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

[ianpspurs]

Morning all who read and followed the memo on testing fbg and reporting same each morning. Is this what being a rebel feels like? Very cold but bright and sunny here. How did Ye Olde Brecklanders cope? - see attached - dry grassland steppes does seem about right. I'm currently very warm, enjoying tea with two dogs slumbering at my feet. JKP and MIL are upstairs, I’ve done the tea run, so all is well here, thanks be to God. @gennepher thank you for the video and creative yesterday and I'm delighted for you that the home visit sounds as though it was a resounding success. @JohnEGreen hug for the number of visits to the practice. @Krystyna23040 hug for Poppy and yourselves for the distress a sick pet causes. @dunelm thank you for sharing your art which matches the very early morning here. @SlimLizzy hug for oven cleaning, (a task we are pleased to pay a company for on the same contract as servicing our vacuum cleaners), and the mired vehicles. @Lamont D steam coming off fences, sheds and trampolines here. All very pleasing but best seen on video or in a centrally heated room. @Annb I hope your pains and bugs are less troubling today. One power cut and this household would almost certainly be in a worse state than YOBs: progress, continuity and change. Not sure what all that has to do with anything relevant but, hey, it is an honest version of who I am - at least that's what I think. Take care if you venture out.

 

[gennepher]

I've mentioned before @gennepher about PA/AA role out.

I follow a few doctors accounts on twitter, and this subject is hotly debated

Large numbers of doctors unable to work or be trained. (No money)

Large resources being ploughed into the PA/AA Roll out..( new money tree found ? )

PA/AA's dictating to doctors
Doctors not getting practical experience required to move their careers forward, so leaving for better opportunities.

PA/AA actually doing more than doctors in some hospitals

And the time frame of being a fully qualified PA/AA is frighteningly short 4+ years to going 'solo'
As to 10 years + for doctors
With doctors being asked to overview PA's
Which simply duplicates the workload

And the courses 'appear' to be hard to fail

Just some of the topics that are raging on there.

Worth a delve IF anyone wants to know why it's so hard to see a real doctor.

Does it matter ...mmhh

My viewpoint was I wasn't sure.

Even with the ops after accident I didn't give it much thought.

The eye op was optional (in some respects)

So I read up a little more, and realised how important the anesthesiologist was to any operation

Not sure I want the less trained person in the room doing that or the operation.

Which does seem to be happening

Many, many times seeing the doctor isn't the general be all & end all or even needed for many visits so those less qualified suit my needs perfectly, freeing up a doctor for those moments when one IS needed

But the idea that seeing a doctor may be less possible and even be the intention, worries me

Long story short
I'm kinda rooting for the doctors
( Yeah, bite me .lol )

BBC News - Physician associates: Streeting orders review to end 'toxic row' - BBC News

Physician associates: Streeting orders review to end 'toxic row'

The health secretary says fears over physician associates need looking at, but laments nature of debate.

www.bbc.co.uk

Exhibit A & B: if it pleases the court.
I believe they're commonly referred to as 'tweets' M'Lud...

x.com

x.com

x.com

x.com

Hi @jjraak
Just read the article.
In Wales, I have not seen a doctor in over 7 years...
What are they?
I thought they were extinct.
I have only seen a nurse who uses a computer checklist, and then prints and signs a prescription.
'You can prescribe?' I ask.
Oh yes, I can prescribe, nurse says.

Excuse me while I go and read up on Wise Woman Ways....


I still remember calling (8 year old daughter did the phone call) nighttime for our surgery's night doctor (it was one of our surgery's doctors), for my 3 old son.
It was the elderly doctor, who looked in his 90's.
This was about 1980.
He had an antique car, looked like maybe his son was the driver.
It was his attire that stunned me and my two girls.
He was immaculately formally dressed, like he has stepped through the front door from the past.
His shirt was absolutely perfectly white, starched within an inch of its life. High collar with that little split in the front. The rest of the dark attire was incredibly formal, not one dust spot on it.
Then his shoes...
They were spats, with those perfectly white starched ankle covers with the black buttons/studs that went up the sides.

I start to go for the stairs, but the doctor stopped me saying he couldn't walk up the stairs anymore, and he looked like it.

So I bought my young son downstairs into the back room where I had a massive long oak table. I laid him on the table. The doctor followed us in. He looked around the room, it was an Edwardian house, and still had the original old French windows, the original ceilings and carvings, and the original oak fireplace with the mantelpiece and all the little compartments on the mantelpiece.

This old old Doctor was highly delighted with the room. 'The schoolroom', he said giving a clap of approval with his hands. He picked up his large old-fashioned medical hold-all bag from the floor and placed it on the table.

My young son by this time had come to and was not sure what he was seeing...

My two girls are watching wide eyed with interest....

The old doctor examined my son, got stuff from his bag. Asked for water...

Finally, he said my son needed some more medicine from the chemist, but seeing as I was on my own, he had some in his bag and gave me that free. I did not have to pay.

His driver in the antique car was still waiting for him outside. The driver got out of the car and opened the door for the old doctor. And they drove off into the dark night.

When I saw this old doctor in the surgery, he was still dressed well but in a grey daytime suit. When he treated me, he would usually say I'm not giving you any medicine, but if you boil some barley etc, and he told me what to do. This was for my cystitis. He often gave old remedies for things. On the odd occasion when I needed antibiotics he would point to the cupboard on his wall, and said that medical salesman often left him drug samples. Would I like one of those samples? Yes, I said because I had literally no money at the time.

That was a doctor.

Not these young slips of nurses who sit in front of a computer with a computer checklist and then print out a prescription for me, because they are authorised to sign a prescription for drugs (this is Wales I am talking about).

 

[SlimLizzy]

Have heard stories of the inspections. My father was in the air force. I have two solid oak chest of drawers that I believe came originally from married quarters.

Fbg this morning at 0730 Hrs 3.7 now 5.6.

On numerous occasions of marching out of married quarters cleaning the oven was always the worst part used to take all the removable bits and chuck them in a bath of water with caustic soda but. No matter what you did you could never satisfy the Station Warrant Officer.
I’m sure the guys will sort the mired car eventually

Eventually is the problem, we have to be out of here in two days and the stuck car plus attempts to free it has occupied a whole morning, which could have been spent more productively.

 

[gennepher]

Thank you for your lovely comments @gennepher - I have opened a new tube of Paynes Grey.

I absolutely love Paynes Grey @dunelm ...I have several different tubes of Paynes Grey from different manufacturers. They are all various shades....

 

[gennepher]

A good visit and the bonus of a wee bit of a spring clean including mental and physical exercises. My mum follows the teachings of Quinten Crisp when it comes to tidy - it all looks the same after two years! - and then completely disregards that advice by having a cleaner!!! Lovely, bright and cheerful kaleidoscope

I did buy a feather duster some months ago.... it is still waiting to be used, because I remember what Quentin Crisp said about dust, it only lands back down again...

 

[gennepher]

I do hope so @gennepher. Yesterday she slept all day after the injections but still not right and wouldn't eat.


This morning she has bought up a load of clear fluid so will be ringing our vet at 8.30am. She is sleeping peacefully on her bed by the radiator at the moment.

Oh dear @Krystyna23040
Hugs for Poppy...and you and Mr K xx

 

[gennepher]

Good morning everyone on a wonderfully quite start to the day here in the dark and dangerous north. A pleasing day yesterday, ended up having lunch with some of Mrs Miggins’ siblings. They are a very close family, contrast with my left half of the drainpipe who are scattered throughout several continents and would probably have a heart attack if they received a greetings card from another family member. Bohemian Rhapsody at its most unconventional. A parcel to take to the post office today - get thee back to the Amazon! Art bit - how many crows to commit a murder? May your day be steady in the chaos and rush of life. I shall filter mine through the lens of a caffeine drenched mug of koffy.

I love this art bit so much @dunelm
Many artists do not like Paynes grey, and I have been told off in the past for using it. But heck, it is my painting. I will use it if I want to....

 

[gennepher]

10.01
7.45am FBG 5.7
Some time later 5.4.
Today tackling the horrible job of cleaning the oven. It's old. Not possible to get it sparkling and I haven't tried that for a while, but now needs to be as good as possible. Not my usual that's good enough. Not spending any more time on it. Have been at it for two hours. Such a boring job.
Meanwhile a friend has arrived to collect some wood. Unfortunately his car has got stuck because the ground is absolutely sodden. MrSlim tried to pull him out with our car and got that stuck as well, for a short while. So now there are three men trying to work out how to move a mired car.

Oh dear that is bad @SlimLizzy

When my car got mired in deep mud, I had parked the car on a field with many other cars for a cheese festival....
It rained heavily.
When we got out of the cheese tent when it stopped raining, there was a farmer and a tractor, who towed us all out. My new white car did not look very white anymore. The farmer refused to take any money for fuel....

 

[gennepher]

Morning all who read and followed the memo on testing fbg and reporting same each morning. Is this what being a rebel feels like? Very cold but bright and sunny here. How did Ye Olde Brecklanders cope? - see attached - dry grassland steppes does seem about right. I'm currently very warm, enjoying tea with two dogs slumbering at my feet. JKP and MIL are upstairs, I’ve done the tea run, so all is well here, thanks be to God. @gennepher thank you for the video and creative yesterday and I'm delighted for you that the home visit sounds as though it was a resounding success. @JohnEGreen hug for the number of visits to the practice. @Krystyna23040 hug for Poppy and yourselves for the distress a sick pet causes. @dunelm thank you for sharing your art which matches the very early morning here.@SlimLizzy hug for oven cleaning, (a task we are pleased to pay a company for on the same contract as servicing our vacuum cleaners), and the mired vehicles. @Lamont D steam coming off fences, sheds and trampolines here. All very pleasing but best seen on video or in a centrally heated room. @Annb I hope your pains and bugs are less troubling today. One power cut and this household would almost certainly be in a worse state than YOBs: progress, continuity and change. Not sure what all that has to do with anything relevant but, hey, it is an honest version of who I am - at least that's what I think. Take care if you venture out.

Thank you very much @ianpspurs
Yes, the visit surprised me in a very good way....

 

[ianpspurs]

Thank you very much @ianpspurs
Yes, the visit surprised me in a very good way....

That Doctor in your earlier post sounds like what one would call quite a character. One, at least this one, imagines he was much loved in the community and his passing was mourned by all his life touched - a familiar tale from days of yore. Thank you for sharing that story. My hunch, based on my experience last summer, your visit yesterday and DIL (a specialist lead nurse in a large hospital) is that nurses and care assistants in the community don't have the same "targets" and "company policy" pressures. They can both be and relate to others as humans not a row on a spreadsheet - in the horrible jargon we and the nurses are a cost centre. How did we get here? Forgive me, my answer is almost always that B woman.

 

[dunelm]

I love this art bit so much @dunelm
Many artists do not like Paynes grey, and I have been told off in the past for using it. But heck, it is my painting. I will use it if I want to....

Thank you @gennepher and sod those prissy anti-Paynes grey folk, our art, our choices. This particular one is Windsor & Newton - I like the way the blue tints come out

 

[Lamont D]

Fbg 7.4

I did mention a few weeks ago that I had an unexpected appointment at home when I had always had my appointments in the health Centre or local Hospital up to now, the last 20 odd years.

I have never yet had any health checkup appointment at home (I had not asked for this appointment at home), this one has always taken place in a clinical setting, and it made me feel very vulnerable it being at home.

However, given road conditions, and the weather yesterday, and recently,, I was grateful I did not have to travel or go on the A55 which has many crashes in these bad weather conditions near me. It is almost impossible not to use or cross the A55 even for a local journey.

An experience 45 years ago, with someone who used the (my personal stuff) contents of the room I talked to them in, against me. I was shocked when he boasted how he did it..... and since then I have always been cautious of what I keep or use the room for, that I have to invite strangers into.

Since 2020 with Covid and lockdowns and no one particularly coming into my personal space, I used the front room for all kinds of personal stuff. I realised with this appointment, how much stuff about myself I was giving away....

So this last couple of weeks, I have been reorganising the bungalow (it needed the organisation anyway), so that the personal stuff wpas out of the way in the two back rooms. I don't like people touching some of my personal stuff and collections.

Well, this was a far bigger task than I had realised, and this is taking all my mental and physical stamina to actually do. The front room is how I need it to be now. But the other two rooms are a big mess. Until I can organise it properly, but it makes me a lot happier the stuff out of the way from other people.

In fact, when the health visitor came in, I noticed she did a surreptitious look around, and her face looks slightly puzzled, like she couldn't perhaps glean any information about me from it. There is information about me but it's in the drawers etc and will always easily be put away in future. So I was glad that all my work was successful.. and I will now have to keep the place tidy in future. Keeping tidy is not one of my best natural qualities.....

Anyway, the nurse was an hour early, which caught me on the hop....but I was already prepared.

She is the first person in the NHS that has done her research before she met me. And she had done it thoroughly. In addition she knew I was deaf, and everything I have said in the past to anyone in the Welsh health service about my deafness and the cards I have given out, she knew all of that.

This made for a much easier health appointment for me. It is as it should be for anyone with a disability.

The whole appointment went well, and I will be having another home visit in e year's time....

Having the home visit made life so much easier for me, whereas having to actually physically go for an appointment, and park in impossible hospital car parks, and all that comes with it, to be honest, I'm finding this kind of stuff a little bit too hard work to do on my own now.

Wildlife video
A Fox investigates & a Badger looks for food
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DElhz8CIds6/?igsh=YXBnendzMnRqcXFs

And the same vid on TikTok
but TikTok would not let me have a link for this video will nearly 24 hours, saying that they were reviewing it because of my previous video which they said breached community guidelines and they took it off. TikTok were however letting people view this video, and said if I wanted more views I would have to pay, something like £8 or £9 I think it was, for another 99 views... cue naughty words from me... anyway they've just released letting me have a link for it... the days of the free Internet are just about over....

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdB3GWBo/

Creative... it is a kaleidoscope of some plastic/silk forsythia flowers I have, which are going in the garden... they look quite effective among natural greenery.... my back garden gets no sun in winter, and I would like it to look cheery and spring like...

Sweet dreams...
Take care

View attachment 71243

a winner for the kaleidoscope.
a winner for the home appointment.
a winner for last night's stars.
a hug for the mess.

6.8 today.
#8 is currently pressing nannys emergency button.
He back later.

 

[ianpspurs]

a winner for the kaleidoscope.
a winner for the home appointment.
a winner for last night's stars.
a hug for the mess.

6.8 today.
#8 is currently pressing nannys emergency button.
He back later.

Sorry for the funny @Lamont D but I love the sound of #8. Might not be so enamoured if he visited but of course but at this distance absolutely love the sound of him. Look after him but keep him safe up there and just tell us all about him as a public service there's a good chap.

 

[dunelm]

Morning all who read and followed the memo on testing fbg and reporting same each morning. Is this what being a rebel feels like? Very cold but bright and sunny here. How did Ye Olde Brecklanders cope? - see attached - dry grassland steppes does seem about right. I'm currently very warm, enjoying tea with two dogs slumbering at my feet. JKP and MIL are upstairs, I’ve done the tea run, so all is well here, thanks be to God. @gennepher thank you for the video and creative yesterday and I'm delighted for you that the home visit sounds as though it was a resounding success. @JohnEGreen hug for the number of visits to the practice. @Krystyna23040 hug for Poppy and yourselves for the distress a sick pet causes. @dunelm thank you for sharing your art which matches the very early morning here. @SlimLizzy hug for oven cleaning, (a task we are pleased to pay a company for on the same contract as servicing our vacuum cleaners), and the mired vehicles. @Lamont D steam coming off fences, sheds and trampolines here. All very pleasing but best seen on video or in a centrally heated room. @Annb I hope your pains and bugs are less troubling today. One power cut and this household would almost certainly be in a worse state than YOBs: progress, continuity and change. Not sure what all that has to do with anything relevant but, hey, it is an honest version of who I am - at least that's what I think. Take care if you venture out.

Thank you @ianpspurs and pleased it gave you a sense of the familiar.

 

[Annb]

6.5 at 04.00 today. Most of my pains have subsided - apart from my ankles and hands, and they aren't as bad as they were. So that's good. However, last night my heart rhythm started playing up, although I did go to sleep. Maybe that was the reason I was feeling shaky all day yesterday. Same thing this morning but BP and BG were OK, if not perfect. It took until after mid day for it all to settle down. It was as though I was reacting to some food which I can't tolerate, but I hadn't had anything different - other than the tinned haricot beans which I don't have very often but which have never bothered me before. All very odd but much improved now so just try to forget it until maybe Thursday when I see the nurse again and ask her advice.

There used to be a GP on the west side of this island who was known as a character. Can't remember what his name was but everyone called him "Doctor Moses" because of his long, white beard. He used to annoy staff at the hospital in Stornoway because, on the occasions when a patient of his had to be hospitalised, he would visit them and demand to know details of how the patient was progressing and would be either satisfied or complain about their progress. The hospital tried to stop him, but he would tell them "This is my patient and it is my duty to ensure they get the best treatment." He also used old fashioned treatments and seems to have been both successful and popular. Of course, he drove an old, classic car. Just part of his image.

 

[SlimLizzy]

Oh dear that is bad @SlimLizzy

When my car got mired in deep mud, I had parked the car on a field with many other cars for a cheese festival....
It rained heavily.
When we got out of the cheese tent when it stopped raining, there was a farmer and a tractor, who towed us all out. My new white car did not look very white anymore. The farmer refused to take any money for fuel....

In the end our friend got a local tow truck company to move it. €80 for a 10 min job only 2k from base.

 

[SlimLizzy]

I did buy a feather duster some months ago.... it is still waiting to be used, because I remember what Quentin Crisp said about dust, it only lands back down again...

And doesn't get any worse after seven years.

 

[Lamont D]

Sorry for the funny @Lamont D but I love the sound of #8. Might not be so enamoured if he visited but of course but at this distance absolutely love the sound of him. Look after him but keep him safe up there and just tell us all about him as a public service there's a good chap.

I am sorry to inform you the ratbag, phoned somebody, who was a bit miffed at his intrusive nature, and kept saying hello. He is a puddle jumper and allegedly knows how to save electricity by turning it off at the junction box. Can't wait for him to find more things out.
Oh yeah, he noticed nannys new rollator, and demanded a ride through the house. Of course Nanny obliged.
He wanted to play with it in the garden, at minus three at 3pm, his dad tried and I mean tried to persuade him.
His dad locked the back door.
Gone now, but with the threat of returning tomorrow.
It is fun!

 

[ianpspurs]

I am sorry to inform you the ratbag, phoned somebody, who was a bit miffed at his intrusive nature, and kept saying hello. He is a puddle jumper and allegedly knows how to save electricity by turning it off at the junction box. Can't wait for him to find more things out.
Oh yeah, he noticed nannys new rollator, and demanded a ride through the house. Of course Nanny obliged.
He wanted to play with it in the garden, at minus three at 3pm, his dad tried and I mean tried to persuade him.
His dad locked the back door.
Gone now, but with the threat of returning tomorrow.
It is fun!

Excellent read and potentially a superb sitcom. Do keep us informed of his progress I think he is already a forum favourite.

 

[Annb]

Ouch! On the family history thing again - just a quick look at the "ancients" in our tree and found ... Herod the Great! He actually had his son (our ancestor) killed after a suspected plot against him. Nice family.