"What have you eaten" Parallel Chat

[maglil55]

MRI went remarkably well!Thanks to the oxazebam (and lack of sleep), it turned out I was relaxed enough to almost fall asleep.

In fact, I'm still struggling to stay awake on the couch a home, so I'll have a bit of breakast shortly, followed by a nap.

I was like that, too @Antje77 . I dozed quietly for 45 mins. The nurse dealing with me said that she didn't know what I was on or was doing, but could I please come back and teach everyone else! I had just been taught relaxation techniques during my stressful working life. I just applied them to the MRI.

 

[maglil55]

Horrible decision to have to make. Is there any guidance about the potential outcome if you don't have the op? Especially when it's your eyes they are talking about, you need to know that. You need to be given enough information to make your own decisions.

I made a decision some years ago NOT to have surgery on my knee. The clinic couldn't say how successful it would be, they wanted to do the knee which hurt less than the other one, they didn't seem to be interested in my concerns about managing to move around when my arms and shoulders wouldn't allow me to use crutches, I knew a couple of people who had had the surgery without success. I did also know one person who had had the surgery and recommended it highly. I just felt that I shouldn't go for it and I usually do trust my instincts rather than careful workings out. The hospital simply lost interest in me as a result and I have never received any kind of treatment other than pain killers from my GP ever since. I knew they would but I still think I was right in my decision.

I had a simpler decision to make with my surgery on my spine. Consultant told me that with the surgery, I would not be totally cured, but I should show improvement over 2 years. Without surgery, I'd be confined to a wheelchair within 5 years, and I wouldn't get out of it again. It was a bit of a no-brainer. OK, I still have leg and hip problems, but I'm still walking with the aid of my crutch.

 

[maglil55]

Good luck for tomorrow @Antje77

I've had a bit of luck too. Surprise phone call on Saturday afternoon saying I can gave an eye op this Thursday ( have been waiting since February). Trouble is not sure I want it. Surgeon says 50/50 may help or may make it worse. It will get worse over time anyway.

Haven't had much time to consider it as have got family staying. A takeout curry Saturday caused stomach issues. Today did late brunch after we went cold water swimming...well I didn't, 2 of my guests did. Rest were spectators.

Then in afternoon stroll to local church Tower which was open followed by much blackberry picking. Supper was pastries for them and salads., with cheese. Did have small taste of trifle.

Bg has been all over the place, at least 1 huge non food related spike and averaging 7.5. Not like me all.

That's a tricky one when it's 50/50. All you can do is, as you said, ask lots of questions and weigh up the odds. Best of luck xx

 

[maglil55]

Sunday 18 August

B. TAG and 2 slices of SRSLY toast with pate

L. After grandson's swimming lesson (it's started again), a mug of Marigold vegetable boullion.

D. Lemon sole just off the boat, with my favourite spinach, tomato, and mushroom mix. Usual campari and soda. Last scoop of Halo Top with raspberries.

Grandson's freestyle has improved immensely. He's got all his certificates now, but he's now focused on stroke improvement and survival training.

I don't know how many of you noticed this in the Olympics, but it was unfortunate in the women's butterfly heats that the Canadian & American swimmers were put next to each other. Although, there were a lot of comments about Harvey & Weinstein, I was more amused by lanes 1 and 2. You need a Scottish accent to appreciate it. I'll give you a clue. Vauxhall made the Nova. Go for it @RosemaryJackson. Practice your accent.

 

[Antje77]

MRI went remarkably well!Thanks to the oxazebam (and lack of sleep), it turned out I was relaxed enough to almost fall asleep.

In fact, I'm still struggling to stay awake on the couch a home, so I'll have a bit of breakast shortly, followed by a nap.

Must have been a magic nap!
Two hours, and all traces of feeling rubbish from the fever and stomach bug or whatever it was were gone as if they'd never been there, despite lack of sleep and hardly any food yesterday!

Good thing too. I'll have a short sailing trip tomorrow to scatter someone's ashes (not someone I know, it's work), and today my friend/skipper called me if I could help out today because the ship had to be moved and he couldn't find a deckhand.
I took the route where I only have to watch out for sheep, in case the oxazepam was still doing something. We had to move another ship out of the way first (with permission from the owner), moved the ship we are to be using out of the way, moved the first ship back to it's original spot.

Then we took 'our' ship to the other harbour in the same city and found out it wouldn't go faster than 2 knots. Which isn't enough for tomorrow.
The ship hasn't really been used in over a year after the death of its previous owner so we suspected not only lots of barnacles on the ship itself but on the propellor as well.
I had planned a swim anyway so I went in with a paint scraper and spent half an hour scraping a thick layer of barnacles from the propellor before having a proper swim. We expect the boat to behave much better tomorrow.

I'll be paid 100 euros for tomorrows job, which is too much really. So today after work I proposed 100 euros for tomorrows work and a portion of bitterballen for today.
Bitterballen are in no way diabetes friendly, but they sell the best ones I ever had right next to where the ship is. And I had to make up for missed food yesterday. So. There.
Looks like I even managed to dose pretty well for them, the long swim may have helped.

Tomorrow will start very early with the dreaded diabetic eye exam, after which I'll be the blurry eyed deckhand. Will bring two pairs of sunglasses. Arrrr!

 

[LivingLightly]

Busy but enjoyable weekend looking after our granddog Cooper and lots and lots of forest walking. We also picked blackberries on our walks and bought some apples from a local farm for youngest son and daughter in law who wanted some to make a crumble.They collected Cooper and the fruit late yesterday. I'm loving this more temperate summer weather - so good for walking.
Foods over last few days broadly low carb although had a couple of the local apples we got from the forest farm - very small ones and also had a few very tasty organic carrots with some slow cooked beef yesterday.

So Cooper has holidays and weekend breaks with you @shelley262 while his people are away.
He's a lucky dog!

 

[MrsA2]

Maybe barnacle scraping by hand could be part of the cool job you're looking for @Antje77? Develop it into a form of skilled self employment?

Another stressful day here, bg all over the place. I thought I was in much better control of bg than. The non food spikes are concerning

 

[LivingLightly]

MRI went remarkably well!Thanks to the oxazebam (and lack of sleep), it turned out I was relaxed enough to almost fall asleep.

In fact, I'm still struggling to stay awake on the couch a home, so I'll have a bit of breakast shortly, followed by a nap.

It must feel good to have that noisy MRI scan out of the way @Antje77. Of all the scanning techniques in creation, that one has to be the least user friendly.

 

[LivingLightly]

Just experimented and made a blackberry and apple crumble, a small ramekin for my portion with ground almond and butter topping. Apples picked from my sister’s tree at 11am and blackberries on this afternoon’s walk at 2pm.

There seems to be a bumper crop of blackberries this year @sueh21. Wild blackberries have so much more flavour than the cultivated varieties and don't seem to affect my blood glucose levels.

I can't get away with an apple though. My solution is to use apple peel whenever I need a touch of apple flavouring and then give away the peeled fruit to folk who are not diabetic.

 

[Annb]

Good thing too. I'll have a short sailing trip tomorrow to scatter someone's ashes (not someone I know, it's work), and today my friend/skipper called me if I could help out today because the ship had to be moved and he couldn't find a deckhand.
I took the route where I only have to watch out for sheep, in case the oxazepam was still doing something. We had to move another ship out of the way first (with permission from the owner), moved the ship we are to be using out of the way, moved the first ship back to it's original spot.

Tomorrow will start very early with the dreaded diabetic eye exam, after which I'll be the blurry eyed deckhand. Will bring two pairs of sunglasses. Arrrr!

You are an amazing person Antje. Despite the last few days of S&D, then the stress of the MRI to be strong and fit enough to go in and scrape barnacles off the propellor. I can only admire your strength and good humour. Sounds as though you enjoyed the last part though. I assume the barnacle scraping of both the hull and the propellor would normally be done in a boatyard (out of the water) but, as MrsA2 says, there might be a potential job for you in that kind of work - if your arm and shoulder can stand up to it.

I have my diabetic eye screening on 26 August. Not expecting any problems but while I'm there I must get some decent glasses to protect my eyes from glare. I have to keep my eyes closed outdoors, even on dull days because the light hurts my eyes. As we drive along, I have to shut my eyes, and then I go to sleep. Not much of a travelling companion. Just as well Neil is the strong, silent type and silence doesn't bother him.

 

[Annb]

Maybe barnacle scraping by hand could be part of the cool job you're looking for @Antje77? Develop it into a form of skilled self employment?

Another stressful day here, bg all over the place. I thought I was in much better control of bg than. The non food spikes are concerning

This BG thing is getting very confusing. These last couple of weeks for me have been much the same as yours, it seems. Rising to the heights without food (even higher with) and topping off at 16.1 a couple of days ago despite taking insulin for food. Then I take an amount of insulin that I would normally take for the food I am going to eat, and I drop down into the 3's, and on one occasion the 2's. Something odd going on but I can't figure out what. Also putting weight back on. Must go through everything I am doing and try to sort it out. I thought I had arrived at a stage where I understood this BG business, but clearly not.

Today I started out on 8.1 and had one cup of tea and my painkillers, plus basal insulin. Now 10.9 and rising.

I will eat though and take some insulin before I do so.

Bacon and eggs is usually a good option and doesn't affect my BG.

Later I have some haddock and will do something with that.

I wonder if, somehow, I am absorbing carbs through my fingers, or the air, with all the baking I've been doing.

 

[sueh21]

There seems to be a bumper crop of blackberries this year @sueh21. Wild blackberries have so much more flavour than the cultivated varieties and don't seem to affect my blood glucose levels.

I can't get away with an apple though. My solution is to use apple peel whenever I need a touch of apple flavouring and then give away the peeled fruit to folk who are not diabetic.

Yes the blackberries are delicious this year,getting some more for the freezer today. That’s a good idea for apples, I seem to be ok with about 50g and I usually have almond butter or cheese with them. No spike from the crumble yesterday so that’s good.

 

[maglil55]

Monday 19 August

B. TAG and 2 slices of SRSLY toast with pate. Benecol dairy free

L. Mug of Marigold vegetable boullion (I've developed a liking for this again)

D. My other new favourite. A SRSLY wrap with lettuce, tomato, walnuts, Skinny Food Co honey/Tamari soy chicken, peri peri sauce. Fresh raspberries and cream.

Vodka and diet coke.

Niece got back from Uist @Annb. She was exhausted. She had to get up about 3 am. to get on the 5.37 ferry to Barra. Then, another ferry from Barra to Oban before driving home. She did say that at least the drive from Oban was shorter than that from Mallaig. She's certainly getting a taste of what the islanders have to deal with. She is loving her time on Uist when she is there.

Getting back into school work, too. Grandson had an English assignment to finish doing research on the teenage soldiers in WW1 & also Wilfred Owen. Even I learned things I didn't know about Wilfred Owen. I didn't know that he was put in Craiglockhart War Hospital suffering with shell shock, nor did I know he made a friendship with Siegfried Sassoon while he was there. This is all prep for them studying Owen's wartime poetry.

I still have hundreds of posts to read. It will take a while.

 

[Annb]

Monday 19 August

B. TAG and 2 slices of SRSLY toast with pate. Benecol dairy free

L. Mug of Marigold vegetable boullion (I've developed a liking for this again)

D. My other new favourite. A SRSLY wrap with lettuce, tomato, walnuts, Skinny Food Co honey/Tamari soy chicken, peri peri sauce. Fresh raspberries and cream.

Vodka and diet coke.

Niece got back from Uist @Annb. She was exhausted. She had to get up about 3 am. to get on the 5.37 ferry to Barra. Then, another ferry from Barra to Oban before driving home. She did say that at least the drive from Oban was shorter than that from Mallaig. She's certainly getting a taste of what the islanders have to deal with. She is loving her time on Uist when she is there.

Getting back into school work, too. Grandson had an English assignment to finish doing research on the teenage soldiers in WW1 & also Wilfred Owen. Even I learned things I didn't know about Wilfred Owen. I didn't know that he was put in Craiglockhart War Hospital suffering with shell shock, nor did I know he made a friendship with Siegfried Sassoon while he was there. This is all prep for them studying Owen's wartime poetry.

I still have hundreds of posts to read. It will take a while. View attachment 69419

Glad your niece got off the Islands safely, even though it was a complicated journey, and an early start. My brother and SIL got away from Lochmaddy, directly to Uig and then straight back down south in the coach. It was a tiring journey for them, but at least he didn't have to drive all the way. It would have taken days because he can only manage about 100 miles at a time now and they'd have to keep taking overnight breaks at hotels on the way.

I knew Wilfred Owen was hospitalised with shell-shock, but I had assumed the hospital would have been further south. I'm very fond of his work and Sassoon's.

Still struggling with my BG. Just took another correction dose to get it down from 13.4. Waiting to see how that goes.

Dinner is cooked and waiting for me to have it, but I'll wait for a while. It's some haddock baked on top of some ratatouille. Shouldn't be too damaging, but who knows?

 

[MommaE]

This BG thing is getting very confusing. These last couple of weeks for me have been much the same as yours, it seems. Rising to the heights without food (even higher with) and topping off at 16.1 a couple of days ago despite taking insulin for food. Then I take an amount of insulin that I would normally take for the food I am going to eat, and I drop down into the 3's, and on one occasion the 2's. Something odd going on but I can't figure out what. Also putting weight back on. Must go through everything I am doing and try to sort it out. I thought I had arrived at a stage where I understood this BG business, but clearly not.

Today I started out on 8.1 and had one cup of tea and my painkillers, plus basal insulin. Now 10.9 and rising.

I will eat though and take some insulin before I do so.

Bacon and eggs is usually a good option and doesn't affect my BG.

Later I have some haddock and will do something with that.

I wonder if, somehow, I am absorbing carbs through my fingers, or the air, with all the baking I've been doing.

Could it be the pain you needed to take painkillers for are affecting your blood glucose? I have also wondered the same thing about absorbing and breathing when I’m baking with high carb ingredients.

 

[shelley262]

Monday 19 August

B. TAG and 2 slices of SRSLY toast with pate. Benecol dairy free

L. Mug of Marigold vegetable boullion (I've developed a liking for this again)

D. My other new favourite. A SRSLY wrap with lettuce, tomato, walnuts, Skinny Food Co honey/Tamari soy chicken, peri peri sauce. Fresh raspberries and cream.

Vodka and diet coke.

Niece got back from Uist @Annb. She was exhausted. She had to get up about 3 am. to get on the 5.37 ferry to Barra. Then, another ferry from Barra to Oban before driving home. She did say that at least the drive from Oban was shorter than that from Mallaig. She's certainly getting a taste of what the islanders have to deal with. She is loving her time on Uist when she is there.

Getting back into school work, too. Grandson had an English assignment to finish doing research on the teenage soldiers in WW1 & also Wilfred Owen. Even I learned things I didn't know about Wilfred Owen. I didn't know that he was put in Craiglockhart War Hospital suffering with shell shock, nor did I know he made a friendship with Siegfried Sassoon while he was there. This is all prep for them studying Owen's wartime poetry.

I still have hundreds of posts to read. It will take a while. View attachment 69419

Dinner looks amazing.
WW1 poems are very moving - serious but thought provoking topic for your Grandson.

 

[shelley262]

After a very busy caring day today with eldest I'm looking forward to an outing tomorrow to Birmingham to celebrate up coming birthday of George my husband. Birthday not until next Monday but we bought tickets for a Kazuki conducts CBSO concert tomorrow evening and also going for a pre concert dinner at Dishoom our favourite indian.a good friend of ours gave us a joint Dishoom voucher for our August birthdays . We are meeting up with his brother and partner from Wales and youngest son and wife. So busy but fun day planned.

 

[Annb]

Could it be the pain you needed to take painkillers for are affecting your blood glucose? I have also wondered the same thing about absorbing and breathing when I’m baking with high carb ingredients.

The pain is normal and has been there for years, so I don't think it's that. May be the baking. I don't know. It would be a pity if it was that - it's my hobby. Might have to borrow Neil's fancy breathing apparatus.

 

[MrsA2]

Another odd day bg and health wise.
A price of cheese before off to dancing but quite quickly felt odd and bad headache so came home home, took migraine meds and and asleep. Libre showed a sharp peak and drop
A little cold chicken and ham when woke.

Was hosting tea for 8 elderly neighbours. Resisted the cake, had one small biscuit and about 6 dark chocolate dipped strawberries. Much higher than expected rise which sustained for over 3 hours.
Kept feeling hungry so had 2 slices livlife with cheddar and bacon toasted, a small bit salad. Resulted in big drop.

Even so my average bg past week has been 7.2, its usually 5. No idea why it's changed. Have 4 more days this senor. Think I'm going to have to fork out for another to see if it resolves, or to spot patterns.

 

[Antje77]

You are an amazing person Antje. Despite the last few days of S&D, then the stress of the MRI to be strong and fit enough to go in and scrape barnacles off the propellor. I can only admire your strength and good humour. Sounds as though you enjoyed the last part though. I assume the barnacle scraping of both the hull and the propellor would normally be done in a boatyard (out of the water) but, as MrsA2 says, there might be a potential job for you in that kind of work - if your arm and shoulder can stand up to it.

You make me blush, thank you!
Especially in light of not having been able to help my neighbours nearly as much as I wanted because of the pesky arm, I've been feeling quite useless during the past week with both of them saying there is nothing I can help them with every day, so yesterday and today were a welcome change in feeling competent and useful again!
I did learn today that the arm is worse than I thought, apparently I've gotten pretty good at compensating with things I do daily, on the ship I do different things so it's more noticable that it really doesn't work like it should.

As for being ill/not ill, I've learnt a useful lesson from small children and pets: Feel rubbish? Give into it. Feel better? Act on it, don't wait to see if the illness comes back. If it does it does, if it doesn't it doesn't, no need to wait until you're absolutely sure you're recovered to enjoy life again.

I'm definitely not making a career of scraping barnacles @Annb and @MrsA2 !
All fun once in a while, especially if it means saving the day by 'heroically' jumping in with a paint scraper, not so much if done in a dry dock, high pressure spraying the bottoms of ships all day.

Early day for the eye exam, eyes all good but wasn't worried about it. Turns out my last one was 3 years ago, should be every two years. The eye doctor and I weren't sure if this was due to them being behind or I having wriggled out of it last year with some excuse, he thought the former, I suspect the latter, knowing myself.
I left my car at the hospital and was picked up by my friend/skipper with time to kill so back to his home for a coffee.
For breakfast I raided his fridge and had cold meats and cheese, and a couple of cherry tomatoes. I love eating from someone elses fridge, it's a surprise what you'll find, and you get to eat things you usually dont.

The scattering of ashes was lovely, very nice people. Also very windy, ashes were truly scattered everywhere so right after my eyes had recovered from the eyedrops they were gritty again.
Skipper joined the group on the front deck because he was a friend of the deceased as well, I got to keep the ship steady on the spot right on the edge between the green buoys and the sandbank, making sure to keep the wind from the right side as well, I love that my skipper trusted me to do this for half an hour while they were busy, the currents are rather strong there.

I had the helm at this point so I spent two hours steering the ship back to the harbour in pretty strong winds and waves, slowly against the tide so he could socialise with the group. (Yes, a helm, not a steering wheel, despite the ship being over 20 meters long, see picture.)
At the harbour entrance he offered to take over again, well, no thanks, not now it gets interesting, as a deckhand you don't get to do harbour manoeuvres that often.
Bonus point for him, he didn't object and didn't offer unsolicited advice on how to get the ship where it needed to be, no matter that right when we entered the harbour the wind picked up and it started raining like someone upended a bucket, and he didn't comment on me suddenly munching away on a (delicious) ham and cheese croissant from our guests that I had saved in case of diabetic need.
He knows enough about diabetes to know about hypos, but obviously trusts me to know what I'm doing, no questions asked.

We were invited for a drink and bitterballen by the group at the same place we were yesterday, all drenched. I only had three today instead of yesterdays seven, but I didn't get to prebolus this time so a quick spike.
No problem, I skipped my morning swim, so after saying goodbye to the group it was back to the ship for a rough swim in the harbour in the pouring rain to give the insulin a bit of a kickstart and I was back at 5.2 right after.
No need for a swimming suit because there was absolutely no-one on the usually busy harbour in this weather, no need for a towel because I only had my soaked clothes to put back on after swimming anyway.

LC sandwich for an evening meal, I'm tired. Will have some chicory and hummus before bed, and I'll get to sleep late tomorrow!

Skipper Ray on the helm:


And right after getting back, drenched to my underwear but very content: