Health Figures
Posted: Sun 4 January, 2015 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.