The forecast claims that there should be some sunny spells as I write this, but I can't see any significant gaps in the very light grey clouds. It seems it will be dull all day long, but it should be dry. The afternoon may reach 17° C. Tomorrow is currently forecast to be another fairly light grey day (possibly). No rain is forecast, and not a single ray of sunshine is forecast. The afternoon will be cooler than of late, and the peak temperature may be a single hour of 14° C at 2pm.

  Yesterday was a sort of bland day - neither good nor bad. I could and maybe should have gone out, but the grey looking sky put me off - and after all, rain was forecast for the afternoon even if it didn't happen. I had a mostly lazy time, but it seems I did exercise some control over my diet, but not over my sugar consumption.

  The most significant thing I did yesterday morning was to look out the window, and see the grubby grey sky. It looked like rain was about to fall, and continued to look that way all morning, and into the afternoon when rain was forecast, but didn't seem to happen. It convinced my that I did not want to go to Petts Wood to see what was happening on the live music stage of the Petts Wood May Fayre. I didn't need much convincing because I didn't think there would be anything exciting to see.

  By lunch time it was a fact that I was not going out, but I was going to have some lunch. I can't seem to remember what it was. I think it was probably another pot noodle (but not a "Pot Noodle" - as a registered trade mark of Batchelors Food, or some well known maker of cheap junk food). I am very sure I would also have had some liquorice based confection as a sort of dessert.

  It is possible I had too much liquorice yesterday - enough to give some mild laxative effects, and also some diuretic effects too, although I had never heard of liquorice having any diuretic effects before. Some of my afternoon was just being lazy, or reading a book, but I did spend a chunk of time on the internet checking a few things out. Maybe I should also have checked to see if Liquorice has any known diuretic qualities while I was on the internet.

  Another thing I did in the afternoon was some preparations for dinner. Dinner was to be based on another bowl of mashed potato, and once again I was using up some potatoes that had started sprouting. (Could any of those have any effect on my digestive tract, or on my bladder ?). I prepared the mash in plenty of time, and it was later when I cooked what would go with it. It was sprouts with bacon and butter, and possibly something else - it was ready made, and I didn't read the packet for all the ingredients. I also didn't seem to read the cooking instructions either.

  I aimed for a 6pm dinner so I could watch the BBC 6 O'clock news while I ate. The mash was very nice, but the sprouts seemed very underdone - quite hard and chewy. Maybe they had some laxative effects too. That dinner should have been good, but not roasting the sprouts enough spoiled it badly. It was still edible, just not terrible enjoyable.

  As boringly usual, I watched some TV to pass away the evening. I think I may have given up at 9pm unless the last programme I watched started at 9pm (which as I write this sounds about right), and so it would be 10pm when I went to bed. I know it was early enough that I read almost a full short story from the paperback I am reading. I am trying to think if I had any forewarning about what would happen later in the night. I don't think I did, or if I did feel something it was so vague that I ignored it.

  As far as I can recall I fell asleep easily, but I may have woken for a pee after an hour or two. At about 3am I woke up also needing a pee, and I was also feeling "strange". I realised my heart was feeling odd. I checked my blood pressure and it was high, but not higher than what my meter describes as mild hypertension. It was also not much higher than what the nurse expects from me (although I consider that a bit higher than I like). The really bad reading was my pulse rate. It was at least 139 beats per minutes. My usual is between about 55 and 60.

  There is  good, but not easy to understand, article on Tachycardia on Wikipedia. One thing of interest is that I think it says that a pulse rate of even 133 is not terribly high. Elswehere it mentions rates around 200 bpm. Of course for my pulse rate to jump as high as it was when trying to sleep is unusual, and an indicator the something is going on.

  The article mentions dehydration and diarrhoea as potential causes, and I had been peeing and pooing a lot. The latter mostly after getting up. What it didn't say is that an overdose of Liquorice could cause it. I strongly doubt I have had an overdose, but I know that liquorice can have a laxative effect, and I think that has happened (although those undercooked sprouts may have contributed more).

  While in Kings College Hospital, having my new heart fitted, the Cardiologist did mention that I might need a Pacemaker fitted. It would have been done while I was having the heart valve fitted, but it seems I didn't need one. Anyway, I may be mistaken, but I think a pacemaker is only fitted when the heart beats too slowly or erratically.

  I am not going to take up this Tachycardia with my doctor unless it obviously gets worse. To be honest I am a bit fed up with spending weeks and weeks in hospital. The simple answer may be to start taking the Amiodarone I have been prescribed, but it is a pretty filthy drug with many possible side effects. One side effect is that it's formulation includes a lot of iodine, and I have an allergic reaction to the internal use of Iodine. When used as contrast dye for Xrays, as in, for instance, during an angiogram, it has caused some nasty itchy feelings. I was warned by the hospital pharmacist about the the Iodine and the note about my allergy to it on my medical notes. I stopped taking Amidarone when I started to feel my skin itching - mostly on the small of my back. I would be reluctant to start using it again regularly as prescribed. If I get this tachycardia again I may try and talk to a doctor or cardiologist about possible alternatives. There is a drug called Dronedarone, but even that is noted to have many possible side effects. Hopefully another drug may be less bothersome, and I would be happy to take that if this Tachycardia becomes a nuisance.

  The main problem with my tachycardia in the night was losing hours of sleep. I hope I can do lots of snoozing today. Other than that, I feel good in some ways this morning. As mentioned further up the page, although a bit short of actual diarrhoea, I have been doing lots of pooing, and combined with a lot of peeing (although not as much as some nights) I have lost 300gm since yesterday morning. It is not much, but better than 300gm gain - which would not have surprised me. In fact it may have been a greater loss because I had several poos after I had breakfast, and after breakfast I can't do an accurate reading.

  My blood glucose is a bit higher than yesterday. The Bayer Contour meter gave the highest reading of 9.0mmol/l. That is not terrible, but I think that anything under 9.0 is good. So 9.0mmol/l itself I code as pink in my spreadsheet - on it's way to red for the real danger line at 10.0mmol/l. The other two readings were 8.4 and 8.9mmol/l. I would prefer lower, but they are just about OK, and possibly rather good considering the sugar containing Liquorice sweets I ate yesterday.

  As I write this my current blood pressure is 121/66, and that is very typical, and quite good enough, but.... My pulse rate is still 128. That is not as bad at the 135 seen much earlier this morning, but still rather high. I think I am going to see if I can have a snooze once I've finished writing this. Then I will see if I can wash my hair and have a shower. Holding my head down low over the bath to wash my hair could have some negative effects, but I'll just have to see. Once I am clean, assuming I can safely shower and wash my hair, I intend to go shopping. I'll probably go to Aldi unless I feel the slightly shorter walk to Tesco would be better. Meanwhile....I feel another pee, and maybe another poo coming.