Health Check

Posted: Tue 22 November, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Covid, Domestic, Health, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

I usually try to get a fairly regular health check every couple of years with my GP, just to keep an eye on things (and with particular awareness of the family history with a whole horde of fun conditions)  However, what with Covid, lockdowns and life in general, it hadn’t happened since 2018.  I was just about due for the 2020 one when all hell broke loose, and my GP refused to do anything except urgent on-the-day appointments which I try to not take up (none of what I’m doing is urgent, and there’s plenty of people with more urgent concerns than me getting a bloody health check!)

So anyway, when I moved I registered with a new GP, got a message a couple of weeks ago that I was due for a health check, and booked it in.

That day was today. And I’m pleased to say that it all went well.  They took bloods for further analysis (nothing to worry about, all part of the process) but the highlights so far are :

  • Blood pressure of 140/70. Absolutely fine and within NHS acceptable levels.
  • Pulse – about 70. Not ideal, but nowhere near awful.
  • BMI / Weight – too high, but that’s nothing unusual. They’re both absolutely normal for me, so I’m not going to worry too much. As always, I’d like to lose some, but nothing so far has really worked, so 2023 is going to involve some other stuff.
  • Cardiovascular Risk – so far (and this one is also connected with those blood tests, so it may change) my results indicate I’m at something like a 5% risk of having a heart attack in the next decade.

I’m also booked to get further blood taken in a couple of weeks in order for proper checks of some of those family-history points.

I’ll also get a call in a couple of weeks to go over the results properly, but for now I’m happy with these data points, and happy to have been able to get it all done again with a bare minimum of hassle and inconvenience.

Health Check

Posted: Mon 22 January, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Weigh Less, Weight Loss | Leave a comment »

It’s been about two years since I last darkened the door of my GP for a health check, so a couple of weeks ago, I made the appointment. That day was today.

I’ve done about half the stuff for now – I apparently now need to go to the local hospital in order to get blood tests done, among other things – but everything so far is apparently ‘very good’, and even ‘puts a lot of our patients to shame’. I’ll take that, to be honest.

  • Blood pressure hasn’t changed, and is 130/80.  Slightly high (according to charts I’ve then looked at since) but well within acceptable limits
  • Blood sugar was perfectly fine – on a “random” check (I had eaten within the time-span, so couldn’t do a fasting blood-sugar etc.) it came back as 7, so the proper fasting one should be lower, and well within limits
  • No idea on pulse-rate, but the nurse said it was absolutely fine, so again, I’m happy enough with that.
  • Weight, as always, is too high. I’m still working on it, and getting a couple of referrals to other departments to see what they say, or can help with.

So, we’ll see how it goes with the other stuff – I’ll get it lined up to be done this week – but for now I’m feeling pretty content with where things are.

Health Check

Posted: Tue 19 January, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Weigh Less, Weight Loss | Leave a comment »

A couple of weeks ago, I got a letter from my local GP, asking me to go in for an “NHS Health Check”. It was a bit annoying, as the accompanying leaflet said that my surgery ‘needed to update their records as I hadn’t been in for so long’ and so on. Considering I was in there for a check in November 2014, that was kind of worrying – implying that my records weren’t up to date and so on.

Anyway, they then called me up to chase getting an appointment, and today I went in. It wasn’t anything special, but still, always good to know what’s going on.

It turns out that what they meant was that this Health Check thing needs records less than three months old – which is understandable, things can change in that time. But it would’ve been good if their own bumf had actually said so, rather than implying that the record-keeping at the surgery was bad.

Still, onwards and upwards.

The Health Check is basically a quick check of the key figures: weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and the like, as well as various health factors (smoking, drinking, activity etc.) and comes out with a ‘risk’ factor at the end of it.

All told, the figures came out pretty well :

  • blood pressure was fine at 130/80,
  • blood sugar was fine – although I can’t remember the exact figure, it was well within acceptable limits
  • cholesterol came in at 4.5 (anything under 5 is regarded as ‘good’) with ‘good’ cholesterol of 1.8
  • weight is still ‘too high’, but has kept on coming down, so *shrug*

The final “risk factor” figure was 4 – which supposedly means I have a 4% risk of suffering a heart attack in the next ten years. They’re happy with anything under 10, so I shouldn’t need to darken the surgery’s door on that score for a while.

Obviously I’m going to keep on working on losing weight, and being healthier/fitter, but having a quick summary like that is good for pointing out that I’m not doing too bad, and could be doing one hell of a lot worse than I am. I can live with that, to be fair.

Health Check (Kind of)

Posted: Fri 4 January, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Health, People | Tags: , | 4 Comments »

So – how the hell does a GP surgery manage to be no less than 40 minutes late for appointments by 9.40 in the morning?  I’d be impressed, if it weren’t for – well – being 40 minutes late.

Even then the full check hasn’t been done – I’ve had the bloods taken to check for Diabetes, Thyroid Levels and Cholesterol, but no blood-pressure test or anything.  Supposedly “the receptionist should’ve booked you for a double slot so I could do all that, I don’t have the time to do it all in one slot“.

Of course, that just pissed me off.  Other things can cause delays of 40 minutes, but you’re going to just ditch me off because you haven’t got the time? Perhaps it would be easier if you were slightly more organised, and didn’t take half the time I was in there to faff about trying to find things?

So far though, all OK.

I’m now due back in two weeks’ time to find out the results of the blood tests and so on, and at the same time they’ll do my blood-pressure.  (Mind you, it’ll likely still be low-normal, which always befuddles the GPs who look at my height/size, and then retake it twice more)

Health Check

Posted: Fri 23 February, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Health, House Purchase, Sweary | Leave a comment »

One of the real pains (and one I haven’t yet written about on D4D™ – believe me, it’s coming) with our house-buying process at the moment has been that as part of the entire mortgage malarkey, we’ve both been advised to get some proper life-insurance, that’d cover the whole amount of the mortgage should one of us suddenly develop a ‘critical’ illness or drop dead. Of course, that also means having to deal with another load of financial scumbags – insurers.

Back in Jan 2005, I got one lot of cheap-ass life insurance on Herself’s insistence (in fairness, she got some too) which became not-such-cheap-ass insurance when the insurance scumbag underwriters at Norwich Poxybollocks Union decided I was overweight, and whacked an extra amount on my premium. Not a lot, to be honest, but still rather more than the initial quotation had been. Bastards.

Since then, I’ve lost a fair amount of weight, although (as I’ve commented many times) I’m still never going to be 12-15stone without going through at least one limb amputation. That’s a fact of life. I’m not unfit – OK, I’m not fit either, but there we go – and… oh, chuff it, you all know the score by now.

Anyway, with the mortgage application and insurance guff, the scumbag insurance underwriters have – again – thrown a wobbly. And they’ve insisted that this time I don’t just pay extra, I have to have a ‘health check’ too before they might deign to take my money.

So while you’re reading this, I’m in a random doctor’s surgery, having a basic medical and healthcheck for scumbag dirtwad insurers . Whoopee Doo.

Organising That Health-check

Posted: Sat 24 February, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Health, House Purchase | 1 Comment »

So yes, the healthcheck that finally happened on Friday was an utter nightmare to organise.

It started off with being told that I needed to sort one out, and that the insurance company had engaged a third party who would contact me to organise an appointment at my convenience.

Yeah, right. What actually happened was that the company called me up and said “We’ve made an appointment for one of our nurses to come and see you at home on Tuesday at 4pm”. Which is hardly at my convenience. So I called them back and told them so.

Them : “But why don’t you want an appointment at home on Tuesday at 4pm? We’ve made all the arrangements”
Me : “Because I’m not going to be at home at that time. I’ll be at work. If your company is willing to pay me to take half a day off work to come and see you, I might consider it”
Them : “No, we can’t do that. But we don’t understand what the problem is with this appointment, it’s at your home at 4pm”
Me : “Amazing as this may seem to you, I work. Maybe I’m the only person you’ve ever dealt with who works, but there we go. So 4pm on a weekday is not convenient. I’m home for about 7pm, if that helps”
Them : “Oh no, our nurses only work 9-5”.

At which point I ended up going back to the insurers and telling them they could stuff their business. The people they engaged would have problems discerning between an arse and an elbow, and there was no way I was using them. So they promised to organise something else, a proper medical at a proper doctor’s surgery. However, it would still be organised through a third party.

And then I got another call about a week later, from the first third party, still trying to make a ‘convenient’ appointment for me on a workday at 4pm, and which for an appointment ‘at my convenience’ was strangely immovable. This time they got told to sod off.

When the second third party finally called, the first thing they said was “So, you need an appointment in Norfolk?”. At which I think I growled. The woman at the other end certainly seemed surprised. I re-explained the situation (actually, that’s probably more like re-re-re-re-explained, but there we go), and they finally discovered a surgery that was close to the workplace. Halle-bloody-lujah.

But all told it’s still taken four weeks to organise a poxy medical. But if my blood-pressure is too high (I doubt it will be, but still) I’m going to blame it all on the poxy fucking insurance company and their medical third parties. So there.

Healthy Figures

Posted: Mon 29 June, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Old(er), Health, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Weight Loss | Leave a comment »

I said a while ago that I’d write this, and then never got round to it.  (I also thought I’d written it before, but a couple of searches didn’t find anything. Which is odd.)

Anyway. Back at the start of 2018, I did my semi-regular checkup visit at the local GP, which all worked out as “fairly healthy in general“. As usual, the main ‘problem’ was that I’m significantly heavier than I “should” be. So I asked for help from the GP, asked what they could do or suggest. And the response? “Oh, you’re not obese enough to get NHS treatment“.  Well OK, that’s about as helpful as a kick in the cock.

So, being me, I pushed for some referrals – I already wanted to lose weight, but that kind of attitude really steamed my piss, and I wanted to get some better figures and find out more about what was going on.  I’ve been logging my food intake for years now, and also keeping track of what I walk and so on, so I knew beforehand that my usual calorie intake was around the recommended 2,500 a day mark (albeit with some days/weekends of excess) and I walk an average of at least 10,000 steps a day.

First, I got a referral to Slimming World – and the less said about that, the better. An unremittingly negative and unhelpful experience all round.

I also got a referral to the Dietician service at Bedford Hospital, which wasn’t much more positive, but did end up with some good connections and results.

With the service, we tried a set of calorie-reduction diet plans, none of which worked. However, through it I also got a connection to the Uni of Beds’ Sport Science department, where I was able to (finally) get one of the tests done that I really wanted – an RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) test, to establish what level of energy I’m actually burning. RMR is basically a measure of the calories the body burns if it’s simply laying in bed doing nothing. No food intake, no exertion at all. It took about an hour to run from start to finish, and then a couple of weeks to crunch the data and produce a report.

So. My RMR is 2,800 calories a day – even if I just laid in bed and did sod all, I’d need more calories than the recommended 2,500 a day. Taking into account calories for digestion, as well as exertion, It’s likely I’m burning around 4,000 a day. (As it turns out, I did write about BMR/RMR – ten years ago!)

On the downside, this information never really sank in with the Dietician. They kept on insisting that eating less had to result in losing weight. And in all honesty, it should – but didn’t.  Looking at the figures, I’m already taking in less than I’m expending, and dropping the intake simply widened the gap even further.  All it did was leave me even more tired, and seriously grouchy.

It ended up with a bit of an argument as my sense of humour finally failed, I wrote a full bulleted list of what was happening (with all the information from above) and why I suspected things weren’t working.  That actually finished things fairly positively, although they didn’t have any better suggestions once we were outside the standard answers.

Also along the way, I ended up joining a local group called “Gutless” for overweight men. It consisted of two hours a week, one of food education, and one of physical exercise and workouts. For me, I didn’t learn much from the food education, but the training was positive, and started me doing more than I had. And since the Gutless course finished, we’ve maintained the exercise routine with the same trainer, which has also remained positive.

All told, I feel happier with how things are – if nothing else, my health record contains the whole list of things tried from the Dietician, and the RMR figures from the Uni of Beds. It means that when the GP tries their “you’re overweight” thing again, they can see what’s been tried.

However, I don’t really know what the answer is. My food intake has stayed much the same (and some of those weekends of excess actually make me lose weight) and I do more, with the extra workouts twice a week, and the archery I’ve recently re-taken up as well as maintaining the walking I do. I’m far, far stronger than I was, my shape is better, my stamina is fearsome, and I feel far healthier – but somehow, my weight hasn’t actually changed in a good decade, no matter what I do.

I’d like to lose more some – it’s just that still, everything I try isn’t working.  I think that at some point I’ll have to go back and get more data and ideas, but really I don’t yet even know the right questions to ask.

I’ll figure it out one day, I’m sure.

Health Figures

Posted: Sun 4 January, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: 2014/15, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Weight Loss | 1 Comment »

Back in December I got a number of blood tests as part of the whole “keeping track of things” when it comes to my health. It’s not hypochondria – my family history has a number of fun things including heart issues, diabetes and malfunctioning thyroid glands, so it’s worth getting checked every so often.

Annoyingly, the only information I had about the results was an insanely basic “don’t worry, your heart stuff’s OK” auto-letter from the GP. Nothing about the other figures which were of more interest and/or relevance.

I had made an appointment for last Monday to find out more. Also annoying, as it was something like three weeks between blood-results and appointment, but I figure that if there’s anything important they’d have let me know sooner.  And then I forgot the bloody appointment, and the phone’s “reminder” went off an hour after the appointment.

So on Friday I popped in to the GP surgery – they do an ‘open surgery’ a couple of times a week – and got to see a GP.

As it turns out, the figures are actually fine, which I’m pleased about.

My cholesterol level is 4, my blood-sugar 4.5. These are, apparently, great – and the cholesterol level has dropped significantly over the last year. Apparently my thyroid/thyroxin level is fine – although I do find that GPs don’t tend to explain any of this shit in ways that mean anyone can look at other information. I’ve got the actual figure, but I failed to get the reference values, so I don’t have any further information about where my figures sit in the general scale of things.

Apparently though, there is currently only a 4% chance of my developing heart-related issues in the next ten years. Now obviously I’m aware that Fate, Destiny and the Gods are capricious bastards at the best of times, but as these things go, I can live with that 4% chance.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m resting on those figures, or assuming that all’s good so I don’t have to worry. I’m still working on improving my health and so on, and intend to keep on doing so. But at least I’m starting from an OK position for the time being.

Charitable Christmas

Posted: Thu 14 December, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Charitable, Domestic, Festering Season, London, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

This year, I haven’t been as ratty as usual about the whole Festering Season thing. It still annoys me, but I’ve been able to ignore most of the retail bullshit around the season (due to not visiting shops as much, primarily) and so on, and avoided most of the raw sentimentality and commercialism that hangs around the entire process.

However, I’ve also been looking more at some of the charity stuff that’s being done – particularly for the homeless.

One of those things – and one I’ve contributed too, both this year and in previous ones – is the “Reserve A Place” scheme by Crisis. Paying £26.08 per place reserves a place for a homeless person at one of the Crisis centres over Christmas, along with support, health checks, and a bundle of other things. I’m all for that, to be honest.

The other one, only announced yesterday, is a slightly different thing, but still pretty brilliant. London’s Euston Station, which would usually be closed for Christmas Day, is instead going to become a homeless shelter for the day, filled with decorations and tables for 200 rough sleepers.  I think that’s pretty fucking brilliant, to make use of that sheer space in a different but decent way.

It’s being organised as a collaboration between St Mungos and Streets Kitchen, with about 30 Network Rail staff also involved.

To me, as always, I think these are the things that should be promoted, that are what the whole Festering Season should be about. I truly hope they’re both successful ventures, this year and into the future.

Holiday Hound

Posted: Thu 12 June, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Animals, Travel | 2 Comments »

One thing I forgot to write about regarding our holiday was Hound, and her adventures.

Where we stayed had several other dogs around, including Shep – a cross-eyed collie who ran diagonally. No idea why he ran diagonally, but I suspect it may be related to being spectacularly cross-eyed. Anyway, on the Sunday, Shep and Hound got on great, and were both chasing after the same tennis ball.

They both leapt for it, Hound leapt highest, got the ball, then crashed heads with Shep – Hound’s jaws descending on the top of Shep’s head. Shep was fine. Hound, however, wasn’t. She started coughing up dollops of blood, with some also running down her nose. As you can imagine, we were more than slightly concerned.

During the evening, Hound settled down a bit, but was obviously still not happy. The bleeding stopped, so we didn’t worry about it too much. We decided to see how she was in the morning.

Come morning she was still being deeply dismal, and while not in pain was also not happy at all, and some more blood had come out overnight. So, on an Irish bank-holiday, we had to go to the vets. The people who owned the place recommended one, we called him, and were assured he was opening anyway, so bring Hound along.

We found the place, and took her in – to find what has to be simply the best vet I’ve ever come across. As soon as we explained she’d got Megaoesophagus, and that she’s now eight years old, he was impressed – dogs with Megaoesophagus rarely get past five years old. It turned out he’d dealt with several dogs over the years with the same issue, and so knew lots about it, including being able to give us some new ideas for a couple of things which we’ll be trying when we need to.

Hound ended up being sedated/knocked-out, so he could see what was going on. While she was out for the count, he also (without being asked) did a full health check on her, looking at all her limbs, teeth, eyes, and checking heart, lungs etc. As you can imagine, on a bank holiday with her already sedated, and being owned by two English people on holiday, the expected total cost of treatment was going up like a taxi-meter in our mind’s eyes… He also cleaned the tartar off her teeth while she was out, saying “Well, you don’t want to have to knock her out too often”.

As it turned out, when Hound collided with Shep, she’d managed to dislocate her jaw, then force one of her teeth through the roof of her mouth. He reckoned that the impact of her landing again had then re-located her jaw back into the correct place. She was fine, just with a bloody big hole in the top of her mouth.

He ended up giving her a long-term antibiotic- one jab for the week- and an anti-inflammatory, as well as four more anti-inflammatory pills for the rest of the week.

So all told:

  • Initial consultation
  • sedative pre-med injection
  • Ketamine sedative
  • Full mobility check and health check
  • Teeth cleaned
  • Antibiotic jab
  • Anti-inflammatory jab
  • 4x anti-inflammatory tablets

On a bank-holiday.

And the total bill? €50 I don’t know how he does it and stays in business, unless it’s just the repeat trade. God knows, if he were on the mainland (anywhere on the mainland) he’d be our primary vet from now on. Absolutely fantastic.

And Hound was fine after that, no more trouble at all. Thankfully.

Posted: Mon 16 June, 2003 | Author: | Filed under: General | Leave a comment »

Gym

Tonight will be my first proper workout in a gym for just over a year. I’m looking forward to it – and also to sorting out some of the issues raised by the health check etc from Saturday.

However, I suspect that by the time I get home, my main word for the rest of the evening will be “Ouch“.

Posted: Tue 10 June, 2003 | Author: | Filed under: General | Leave a comment »

Success

Amazingly, even running on less than 25% of my normal IQ, I got the contract. So it looks like I’m now doing websites for local government for the next six months, so long as everything goes OK. Woo Hoo.

And I’ve also signed myself up with a gym/health club, which will be interesting. I’m booked in for a health check on Saturday, where they’ll tell me all nasty things like my Body Mass Index (I’m reckoning it’s about 33% fat, but we’ll see) and all that garbage. And yes, in a fit of shameless behaviour, I’ll put the results on the blog. Oh Jesus, what am I letting myself in for?

Archery Return

Posted: Wed 5 August, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Health, Introspective, Personality, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Back in March, I wrote about my starting to get back into archery after way too long – it’d been a decade or more since I last went, and this year I found a local(ish) club and went through their ‘beginners’ process (for insurance purposes etc.) before getting my bow checked over and slightly updated. In a spectacularly piss-awful piece of timing, I got that done on the same day that lockdown was announced. Bugger.

Fortunately, the club has its own field, so it’s been possible to use it during the lockdown.  I had to sort out a first induction meeting (to establish that I knew their rules and so on) and get my membership card, and from there I’ve been able to go on a regular basis.

So far, I’ve been for eleven sessions, and enjoyed pretty much all of them – last week’s one was less good, but that was just weather and environment being a bastard, plus a healthy dose of hubris from having had a really good session the week before, and it all just clustered up into a shitfest.

As it turns out, it seems I’m generally OK at the whole thing. I’ve been taking my time, building up my strength and stamina through the sessions, rather than aiming to be super-competitive or anything.

The thing for me is that I’m good enough. As with a lot of things, I find I don’t have the obsessive side of things, so I lack that desire to do everything exactly the same way, that push for perfection and rigid routine. Indeed, the people who are like that bore and annoy me.  I’m doing this primarily for fun – I like the challenge of getting things right and doing well – and it’s another way of building up my strength and stamina, which is fine with me.  But no, I don’t think I’ll ever be at the high end of  the club’s score table and so on, because I get to the point of “That’ll do”, and it’s enough for me.

But I’ll keep on going, and see how things go.

 

10,000

Posted: Thu 23 February, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Domestic, Health, Laziness, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Over the last couple of days, there’s been some coverage about an American scientist (which seems to be a pretty endangered species in the Age Of Trump) claiming that fitness trackers and pedometers are pretty arbitrary, and not necessarily the best way to go.

Which, I think it’s fair to say, we can file under “Sherlock, Shit, No”.

Of course that 10,000 steps a day advice is arbitrary. Even the figure tells you it’s arbitrary – those nice round numbers for ‘ideals’ simply don’t occur that often in reality.

Hager claimed the 10,000 steps target dated back to a 1960s Japanese study that showed there were health benefits for men who burned at least 2,000 calories per week through exercise – roughly equivalent to 10,000 steps each day. An early pedometer was known as the manpo-kei, which means “10,000-step meter” in Japanese.

Really, if anyone is taking anything from these devices as gospel truth, they’re a fucking moron. At best, these devices are indicators.

The heartrate monitor is well known to not be accurate – but so long as it’s fairly consistent per user/wearer, it’s a decent-enough indicator of where you stand.  And if it suddenly dropped to reporting 10bpm (or 200bpm) then anyone vaguely sensible would take themselves to a GP for a proper check.

The same’s true for the sleep monitor (which I do use).  It’s not gospel truth. But it’s a decent-enough indicator of awake vs. disturbed ‘sleep vs. actual REM sleep. Do I believe it innately? Hell no. But does it consistently show me my bad nights vs. less-bad ones? (I’m yet to have a good night’s sleep) Yes.

And if you can’t rely on those indicators, why would you rely on the step monitor? Simple, you wouldn’t. Can you game it and mess figures simply by swinging your arms more? Yep. But what’s the point of doing that, unless all you’re interested in is attaining that arbitrary [x],000 steps in a day?  The only benefit in that is you, and you’re just cheating yourself.

However, it does make for a useful indicator, and a reminder to actually move more. I can understand (kinda) why people make these things into targets, but really all that’s important is being more active. And that’s what counts.

Easing Up

Posted: Thu 23 July, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: 2014/15, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Thoughts, Weigh Less | Leave a comment »

As regular readers will know, I’ve been working fairly hard over the last eighteen months when it comes to weight loss.

In 2014, I’d lost two stone, and I was planning (hoping) to do the same this year, which would get me to something close to where I want to be.

However, this year it’s not gone all that well. (And yes, I know we’re only halfway through the year, there’s still time to sort things) I’ve stayed around the same place weight-wise, although I’ve been doing a lot more – both more walking, and also getting back to going to the gym.

As a result, my health and fitness are improving significantly, but the weight is staying the same.

I know there’s a load of guff spoken about muscle being heavier than fat, and all that, but I’ve still been finding it pretty demoralising to do a load of work, walking, or working out, then step on the scales and see the same figures there, week after week.

So – I’m not giving up, but I am easing off on checking my weight. I can feel the changes, and see the differences in measurements etc. (although I haven’t recorded the measurements themselves) and that’ll do me for now.

GP Results

Posted: Mon 14 January, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 2012/13, Cynicism, Domestic, Food, Getting Organised, Health, Weigh Less, Weight Loss | Leave a comment »

So, having (finally) seen the GP this time – only half an hour late, that’s almost early compared to usual – I’ve got the final figures…

  • Blood Pressure : 120/80
  • Heart rate : 75
  • Cholesterol : 5.7
  • Thyroid : Normal
  • Blood Tests : Normal

Being a pissbag, the GP wouldn’t give me exact figures for the thyroid results etc. – I remain cynical about “normal” until I can check – and refused to give me a referral to the dietician service. Instead I’ve got to see the diabetes nurses next week for diet advice. Because, of course, they’re the ones who know.

Luckily I’m also getting the diet advice from someone else I trust, so it’s not hyper-relevant to get the referral, but I do want the request on my NHS record. I asked for the same thing in Norfolk, and Suffolk, and nothing happened at all. So I’m more serious about it this time round.

Anyway, all told I’m bordering on healthy – with the exception of my BMI and weight, which I still want to work on. Considering the BMI and weight, there’s no way the rest of the figures should be as good as they are.  So all told I feel quite positive about things, for once.

I’ve still got bits to work on, obviously – I do want to reduce my weight, and work from there, but knowing that the basics are OK is a big thing too.

Food Diary

Posted: Mon 7 January, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 2012/13, Domestic, Food, Health, Weigh Less | Leave a comment »

In the run-up to the start of 2013, I wrote a little bit about the goals (well, they’re more like guidelines) I’ve got for the year. I’m keeping it pretty simple, although there’s lots of other stuff under those main points. For the moment I don’t plan to share the sub-points, because they’re not actually of much use to anyone except me.

Anyway, as part of the “Weigh Less” goal, I’m starting to write a food diary from today. Obviously that’s not all of the plan, but it’s a good starting point for establishing what I’m doing, and what needs to change.

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to do this with the help of Dragon, and to be able to help him with his training for being a PT by doing the initial food diary, analysis and plans with him.

I’m going to see how it all goes, and I’ll write more about it as time goes on.

Along the way, as well as getting results from the GP (including that missing blood-pressure test) over the next couple of weeks, I’ve also invested in some proper weighing scales, including body-fat.  Much as I like the idea of them, I didn’t go for one of the Withings or FitBit ones in the end – £100 for scales is a bit much, and while I like the idea of keeping those records and graphs online, I can do the same thing by myself, either locally or on RunKeeper etc.  Besides, seeing those updates from other people on Facebook and Twitter pisses me off in the end, so I don’t want to do the same to other people.

Instead, and on a recommendation, I’ve gone for these scales from from Omron, which do everything I want them to.

So – progress is being made. I’ll be interested (and probably depressed) to see the initial figures, but I’m thinking/hoping that they’ll provide me with more impetus for going ahead with the weight loss.

30 Things

Posted: Mon 20 August, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Change, Depression, Domestic, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Introspective, People, Thoughts | 4 Comments »

via Blue Witch , I came across Black Dog Tribe‘s “30 things to stop doing to yourself“.  It’s a great list – I think probably most people don’t do all of them, but most do some of them, at least.

I’ve copied it here for posterity, and so I can come back to it when I want/need to. It’s particularly relevant for me at the moment, with all the other stuff that’s going on, so I hope it helps others too.

  1. Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you. You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth. And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.
  2. Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on. No, it won’t be easy. There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them. We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems. That’s not how we’re made. In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall. Because that’s the whole purpose of living — to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time. This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.
  3. Stop lying to yourself. – You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself. Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves.
  4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too. Yes, help others; but help yourself too. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.
  5. Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you likeeveryone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.
  6. Stop trying to hold onto the past. – You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.
  7. Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
  8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us. We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.
  9. Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.
  10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. – If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either. You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else.
  11. Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place. Evaluate situations and take decisive action. You cannot change what you refuse to confront. Making progress involves risk. Period! You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
  12. Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.
  13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. – Relationships must be chosen wisely. It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company. There’s no need to rush. If something is meant to be, it will happen — in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.
  14. Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. – In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet. Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you. But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you.
  15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else. – Don’t worry about what others are doing better than you. Concentrate on beating your own records every day. Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.
  16. Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own. Ask yourself this: ‘What’s something I have that everyone wants?’
  17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. – Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you. You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough. But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past. You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation. So smile! Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be.
  18. Stop holding grudges. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart. You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate. Forgiveness is not saying, ‘What you did to me is okay’. It is saying, ‘I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.’ Forgiveness is the answer- let go, find peace, liberate yourself! And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too. If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time.
  19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level. – Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.
  20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right.
  21. Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break. – The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.
  22. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.
  23. Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.
  24. Stop following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Don’t take the easy way out. Do something extraordinary.
  25. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while. You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well. You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either — cry if you need to — it’s healthy to shed your tears. The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.
  26. Stop blaming others for your troubles. – The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility — you give others power over that part of your life.
  27. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out. But making one person smile CAN change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world. So narrow your focus.
  28. Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy. One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: ‘Will this matter in one year’s time? Three years? Five years?’ If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.
  29. Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen. – Focus on what you do want to happen. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.
  30. Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

Enjoy.

Unwell

Posted: Mon 26 October, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Health | 1 Comment »

Last night, we ended up taking Hound to the emergency vet. She’d been a bit flat all day – and we should’ve realised all was Not Well when she didn’t move while we ate lunch.

But during the evening she went downhill quite quickly, so we ended up calling the out-of-hours service for our vets, and getting over to the vets main place.

It turned out she’s got aspirated pneumonia – basically, she’s coughed on whatever, breathed it in, and done so repeatedly. Last night she was running a temperature of 40°, which was the most concern to the vet. As he said at the time, “It’s not the highest temperature I’ve ever seen with a dog, but it’s not far off“.

She ended up with four injections – antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, antacid, and Metoclopramide to help food get processed.

She’s been back today to be checked again, on the knowledge that if her temperature wasn’t much better, she was going to be staying in for a couple of days with an IV drip etc. to sort her out.  Fortunately, she is much better, temperature’s back down to normal, and it looks like the jabs have done their job.

We’re not out of the woods yet with her – we’ve got two weeks of antibiotics and Metoclopramide to give her, as well as three days of something that’ll help her cough up the shit that’s still in her lungs. But the indications are positive for now, and all told we’re much happier again about her health.

Blood Pressure

Posted: Wed 23 September, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Health, Weight Loss | Leave a comment »

Yesterday, I went to see my GP. Never my favourite way to spend time – I’m no fan of GPs at the best of times, and always go in expecting them to say “Oh, well, there’s not actually much we can do about that.”

In this case, I’ve whacked an existing scar, and opened it up again. Nothing special – it’s a fragile piece of skin, from the look of it, which is something my mother also has issues with – but more of an exploratory “Any suggestions on a) doing stuff to improve healing time on this? and b) preventing it in the future?” kind of thing. And I got exactly the expected answer. (But at least I know that for sure now)

Anyway, at the same time, the GP decided to check my blood pressure. This is one of the things that never fails to amuse me – considering I’m 6’4″ and distinctly overweight (although having now lost a stone from earlier this year) they always expect to give me a lecture on blood pressure. Bear in mind I’m rather known to be of the ranty persuasion as well, and they think it’s a no-brainer, which all goes to explain why they can never believe what it actually is.

In this case, the GP decided he’d done something wrong the first time, and checked it again.

But it still came out as 100/60. Which is ridiculously healthy and normal for someone of my dimensions and lifestyle.  I don’t know how I manage it, but that’s pretty much what my blood pressure always works out to be.

Strange but true – and always fun to bemuse a GP with it.

Think 25 – A response

Posted: Tue 7 July, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism | 11 Comments »

I emailed Sainsbury’s yesterday, asking about why they’d introduced the Think 25 policy.  This is what I (eventually) got back…

Thank you for your email asking why we have adopted the think 25 policy for the sale of alcohol.

Although there has been no change in the law for buying and selling alcohol, the policy is promoted by local authorities, health departments and the police to limit the consequences of selling alcohol to underage people.  As cashiers now have a personal responsibility by law they must take this very seriously.

I am grateful for you taking the time to write to us and allowing me to explain the background to the policy.

So – despite all their waffle about it being related to ‘all age-related items’, it’s actually only related to the sale of alcohol.  And it doesn’t actually explain why they can’t just check for ID that the purchaser is, you know, over 18.

In short, “Think 25” is utter, utter bollocks.  What a shocker.

Gun Law

Posted: Sun 22 April, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Over this week I’ve stayed intentionally quiet about the events at Virginia Tech. There’s a couple of reasons for that, but mainly while I think it’s fairly shocking, in many ways it isn’t. It’s “just” another example of how America handles (or doesn’t)gun laws and disaffected people, as well as the media hype that explodes around such events.
I do find the entire gun legislation issue in the US to be bizarre, though. The oft-reported phrase about “if there’d been more students with guns, this perpetrator would’ve been killed before he could kill 32 other people” is just a marker of how bizarre the attitude is. Not “Hey, this guy – with recorded mental health issues – was allowed to just go to a shop, tick a box saying ‘no mental health problems’ and ta-da, could buy unlimited ammunition, and a semi-auto pistol. What’s wrong with this picture?‘ No, instead they should have more guns, to stop the gun crime. Because that’s an option that’s worked so well in the past.
However, the UK has also made a mistake. (and yes, I know, I’ve written about this before) Now, when people are saying that the US needs to strengthen their gun laws, they can turn round and say “Well hey, UK, you banned all your handguns, and that has worked really well to stop gun crime from exploding, hasn’t it?” It’s the two extremes – America wants Guns For All, and the UK has enforced (legally-speaking, anyway) Guns For None. And both have problems.
In the UK, we banned all ownership of handguns after Dunblane. Again, yes, a shocking event at the time – but the reaction was pure knee-jerk ‘got to do something‘.
Now, before I get started I just want to say that I’m not a particular fan of guns – I most certainly wouldn’t want to own one. I’ve used guns, shot with them (and done pretty well) in target competitions , using both rifles and hand-guns. I’m not pro-gun, but I’m not particularly anti-gun either.
Before Dunblane, people could own guns. The owners had annual checks against police records, (and would now be checked against CRB records etc. too) the firearms themselves were registered and licenced, and had to be kept in a secure area. More importantly, the police had the ability to knock on a registered gun-owners door at pretty much any reasonable time (Nicely slack wording in itself) and check that the guns were on the premises, in their safe, in a secure situation, and check that the firearms listed on the person’s FAC (Firearms Certificate) were the only ones on the premises. If a gun was sold, the sale had to be reported, along with who it’d been sold to.
After Dunblane, pretty much all handguns became illegal. The UK Government offered ‘compensation’ to gun owners that amounted to about £150-250 per gun – a paltry sum, when you worked out what they’d cost initially. And most gun-owners still complied with those new laws. Although, of course, some didn’t. And so a new trade in illegal guns sprang up. Which has contributed massively to where we are now – where gun crime is still increasing at a depressing rate, but there’s no records of what guns are where, who owns them, etc. etc.
Yes, there’s always been a trade in illegal guns – but licensing, and fairly strict gun control was a good system. It meant that what guns were available were generally kept in secure locations by people who had regular checks done on them. And when most handguns are owned by people who have bought them, who are older and perceived as being ‘responsible’, and do boring stuff like target shooting with them, they lose a lot of the ‘glamour’ that they’re now afforded by the media (by which I mean films, music etc., rather than newspapers)
I suspect that a lot of the current ‘gun culture’ has come about because of their very illegality. To own, or have access to, a gun is to have some level of cachet, some perception of ‘cool’ or ‘clever’ or ‘big’. But no-one knows that you have it unless you display that you have that access to guns. And/or a willingness to show off, and use them.
As the US has repeatedly shown, free access to guns doesn’t work. But nor does no access at all. Somewhere in the middle, perhaps there’s an option that will work. Or at least work better than the current methods.

Canine

Posted: Sun 25 February, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Thoughts | 5 Comments »

Following on from all the recent guff about ‘dangerous dogs’ , and the latest “No Shit, Sherlock” advice that children shouldn’t be left alone with dogs, I wonder how long it’ll be before some politician or other says

“I know, why don’t we have a licence for every dog and dog-owner in the country?”

You know, like we used to have.

In theory at least, it would actually be pretty easy to manage.

First, you make it a legal requirement to have every dog microchipped at birth. (well, by the age of 8 or 16 weeks) The chip would be read only, and loaded with a unique identifier along with (possibly) information about the dog, its breed, etc. If a dog were found, or needed to be identified, the chip would be read (using already existing equipment) and queried against a national database.

In the database, you’d have the unique identifier, again the information about dog breed, age, blah blah, and also the owner details, address, contact details. Similar to vehicle license stuff, if you move, you would have to register that information with DogBase, so that information was up to date. This should be free – there’s no point making people pay to change the details, or they just won’t do it.

Any dog could be checked at any time – particularly when out in public – and if that information is out of date, or the owner is incorrect, then the owner can be fined. If the dog is out of control, or whatever, it can be held somewhere, and the owner contacted.

Is it me, or does that make sense?

Posted: Thu 14 October, 2004 | Author: | Filed under: General | Leave a comment »

Writing and Webstuff

Well, the application I was utterly logjammed on yesterday has now been submitted. No idea how well I’ll do, but the supporting letter ended up being deemed OK on its third re-write, and then got checked by two good friends, tweaked slightly, and it’s now winging its way to the organisation concerned.

I’ve no idea how it’ll do, but I do know it’s a position I’d like to take up. In fact, the only stumbling block with the job itself is the title that goes with it.

Why do some organisations stick with the title “Webmaster”? It’s bloody atrocious, and as one person said last night, “evokes memories of Dungeons and Dragons, some image of a gnomish wizened character casting spells to make the site work”. It’s wank, and worse it’s early-90’s wank, with a healthy dose of pretension. Given the opportunity, the title may get subtly changed.

But in the meantime, what do other organisations use as a title for that “webmaster”-type role?

Posted: Tue 18 May, 2004 | Author: | Filed under: General | Leave a comment »

Accounts

I’ve decided that of all the people it’s worth holding a particular loathing in one’s heart for, it’s fucking beancounters accountants. And Accounts departments in general. Today has been a case in point.

As most people know, I’m an IT contractor. The agency I’m currently working through prefers timesheets and invoices to be submitted either weekly or fortnightly – which suits me fine. Two weeks ago (and having looked back I’m amazed I didn’t write about this at the time) they didn’t pay me, because I’d managed to fail basic maths, and added up the time-sheet incorrectly. The total was right, and the invoice matched the total hours. But the daily hours added up to a ¼hour more than I’d invoiced for. Yes, I was doing myself out of money – money that, I should point out, came to less than £5 even including VAT – but they pulled the entire amount until it was checked/altered. Petty, but there we go.

At the time I was annoyed by the fact that the accounts department didn’t actually bother saying anything until I called them to find out why I hadn’t been paid – but then they paid the amount by CHAPSClearing House Accelerated Payment System, I think on the same working day, so all was unfucked sorted. However, because accounts systems are shite, they then tried paying me for the same invoice last week, as well as the week I’d validly worked. Then they realised what they’d done, and pulled the entire payment – not just the one they’d chuffed, but the one they hadn’t as well. (Which, in fairness, is normal – you can’t pull back half a BACS payment) And then didn’t repay the half that was valid.

I’ve just spent two hours arguing with the agency, because their initial call-centre contacts insisted I’d been paid, until we finally got the name of the person who’d actually pulled the BACS payment – and when contacted, his response of “Oh, Shit” communicated clearly the fact that he’d pulled the payment, and forgotten to re-do the proper payment.

It’s sorted now (well, it’s in the process of being sorted) but the accounts department are definitely high on the “useless bastards” list at the moment. The frustrating part has been their utter inability to communicate with anyone. When I spoke to my contact at the agency, she knew absolutely keff all about it, which is never good when there’s a potential to be on the sharp end of someone going ballistic because they haven’t been paid. Fortunately, on this occasion I wasn’t ballistic, because I knew they’d screwed it up. (Plus I find that it’s healthier to be nice to the people who are paying me.) But if it had been someone else, it could’ve been a lot nastier…

Posted: Tue 12 August, 2003 | Author: | Filed under: General | Leave a comment »

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity

I know that yesterday there were a few comments on the idiocy of people undergoing foot surgery in order to wear “sexy” pointy shoes (see GreenFairy, Dragon and Into the Wild for more information) and I must admit, while I agree that people who undergo this treatment are inherently shallow and (quite probably) madder than a bathful of hippos, at the end of the day it’s their own stupidity and thus they pay for the service.

In contrast, the BBC’s report that millions of people never get their eyesight checked, even when they know their vision isn’t as good as it was seems far more upsetting and stupid. I suppose it’s down to the fact that there’s a greater chance of harming others through poor eyesight – I’ve never had a problem per se with fuckheads, so long as they only harm themselves, it’s when they also can harm others that I start having a problem with it. As an example, people only need a basic sight-test before passing their driving test (by which I mean “read that numberplate 50 feet away”) and that’s it. There’s no need for another sight check while driving. A good percentage of these people (the story says 65%) who know that their sight is going to shit and never get it checked are also drivers.

As with the feet/shoes story, vanity is cited as a reason for not getting a sight check. To quote paraphrase from the article, “73% thought they would find them irritating to wear, while 52% did not like the way spectacles made them look. 78% of people cited discomfort as a reason why they would not wear contact lenses, while 67% thought they would be a hassle and 60% believed they would pose a risk to their eyes. Asked about laser eye surgery, 73% said it was too expensive, 37% thought it was too risky and 52% said they did not like the idea of surgery on their eyes.” So – they’d rather not have a brief period of irritation, or not have to look slightly different than run the risk of killing or harming someone while driving. I can understand some of the concerns about laser surgery – I’ve enquired about it, but my eyes are bad enough that even post-surgery I’d still have to wear glasses, albeit ones of a lighter prescription. Contact lenses don’t work for me, although I know several people for whom they’re ideal. But that’s the thing – experimentation, finding out what works and is best for each person.

Personally I’d rather wear glasses than be thinking for the rest of my life about the person I ran over because I didn’t see them.