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

gennepher said:

A splendid sketch...
I might join you in a coffee @dunelm

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That makes 3 of us drinking safety koffy

alf_Josiah said:

That makes 3 of us drinking safety koffy

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Definitely!

Morning all from a sullen skied, breezy+ but so far dry L.A. @dunelm and @gennepher thanks for sharing your creative gifts. @gennepher they seem to be getting bleaker so although I gave a winner have a hug as well - especially for the broken eggs and alarm issues. @dunelm enjoy the family weekend. 20 of us going to Wales so we are doing something similar. I should make an effort to embrace the experience. It also seems @Krystyna23040 good news the change of emphasis from bg/fbg of late. Covid booster for MIL today. Guacamole (Holy Moly) on aspirational toast is first up around 11.00 pm - black tea until that. I drink one daily coffee - large Starbucks mug - contains helpful polyphenols and Swipey has always shown a dip after drinking. Is it coffee or the (10mmls) cream /S.F syrup/fattbar cookie/high % chocolate side or plain wrong?. I need to publicly thank God and the medical profession for my booster jab last week and the speedy communication of my scan results with a friendly little comment from The Prof. Not at all mundane it seems. Also, well done to my cousin's wife for running the Marathon, @dunelm's friend in the wheelchair and all those who finished whether they raised money for charity or not. Some inspirational stories shared. Enjoy your day, your way as much as possible. RIP Len Goodman - gave my parents pleasure watching you.

ianpspurs said:

Morning all from a sullen skied, breezy+ but so far dry L.A. @dunelm and @gennepher thanks for sharing your creative gifts. @gennepher they seem to bleaker so although I gave a winner have a hug as well - especially for the broken eggs and alarm issues. @dunelm enjoy the family weekend. I guess with 20 of us going to Wales we are doing something similar and I should make an effort to embrace the experience. It also seems I should be more conscious of England's patron saint after all - for his Christian principles - (I did know that was yesterday.)@Krystyna23040 good news the change of emphasis from bg/fbg of late. Covid booster for MIL today and I try to make sense of a menu high in gut friendly food, lowish in carbs but sufficiently edible to deliver enough cals. Guacamole (Holy Moly) on aspirational toast (not sourdough and no egg so not proper woke) is first up around 11.00 pm - black tea until that. Seems the daily coffee I have contains helpful polyphenols - sceptical but Swipey has always shown a dip after drinking. Could be the (10mmls) cream /S.F syrup/fattbar cookie/high % chocolate side or plain wrong. I need to publicly thank God and the medical profession for my booster jab last week and the speedy communciation of my scan results with a friendly little comment from The Prof. Not as mundane as it should be. Also well done to my cousin's wife for running the Marathon, @dunelm's friend in the wheelchair and all those who finished whether they raised money for charity or not. Some inspirational stories shared. Enjoy your day, your way as much as possible. RIP Len Goodman - gave my parents pleasure watching you.

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Thank you, Ian.

Shall we call this my Dark Phase with the lighthouses?

It will change...soon...

I hope you enjoy Wales, when you go…

gennepher said:

Thank you, Ian.

Shall we call this my Dark Phase with the lighthouses?

It will change...soon...

I hope you enjoy Wales, when you go…

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I'll pray for your dark period to lift asap. Wales is for MIL and JKP: husband/father's family and familiar places . I'm conscious of my context or I wouldn't have agreed to go. What I would like is prayers for me to have the strength and awareness in the moment not to "bite" when I hear "surely you will enjoy/must have enjoyed that" when I don't. Private cinema booking looks to be one major crunch point. I want very much indeed not to say or do anything to spoil anyone's time. If I do find pleasure that will be an unexpected and undeserved bonus.

ianpspurs said:

I'll pray for your dark period to lift asap. Wales is for MIL and JKP: husband/father's family and familiar places I'm conscious of my context or I wouldn't have agreed to go. What I would like is prayers for me to have the strength and awareness in the moment not to "bite" when I hear "surely you will enjoy/must have enjoyed that" when I don't. Private cinema booking looks to be one major crunch point. I want very much indeed not to say or do anything to spoil anyone's time. If I do find pleasure that will be an unexpected and undeserved bonus.

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Prayers always for you Ian. You're on the list. As is Gennepher.

Doesn't sound like a very happy outing for you but I hope you can find at least some enjoyment amongst all the stuff you don't enjoy.

Feeling kind of "off" now. Ever since a doctor at the hospital decided that I needed to take Sennakot, my whole internal system has slowed down and stopped. Then a GP prescribed Laxido although I said anything with artificial sweeteners makes me ill. I did try a week or so ago, just once. Serious headache was the result of that. Things have been going from bad to worse though. Took one sachet this morning though and now feeling absolutely wretched. Can't keep doing this but not sure which way to turn next. I wish I had ignored that original doctor - everything was going fine, in my opinion, before I started messing about with these laxative medicines. Me being odd, as usual, they just have the opposite effect to the intended one.

Annb said:

Prayers always for you Ian. You're on the list. Doesn't sound like a very happy outing for you but I hope you can find at least some enjoyment amongst all the stuff you don't enjoy.

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Thanks @Annb and you are on my list as is @gennepher and a few others from here - past and present. I'm hoping that perhaps seeing the church in Aberdaron and the area R S Thomas wrote about (The Bright Field poet) might connect with me. Seeing all our boys and grandchildren together really ought to make me pleased. I think the ought to make me is what is proving really hard to deal with. Big hug for the transit help meds issues.

Annb said:

Me being odd, as usual, they just have the opposite effect to the intended one.

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I have the same issue with pharmaceutical meds. Herbal stuff seems to work much better for me.

ianpspurs said:

I'll pray for your dark period to lift asap. Wales is for MIL and JKP: husband/father's family and familiar places . I'm conscious of my context or I wouldn't have agreed to go. What I would like is prayers for me to have the strength and awareness in the moment not to "bite" when I hear "surely you will enjoy/must have enjoyed that" when I don't. Private cinema booking looks to be one major crunch point. I want very much indeed not to say or do anything to spoil anyone's time. If I do find pleasure that will be an unexpected and undeserved bonus.

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Thank you Ian.
Thank you for your prayers.
I will pray for you to have the strength and awareness, and to be guided to say the right words in the moment when someone assumes 'you must have enjoyed that'.

Annb said:

Feeling kind of "off" now. Ever since a doctor at the hospital decided that I needed to take Sennakot, my whole internal system has slowed down and stopped. Then a GP prescribed Laxido although I said anything with artificial sweeteners makes me ill. I did try a week or so ago, just once. Serious headache was the result of that. Things have been going from bad to worse though. Took one sachet this morning though and now feeling absolutely wretched. Can't keep doing this but not sure which way to turn next. I wish I had ignored that original doctor - everything was going fine, in my opinion, before I started messing about with these laxative medicines. Me being odd, as usual, they just have the opposite effect to the intended one.

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More hugs.
You followed the specialist's advice (which I have done in the past), against your better judgement (which I have also done in the past), and it messed you up (it has also messed me up in the past), and like you I assumed they knew what they were doing. Yet it went badly wrong for you, as it did for me. And it takes quite a bit of time and effort to get back to where you were before (as it did for me).

No, you are not odd. 'They' have their own rigid ideas, which don't treat you as an individual, but as part of a collective that 'they' treat all in the same way,

And it makes things worse for you and me.

Like @Krystyna23040 says herbal stuff seems to work better for her, I agree with that for myself with some of my medicines. I would like a day to arrive where I can use herbal/alternative stuff exclusively, but I am still searching and researching.

gennepher said:

More hugs.
You followed the specialist's advice (which I have done in the past), against your better judgement (which I have also done in the past), and it messed you up (it has also messed me up in the past), and like you I assumed they knew what they were doing. Yet it went badly wrong for you, as it did for me. And it takes quite a bit of time and effort to get back to where you were before (as it did for me).

No, you are not odd. 'They' have their own rigid ideas, which don't treat you as an individual, but as part of a collective that 'they' treat all in the same way,

And it makes things worse for you and me.

Like @Krystyna23040 says herbal stuff seems to work better for her, I agree with that for myself with some of my medicines. I would like a day to arrive where I can use herbal/alternative stuff exclusively, but I am still searching and researching.

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I just ordered, from Amazon, a dietary fibre supplement - one based on sugar beet. It looked like the least harmful one for me from the dozens offered on the site. Trial and error, I guess, is the order of the day.

The trouble with medical specialists, I have found, is that if you don't accept their advice, they just give up on you and let you get on with it by yourself, when you still could do with some medical support.

The effects of the Laxido are wearing off now, but still drained of energy. Can't give in to that though, I have taken things out of the freezer and must cook with them before they go off.

Annb said:

I just ordered, from Amazon, a dietary fibre supplement - one based on sugar beet. It looked like the least harmful one for me from the dozens offered on the site. Trial and error, I guess, is the order of the day.

The trouble with medical specialists, I have found, is that if you don't accept their advice, they just give up on you and let you get on with it by yourself, when you still could do with some medical support.

The effects of the Laxido are wearing off now, but still drained of energy. Can't give in to that though, I have taken things out of the freezer and must cook with them before they go off.

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@Annb said "The trouble with medical specialists, I have found, is that if you don't accept their advice, they just give up on you and let you get on with it by yourself, when you still could do with some medical support."

I have been thrown out physically by the specialist out of his room in the early 1990s when I said I was taking a homeopathic remedy for my migraines. He told me never to darken his doorstep again or some such words...

My migraines were really terrible and they went on for days and days at a time, with visual effects, black and white vision, jigsaw puzzle type vision, and I was trying to find some way through that. I was being honest on what I was taking to try and help myself, but I did not expect him leaping out of his chair grabbing hold of my arm with some force and literally throwing me out of his room and slamming the door on me. I sobbed all the way home.

I have had bad reactions from other specialists when I have tried to tell them what I was trying to do to help myself but I've always had a bad reaction from them but nothing as extreme as that migraine specialist.

It was if he took what I said as a complete attack on all his years he trained as a specialist, and was completely affronted.

All I said that day was that what did he think of me taking a homeopathic remedy to help me with my migraine, that was all I said, and he flew into a complete rage. I wasn't challenging him, I was just asking his opinion.

Consequently I have never felt able to be honest and to be able to tell specialists what I might be doing to try and help myself whether it is exercises, or whether it is diet, or whether it is some kind of alternative medicine.

Once, at physiotherapy I told the person who was showing me exercises, that I did isometrics at that time. She was absolutely horrified and said I shouldn't be doing that and that will give me a heart attack, and more ridiculous stupid stuff came out of her mouth.

I could go on with this list because I have been odds with the medical profession for years, for trying to help myself and not completely relying on them because they weren't helping me at all in the first place.

I have later on challenged things when they have been really obnoxious (I'm not going to go into details, because I could write a book on all this), this started around 2005, and my partner J helped me when he was still alive. And I also employed a Patient's Advocate at that time and it took two years of hard work to try and resolve a situation that a GP caused me. The Patient's Advocate went above and beyond his call of duty to help me, because he told me that there were a lot of other people in this area in the same position as me, and they were too scared to challenge the health authority.

And when the issue was finally resolved, it never really is finally resolved, but when it was resolved as far as it could be, then the Patient's Advocate explained how much I had helped other people because a certain practice then had to be stopped.

I am rabbiting on too much, as usual, but I do feel very strongly about all this. I really do wish J were still alive, because I could do with some support on things, and he supported me with everything. So, I do feel a bit alone at times.

I would like a peaceful retirement...

I think you're doing very well all things considered. It may not feel like it some of the time. And especially at the moment with the lack of GP's and other NHS stuff, and lack of pharmacists and medicine shortages, that we are finding out at the moment, I think that when we can, we need to do as much as we can for ourselves when it is possible.

Just maybe, we came to rely on the NHS too much, and its NHS medicines when there was a common sense alternative. Instead, we were guided towards the drugs companies route, where a cure was not in the drugs companies best interests, they need you to be on that drug for life.

Many people with diabetes on this site have come off Metformin and whatever drug they were on by diet/exercise etc.

I am aiming for that, but not got there yet. My arthritis doesn't help..

I think we do need to do more for ourselves when it is possible. But we still need the NHS and the Specialists for a whole pile of serious stuff, saving lives, operations and so on. The whole system became spread too thin. And I have no idea how this can be addressed, and something different created ..

I am going to shut up now, and go to bed. I have rambled on far too much...

I nearly deleted all this post...

Adding a bit :
In 2019, I attended a lecture where the previous head of the Health Board for this area, was advocating change to the NHS. He wanted people not to rely on GP's to prescribe something eg a prescription drug kind of cough medicine instead of common sense stuff that you can buy over the counter such as a simple cough linctus. He was going on about an over reliance on drugs from the drug companies when there were alternatives.

There was a whole lot more he said, but I couldn't catch/hear it all.

Anyway, catch you in the morning...

EDIT AT 6am this Tues morning. I have just sent a reply to @Annb to say that the homoeopathic migraine medicine that the NHS neurological specialist threw me out for, was NHS prescribed by the NHS homoeopathic hospital in Liverpool. And I explain a little bit more in that reply a bit further down.

gennepher said:

@Annb said "The trouble with medical specialists, I have found, is that if you don't accept their advice, they just give up on you and let you get on with it by yourself, when you still could do with some medical support."

I have been thrown out physically by the specialist out of his room in the early 1990s when I said I was taking a homeopathic remedy for my migraines. He told me never to darken his doorstep again or some such words...

My migraines were really terrible and they went on for days and days at a time, with visual effects, black and white vision, jigsaw puzzle type vision, and I was trying to find some way through that. I was being honest on what I was taking to try and help myself, but I did not expect him leaping out of his chair grabbing hold of my arm with some force and literally throwing me out of his room and slamming the dorm me. I sobbed all the way home.

I have had bad reactions from other specialists when I have tried to tell them what I was trying to do to help myself but I've always had a bad reaction from them but nothing as extreme as that migraine specialist.

It was if he took what I said as a complete attack on all his years he trained as a specialist, and was completely affronted.

All I said that day was that what did he think of me taking a homeopathic remedy to help me with my migraine, that was all I said, and he flew into a complete rage. I wasn't challenging him, I was just asking his opinion.

Consequently I have never felt able to be honest and to be able to tell specialists what I might be doing to try and help myself whether it is exercises, or whether it is diet, or whether it is some kind of alternative medicine.

Once, at physiotherapy I told the person who was showing me exercises, that I did isometrics at that time. She was absolutely horrified and said I shouldn't be doing that and that will give me a heart attack, and more ridiculous stupid stuff came out of her mouth.

I could go on with this list because I have been odds with the medical profession for years, for trying to help myself and not completely relying on them because they weren't helping me at all in the first place.

I have later on challenged things when they have been really obnoxious (I'm not going to go into details, because I could write a book on all this), this started around 2005, and my partner J helped me when he was still alive. And I also employed a Patient's Advocate at that time and it took two years of hard work to try and resolve a situation that a GP caused me. The Patient's Advocate went above and beyond his call of duty to help me, because he told me that there were a lot of other people in this area in the same position as me, and they were too scared to challenge the health authority.

And when the issue was finally resolved, it never really is finally resolved, but when it was resolved as far as it could be, then the Patient's Advocate explained how much I had helped other people because a certain practice then had to be stopped.

I am rabbiting on too much, as usual, but I do feel very strongly about all this. I really do wish J were still alive, because I could do with some support on things, and he supported me with everything. So, I do feel a bit alone at times.

I would like a peaceful retirement...

I think you're doing very well all things considered. It may not feel like it some of the time. And especially at the moment with the lack of GP's and other NHS stuff, and lack of pharmacists and medicine shortages, that we are finding out at the moment, I think that when we can, we need to do as much as we can for ourselves when it is possible.

Just maybe, we came to rely on the NHS too much, and its NHS medicines when there was a common sense alternative. Instead, we were guided towards the drugs companies route, where a cure was not in the drugs companies best interests, they need you to be on that drug for life.

Many people with diabetes on this site have come off Metformin and whatever drug they were on by diet/exercise etc.

I am aiming for that, but not got there yet. My arthritis doesn't help..

I think we do need to do more for ourselves when it is possible. But we still need the NHS and the Specialists for a whole pile of serious stuff, saving lives, operations and so on. The whole system became spread too thin. And I have no idea how this can be addressed, and something different created ..

I am going to shut up now, and go to bed. I have rambled on far too much...

I nearly deleted all this post...

Adding a bit :
In 2019, I attended a lecture where the previous head of the Health Board for this area, was advocating change to the NHS. He wanted people not to rely on GP's to prescribe something eg a prescription drug kind of cough medicine instead of common sense stuff that you can buy over the counter such as a simple cough linctus. He was going on about an over reliance on drugs from the drug companies when there were alternatives.

There was a whole lot more he said, but I couldn't catch/hear it all.

Anyway, catch you in the morning...

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I've never actually been thrown out of a consulting room but it has been made clear on occasions that it is the doctor's way or none. You have had horrendous experiences, Gennepher, with medical services, and it looks as though they still continue. I do admire people who go into medicine to help others but to some (usually the more senior ones) it seems an opportunity to exert power and display their bad temper. I've had that quite a lot as well.

Annb said:

I've never actually been thrown out of a consulting room but it has been made clear on occasions that it is the doctor's way or none. You have had horrendous experiences, Gennepher, with medical services, and it looks as though they still continue. I do admire people who go into medicine to help others but to some (usually the more senior ones) it seems an opportunity to exert power and display their bad temper. I've had that quite a lot as well.

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I have just remembered, I attended the NHS Homoeopathic Hospital in Liverpool, I was referred by my own GP. And under NHS prescription I received homoeopathic medicines. This was where I got the homeopathic remedy for the migraines from.

So, one arm/department of the NHS that is the so-called Specialist at the Neurological Department threw me physically out of his consulting room for taking a homoeopathic remedy, for migraines, which another arm/department of the NHS that is the Homoeopathic Hospital prescribed for me.

It was at the NHS Homoeopathic Hospital where I learnt about homoeopathy.

How could I not have been more confused that day when that so called NHS Specialist at the Neurological Dept at Walton literally physically threw me out for taking a prescribed medicine from another NHS Hospital...

Good morning everyone on a bright and sunny start here in the dark and dangerous north. Blood sugar readings of 5.6 this am. Got to get my skates on this morning as I need to be at the GP surgery for 0830 - annual diabetic screening - should be interesting. I predict a telling off, which is free on the NHS - other people pay a fortune for such pleasures. Art bit, some additions but not much. It’s world Penguin day according to the Pastafarian calendar so have the best day that you can have. Best down some koffy and get going.

Fbg 6.6

Wildlife nighttime camera
Fox & Badgers & Cats ...all pootling around in front of the swing...

Creative is a digital painting of a Lighthouse #38

There are blue skies outside, not a cloud in sight, sun is beaming, and I am going outside.

Have your best day.

I am going to have mine and it doesn't include people...only nature...

A cuppa first...mine is coffee with double cream...

Bye...

dunelm said:

Good morning everyone on a bright and sunny start here in the dark and dangerous north. Blood sugar readings of 5.6 this am. Got to get my skates on this morning as I need to be at the GP surgery for 0830 - annual diabetic screening - should be interesting. I predict a telling off, which is free on the NHS - other people pay a fortune for such pleasures. Art bit, some additions but not much. It’s world Penguin day according to the Pastafarian calendar so have the best day that you can have. Best down some koffy and get going.

View attachment 60555

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Art bit coming along beautifully @dunelm
Hope the review went well...

gennepher said:

Fbg 6.6

Wildlife nighttime camera
Fox & Badgers & Cats ...all pootling around in front of the swing...

Creative is a digital painting of a Lighthouse #38

There are blue skies outside, not a cloud in sight, sun is beaming, and I am going outside.

Have your best day.

I am going to have mine and it doesn't include people...only nature...

A cuppa first...mine is coffee with double cream...

Bye...

View attachment 60556

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Your lighthouse is, day by day, disintegrating in that non-stop storm. Your ghostly lightkeeper seems to be getting more and more concerned. After all, if the lighthouse goes, he's just going to have to haunt the rocks. I don't supposed he fancies that. Might get his feet wet.

Your manor @lindisfel ?

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