pavlosn
Well-Known Member
First day of March today, first day of spring. A time of rebirth and reawakened hope for us all!
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Diabetes, life and all that - personal diary
- Thread starter pavlosn
- Start Date
First day of March today, first day of spring. A time of rebirth and reawakened hope for us all!
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
Our pet black lab has managed to get her teeth on my son's new football!
Again!
He is going to go mental when he sees these photos!
Guess who is going to have to buy him a new one!
Pavlos
Ps Fasting level today 106mg/dl (5,9 mmol/l)
Having a lazy day so far only 1600 paces on the pedometer
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Again!
He is going to go mental when he sees these photos!
Guess who is going to have to buy him a new one!
Pavlos
Ps Fasting level today 106mg/dl (5,9 mmol/l)
Having a lazy day so far only 1600 paces on the pedometer
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
I need not have worried. Son joined in the fun!
Pavlos
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Pedometer count up to 4000 paces now after some supermarket shopping and walking to the pub to watch the capital one cup final.
Come on City!
Pavlos
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Pedometer count up to 4000 paces now after some supermarket shopping and walking to the pub to watch the capital one cup final.
Come on City!
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DiamondAsh
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 641
- Location
- Walsall
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
- Dislikes
- Disregard for authority. Noise.
So glad the burst ball saga turned out well in the end ! 
nannyg123
Well-Known Member
This post really made me chuckle as it reminds me of my parents (who are never sure if they've remembered their tablets). I've tried and tried to persuade them to request pre-filled pill pots from the doctor, explaining that the pharmacy will deliver them free of charge (to save the collecting prescriptions from GP and sitting in Pharmacy waiting for them) and will call monthly to check if there have been any medication changes and adjust the next batch. Each section is perforated so if they go out for the day they could just take which section they needed with them. Seems a doddle to me but mum won't give in .... as she says she's not old enough for this!!!(she's 74). I've lost count of the times I've said "but if a section of the pot has gone you would know you had taken the and wouldn't need to worry!" Aaarrgghhh!!!
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
Sounds like your mom is still a fighter at 74. Bless her!
I admitted defeat to medication amnesia at 48!
Pavlos
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
I have never kept a diary before let alone one that is available for others to view on an open forum. I started this thread/personal diary 12 days ago with the intention to keep it going for three weeks, so we are now about half way through; a good time perhaps to review progress so far.
I am not sure if my motives for doing this were explicitly predetermined or clear to me from the beginning.
I had a vague notion that the public scrutiny that maintaining such an open diary involves would help me in sticking to the more rigorous testing/dieting/exercising regime I intended to adopt in my efforts to prove to myself first and to my doctor second that I could maintain my good glycemic control on lower medication dosages than I had been on in the recent past. This has probably worked in as much as I am already confident that the lower dosage I now take is more than enough to keep my blood glucose in check.
I suppose I could try to eliminate carbs and medication further but I am not certain if I want to go down that route. I am happy with the diet I am now on, probably 100-150g of carbs daily, mostly fruit and veg and a little wholemeal bread and/or bulgur. I am also reasonably happy that the metformin I an now on has a proven long term safety record. So I am on a treatment regime which seems to work for me, my last HbA1c was a non-diabetic 5.3%, and which I enjoy and I am happy to abide by long term. So why change it unless I am forced to.
The other justification I gave to myself for this thread was that if the subject of the thread was myself then I could just write anything and everything I wanted to put down, thoughts, feelings, experiences without being off subject or high jacking someone else's thread.
Thinking back on it maybe one could accuse me that this was a self indulgent even arrogant thing to do? After all what made me think that my life, thoughts etc would be of interest to anyone else to read. Honestly, I am not sure that I do think that. I am just an ordinary man, thinking and doing ordinary things.
But then again maybe just showing that it is possible to go about your life in a perfectly ordinary way, while controlling your condition is in itself of interest, particularly to the newly diagnosed. Sometimes just demonstrating to someone how things can work in practice may be more reassuring and more educational than the best advise. So if I have to offer a more noble justification for this thread this might be it. I am honest enough to admit that this is not what my original motive was.
Reading through some of my posts I note that many of them are not about diabetes.
This I find rather pleasing!
Diabetes is a condition that i suffer from and that I fight against, it is not my life and it is not what defines me.
I like the fact that, mirroring my real life, diabetes sometimes takes centre stage hugging the headlines in this thread but more often it recedes into the background. Actually what is perhaps more accurate to say is that, again as in my real life, diabetes is always there, it's just that sometimes you can easily spot him in the words that I use, while at others, you actually have to look behind them.
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I am not sure if my motives for doing this were explicitly predetermined or clear to me from the beginning.
I had a vague notion that the public scrutiny that maintaining such an open diary involves would help me in sticking to the more rigorous testing/dieting/exercising regime I intended to adopt in my efforts to prove to myself first and to my doctor second that I could maintain my good glycemic control on lower medication dosages than I had been on in the recent past. This has probably worked in as much as I am already confident that the lower dosage I now take is more than enough to keep my blood glucose in check.
I suppose I could try to eliminate carbs and medication further but I am not certain if I want to go down that route. I am happy with the diet I am now on, probably 100-150g of carbs daily, mostly fruit and veg and a little wholemeal bread and/or bulgur. I am also reasonably happy that the metformin I an now on has a proven long term safety record. So I am on a treatment regime which seems to work for me, my last HbA1c was a non-diabetic 5.3%, and which I enjoy and I am happy to abide by long term. So why change it unless I am forced to.
The other justification I gave to myself for this thread was that if the subject of the thread was myself then I could just write anything and everything I wanted to put down, thoughts, feelings, experiences without being off subject or high jacking someone else's thread.
Thinking back on it maybe one could accuse me that this was a self indulgent even arrogant thing to do? After all what made me think that my life, thoughts etc would be of interest to anyone else to read. Honestly, I am not sure that I do think that. I am just an ordinary man, thinking and doing ordinary things.
But then again maybe just showing that it is possible to go about your life in a perfectly ordinary way, while controlling your condition is in itself of interest, particularly to the newly diagnosed. Sometimes just demonstrating to someone how things can work in practice may be more reassuring and more educational than the best advise. So if I have to offer a more noble justification for this thread this might be it. I am honest enough to admit that this is not what my original motive was.
Reading through some of my posts I note that many of them are not about diabetes.
This I find rather pleasing!
Diabetes is a condition that i suffer from and that I fight against, it is not my life and it is not what defines me.
I like the fact that, mirroring my real life, diabetes sometimes takes centre stage hugging the headlines in this thread but more often it recedes into the background. Actually what is perhaps more accurate to say is that, again as in my real life, diabetes is always there, it's just that sometimes you can easily spot him in the words that I use, while at others, you actually have to look behind them.
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
Today is the Clean Monday public holiday here in Cyprus.
Clean Monday, the Eastern European equivalent of Ash Wednesday, is recognized as the first day of the Great Lent, the seven week period preceding Easter during which Eastern Orthodox Christians are supposed to cleans themselves from sin by abstaining from all animal products.
It is paradoxically a day of joyous celebration traditionally involving family pic nicks in the country site and the flying of colorful kites.
We are planning to spend it with my in laws in Kormakitis, the small village in the north of Cyprus, that my wife and I both descend from. My wife's centenarian grandad still has his house there.
The whole area is quite unspoiled and can be very beautiful this time of the year
It should be an opportunity to do some serious walking in the countryside so no morning walk for me today. Being me, plenty of camera opportunities expected as well
Fasting blood glucose level by the way 105mg/dl (5.9mmol/l)
Pavlos
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Clean Monday, the Eastern European equivalent of Ash Wednesday, is recognized as the first day of the Great Lent, the seven week period preceding Easter during which Eastern Orthodox Christians are supposed to cleans themselves from sin by abstaining from all animal products.
It is paradoxically a day of joyous celebration traditionally involving family pic nicks in the country site and the flying of colorful kites.
We are planning to spend it with my in laws in Kormakitis, the small village in the north of Cyprus, that my wife and I both descend from. My wife's centenarian grandad still has his house there.
The whole area is quite unspoiled and can be very beautiful this time of the year
It should be an opportunity to do some serious walking in the countryside so no morning walk for me today. Being me, plenty of camera opportunities expected as well
Fasting blood glucose level by the way 105mg/dl (5.9mmol/l)
Pavlos
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
If only I could convince my own mother to join us in Kormakitis today.
She spends all day, everyday, looking after my dad, who is at a care home following his latest stroke last year, which unfortunately left him with severely impaired speech facilities, with difficulty in swallowing and with reduced mobility in his left leg and arm.
Although my dad is in a home, where he should be professionally looked after, mom is still his primary care giver as she insists that she should be the one to do everything for him, feed him, wash him, everything.
She does not drive, one of the many ways she allowed herself to be reliant on my dad over the years, so I drive her to the home every morning on the way to work and collect her and drive her back home at night after work.
To be honest although I am concerned about my dad, I am beginning to be even more concerned about my mom. I think she is desperate for him to get better and that the slow realization that perhaps this might not be happening this time, he had managed to make reasonable recovery from previous strokes, is taking a very great toll on her.
Although to all the world she always probably appeared the stronger of the two, very sociable and outgoing even opinionated and outspoken at times, while he has always been much more introvert and reserved, it is clear that in many ways my dad was the one that provided the underlying strength and support in the relationship.
I try to be there for her as much as I can, mostly by providing a pair of understanding ears for her to vent her frustrations and worries to but I know that this is not enough.
Anyway, I have burdened you enough with my troubles.
Sometimes just saying things out loud or putting them down on paper helps.
Pavlos
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She spends all day, everyday, looking after my dad, who is at a care home following his latest stroke last year, which unfortunately left him with severely impaired speech facilities, with difficulty in swallowing and with reduced mobility in his left leg and arm.
Although my dad is in a home, where he should be professionally looked after, mom is still his primary care giver as she insists that she should be the one to do everything for him, feed him, wash him, everything.
She does not drive, one of the many ways she allowed herself to be reliant on my dad over the years, so I drive her to the home every morning on the way to work and collect her and drive her back home at night after work.
To be honest although I am concerned about my dad, I am beginning to be even more concerned about my mom. I think she is desperate for him to get better and that the slow realization that perhaps this might not be happening this time, he had managed to make reasonable recovery from previous strokes, is taking a very great toll on her.
Although to all the world she always probably appeared the stronger of the two, very sociable and outgoing even opinionated and outspoken at times, while he has always been much more introvert and reserved, it is clear that in many ways my dad was the one that provided the underlying strength and support in the relationship.
I try to be there for her as much as I can, mostly by providing a pair of understanding ears for her to vent her frustrations and worries to but I know that this is not enough.
Anyway, I have burdened you enough with my troubles.
Sometimes just saying things out loud or putting them down on paper helps.
Pavlos
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
As planned we spent the day with my wife's parents and grandad in the village
My mother-in-law laid out quite a feast of traditional Green Monday food. In fact she made such an effort, I did not have the heart to tell her that a lot of the food was to high in carbs for a diabetic such as myself!
So I decided that I would just try and avoid the most obvious sinful items ( white bread, potatoes, rice, beet) and just enjoy the rest of the in-laws hospitality.
My father-in-law, who is now retired, fancies himself as a bit of a farmer, although he does not do any farming himself just hires others to do it for him! He did get himself a farm and is in the process of collecting various farm animals. Two of each kind, a bid like Noah,s Ark.
He is extremely proud of his farm, although this is still a work in progress and invited us to visit it after lunch.
Of course we accepted but I suggested that I would prefer to walk there to burn off some of the excess calories I had consumed. The farm is about five kilometres from the village so I figured a walk would be useful exercise, give me a chance to shoot some photos of the countryside
and as a special bonus the longer I took to get to the farm the less time I would have to actually spend at the farm! Just joking!
Pavlos
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My mother-in-law laid out quite a feast of traditional Green Monday food. In fact she made such an effort, I did not have the heart to tell her that a lot of the food was to high in carbs for a diabetic such as myself!
So I decided that I would just try and avoid the most obvious sinful items ( white bread, potatoes, rice, beet) and just enjoy the rest of the in-laws hospitality.
My father-in-law, who is now retired, fancies himself as a bit of a farmer, although he does not do any farming himself just hires others to do it for him! He did get himself a farm and is in the process of collecting various farm animals. Two of each kind, a bid like Noah,s Ark.
He is extremely proud of his farm, although this is still a work in progress and invited us to visit it after lunch.
Of course we accepted but I suggested that I would prefer to walk there to burn off some of the excess calories I had consumed. The farm is about five kilometres from the village so I figured a walk would be useful exercise, give me a chance to shoot some photos of the countryside
and as a special bonus the longer I took to get to the farm the less time I would have to actually spend at the farm! Just joking!
Pavlos
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
Fasting blood sugars over the last three mornings have been 106,105 and 107 mg/dl (5.9 mmol/l). Consistent if nothing else! More consistent than the level of the meter's accuracy so probably just a coincidence.
Had two eggs for breakfast and I am about to have tandoori chicken kebab and salad for lunch.
I will my best to ignore the bread that came with it.
Morning rain shower stopped me from doing any walking so I have a bit of catching up to do over lunch and mainly tonight. Bright sunshine right now and thankfully the rain cleared the clouds of African dust that we're hanging over Cyprus yesterday making for very uncomfortable conditions.
Pavlos
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Had two eggs for breakfast and I am about to have tandoori chicken kebab and salad for lunch.
I will my best to ignore the bread that came with it.
Morning rain shower stopped me from doing any walking so I have a bit of catching up to do over lunch and mainly tonight. Bright sunshine right now and thankfully the rain cleared the clouds of African dust that we're hanging over Cyprus yesterday making for very uncomfortable conditions.
Pavlos
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
Feeling out breath but rather pleased with myself after just completing a 7km fast pace walk this evening to make up for the waking session I lost to the rain showers this morning.
A bid more motivation needed to do this in the evening after a full days work, than is required when feeling fresh and relaxed in the morning.
The temptation to just plunge on the sofa and catch up on whatever's on the box was very strong, but as I busk in the self-congratulatory glow of my own "virtue", I am glad I resisted.
Now I only have it all to do again tomorrow morning!
Just keep repeating : "Walking is good for you. Physical activity is fun ...."
I almost sound convinced......
Pavlos
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A bid more motivation needed to do this in the evening after a full days work, than is required when feeling fresh and relaxed in the morning.
The temptation to just plunge on the sofa and catch up on whatever's on the box was very strong, but as I busk in the self-congratulatory glow of my own "virtue", I am glad I resisted.
Now I only have it all to do again tomorrow morning!
Just keep repeating : "Walking is good for you. Physical activity is fun ...."
I almost sound convinced......
Pavlos
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Karbstruck
Well-Known Member
Love seeing all your photos.
Well done with sticking to the walking. I missed mine yesterday as the weather was too hot. ( I didn't start early enough) but you have inspired me to get going today
Well done with sticking to the walking. I missed mine yesterday as the weather was too hot. ( I didn't start early enough) but you have inspired me to get going today
pavlosn
Well-Known Member
Love seeing all your photos.
Well done with sticking to the walking. I missed mine yesterday as the weather was too hot. ( I didn't start early enough) but you have inspired me to get going today
Always pleasing to receive nice feedback!
Writing something like this is quite scary . You do not know if anyone is reading, or what they make of it if all, if they are.
Glad you enjoyed the photos! I really enjoy taking them as they force me to take a closer look at and gain a new appreciation of what is around me.
My wife usually gets annoyed at me for taking my camera everywhere, especially when on holiday ( thank heavens for modern smartphones and built in cameras) but she usually likes the end product.
The one mistake, experience has taught me never to repeat , is publish a photograph of her before she has had the chance to veto it.
I swear she and I just look at pictures completely differently. I will be excited because a portrait catches a glimpse of what I consider the real her, a characteristic look or gesture, show her the picture all excited only to be met with a cry of sheer horror: "You can't show anyone that, my legs/bum/arms look too fat/ my make up needs retouching/ everyone's seen me in this outfit before."
No, my wife is not vain just image conscious
.So I stick to landscapes and pictures of food. Safer that way!
Pavlos
Keep walking!
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
Shelba (No, that is not my password, people!
) is three.Here are some older photos of her as a puppy, from back in December 2010, when she first became part of our household.
And here is one from when she started football training!
Pavlos
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
Iris germanica in bloom in the garden this morning. I almost failed to spot this beauty as it was growing under the dense foliage of a chamaerops palm
Fasting glucose level 91mg/dl (5.2 mmol/l) so made sure I had a crisproll before setting off on morning walk after my usual early morning inspection of my garden.
Weight is at 90,1 kg. It would be nice to dip under the psychological 90kg mark. Hopefully just a matter of time as long as I stay disciplines!
Have a great day everyone!
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
There's a stretch of pedestrian track near my house, I like to use use during my walking sessions.
As pedestrians tracks go it is not the most attractive, being somewhat horticulturally challenged, too heavy on concrete and consequently too light on vegetation.
It is actually a cover over the dry bed of a tributary of our local equally dry river (water runs only after extremely heavy rainfalls). It has been covered to stop stagnant waters and Mosquitos apparently.
Anyway this track may be not so attractive to look at but it does mean that one can stay clear of traffic and fumes and is well illuminated at night.
The track runs parallel to and behind the shops of our local high street for most of its length. Now, in this high street, there is not one, not two but three small bakery shop, all apparently baking their own bread on site.
If there ever was a scent to torture us poor diabetics the smell of baking bread must be it!
It induces an almost Pavlovian response from our gastric juices.
Something supermarkets it seems are only too keenly aware of.
Did you notice how the scent of freshly baked bread is usually the first thing that greets us as we enter a supermarket?
And how the bakery section is usually located as far away from the entrance as possible?
Pavlos
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As pedestrians tracks go it is not the most attractive, being somewhat horticulturally challenged, too heavy on concrete and consequently too light on vegetation.
It is actually a cover over the dry bed of a tributary of our local equally dry river (water runs only after extremely heavy rainfalls). It has been covered to stop stagnant waters and Mosquitos apparently.
Anyway this track may be not so attractive to look at but it does mean that one can stay clear of traffic and fumes and is well illuminated at night.
The track runs parallel to and behind the shops of our local high street for most of its length. Now, in this high street, there is not one, not two but three small bakery shop, all apparently baking their own bread on site.
If there ever was a scent to torture us poor diabetics the smell of baking bread must be it!
It induces an almost Pavlovian response from our gastric juices.
Something supermarkets it seems are only too keenly aware of.
Did you notice how the scent of freshly baked bread is usually the first thing that greets us as we enter a supermarket?
And how the bakery section is usually located as far away from the entrance as possible?
Pavlos
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
DiamondAsh
You really are doing wonders for my moral!
At least I know there is one person out there who enjoys this thread!
Thank you
Pavlos
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You really are doing wonders for my moral!
At least I know there is one person out there who enjoys this thread!
Thank you
Pavlos
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pavlosn
Well-Known Member
I often cross paths with the same bunch of middle aged men during my morning walks, probably also out exercising to keep their doctor happy..... and being friendly civilized chaps all of us, we always nod "Good morning" to each other.
I bet they must think me a bid strange as I struggle to keep a straight face when greeted!
Pavlos
I bet they must think me a bid strange as I struggle to keep a straight face when greeted!
Pavlos
