08:51 GMT

  This morning started very mild. The forecast predicted 11° C, and that seems to be about right. It is going to be a grey day with some light rain, or mostly drizzle. This morning it is wet outside, but it doesn't seem to be raining now. The drizzle could start at 3pm, and by then the temperatureshould have been 13° C for several hours. If we had some sunshine it might feel almost nice. Tomorrow could see 12° C, and there should be some sunshine, but there could be light rain after 3pm.

  Yesterday was yet another day that was a mix of bad and good. I suppose most of it was slightly good, and only a small bit was particularly bad. Much of it was just bland - eating a bit more than ideal, and also keeping as warm as possible.  It was the effects of the cold that made the bad bits very bad.

  I was sort of lucky that my Retinopathy exam was at just gone midday yesterday. It meant I didn't have to rush, and could spend time writing yesterday's piece - a fairly long 2,117 words - and still have time to have a shower and wash my hair. It seemed like a good idea that it was bright and sunny when I left home to walk through the park to get to the hospital. I wore one of my leather, motor cyclist style, coats, and it kept the wind out, but was not as warm as expected - even with the bright sunshine on the black leather.

  Breathing in the cold air was not good for my heart and maybe lungs. Having my coat zipped up tight didn't help either. By the time I got to the hospital I was not feeling good. It was like I had walked three or four times the distance, and I was feeling, but not actually out of breath, My heart was also working overtime to compensate for the faulty heart valve. When I got to the hospital I intended to walk up the two flights of stairs as usual, but after one flight I didn't fancy the second, and used the left to the next floor.
  On the way through the park I attempted to take a few photos that would be easy with even my little pocket Nikon camera, but were hopeless using my phone - which was the only camera I had with me. The phone camera is good for scenic views, and wonderful for night photography, but hopeless at taking a picture of a robin posing on a branch some 10 to 15 feet away. The red thing in the centre of this picture is actually a robin !
  There was no denying there was a lovely blue sky, and the sun was nice and bright, but for all that it was only about 6° C.
  This picture of a squirrel, doing a nice pose for me, looks sort of gritty, but at least it is instantly recognisable as a squirrel, unlike the robin.

  Stopping to take, or try and take some pictures slowed me down enough to let me partly get my breath back, but it did not give me much spare time for more breaks before I got to the hospital. I was feeling like I didn't want to walk much more, but I did force myself to go up the first staircase from the ground to first floor. If the staircase continued to the second floor I would have tried to use it, but it doesn't, and maybe I didn't really want to go up another flight of stairs.

  My usual route is to go down a corridor where there is another staircase - almost a spiral staircase. I got to the bottom of that, and realised I would need a long break to get my breath back. Fortunately there is a lift right opposite that stair case, and although I had never used it before I decided it was time I tried it. It is handy to know it is there, and I think it comes up from the ground floor. More than that, it is the typed of lift that is just big enough for a patient in a hospital bed, plus a nurse. As such it is very important, and probably better maintained than the small lifts that don't even go to the floor I wanted.

  I arrived at the Retinopathy suite with only a couple of minutes to spare, but as usual it was a 10 or more minute wait until I was called for the preliminary exam. That consisted of reading a wall chart eye test. Even without my long distance glasses (that I hardly ever wear now) I got to within 4 lines from the bottom, and that sort of surprised me. After that it was time for the dreaded eye drops. The first dread is fighting the reflex to close my eye when the drops go in. The more general weirdness comes later.

  With my pupils slowly dilating there is usually a 20 minute wait before being called in to the actual retinopathy exam. This is having the back of the eyeball photographed (using a Canon DSLR camera I noted). The reason for the dilated pupils is to give a clearer view of the inside of the eye. For the highest resolution a very bright flash is flashed straight into the eye. It sound bad, but once you have experienced for the first time you know it is not real bother.

  After a couple of snaps of each eyeball the thing is over, but like yesterday, but not always, the technician/photographer has a look at the picture she has taken on their big computer style monitor. They can not give an official diagnosis, and can only spare a minute or so for a brief look, but as so far is usual for me, she couldn't see anything wrong with my retina. The best technicians turn the monitor around so I can see what they can see, and they will also do things like switch between primary colours to try and enhance any defect. I don't know of she did that yesterday.

  It could take several weeks or more to get the letter I am expecting from them. The letter always seems to say they, they being the experts, say they can see a small and insignificant problem, but no action is needed, and I will be checked again next year. I am never quite sure if it is just their standard letter that gets rubber stamped and sent to everyone who hasn't got a big problem that might need treatment.

  I was fortunate that when I left the hospital to walk to the pub, I had the sun on my back. With my eyes dilated it makes everything seem searingly bright, and even the glare of the sun is quite painful to see. I did try and take a picture of my dilated pupils on the way to the pub, but it is impossible to hold your eyes wide open in that glare. Fortunately the pub is fairly dimly lit, and once in the pub I could relax my eyes a bit.

  With my pupils dilated it messes with the eyes focus, and produces some interesting effects. It was very difficult reading my newspaper, and almost impossible to try and do the crossword. A more artistic effect was looking at Ayse, my favourite barmaid. From where I was sitting I was looking down the bar at Ayse, and her background was the bright frosted glass of the pub windows. It made it look like she had a halo !

  I had two pints of Guinness followed by a brandy (I think it was a double brandy) before I left the pub and walked through the freezing (feeling) park. It is likely I tried to walk too fast because I knew I would be needing a pee before long - particularly with that cold wind blowing around my lower parts. Like the week before, I got about 2/3rds of the way home and I was starting to feel really bad.

  The cold air was making my chest/lungs/heart ache. I could have had a spray of TNG, but I seemed to think that it didn't work the previous week. All I could do was to try and slow down, and plod on home. It was a great relief to get home. I really looked forward to some hot food, and then putting my feet up. Once I had settled down a bit I remembered to try and take a picture of my still dilated pupils.
  I must admit my messing with the picture to brighten up my pupils makes it look like I have contact lenses on, but it does make it very obvious how the lingering effect of the eye drops have left my eyes looking like "piss holes in the snow" as some put it.

  I had nothing in particular that was going to be my hot lunch, and had to make it up as I went on. It ended up as a very unhealthy, but rather tasty dish of "skins on" oven chips with melted cheese and corned beef. It was quite stodgy, and while that was probably not a good idea when I knew it could be retained in my stomach for longer than usual (thanks to Mounjaro), but it was hot and filling. That was exactly what I thought I needed, but maybe it wasn't.

  I did feel a bit bloated, and while I have no idea why it might have happened, or even if it was related to my lunch, I seemed to develop a moderately bad headache. It was nice to be able to lie down in the warm, and close my eyes. I expect I had a snooze, although I can't specifically remember doing so - maybe I can't remember because I was actually asleep. It may have only been a few hours before I was awake and thinking about dinner.

  I should have eaten more moderately, and I almost started that way by cooking two cheese and bacon (or was it onion ?) crunchies - or whatever they were called (they looked like crunchy fish cakes). They were hot and a bit stodgy, but they never struck me as being that nice. I followed them by some ice cream and a slice of walnut cake. I started eating while watch the 6 O'clock news, and watched more TV until bed time.

  I have to say that no matter how important it was, and how it might effect me, the budget, being the main topic of the news, was bloody boring. It was much better when it had finished and I could watch a couple of Star Trek episodes (The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine). I was starting to feel sleep after the Star Treks, but I watched either QI or Have I Got News For You. It must be a measure of how sleepy I felt that I can't remember which of the two I watched.

  It should have felt really good when I got into bed, but I found I had a touch of acid indigestion. I had started some burping, not a lot, but one burp definitely had an acid taste. Instead of going to sleep I munched a few Gaviscon tablets. The affect seemed a bit slow, but they did do the trick, and I was eventually able to fall asleep. It was mostly a good sleep except for getting up to pee a couple of times, and having a scary dream

  The dream was about having a high voltage transformer in the middle of my room. I have no idea how it got to be there, but the chances are that one of my more loopy friends from the past decided I might like it. It was principally a transformer to reduce very high voltage, as used in the national grid down to domestic 240 volts. The primary input was 125kV.  I tried it in reverse, feeding in normal domestic mains, through a 100W light bulb as a sort of current limiter, into the low voltage side of the transformer.

  Once turned on it was all rather scary. The transformer had one electrode out the top that went through a 6ft tall, ribbed, porcelain insulator. At the top of that insulator there was 125kV, and I didn't care to come within 6ft or more of it in case it arced over onto me and frazzled me. I could hear, and sometime see a corona discharge from it. A corona discharge is like a fuzzy discharge to the molecules of the air - which is usually an insulator until it meets such high voltages.

  I must admit it was a peculiar sort of dream. Nothing physical happened, or at least nothing of consequence, and I could sum up the whole dream by saying I turned it on, it worked, and I turned it off, but that would leave out the fear of such a high voltage, and what it could do if it "escaped". One of the biggest problems of such high voltages is the heat of any arc - which is probably measured in the thousands of degrees. It could cause severe burns from the arc itself, even if the current through the skin did not cause burns or electrocution. I know that sounds wrong, but it is mostly true.

  This morning I seemed to wake a bit earlier than seemed ideal, but not so early that I could have gone back to bed. As every morning, I went to the the toilet and then weighed myself. I then went to the toilet 20 minutes later and re-weighed myself. At that time I still had not passed a poo (and I still haven't) but I have officially recorded that second weighing. It say that I have put on 500gm since yesterday (although it is 200gm less than the day before yesterday - it is always up and down and up again, or down again).

  My blood glucose was pretty good this morning, although definitely up from yesterday. The Contour meter read 6.8mmol/l, and that is definitely rather good. The GlucoRX meter read 6.6mmol/l, and that is even better. The GlucoFix meter read 7.0mmol/l - also very good. The slightly bad thing was no readings starting with a five, but they are still moderately rare (although occurring more often recently). Te average of all three is 6.8mmol/l, and that is among the lower readings this month.

  The main thing today should be a beer tasting session with Jodie. I saw Michael outside his house doing some gardening yesterday. He thinks he may not make it again. Maybe we will be joined by Fluffy cat, and there is always a small chance that we may see Mark or even Alan.

  The only bad thing about this afternoon's boozing is that I am due to give some blood samples tomorrow morning. It could be a bit embarrasing if they are all saturated by alcohol, or smell like beer.








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