General Chat

I have tablets :-D Put out the flags and give 3 cheers. I have my normal pills but at double strength so I have to take just half a pill. I take these as soon as I wake in the morning so I'll start tomorrow morning. I can't understand why, if this strength was available all along, one of the pharmacy team didn't suggest it from the start. In this instance, AnnG, I don't think it was anything to do with cost. It's lack of supply from the pharmaceutical companies. One of the pharmacists at our surgery was telling me that they now have to source medicines where they can find them and she regularly gets stuff in from Italy and Dubai. She said this has only been happening since the current government was elected. Our doctors only issue 28 days at a time so I have only been given 14 tablets to make 28 halves. I hope I don't have to go through all this procedure again in 4 weeks.

OH has just yelled up the stairs that lunch is ready so I'll post this and come back later.

Walked back from the jab. I was down ther early so went and had a coffee and read the book I had taken with me. Friens came to see me in the cafe and said to go on in they were not bothering about times so I went in 20 minutes early. Straight in, no queue. Walked home with a U3a friend two thirds of the way, got home at 12 o'clock just about when the bus would have been at the bus stop. It is very sunny with no wind and 16 degrees. Pleasant out, a nice day for a walk. About a mile and a half I think. I didn't even feel the jab at all this time.

O Vera what a todo with your tablets. I had the same trouble with my heart pill they kept saying they cold'nt get it. When I spoke to the doctor when I broke my foot she said she could make sure I get hte right one and issue two months at a time. Which they have done so far.

I too love dark chocolate nad not so much the milk and I hate milk choclate biscuits. Terry's used to do a bitter dark chocolate which I loved. I now have on special occasions the green and blacks 80% dark chocolate which I find much like the old Terry's.

Morning all,

Bright and sunny and 10 degrees and pc says mostly sunny.

Not read the last few post yet but must get on as I too have my covid jab today and the postmans coming for the parcel at last. mHave toget in the shower before he comes.

BIL came yesterday which was a surpise as he had had a flare up on his ankle so came home from work on Monday. He scarified all the lawns and then mowed it up. BBL.

good morning all only 7am here so up (not dressed) early as I had a good nights sleep so no need to go back to sleep then. 5 degrees and clear sky no frost.
Covid booster this morning. Cynth is going away for a few days, has to get to Cardiff by 12 but will drop me off first. It saves me getting the bus down to the surgery but I will be an hour early. Hopefully the cafe in the community centre will be open so I can get a coffee and wait in there. Then I will probably walk back home afterwards unless I am at the bus stop around 12 o'clock. That bus is hourly.

Vera hope your head is completely clear this morning and that you can find answers re your medication. I presume all these problems with pills is a cost cutting exercise somewhere. I have heard of others with problems elsewhere. Surely before cutting a medicine there should already be a replacement in place.

It’s been another beautiful day with cloudless blue skies and sunshine but that cold wind is still making it feel quite chilly at times. I haven’t bought any plants yet as it still seems too cold at night. I am putting the ones overwintering in the conservatory outside for a few hours each day but bringing them back in late afternoon. I was getting on well with doing a little in the garden each day but that’s gone by the board the last couple of days. I’ve had too many other things to do, particularly with the tablet chasing, and I seem to be low on energy as well at the moment.

How’s the fence painting going Mandy? I hope you haven’t got chilled if you have been doing any today. Talking of chills, I hope your sore throat and sneezing haven’t developed into a cold Mel and you are feeling OK.

I’m not surprised your OH has perked up since getting the good news about his health. It must be a load off his mind. The more he can relax, the easier it will be for him to cope with the problems and pain he still has. OH and I have been lucky in that, as far as we are aware, neither of us have had problems with sugar levels. Neither of us has a very sweet tooth though I do like a cake or biscuit. Am I the only one who prefers dark chocolate? Many moons ago, before I had children, I used to buy a very dark chocolate which was actually called bitter chocolate. I think it was made by Fullers and I loved it but it disappeared from the shops donkey’s years ago.

I got some sleep last night but still had a painful head this morning. I’m pretty “with it” now but still feel as though someone has punched me in the eye and walked over my skull in hobnail boots, but I can look at the screen without feeling sick now. I drove myself to the chiropodist mid-morning and now have another toe with a dressing on it and instructions not to get it wet for at least 2 days. Good job I showered before I went so I can get by with a good wash for a couple of days. I came back via the Farm Foods shop and stocked up on a few things we use that were good offers. It struck me then that without a car we couldn’t take advantage of these offers as there is no bus we could catch. I guess in a year or two when we have to give up driving we’ll be in that position.

Well, the tablet saga goes on. I haven’t told you all the ins and outs of the story as it’s quite long and complicated and I don’t want to bore you too much. I think I left it that the pharmacy team at our surgery were finding me an alternative tablet and I had to ring them this morning. I rang spot on 9.30 am, their opening time, and was already no.6 in the queue but it moved quickly and I only held on for a few minutes. They have come up with a wonderful solution (not). A prescription was being electronically sent to the chemist I use for a higher strength version of my normal tablet and instead of taking a whole one I am to take half a tablet. They seemed amazed when I asked, if there was a difficulty with the production of this tablet anyway, were the chemists likely to be able to get it in any strength, and what do I do if they say they can’t supply the higher strength either? Apparently I must ask the pharmacist to ring the surgery and tell them what they do have in stock and the team at the surgery will sort me out the best one. So another visit to the pharmacy tomorrow. Each time I go I have to pay a parking charge. It’s not expensive - £1 for up to 2 hours but when you are sometimes only parked for 15 minutes and tomorrow will be my 5th visit in 8 days, it gets expensive. At the moment I feel as though I am going round in ever decreasing circles. Well, I shall see what tomorrow brings but I am not optimistic.

On that cheerful note I’ll wish you all goodnight. Sleep well everyone.

I don't really know AnnG. He was prediabetic a year ago and the blood test he had last month would have been a measure of what his average blood glucose was the previous three months, which included christmas and afterwards when he was eating up christmas goodies and then affter the cardiac arrest when it was a case of getting him to eat enough calories. I know my glucose level moved from prediabetic to normal when I lost a couple of stones during the pandemic, but his diagnosis may be an extra risk for diabetes according to some studies. Whatever the reason he will do what he can that may help. Once you have one autoimmune condition, (they are all inflammatory) you are at risk of getting others and I have three myself now including hayfever.

I prefer milk chocolate too! I filled two more humpers with shrub trimmings and a few weeds and the garden bin is full to the brim now so that's good. Now to sort a bit more in the bedroom or maybe not as it is later than I thought.

Losing weight helps but has losing weight helped your OH with his blood sugar level Ann?
My real chocolate problem is that I don't like the really really dark chocolate. I eat the bournville one but my favourite is milk chocolate.

I have been on the pc all morning trying to do this parcel and it won't now send a code to me to pay.

I am exhausted and BIL has turned up to scarify the lawns and I need to eat something and feed him too. Cheese and pickle sandwiches I think and a nice glass of orange juice.

I'm the same and love my dark choc biscuits and I know I eat all the wrong things but I don't have sugar in my drinks or on cereal if I have that but also like a cake and other biscuits too. My mum used to call me her biscuit baby or bacon baby and I do have that once a week.

I like the sound of the standing up 5 times and shall try that.

Morning All,

More sunshine and a blue sky! :-D

Vera I hope you manage to get an alternative tablet. That's awful having to do all that chasing and still being left four days without. I hope you get a more relaxing day today. OH collected his meds this morning and has to go back for four of them tomorrow. At first they said he was owed two, till he told them it was four. Fingers crossed they will be all be there tomorrow.

That is good advice re carbs AnnG and it will help that a heart healthy diet is also good for diabetes. I was lucky to learn quite a lot about diabetes with attending the two studies at the diabetes research centre and then being a member of their forum group for a few years. One thing I learned from one of the studies was not to sit for ages without standing up! In the study we had to compare sitting all day with a day where we stood up for 5 minutes every half hour. In my case blood sugar levels dropped 40% on the day I stood up. Apparently the act of standing up means that glucose in your blood is taken up by the large thigh muscles. The effect lasts into the following day too. (I must get back into the habit of doing it more and remind OH as well). I also have a book called The Glucose Revolution that OH bought me. It explains that carbs in different foods may release glucose into the bloodstream at different speeds too. It has charts of carbs and charts of their glucose load. I must have another read of it. Neither of us add sugar to drinks or cereal and have yoghurt and orange juice with no added sugar, we already have wholemeal bread and wholegrain rice and eat lots of veg and salad. OH has now cut out biscuits, but I, like you have a weakness for chocolate, but am trying to stick to the 90% one that I can't eat much of! Jacket potatoes have more carbs than other potatoes, so we can just have small ones now and having salad with them helps. I've already suggested to him your good idea you do with your daughter to share a treat between you and he liked the idea. Often when you eat out it can be difficult to find what is healthier.

You are right about the temperatures as it's been really chilly in the evenings. I still have my fleece throw on the bed.

I hope you get on well with the fence painting today Mandy, but mind your back. Does Max come to watch you and snooze like Monty Don's dog? It's good those potholes are getting filled in where you fell and I wouldn't be surprised if others had had accidents with them too. Like everywhere though, they take ages to get round to filling them.

I hope you get sorted with your parcel today Mel. It sounds like they have made a right mess of what was working fine before.

OH seems like a different person since he had the good news this last week. He's just been for a half hour walk. Since losing weight his pants are falling down (sorry if that's TMI) so we went to M&S down the road. He couldn't remember what size he is wearing so we had to hide behind a rail to check the waistband. (why can't men remember these things?). Anyway, we are going back another day after I've measured his waist to get the right size! We've not been there since they did a big refurbishment and it is unrecognisable now and has a cafe twice as big where we had decaf skinny lattes.

I'm off to do some more cutting back in the garden now.

Just re-reading a bit after reading Mandy's post re your OH ann. sorry I should have said it is good that he has been discharged and doesn't need the defibrolater fitted. regarding improving his blood sugar levels. I am sure that to do that you don't need to concentrate on actual sugar but carbs. If he can cut out the veg that is high carb and also cut down on sugar in things you but, that will help a lot. If he has to have sugar on cereals etc a good alternative is either 'half spoon' sugar or candarel sugarly (which I use sparingly). The hard thing for me which I don't stick to is cutting out chocolate and biscuits etc.

Mandy good to get the shop out of the way. Now you can concentrate on the fence.

Mel, sounds like you have a swimming pool in your garden.

Morning all,

Nice sunny day here not sure if there was a frost as we were a bit later getting up

That was good you had a better night's sleep Anng , yes I bet there's a lot of people caught out with getting plants out early ,I noticed yesterday a lot of people in shorts, still a bit nippy for them I would have thought as it was chilly in any shade with the wind .

Mel hope you can get your parcel sorted today, I've been sneezing the last few sdays which reminds me I must take my hay-fever tablet.

More painting to do on the front fence today ,we did our shopping yesterday as they are doing the pot holes in the market place ,about time as that's why I when down and broke my wrists because of the pot holes ,it will mean all the traffic going round another way so will clog up the roads ,its taking rwo days so we shopped early this week.

Vera hope you can get your tablets sorted and they can find some for you ,not good for your poor head all this stress.

Ann thats very good news that OH has been discharged he must be pleased about that and the fact that he doesn't need to have the defibrillator fitted ,a little bit of weight lifted off his shoulders, well both your shoulders . <3

Good morning all, sunny and bright this morning but Alexa is saying it is 3 degrees. Very large differences at the moment between ight and day temperatures. There will be a lot of young plants not happy to be put out in the garden at the moment. sold in garden centres and people not realising. It is very tempting I am not sure they would survive even in my unheated conservatory.

I slept well last night so that was good and much needed. Nothing planned for today, a bit more tidying in the garden I think.

Morning all,

Frosty start again today and its 6 degrees and pc says mostly cloudy but the suns coming up as I type. We'll see how it turns out later on.I aam in such a muddle with this latest parcel and I have to send it today.

Must get it sorted. Hope you all slept well last night I have woken with a bit of a sore throat and have been sneezing.

As long as it works Mel stick with it.
Vera I hope that you get a good nights sleep and can shake the headache. And hopefully you can have a couple of stress free days.

Washing all dried well today so I brought it all in and ironed it. Its now on the airer in front of the rad so if I put te heating on it should air ok there.

I did remember to turn the hose off to the pond and it still realy needs a drop more but that shall have to be another day now.

I take one pill in the morning with my coffee and one at 1pm with a glass of water and then do lunch and take two more and an evening primrose capsule and the other one at night with dinner and a joint ace. I find this works for me.

Hallo all

Just a fleeting visit from me today as I am on my way to bed with another bad head. This last week has been quite stressful and it doesn't seem to be getting any better, so I think it's stress causing my headaches at the moment. It hasn't helped not having one of my tablets for 4 days. Trying to get hold of it has so far meant 3 visits to the pharmacist that handles my prescription and 2 phone calls and a visit to the doctors' surgery. Now the pharmacy team at the surgery are trying to source an alternative tab for me and I have to ring them again in the morning. Wish me luck!

I hope you get a decent night's sleep tonight AnnG. Good night all. .

Afternoon All,

Lovely sunshine again but it was really chiily when I went out this morning. The mattresses have gone now!! The Jackdaws were back again in the next village and it might have been another pair as they were collecting big twigs. One picked up a twig that was too heavy and crash landed! The butterfly has been back on the white flowered shrub too. I've hung the wall pots with the Violas by the front door and they smell lovely now.

Gwyn I have two pills in the morning so put a glass of water at my bedside the night before and take them before I get out of bed. That way I don't forget. One of mine doesn't absorb easily in the presence of some food, but I have never been a fan of breakfast, so I often don't eat for a couple of hours after taking it. The same tablet means an annual blood test with a 12 hour fast before it, so that's easier to do overnight. My evening pill is the other half dose of one of the morning ones, as I get less side effect that way, but food doesn't affect that one, but the glass of water means a toilet visit in the night!

OH has been to see the cardiologist for his last results and they are so pleased with him they have discharged him, and he doesn't need to have a defibrillator fitted. He does need to improve his blood sugar levels though. He is sleeping better now but I had to get up to take paracetamol at 2.00am. I hate the nights when I don't sleep at all AnnG, so sympathise with how you feel today. Hopefully you will sleep better tonight. I can understand it being hard work getting a room ready for family to stay, as everything we do takes longer and takes more out of us as we get older. It's fine if there's an extra room used just as a guest room, but then the room is wasted and not used a lot of the time. It will be nice to see them though as you say. I hope your boosted wifi will be ok now.

Mel that pond is needing a lot of water to top it up! Don't forget to switch the water off when it's full will you. You seem to get less subs than we do for some reason.

OH was telling me about something he'd heard to do with 'working from home'. Apparently a man had three mobile phones on his desk as he was working from home for three different companies! He'd answer one and said he'd let the other phones ring as it would give the impression to the person he was speaking to that he was in a busy office and not at home. The subject came up because I was telling OH how many working age people, including couples, there were now walking dogs or jogging mid morning in the week.

Where did you swim?

I did just wander down the garden. Must be my week for things collapsing. After the under oven shelf yesterday and the day before . Just now I walked down the garden and there is a make shift shelf by the plastic greenhouse which had ceramic pots on it. Two fewer now as two had fallen (slid down) the shelf and smashed on the path. They were heavy ones too but not the really big ones medium/small. I have put the pieces in a polythene bag and in the general waste bin but I am not sure I should do. It means the bin is heavier than usual
Just had a delivery by yodel. Good job I was in Cynth spotted him leaving it on the doorstep. It is a small folding garden table. really pleased with it.

The first morning after changing the clocks, I do adjust the timing of my morning medication by roughly half an hour, then the following day, I take it at that day's 7 a.m or thereabouts, so that I am back on track.
Mel, it could be quite important to take your medication at the set time.
Do you need to take them with food? I think you've said you don't eat breakfast?

My 1st medication of the day, I take with the drink of water I have beside me overnight and even before I get up to put the kettle on.
A different tablet has to be taken with food, so that gets taken with a light breakfast and then I'm done for the day.
Someone I know, who takes an identical 2nd tablet to mine, takes hers in the evening, but I might be at a meeting, out with family or at a quiz, so taking it in the morning suits me better. As long as it is taken at a more or less regular time each day, it's OK to have different times.

Beautiful sunshine all day here, but a chilly quite strong breeze is blowing.

Gardens are starting to look very colourful, but I was surprised to see bluebells showing their colour in March, which seems rather early. They are the Spanish ones, of course, but I look forward to seeing the native ones in the woods before too long.