Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Doctors

Wednesday:

I went back to my "old" doctor today - from the clinic I've attended regularly since we moved here but I've only seen this doctor once before because they change every six months - because I wasn't impressed with the new one I tried. "Old" doctor confirmed that the blood test results are nothing to worry about because although they showed a high protein (?) count none of the other markers were there for something serious.

Instead of the other doctor's "you're fine, just lose some weight" response to my high blood sugar and hip pain, at least this one tried to give me more active advice. As well as going over the diet and exercise stuff that we all know, she is going to arrange for me to have some free dietician and hydrotherapy (gentle water-based exercise that won't hurt my hips) sessions. Apparently I am fat enough to qualify for five free professional health sessions. Hmmm. Also, if I haven't made progress in three months she recommends maybe trying medication, she mentioned Duromine which is an appetite suppressant and she said speeds up the metabolism. I'm not very keen on taking medication of any kind, but at least this doctor is laying out some options for me.

Unfortunately she will only be at the clinic for another month. Who knows who I'll get next?

I told her I won't do anything for a couple of weeks because of exams, but then will investigate dieticians etc for her to give me a referral to.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Presentation

Tuesday:

We had a productive weekend. I spent most of Saturday studying, got all my work for the previous week mastered. Our tiler has now sprained his ankle, but he finally sent a substitute so there were a few guys here working on that - they got it mostly finished but ran out of tiles (again) so there is one tiny corner not done and then they have to seal it. I was given the impression they would be back on Monday, but no sign of them (of course). We've paid for more than enough tiles but I think the tiler hoped he wouldn't need to get them all and could keep a bit of the money because they've run out twice. [Just contacted him, he's ordered more tiles and will be back to finish at the end of the week, yet another 'end of the week'...]

On Sunday we did some work in the garden, moving the dirt away from the fence and adding a bit more Perspex behind the heat pump, we finished doing everything needed to get the fence approved (very strict laws in Australia about fences around pools). I have contacted the approval guy and am waiting to hear back from him. Once that it approved we can finish the last stage of the pool and fill it with water. Of course now the temperature has plummeted, it is freezing here (two more days until Winter) we will have some kind of "pool party" when it's finished but I don't think anyone will go in the water, even heated! And I'm getting ahead of myself - it probably won't be finished until next spring anyway the way things have gone so far!

I slept really poorly on Sunday night, my left wrist was quite sore from all the digging and woke me, and then I was a bit stressed about my big presentation on Monday, and also Tim had to get up very early for a flight to Canberra for the day so of course that woke me too. And after 15 mins doze when he was gone I had to get up because Aiden had his drumming lesson before school. I was so tired and dopey I rushed out of the house to catch my train and only when caught in peak hour traffic on the way to the station did I realise I was half an hour early!

The presentation was in the afternoon, I'd prepared carefully and I think it went well. Three other people also did theirs in the same lesson and mine was at least as good (I think). But in my morning class we had an oral quiz that was originally supposed to be this week, then changed to next week, then there was a problem with that and after some discussion trying to find a time we could all attend the teacher asked if we could move it back and do it that day. We all said yes but I didn't feel well prepared; and I hate oral quizzes, I get stressed and freeze up when people look at me although I'm fine with a written test.

The teacher tried to make it as relaxed as possible, we all grouped together and she asked questions and we could jump in and answer whichever ones we were comfortable with while she kept track. But I wasn't as quick to jump in as some others even when I knew the answer so the teacher directed a question specifically to me and of course it turned out to be one I wasn't completely sure about! I stumbled through it and knew she wanted more from me but had a brain freeze and didn't answer fully. Unfair - everyone else basically got to choose their own questions! I hated being on the spot like that. After that I kept jumping in to answer everything until the teacher told me I'd answered enough so I shut up and let other people answer. It's worth 10% of the total mark for that subject and I have no idea how I (or anyone else) was scored. In the end the whole subject is pass/fail but my marks matter to me!

I only have two weeks left of semester, one assignment (which I've nearly finished) and three exams to go.

Saturday, May 27, 2017

GTT

Friday:

I had my annual glucose tolerance test on Wednesday and got the results today. Not good. Two years ago my reading was 10.8mmol/L (11.0 means a diagnosis of diabetes, so much too close for comfort), last year I got it down to 8.9 which is much better but still not normal (7.8 is limit of normal).

This year back up to 10.7mmol/L. Not good at all.

I am very inconsistent in my habits. I'll be "good" for a while then fall back into old habits and eat all the wrong things, even things I know send my blood sugar shooting up. Rarely exercise.

The doctor just said (as some other doctors have before her) "You don't have diabetes, just lose some weight, you'll be fine. Walk regularly." Hmm, as if I haven't been trying for 20 years to lose weight! And 10.7 is not fine!

Sunday:

I didn't realise I didn't finish this post. To continue.

Later at home going through my tests I noticed one she hadn't mentioned. I think it was one she ordered because of my hip pain, possibly arthritis, to see if I had inflammation. There are 8 pages of results so maybe she missed this one.

It's for C Reactive Protein. The sheet says it should be 0--5 mg/L. Mine is 12. Some internet research seems to suggest that anything over 3 is high risk for various things, and over 10 shows significant inflammation that needs further testing and could be something serious. 12 is very high! But the doctor didn't mention it as far as I can remember, we talked about the pre-diabetes (you'll be fine) but she scanned everything else and said it was all fine, nothing to worry about.

I went to this new place because I was sick of the old clinic changing doctors every six months (they are doctors who have just finished training, on one of their first placements I think) and because the most recent one wanted me to come in for a long appointment for a discussion about my weight - which I felt wasn't necessary because I already know everything after 20 years of experience trying. I know what to do, I just don't actually do it.

But now I have the choice between someone who actually wants me to take action and will do their best to help, or someone who ignores flagged results and just says "you'll be fine." I'm going back to the old clinic! If the doctors are young and experienced, at least they are enthusiastic and up with the latest information.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Another week.

Sunday:

Let's see, what has been happening this week? One thing that was important to me was getting the permanent crown put on my tooth! I'd been so uncomfortable for three weeks with the temporary one.  The real crown just feels like a normal tooth instead of something pinching against my gum and leaving a nasty metallic taste in my mouth. So yay!

The tiler called last weekend to say he was better and would be back during the week to finish the work. But apart from dropping some extra tiles off (when I wasn't home) there's been no evidence he still exists. I don't like to hassle him, I don't know whether he's sick again or just running around trying to catch up other jobs. It's annoying though.

Also the heat pump was delivered but it has to be moved to the right spot - it weighs 125kg so we can't do it ourselves - and that was supposed to happen Friday but nobody showed. So we can't move the dirt pile away from the fence yet. So we can't get the fence approved. So we can't get the pool surfaced and finished. It's a long chain of can't move on until the first thing is done!

Only three weeks of semester left at TAFE so I'm very busy with assignments and preparing for exams. Still lots to do, but I feel like it's under control. My body is suffering a bit though, too much computer use makes my shoulders, arms and hands ache. Looking forward to a few weeks off before it all starts again. But I have to get through three more weeks first!

I'm having my annual glucose tolerance test on Wednesday so today I started carb-loading. I do enjoy eating more carbs than usual, but it makes me feel kind of sluggish and sleepy. Two years ago my blood glucose was 10.8 mol/L - very close to a diabetes diagnosis - but last year was down to 8.9, much better. I really have no idea what it will be this year! I am so inconsistent with my lifestyle, but I probably weigh exactly the same as last year. I've had diabetic-level readings at home after bad foods, but not under the controlled conditions of the test. Fingers crossed.

Thanks to everyone who looked at my website, I could see on Google Analytics that I've had visitors from overseas! I've made the final tweaks and it will be up collecting customer data for another couple of weeks.

We saw Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 yesterday, really fun movie. baby Groot is so cute! The only thing I didn't like was the soundtrack, the music in the first movie was so good but I didn't know most of the songs on this one. Maybe well known in the US? I only knew a couple, like the Cat Stevens one at the end. Otherwise the movie was great.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Mother's Day

Monday:

I had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday, although of course I missed my own mum. The kids made breakfast then I did the grocery shopping (that bit wasn't particularly fun, but I'd still rather do it myself), take-away for lunch and played some computer games.

My afternoon probably won't sound fun either but it was satisfying. I'd been struggling with this week's lesson in my most difficult class, and was getting more than half the exercises wrong even when I thought I 'had it' - very frustrating. So I spent a couple of hours over the weekend really getting it into my head and I finally did work it out. It wasn't fun to do but a big relief when I got a good mark in the online quiz.

Then we had family over for dinner, I got to stretch my new oven to its limits and it performed well, and a Eurovision Song Contest party in the evening with a few extra people joining us. I really enjoyed it, in fact it was a very good day overall.

My website project is live - its a website for a pretend library, you can find it at www.webdesign.sit.edu.au/stud588. There's only two pages so not all the links go anywhere. We need people to have a look so we can get some Google Analytics data for class, so I'd love you to check it out! You don't have to do anything to give feedback, the Analytics tell us how many people visited, how long they stayed on each page etc. If you want to compare to other people's you could try putting in a different number at the end (like 587 etc), I'm not sure which numbers are valid but I was one of the last on the list so the other numbers might be higher than mine if they are in sequence. (I have looked at other students' but by clicking on a link so I didn't pay attention to the number).

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day and a great weekend.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Fifteen years

Friday:

Today is my/our fifteen year wedding anniversary. Fifteen years!! Just over a third of my life, married to my lovely Tim. We're going out to dinner tonight. Last weekend a family member looked up that 15 years meant crystal was the traditional present, and Tim mentioned that he wandered into the Swarovski store this week but not if he bought anything! I won't reveal my present to him as I haven't given it to him yet, but it's not crystal.

The replacement oven was delivered yesterday and works fine so yay for that. I've cooked a few things already but the real test will be big Mother's Day dinner on Sunday.

Our tiler was making good progress on the paved area outside, but Friday lunchtime last week he said he needed to pick up more tiles and left with his two assistants. And didn't come back. On Tuesday I sent a slightly cranky text asking what was going on. Turns out he had been hospitalised on the weekend and was still on bed rest with a ventilator four times a day! Asthma exacerbated by allergies I think. He had been very wheezy carrying tiles around - I thought he was just unfit! I feel bad for him and hope he feels better soon for his own sake, but there were three of them working you'd think one of them could have called to tell me what was going on. Anyway, no sign of their return so far. I just try to suspend all expectations of when the pool will be finished, nothing has gone as planned. More than nine months now.

Eurovision starts tonight, or at least the Australian coverage of it does (actually I think both semi's have already finished). If we wanted to watch it live from the Ukraine it would be 5am, so we wait for primetime viewing. We'll have people over Sunday night (also Mother's Day) to watch the final. Love the Eurovision Song Contest!

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Oven

Thursday:

It's been a day of ups and downs.

Firstly the tilers were here all day and got a good portion of the tiling done and it looks great.

Actually it looks darker and dirtier in the pictures than in reality, maybe because I took the photo when the day's light was failing. The tiles are actually a very pale blonde.

Then the oven was delivered. Not great news about whether it would fit in the space, the previous (old) wall oven was an odd size that we couldn't find an exact replacement for. This one is close, but a little too tall and too narrow. So we might need a carpenter to do a little cabinetry, at present there is a gap down the sides and the doors of the cupboard above had to be taken off. But I was very excited about having an oven again. Until he turned it on and there was a loud pop and the element blew or something. They have another one in the warehouse and at first said they will deliver that tomorrow. So I did the grocery shopping and took a chance on hoping I would have an oven from tomorrow! Bought ingredients for roast chicken and BBQ pork ribs. ... and then they called in the evening to say they couldn't deliver until next week. Which, with my schedule, means next Thursday. I can use the top part of this one, I wasn't going to if it was just one day but I will since otherwise I won't have an oven at all for another week.

Finally in up/down news, I got the final cheque from mum's solicitor, the last payment from her  estate that he had been hanging on to until he got the tax returns done. It's been more than two years and I had to get the executor to give the solicitor a nudge. Anyway, it came in the mail today so I was feeling that finally I didn't have to deal with that side of her death any more, everything was finalised. And also we need the money for the pool, which is like a cash-sucking vampire. But when I was at the shops today I was surrounded by Mother's Day cards and flowers and present ideas - it's only a week away. And I realised that mum's death will never be "finalised". Well, I'm still glad the money side is done with.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Reluctant

Tuesday:

Well my mouth continued to be sore for four days after the dentist appointment, up to today when I'm finally able to chew (carefully) on both sides. Apparently this was normal after what I had done, they gave me a leaflet on how to deal with the discomfort. I've been feeling a bit miserable the past few days because I don't like pain (who does?), much better today. I'm not looking forward to the follow-up.

Last week my favourite person at TAFE, Cathy who looks like a young librarian already, said the library where she'd been doing some work with children (she's a music teacher) offered her some temporary work and she was trying to decide whether to take it or continue her studies or both... well she hasn't been in class this week and someone else said she took the job and has switched to online study. I've very glad for her to have this work experience but I'll miss her. I think the job is only for three months while someone else is on leave, so she might be back next term, but you never know. She seems like an ideal employee to me, one of the top students and very nice as well, they'd be mad to let her go.

I don't really want to look for work yet, I want to get my degree first. I couldn't juggle both.

We had lots of family gatherings on the weekend. Lunch after a christening (we didn't get to the service due to sport commitments), a birthday party dinner that night, and another family dinner the next night. I didn't have to cook all weekend! We have chosen a new oven to replace the broken one and it should be delivered on Thursday.

The pool tiler continues to show up occasionally, erratically, and do I don't know what. Preparing the surface. No actual tiles yet! I thought it would all be done last week, silly me. You'd think I'd have enough experience with tradesmen by now. He wants an interim payment but I'm feeling a bit reluctant.