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Monday
29th July 2024
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08:58
BST
Yesterday
was mostly warm and
sunny, but there were a
few hours in the early
afternoon when the cloud
became just thick enough
to block any direct
sunshine. The
temperature reached
about 25° C.
Today has started with a
clear blue sky and
sunshine. If the forecast
is correct it will stay
like this all day, and the
temperature should reach
at least 27°
C (although the
headline figure is
28° C). Tomorrow
should see full
sunshine until 3pm
when it will change
to just sunny
spells. At 10pm
there could be
drizzle. It should
be even warmer than
today with a high of
at least 28°
C.
Yesterday was mostly
a good day. I did very
little coughing (at least by
comparison to the day
before), and I did a few
useful things. It is a shame
it all fell to pieces once I
went to bed. I had another
terrible night, but I'll
describe that further down
the page.
I had some good sleep
the night before last night,
but I still didn't seem to
feel that good at first.
Things began to change when
I had a shower and washed my
hair. Being nice and clean
after a day of illness and
sweat was quite a boost. It
was enough of a boost to get
me to change the sheet,
pillowcases, and duvet cover
on my bed. I also changed
the hand towel I use to soak
up and face sweat on hot
nights (or in winter when I
have the heater up high).
The towel came up
quite nicely - or so it
seems in the picture. In
truth there is a feint
brownish stain down the
middle that is congealed
grease from my own sweat.
After seeing this many times
I think I have now learned
the lesson to not leave
this, and it's identical
twin, on my pillow for too
long before washing it. I
may have said that last
time, and maybe this time I
mean it !
One thing I think I
was slightly more successful
at yesterday, but only by a
narrow margin, was to eat a
bit more carefully
yesterday. On the other
hand, maybe I didn't because
I seem to recall have some
elevenses, and then a light
lunch only a bit later. The
trouble is I can only
remember one bit of that
midday-ish meal. I know I
enjoyed the remaining half a
small tub of icecream I had
started the day before, but
I can't seem to remember
what I had before or after
it. Of course I
remember what I had with it.
It was two peppered steak
slices that I warmed for
just a single minute in the
microwave.
After a very slightly
busy morning I did almost
nothing in the afternoon. I
did do a little bit of
washing up, but I think it
was only a couple of items
that had been sitting in the
sink for a while. I mostly
spent the afternoon laying
on my bed reading, and
having at least one snooze
of indeterminate length.
Time seemed to slip by quite
quickly (like the whole of
this month), and it wasn't
long before I was preparing
my early dinner.
I think "firecracker
chilli" is code for a hint
of chilli, but it will be
very mild, and indeed it
was. However it was very hot
after only recently coming
out of the microwave. I
might have enjoyed it more
if I had allowed an extra 10
minutes, or more, for it to
cool down. However it was
hot and steamy enough to get
my nose running, and my
throat to seem to get a bit
tickly. Until than I had
hardly been coughing at all
- maybe just the occasional
single small cough to clear
my throat.
After eating dinner I
started to cough more and
more. It was not that
bothersome until I went to
bed. As soon as my head hit
the pillow I was coughing as
bad as at any time during
this illness. Now the
curious thing is that while
it seemed that I couldn't
get to sleep at all like
this, I must have fallen
asleep for a bit now and
then because I was having
dreams.
One dream, and I
think I might have had
something similar a few
times, was about my cough.
It seemed like every time I
managed to cough up the
mucus down my throat, I
would top it up again from
my nose that seemed to be
running all the time. I'm
not so sure that something
like that didn't happen, but
I am sure my dream(s)
dressed it up a bit.
What I was hoping to
avoid last night was more of
the cough syrup pictured on
the left. It may have
mattered less if I had a
spoonful or two in the
middle of the day, but any
dose late at night, or in
the case of the last couple
of nights, additional doses
in the small hours of the
morning, was, and did really
mess up my blood glucose
readings.
I think I took my
first dose at around 3am,
and another, smaller dose,
at maybe 5am. The amazing
thing, because past
experience from years ago
suggested these syrups don't
really work, is that those
two doses last night, and
other the night or two
before, really did help a
lot.
I very much doubt I
got more than a single hour
of sleep before 3am, and
possibly less in short
segments, but from 3am,
after a dose of cough syrup,
I did get some proper sleep,
although even that seemed to
be all dreaming, and the
dreams seemed to be
repeated. One lot of dreams
was continuing the dreams I
had experienced as very
short dreams during very
short bits of sleep, and
about how as soon as I had
finally managed to cough up
some tickly mucus, more
would slide down from the
back of my nose.
Another series of
repeated dreams could almost
be looked on as trying to
find the best way to
describe a certain
phenomena. They were
inspired by the book I am
currently reading by Robert
A, Heinlein. The book is
another of his that tells
the story of parallel worlds
having similar time lines
until some sort of cusp
sends them off in different
directions. One such dream
was almost real life, and it
was how America resisted S.I.
units in all their
scientific work until fairly
recently.
In 1998 the Mars
Climate Orbiter was
lost because NASA had
specified parameters in S.I.
Unit, but their contractor
used older measurement
units, and the whole lot
barreled straight into Mars
as a crash landing. Since
then NASA has insisted that
everything has to be
specified in S.I. units, and
that has gradually seeped
through to all American
industry, although like the
UK, and out insistence of
buying beer in pints, local
measurements are still used
outside of scientific and
engineering circles.
I can't remember any
more than a rough
description/overview of my
dreams, but it seems they
all concerned an America, on
a parallel time line where
sticking to old, and weird
units of measurements kept
them back so much that they
were still using horse drawn
carriages while most other
places were using cars and
lorries.
In theory I slept
almost normally from about
3am until I got up a little
late at 7am. During that
time I still woke up several
times to go for a pee, and
on one occasion I had a
small extra does of cough
syrup to help get back to
sleep. It may have been 4
hours sleep in theory, but I
suspect it was worth little
more than 2 hours sleep. On
top of that a wild guess
suggest I could have got as
much as half an hour of
sleep from when I first
tried for sleep until 3am.
I did not feel great
when I got up, and one
reason was that I felt
hungry. It had been quite a
time until I had eaten my
small dinner,Eating
breakfast of two bowls of
instant noodles cured that,
but even now I am feeling
the lack of sleep still, and
I am, or was, coughing a lot
more than most of yesterday
morning, although another
slurp of cough syrup seems
to have settled my cough
down a lot.
One positive thing is
that like yesterday, I seem
to have shed another couple
of hundreds of grams. And
once again that measurement
was taken without waiting to
go for a morning poo ! Not
quite positive or negative
is my blood pressure this
morning. It is up a tiny
amount, but my meter still
does a diagnosis as
"Optimum" (which is better
than "normal". i do note
that my pulse rate is a bit
higher than usual. The blood
pressure is 114/54, and my
pulse rate 63 compared to my
morning average over the
month of 55.
I don't think
it is anything to worry
about, and like my blood
glucose readings it will
return to normal after I
have finally thrown off this
cold. The good news is that
my blood glucose readings
have fallen from terribly
high to higher than ideal.
The Contour meter read an
only slightly above "normal"
8.9mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter
reading was higher than I
would like at 9.0mmol/l even
though that is only 0.1
higher than the Contour
meter. The Sinocare reading
was worst at 9.7mmol/l, and
that is uncomfotably close
to the red line at
10.0mmol/l. As I say, these
are all better than
yesterday, and the previous
couple of days.
Today is forecast to
be exceptionally warm and
sunny, and that gives
desires to go out and enjoy
it. I think that in reality
the best I will manage today
is a walk to Tesco and back.
Some more food would be
useful, although not
essential, but another 4
bottles of Diet Coke would
be very desirable. I also
fancy some ready made
sandwiches, but that is
something I ought to resist,
and maybe I will resist even
if they have reduced price
stickers on them because
Tesco tend to be very stingy
with the reductions on many
things, and particularly
sandwiches. One possible
"going out" today could
be to do some work in
the garden.
1889 words
today
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