hint that it was a muscular or skeletal problem. The trouble was that I could not hold a good pose for long, and I certainly could not sleep like that - although I did actually find myself falling asleep in the chair once.

  Initially I was burping quite a bit, but that slowly decreased to almost nothing after a few hours, but still the pain continued. It was not a strong pain, but it was very intrusive, and very much so when in my favourite falling asleep position. From whenever it was when I woke up, possibly around midnight, until 4am I am not sure that I managed more than 20 minutes sleep, and if I did I was hardly aware of it.

  It was not until around 5am that I was sure I had got some sleep because I remember dreaming. It felt like it was a long dream, but I know that can be very deceptive. It was quite a mixed up dream with people, places, and equipment from two different jobs appearing at once. One thing that made it different to many recent dreams was that it was not a post retirement dream. In the dream I didn't act as I was indifferent to being sacked, and did try to do a few productive things. It was all a bit of a mish mash and almost impossible to describe in any meaningful way (to anyone who had not experienced some of it in real life).

  I did my best to try and get as much sleep as possible after i realised I had had at least one chunk of sleep. It did happen, but I don't think I got a lot more sleep. My chest, although much improved, was still making it uncomfortable to get to sleep. To some extent I can still feel some discomfort now - maybe another hint that this pain is just old fashioned bone and skin pain. It is somewhat ironic that it was not that long ago that I had been congratulating myself that my "twisted rib" pain seemed to have finally gone away. It seems like it hasn't, and past experience suggests it could last several days or more.

  I ate, and drunk, quite a bit of stuff that I didn't think was very good for me, and maybe in terms of a slight weight gain this morning, it wasn't, but to my great surprise, not only were my blood glucose readings good, they were excellent ! All readings were in the dark green (according to my personal colour coding). The Contour meter read 6.9mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 6.3mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read 6.6mmol/l.

  The average of those readings was just slightly over (by 0.1) what would be my new target if I started meeting my current target of 7.5mmol.l. It was 8.5mmol/l for a long time, and I only changed to a target of 7.5mmol/l a month or two ago. Through all these ups and downs, mostly chest pains being the downs, my blood pressure at rest has remained nice and low. Even last night, when I was feeling very uncomfortable, my blood pressure was only just over the edge from "optimum" into "normal". The blood pressure reading I have just taken was 116/51, and I am pretty certain that any of my doctors, Cardiologists, even the dreaded nurse could not say anything bad about that. It seems I am currently very healthy, It is just a shame about the pain.

  I must admit I do feel moderately good this morning despite have a complete disaster of a night. I almost feel I want to do something - something involving being out in the sunshine ! Probably the best thing I can do as a sort of compromise is to wash a duvet cover, and hang it on the line to dry. It is possible the physical effort might pull my rib cage and sternum back into shape - it has happened before. Probably my first priority should be to have a snooze or six  to help make up all the last sleep last night. Mostly I will just make up the day as I go along. It is worth noting before I finish that the sun has just gone behind what looks to be quite a big cloud. Upon checking I find this was in the forecast, although I suspect that the cloud, and several similar ones I can see maybe in excess of what the forecast was based on. Maybe we are in for an extended period of dullness.


 





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