A healthy post

For me at least...

The children always used to laugh at me because I couldn’t put those mini earphone thingies into my ears and make them stay put. Those of you who have been paying attention will remember that back at the beginning of August I had a nightmare about robots which left me with a shh, shh noise in my right ear which keeps coming back. I can still hear it as I type this.

On Friday I went for my three monthly check up. I mentioned the noise in my ear and the Doctor had a look with great difficulty because my ears are a funny shape inside; I have unique ears and now they can’t laugh at me. There is a bit of a blockage which could be responsible for the noise, so now I have eardrops for a week.

As usual he was pleased with my blood sugar readings in my little booklet. My blood pressure has been perfect the last few times so a month before I go back I’m to stop taking the tablets to see what happens. I’m really pleased about that because I will be able to eat grapefruit again.

Tomorrow I’m off to have the first session on the veins on my legs. She says it might not work as some of the veins are very old - 40 years for example.

Glucose tests a waste of time?

I was very shocked this morning when I listened to the news broadcast on BBC radio 4. A report has just been released which says that there is no point in people like me checking their blood sugar levels on a regular basis. The report says that constant checking causes worry and even depression in patients. I strongly disagree. My father was on the verge of losing his toes before he was diagnosed with diabetes. I made sure that my doctor knew that there was diabetes type II in my family for two generations. I consider myself fortunate that abnormal blood sugar levels were spotted quickly and that using tests I could adjust my diet. Testing strips and lancets for finger pricking are expensive, but surely they are a lot cheaper than insulin injections, hospital stays and rehabilitation costs after amputation? I won’t go into the subject of blindness and other organ problems diabetic patients face. I’ll be discussing this with my own Doctor next time I see him to see what is going to happen in France. I’d be interested to know what other people think about this subject; diabetic, pre-diabetic or not.