What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

[Annb]

Em is here, in from school. She has just hoovered up all the offcuts from the brownies, which I thought wouold be too bitter for her. The chocolate was really very bitter. My mistake, but I've managed to hold her back from having the finished brownies as well, with the promise that, if there are any left over (which there are bound to be) I'll give them to her dad to take home. She's sure that her dad will love them because he does like dark chocolate and she's worried that she won't get her share. I reckon she's had her share already.

Tried to make an arrangement for the doctor to give me a call but was told that I have to phone tomorrow morning to see if I can get an appointment for the doctor to call me. Now, it seems they only make a limited number of phone calls in a day, never mind actually seeing anyone. Can't see why, since covid, the doctors have less time to deal with patients than they used to have. It's not as if anyone who has covid gets to see a doctor. So, that cuts out a number of patients anyway. Our population hasn't increased dramatically since covid but doctors are seeing less and less patients and now, not even talking to them without an appointment. Luckily my problem isn't urgent, but I think I'll be very lucky to get an appointment for a phone call tomorrow. They seem to be relying on the e-consult system, which is useless in my opinion. I just don't think that medicine is a vocation any more. It's a lucrative business (as long as there are poorly paid nurses to carry to load). The last nurse I saw told me that her husband who has an 8 - 5.30 job as a delivery driver, earns more per hour than she does. I wishrthey wouldn't strike, but I don't blame them if they do.

Just having a moan, sorry - it's not your fault.

 

[gennepher]

Good morning everyone which is a traditionally polite greeting but from the foregoing an alternative truth in some cases. Testing times for me today in order to determine where the immunotherapy element of my treatment resumes, , and keep tabs on a raft of data contained in my blood. @dunelm thanks for sharing the start of your latest journey to your mental and artistic happy place. @alf_Josiah get thee hence to the Garden Centre "as soon as." Methinks you and @dunelm doth both protest too much about things you actually adore and wouldn't change for all the koffy in wherever, even that expelled by Civets. @Annb hug for missing bin day and 4 weekly collections. @Krystyna23040 hug for getting wet. @gennepher hug for the lost creative but thanks for sharing that one which holds the promise of brighter days ahead. Talking of which, a semblance of reality over the (banned) B word is growing in certain parts. These two stories show there offer tiny glow from the lLght of the World. Battling like a Toc H lamp in the Stygian gloom but huge glow and improvements to some lives and still light and hope . Very seasonal: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63707689
and https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/22/treatment-for-alzheimers-lecanemab-dementia-research. That light is very much inspite of not because of the B word or the last 12 years of industrial scale gaslighting and (pre?) determined wrecking the joint. Even those clownshoes can't take back control from the real ruler of the world or even "the market", despite their delusions of grandeur. Lift not up your horn on high. Enjoy your day even if you let Elsie plan your menu.

Thanks @ianpspurs

 

[lindisfel]

Good morning everyone from a wonderfully quiet start here in the dark and dangerous north. The wonder wheel of lies and japes after an exotic yet carefully chosen Thai restaurant meal blurted out a 5.3 this am. Gardening. Mrs Miggins has been “sorting” out shrubs - it’s like a scene from a Monty Python film. There is now a space in the shwubberwy for a small blue spruce that she has decided will be planted up and decorated at the end of each year in support of glitteritis. Evidently a dwarf variety - only time will tell. Art bit, another starter for ten. Have a marvelous day if you can, I simply must go and make some koffy.

View attachment 57649

The tradesmen's entrance to Mordor?

 

[lindisfel]

Thanks @ianpspurs

Please, is this part of the tuning process, Ian, before you get the personal immunotherapy therapy? We hope and pray it works.
God bless
Derek

 

[gennepher]

Em is here, in from school. She has just hoovered up all the offcuts from the brownies, which I thought wouold be too bitter for her. The chocolate was really very bitter. My mistake, but I've managed to hold her back from having the finished brownies as well, with the promise that, if there are any left over (which there are bound to be) I'll give them to her dad to take home. She's sure that her dad will love them because he does like dark chocolate and she's worried that she won't get her share. I reckon she's had her share already.

Tried to make an arrangement for the doctor to give me a call but was told that I have to phone tomorrow morning to see if I can get an appointment for the doctor to call me. Now, it seems they only make a limited number of phone calls in a day, never mind actually seeing anyone. Can't see why, since covid, the doctors have less time to deal with patients than they used to have. It's not as if anyone who has covid gets to see a doctor. So, that cuts out a number of patients anyway. Our population hasn't increased dramatically since covid but doctors are seeing less and less patients and now, not even talking to them without an appointment. Luckily my problem isn't urgent, but I think I'll be very lucky to get an appointment for a phone call tomorrow. They seem to be relying on the e-consult system, which is useless in my opinion. I just don't think that medicine is a vocation any more. It's a lucrative business (as long as there are poorly paid nurses to carry to load). The last nurse I saw told me that her husband who has an 8 - 5.30 job as a delivery driver, earns more per hour than she does. I wishrthey wouldn't strike, but I don't blame them if they do.

Just having a moan, sorry - it's not your fault.

I'll join your moan @Annb about doctors (ours is a doctorless surgery since 2019), and I will join your moan about e-consult. Because for me, I go on to e-consult site, press the button which is my concern/enquiry about my health. It asks a couple of questions, and then, before I get anywhere a questionnaire pops up - Do you gamble it asks. No, I press, but then it asks me how do I feel about my gambling habit, and two options pop up, and I am NOT going to press either of those options it gives me. So, I get out of the site, and try again, but I have the same problem, the gambling questionnaire pops up, with no option to get out of it, and so I can get nowhere with my health concern with e-consult. If it is not the gambling questionnaire, it is the alcoholism questionnaire, also with loaded questions, and loaded answer possibilities.

My friend said to me, oh you're not doing this right. Me, not doing this right? Fine, I said to my friend, you do this with me. And she did. She was pulling her hair out because she got nowhere with it. Either the gambling or the alcoholism questionnaire popped up before you could get anywhere with your health enquiry. And you couldn't answer the questions with the answers they allowed you to tick.

My friend understood by now.

We both agreed that the version of e-consult my doctorless surgery has (the cheapest one I think) is acting as a gatekeeper to the NHS.

 

[lindisfel]

Em is here, in from school. She has just hoovered up all the offcuts from the brownies, which I thought wouold be too bitter for her. The chocolate was really very bitter. My mistake, but I've managed to hold her back from having the finished brownies as well, with the promise that, if there are any left over (which there are bound to be) I'll give them to her dad to take home. She's sure that her dad will love them because he does like dark chocolate and she's worried that she won't get her share. I reckon she's had her share already.

Tried to make an arrangement for the doctor to give me a call but was told that I have to phone tomorrow morning to see if I can get an appointment for the doctor to call me. Now, it seems they only make a limited number of phone calls in a day, never mind actually seeing anyone. Can't see why, since covid, the doctors have less time to deal with patients than they used to have. It's not as if anyone who has covid gets to see a doctor. So, that cuts out a number of patients anyway. Our population hasn't increased dramatically since covid but doctors are seeing less and less patients and now, not even talking to them without an appointment. Luckily my problem isn't urgent, but I think I'll be very lucky to get an appointment for a phone call tomorrow. They seem to be relying on the e-consult system, which is useless in my opinion. I just don't think that medicine is a vocation any more. It's a lucrative business (as long as there are poorly paid nurses to carry to load). The last nurse I saw told me that her husband who has an 8 - 5.30 job as a delivery driver, earns more per hour than she does. I wishrthey wouldn't strike, but I don't blame them if they do.

Just having a moan, sorry - it's not your fault.

I don't know what's happening but Helen, when she is not teaching at Uni, spends a long shift at a walk in centre in St.Helens seeing people who have not seen a GP, and they have all sorts of problems needing attention.
The system has been broken by 12 years of Tory cuts.
I happen to know of one GP in Scotland who spends time smoothing the way for the Hospice system in the Highlands to work properly.
D.

 

[gennepher]

I don't know what's happening but Helen, when she is not teaching at Uni, spends a long shift at a walk in centre in St.Helens seeing people who have not seen a GP, and they have all sorts of problems needing attention.
The system has been broken by 12 years of Tory cuts.
I happen to know of one GP in Scotland who spends time smoothing the way for the Hospice system in the Highlands to work properly.
D.

If I lived in England, I could use a walk in centre. I know where they are, because I used them when I lived in Liverpool.

Wales, unfortunately, does not have those walk in centres @lindisfel

I moved to Wales from LIverpool 18 years ago, and the Welsh medical system was failing then, and I would go back over the border to England to the Walk in centres In Liverpool, or Arrowe Park and there was no problem with me doing that because they treated everyone wherever they came from, and said it was fine for me to use them, and they encouraged me to go back anytime I needed medical attention.

However, I am asked now where I live, if I try to use a walk in centre in England. They say they cannot see me, I have to go back to Wales. But there is a work around....I have an English friend with me, and say I am staying with her in LIverpool at the moment, so then I have to provide my friend's English phone number, and they have said they will be ringing to check I am staying there. Obviously my friend or her husband corroborates. But I save this work around for my 'emergencies' as I have no GP...

However, I am learning more about alternative medicines and therapies to sort myself out when I can...

Yet, I was allowed to continue to attend St Paul's Eye Hospital in LIverpool when I moved to Wales. Which I am grateful for. It is a fragmented health care system.

 

[ianpspurs]

Please, is this part of the tuning process, Ian, before you get the personal immunotherapy therapy? We hope and pray it works.
God bless
Derek

Thanks Derek. I have been having immunotherapy since summer alongside twice daily oral chemo which I was able to continue through COVID. The immunotherapy is fortnightly. So far so good according to those managing my care. Today's bloods and PCR, taken at 4.30, are already filtering through. First lot, full blood count, in already. God bless you for the thoughts and prayers.

 

[Annb]

I don't know what's happening but Helen, when she is not teaching at Uni, spends a long shift at a walk in centre in St.Helens seeing people who have not seen a GP, and they have all sorts of problems needing attention.
The system has been broken by 12 years of Tory cuts.
I happen to know of one GP in Scotland who spends time smoothing the way for the Hospice system in the Highlands to work properly.
D.

The last time I spoke to a long standing doctor at our practice, before covid, he was working long hours and when I commiserated he said it was because all the young doctors that the practice had working for them, no longer were obliged under their contracts to put in the hours, and all chose not to do so, leaving the 2 older GPs to work all hours. They don't seem to take on the extra work themselves now either. But covid seems to have been a turning point for all sorts of NHS services. Our diabetic clinic only rarely sees patients now, the podiatry department no longer sees patients. A 6 monthly clinic I am supposed to attend gave me an appointment recently after a year's gap, but they failed to do the required blood test beforehand so couldn't see what was happening to my liver, which is the main reason for the appointment. It all seems to have gone to pot. It's not just a government thing, it's a general attitude.

 

[gennepher]

The last time I spoke to a long standing doctor at our practice, before covid, he was working long hours and when I commiserated he said it was because all the young doctors that the practice had working for them, no longer were obliged under their contracts to put in the hours, and all chose not to do so, leaving the 2 older GPs to work all hours. They don't seem to take on the extra work themselves now either. But covid seems to have been a turning point for all sorts of NHS services. Our diabetic clinic only rarely sees patients now, the podiatry department no longer sees patients. A 6 monthly clinic I am supposed to attend gave me an appointment recently after a year's gap, but they failed to do the required blood test beforehand so couldn't see what was happening to my liver, which is the main reason for the appointment. It all seems to have gone to pot. It's not just a government thing, it's a general attitude.

It is the same with the podiatry clinic here @Annb
I was seen twice yearly by podiatry, and twice yearly by diabetic clinic, and yearly blood tests, and yearly asthma check ups. That all stopped well before Covid lockdowns, about 2018 to early 2019.

It is a good job I have the internet to find out stuff...

 

[Annb]

It is the same with the podiatry clinic here @Annb
I was seen twice yearly by podiatry, and twice yearly by diabetic clinic, and yearly blood tests, and yearly asthma check ups. That all stopped well before Covid lockdowns, about 2018 to early 2019.

It is a good job I have the internet to find out stuff...

The odd thing is that when my brother's medical practice finally fell apart (in Swindon) a group of what you might call influential people, got together and put sufficient pressure on the local Trust, to get services reinstated with a different practice which took on a lot of extra work, but did it more efficiently. They now have a very good service - medical, dental, prescriptions and they can book appointments online for themselves and check test results online. If they can do it, why can't others?

 

[ianpspurs]

The odd thing is that when my brother's medical practice finally fell apart (in Swindon) a group of what you might call influential people, got together and put sufficient pressure on the local Trust, to get services reinstated with a different practice which took on a lot of extra work, but did it more efficiently. They now have a very good service - medical, dental, prescriptions and they can book appointments online for themselves and check test results online. If they can do it, why can't others?

A wild guess would be those with the sharpest elbows and most money leverage the best service especially from governments of a particular persuasion. This, imho, is behind these numbers which seem to have accelerated over the last 12 years - odd that. https://www.theactuary.com/news/202...s-higher-areas-where-life-expectancy-greatest and https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/...between-higher-house-prices-and-good-hea.html Discuss.

 

[Annb]

A wild guess would be those with the sharpest elbows and most money leverage the best service especially from governments of a particular persuasion. This, imho, is behind these numbers which seem to have accelerated over the last 12 years - odd that. https://www.theactuary.com/news/202...s-higher-areas-where-life-expectancy-greatest and https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/...between-higher-house-prices-and-good-hea.html Discuss.

Of course, Ian, that is so. And I'm sure it is the case in Swindon - not the smartest of areas, nor yet the most expensive but sufficiently well-to-do to get their Conservative MP involved along with others. But the thing is, if they could find a solution, others could, if they wanted. The will is not there.

In fact, I was very surprised that my brother was offered surgery to fix his heart problem this year (he is 80 tomorrow). I thought he would be considered to be too old for such costly and difficult surgery. The only reason we can think of is that he was the last remaining person to have an early design heart valve and the surgeon wanted to be the one to remove it and study why it was a superior model. The opportunity arose when they saw that his aorta was bulging at the point of entry to this old fashioned valve. It must have cost thousands - the surgery and the aftercare. We were all very grateful that it was done - the aorta had already started leaking when they did the surgery, so he probably wouldn't have survived much longer, but we were surprised. It seems that often, the elderly are ignored when something goes wrong with their health.

 

[ianpspurs]

Of course, Ian, that is so. And I'm sure it is the case in Swindon - not the smartest of areas, nor yet the most expensive but sufficiently well-to-do to get their Conservative MP involved along with others. But the thing is, if they could find a solution, others could, if they wanted. The will is not there.

In fact, I was very surprised that my brother was offered surgery to fix his heart problem this year (he is 80 tomorrow). I thought he would be considered to be too old for such costly and difficult surgery. The only reason we can think of is that he was the last remaining person to have an early design heart valve and the surgeon wanted to be the one to remove it and study why it was a superior model. The opportunity arose when they saw that his aorta was bulging at the point of entry to this old fashioned valve. It must have cost thousands - the surgery and the aftercare. We were all very grateful that it was done - the aorta had already started leaking when they did the surgery, so he probably wouldn't have survived much longer, but we were surprised. It seems that often, the elderly are ignored when something goes wrong with their health.

My MIL had both hip replacements replaced and a new knee when she was in her mid to late eighties. An uncle in his eighties has recently had a TAVI. Both in Cambs, old Huntingdonshire to be precise. According to Rightmove: The majority of sales in Huntingdonshire during the last year were detached properties. (Usually 4+ bed) So not an area for jams and very definitely true blue. May or may not be connected.

 

[Annb]

My MIL had both hip replacements replaced and a new knee when she was in her mid to late eighties. An uncle in his eighties has recently had a TAVI. Both in Cambs, old Huntingdonshire to be precise. According to Rightmove: The majority of sales in Huntingdonshire during the last year were detached properties. (Usually 4+ bed) So not an area for jams and very definitely true blue. May or may not be connected.

On the other hand, my SIL in her early 80's, living in a not very well heeled area of Ayrshire, was told that she will not be receiving her knee replacement. She had both knees done when she was much younger but one has failed so she can't walk now. It was hinted, but not said openly, that she is too old and unimportant to waste precious resources on. But the council has provided her with carers who go in 4 times daily (2 each time). It's not the NHS Trust that will be spending money on her, but the local authority. I have heard it said so often that the medical services are not there for the elderly any more; the elderly are unproductive and we should all just be left to die. This is probably a biased opinion, but it is one held by many in light of what they see happening. Even earlier in the year I was astonished when the other long standing doctor at our practice referred me to Raigmore in Inverness to check a lump in my breast saying, "You're worth the effort." I am no more worthy than anyone else. Had I not been considered "worthy" would my case have been brushed aside?

Is it just the political and/or financial power that decides these issues, or is there a less caring attitude by those who wield that power creating an underclass these days?

Edited to fix typos.

 

[lindisfel]

If I lived in England, I could use a walk in centre. I know where they are, because I used them when I lived in Liverpool.

Wales, unfortunately, does not have those walk in centres @lindisfel

I moved to Wales from LIverpool 18 years ago, and the Welsh medical system was failing then, and I would go back over the border to England to the Walk in centres In Liverpool, or Arrowe Park and there was no problem with me doing that because they treated everyone wherever they came from, and said it was fine for me to use them, and they encouraged me to go back anytime I needed medical attention.

However, I am asked now where I live, if I try to use a walk in centre in England. They say they cannot see me, I have to go back to Wales. But there is a work around....I have an English friend with me, and say I am staying with her in LIverpool at the moment, so then I have to provide my friend's English phone number, and they have said they will be ringing to check I am staying there. Obviously my friend or her husband corroborates. But I save this work around for my 'emergencies' as I have no GP...

However, I am learning more about alternative medicines and therapies to sort myself out when I can...

Yet, I was allowed to continue to attend St Paul's Eye Hospital in LIverpool when I moved to Wales. Which I am grateful for. It is a fragmented health care system.

A nurse led practice is supposed to have references to a GP!

We had a local cottage hospital that was excellent it had beds that could be used for those coming out of hospital and couldn't go home.
To save money they closed it down and put all the care on mobile staff. They called it the Success Regime! As a consequence patients stay in hospital and can't benefit from a more streamlined system.

 

[gennepher]

Fbg 6.7

This is from a week ago. I am still playing catch up on the nighttime trail camera. Some nights there are very little usable/watchable clips, or the batteries run out! Other nights there are a lot of animals and so video clips.

Cat, Midnight, sits on swing (in the rain). The roof on the swing shelters him! But he likes sitting there at nighttime just watching...

No starlings came yesterday. It looks like those sparrows sorted them out the day before!

Creative is a cold bitter autumn painting in Procreate.

The weather here is really bitter.

Time for a cuppa.

 

[Krystyna23040]

5.2 this morning. Lovely sunny dog walk. I don't mind chilly walks as long as it is sunny. Busy busy day ahead.

Yesterday the manager of the pub across the road from my Norwich venue gave me a free coffee for being such a good customer. It really made me feel good. It is such a lovely place to relax in with a coffee and the food is good also.

 

[Krystyna23040]

Fbg 6.7

This is from a week ago. I am still playing catch up on the nighttime trail camera. Some nights there are very little usable/watchable clips, or the batteries run out! Other nights there are a lot of animals and so video clips.

Cat, Midnight, sits on swing (in the rain). The roof on the swing shelters him! But he likes sitting there at nighttime just watching...

No starlings came yesterday. It looks like those sparrows sorted them out the day before!

Creative is a cold bitter autumn painting in Procreate.

The weather here is really bitter.

Time for a cuppa.

View attachment 57669

I do like your cold bitter autumn painting @gennepher.

 

[gennepher]

I do like your cold bitter autumn painting @gennepher.

Thank you very much @Krystyna23040