lnr | Entries tagged with health

Got blood tests on 14th March, used GP form on 26th March to request a GP review my medication in light of the blood tests. Text back from them to say a GP would look at my request on 7th April(!) - presumably the one GP who specialises in diabetes was on leave or something? I dunno.

Finally got a text message this morning to say I can reduce my Metformin dose though, from two 500mg pills twice daily, to one 500mg pill twice daily, with another HbA1c in three months time, and then a review with the diabetic team if needed. I best put a reminder in the diary to book the blood test.

Having been on the Wegovy since November I asked my GP to do another HbA1c test, to see how my diabetes is responding to the additional drug and weight loss associated with it. HbA1c is down from 43 in November to 36 on Friday. That's the first time below the pre-diabetic range (42-48) since well before I was diagnosed in November 2020. Now waiting to see what GP wants to do with this information. (Suspect I no longer need to be on a high dose of Metformin though, which is why I wanted them to check).

My iron levels are also still low-end of normal, but it looks like I can now safely give blood again too, so I've booked that in for the Friday after next. We'll have to see how long it takes them to recover from that!

ETA: It's now the 26th and I still haven't actually heard from GP what they think about the results. I asked for an update from the admin team and just got a "result is normal" text, which wasn't very helpful, so have sent the medical team a request to review. Will see what they say!

The bathroom has tiles! We can use it again, and the bathroom pod on the drive went back. I got a very entertaining graph of the temperature in the pod for most of the time it was there: ranging from 14 degrees max to about minus 2.5 degrees at a minimum. (There was actual ice on the floor inside the pod one morning, from the drips from the shower door being left open). There's some issues with the coloured grout having made everything BLUE, but most of it has come off again. We're just waiting on getting the bath resurfaced (on the 27th) and then I'll get some photos. It's lovely to have the house back together again! Insurance company agreed to pay for the extra electricity and the bath re-enamelling, which is good.

My iron levels are still a bit on the low side, so we're testing again at the end of February, and I'm taking over-the-counter iron supplements in the meantime. They're "gentle" ones, so I'm not getting such tar-like poo as with the stronger prescription ones. I've persuaded the GP to do another HbA1c test at the same time because...

The Wegovy prescription seems to be doing its job. ( weight loss talk )

As a result it seems like a good idea to check my blood glucose control (HbA1c gives an idea of the "average" blood sugar levels over the last 3 months) and see whether I need to be taking a high dose of Metformin as *well* as the weight-loss drug which also treats diabetes.

Weight loss talk

Prescribing nurse on the phone: so what do you know about Wegovy? Me: well, it's a GLP-1 agonist, and it was originally developed to help diabetes, but it was also discovered to help with weight loss, even in people who don't have diabetes. And it helps with appetite. Nurse: OK yes. :)

The outcome is I have a prescription at the lowest level, which will arrive by post tomorrow. 4 weekly doses in an injector pen, with a sharps box. And I need to watch out for eating too quickly, as it may cause nausea, and keep an eye out for low blood sugar, which is slightly more likely given I'm also taking Metformin. And she'll talk to me again in a few weeks to see how I'm getting on, and whether to increase the dose or not.

Again, having been told it would take 6 months, and not everyone would get Wegovy, I'm a bit startled how quickly this has all happened. Diabetes check up on Thursday this week too, so will make sure I let them know.

I'm still doing my 6 minutes of exercise every day. (5 different exercises, 1 minute each, I cut the rest intervals to 15 seconds). I have decided that in this particular SMART goal the R stands for Resentment. I'm going to try and insist that future goals are actually more Relevant.

Weight loss talk

So today was my first 90 minutes session on the Tier 3 "fresh start programme". It consisted of about 45 minutes of nutrition information and 45 minutes of physical exercise information, and that's the shape of the next 11 sessions too - one a fortnight

The nutrition part talked about diets we may have tried before, and then introduced the Eat Well plate, and its friend the Weight Loss plate, which differs in having more fruit and veg, and leaving off some of the finer details. Basically eat lots of fruit and veg, lean protein, preferably wholegrain carbs, healthy fats in small quantities, and everything else (e.g. cakes, crisps, sauces) occasionally in small portions. So far so nothing new.

The exercise part suggested we try "exercise snacking" - building in 5 sets of 1 minute exercise, alternating with 1 minute rest. Once a day for the next week, aiming to increase to twice a day next week. Try doing a set while waiting for the kettle to boil, or during an ad break! Example exercises were done with or without a chair, and with adaptations for if standing up from the chair is a problem. Grab a couple of cans of food! (I picked a pair of 1kg weights instead as they were more convenient). To be fair, doing this sort of thing a couple of times a week, making sure I include a variety of things, will be good for muscle strength and flexibility. But not cardio. And I'm skeptical about weight loss. I did not need to worry about my blood pressure. The actual time exercising was about 10 minutes, much of it stretches.

I was very polite, and did not outright say that I thought they were wasting my time. But I thought they were wasting my time.

My personal goal for the next couple of weeks: try and eat more fruit and veg. Aiming for 10 portions a day instead of 5 would probably make a difference, especially since I don't always manage 5 anyway. And I'll do the exercise snacking. I did some more ankle rotations in the bath, since I could. I'm very glad this programme also offers some one-to-one sessions with dietitions, exercise specialists and a psychologist, because otherwise it appears to be just the same advice we've all seen before. Apparently you need to attend 80% of the sessions to be eligible for Wegovy. And we'll need to have a session with a nurse practitioner for that, which should happen sometime after the second session. What I need to *not* do, is start obsessively calorie counting, because there lies unsustainability. No counting!

Well, I finally got round to getting my HbA1c tested - basically average blood sugar levels for the last 3 months. It was last done in January 2019, and was a bit raised - and since then I've been through the NHS preventing diabetes course, starting January 2020. Admittedly I've not actually *done* much to change my lifestyle as a result of that, and my weight has crept up a bit since 2019, including with lockdown (by around 5 kg).

Anyway, I was not 100% surprised to see I've tipped over the boundary, and I'm now officially diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

I've been advised to lose weight, and specifically to reduce carbs and increase green veg. My currently levels of exercise were deemed acceptable though. They'll invite me to Sawston soon to get a photo of the back of my eyes. And back in 3 months to test blood sugar levels again, and they'll check cholesterol then as that hasn't been done recently. Recommended Diabetes UK as a resource.

In the meantime I've asked if I can start Metformin now, in the hope it will make it easier to lose weight as well as manage the blood sugar. Advised to start with 1-a-day with main meals, increase to 2-a-day after a week if it's not upsetting my digestive system, then to 3-a-day after another week (but 2-a-day is fine if I won't tolerate 3-a-day).

So following on from my post last week I took a self-assessment test on the NHS webpages, and scored somewhere between 10 and 15, most likely around 13 - indicating that it's likely I'm suffering from moderate depression. Anyway I went to see my GP today (well I say my GP - I'm not sure I've actually seen Dr Rann before, but she seems nice and coped calmly with me sobbing at her :). After explaining how I felt she asked what I was hoping to get from the appointment, to which I said at least partly just to get someone to agree I wasn't just imagining it. But eventually I left with:

- A prescription for a low starting dose of sertraline (anti-depressant)
- A sheet with some online resources for DIY CBT to try
- An appointment for 3 weeks time to see how I'm getting on, and if the CBT seems helpful to refer me for a course

She also suggests I see if the university counselling service can offer any help too, and really thinks 2 years of sleep deprivation is probably a big issue and suggests we need to do something about the night wakings. I'm not prepared to give up breast feeding (which she didn't suggest but equally didn't sound terribly supportive of) but we can try cut down how often we offer milk at night and see if he wakes less as a result - it may not make much difference though, as he was down to just one wake most nights before he was full of cold, so I think it's more than just wanting milk.

Anyway I felt a bit better for going, but a bit wobbly at the same time.

And I feel like the Pensions Officers meeting in London today was well worth attending and hopefully having written a brief report on it for our action committee and exec on the way home on the train has been really useful too, so a positive day overall.

It's a long time since I've posted anything here about weight loss. And even longer since I'd updated my webpages about it. In fact they were last updated in 2006 and I'd long since removed the link to the weight loss pages from my front page.

Last week however I finally reached a nominally healthy BMI of 24.8, and hence declared myself to have reached my target at Slimming World. So now I'm no longer planning to post anything about weight loss at all, but may make the occasional post about maintaining my weight.

If you'd like to see the graph of my weight over time, see a couple of before and after photos and read a bit more about it I've now updated my webpages, and you can find the relevant page here:

My Weight

At some point I need to go back to the GP and get them to do all the health checks again, to make sure that the weight loss has my blood sugar and cholesterol under control now that I'm not longer taking medication.

Well, I'm back from the hospital. Weighed and BP taken: 160/100 -> 139/86 after 5 mins chilling out - I'm glad my GP taught me that trick! Then a 25 minute wait to see someone I've never met before who didn't even introduce himself, and nipped out partway through to check something with the consultant I was expecting to see. However my calcium levels are just the low end of normal, and my vitamin D levels are a little low, but then it has just been winter so they're not worried. Tick, vg, come back in 6 months to have calcium levels checked again, oh and we'll book you a bone density scan too and see if that's changed, and if all is well we'll discharge you at that point.

All a bit anti-climactic!

I've got in a bad habit lately of posting minor stuff on Facebook and nothing here on Livejournal. But the fact FB has now started importing people's journals properly again (judging from the sudden rash of old posts on my friends pages) I've been prompted to come and say hello :)

Not a huge lot to say mind, I've been chilling out, playing a bit of Sims World Adventures (The Sims meets Indiana Jones), a bit of Lego Batman (which we've now finished apart from one really *stupid* bit where you have to ski down a slope and get through all the gates and it's almost impossible). We had a second long walk after our Roman one - from Great Chesterford to Royston mostly along the Ickneild Way. Managed not to get burnt again and had a lovely pub lunch on the way.

All this walking is sneaky practice for our summer holiday: walking the Pennine Way from Gargrave to Appleby (two points just about on the way which conveniently have train stations :). Mum and dad are going to come and say hi and stay with us for the first night in Gargrave which should be lovely. We're still planning the wedding too, with me having contacted hotels and DJs this week - and having got our wedding rings a few weeks back. It's lovely to have my anniversary/engagement ring back and fitting again too!

Back to the hospital next week for a check up at the parathyroid clinic: had blood tests this week to check hormone level and calcium levels so they should have the results of those and the ones I had done in January. Hopefully all should be well. And I'm still gradually losing weight, and hoping when I go back to see the GP next month my blood tests there will be all good too, even though I'm not taking meds any more. I really don't want to have to start taking them again!

S'all good really.

Oh yes and of course I'm off to vote later today, although I doubt I'll be staying up for the election results tonight. I doubt it's going to be terribly good news in the morning no matter what the result is, but it could well be interesting!

GPs this morning to discuss implications of recent blood tests. It looks like the bad liver function test was almost entirely caused by the statins - I've only lost a couple of kg in the time between the two tests, so it's unlikely that made a difference. Only way to prove it is to put me back on them, but he doesn't see the need for that :) Cholesterol before I stopped them was at 3.3.

Blood sugar levels are also currently OK, although he didn't say what the HbA1C value from the most recent test was, and didn't take fasting glucose last time round. I've never had a value above 7 for fasting glucose though, and the metformin was mostly preventative, so given the excellent weight loss results the current plan is to stop taking that too. I'm to go back in 2 months and he'll test fasting blood sugar, cholesterol and liver function again. Hopefully those will all be OK and we can continue unmedicated thereafter.

Finally he did blood pressure, and showed an interesting effect: first result (immediately after fairly animated conversation) was roughly 150/90 - dreadful. After 60 seconds deliberately relaxing and breathing deeply it was down to 122/74 - absolutely fine.

Ideally I need to continue losing weight to a BMI of 25 or less and then stay there, but the main takeaway message is not to gain any weight from where I am now at about BMI 29.5. I may compromise on somewhere inbetween, depending on how hard it gets to keep losing weight. Overall I'm pretty happy :)

And in other news while checking if I had full access to the BMJ I discovered there's apparently a link between hyperparathyroidism and diabetes/glucose intolerance. Apparently just having had the abnormal gland removed may well have reduced my fasting glucose levels a little! See this relevant paper.

Current Mood: cheerful

Mum and dad came to visit the week after our gardening shopping, and we had a nice weekend. We went to Anglesey Abbey, because I had a vague feeling they were known to have snowdrops, turns out that's a bit of an understatement: they have the biggest collection in the country and over 240 varieties. Mum took loads of photos :) We also put up some pictures, which makes the house look better, and planted various things in the garden, and even flattered my dad into putting the bird box up, by pointing out he was tallest. It was lovely to see them.

The following weekend Karen and I went back to the wedding dress shop, and I re-tried the dress I loved first time round. Also tried a couple more and found another I like even better. It's more expensive, but also more me, so in the end I've ordered that one this week - it'll be here towards the end of June :) Also wedding related I managed to order and collect a tiara for Emily, which she's really pleased with - lovely to be able to help out.

And last weekend was Emily's hen do, in London. She didn't even know where we were going until she got on the train in the morning, and every stage was a complete surprise to her, which was brilliant. Even better she has lots of lovely friends (and family :) and we all had a really good time together. Champagne in St Pancras, pizza, Sister Act at the Palladium, and then dinner and music from King Pleasure and The Biscuit Boys at The Pigalle Club. The food was fabulous, the music even better, and the atmosphere brilliant. The hard-core few stayed until 2:30 and then finished off a bottle of cava back at the hotel. I crashed out at 3:30 but I gather the last three managed to get the doorman to let them order in pizza, and god know when they got to bed :) An absolutely fabulous day.

This week I've been mostly catching up on lost sleep. That and helping out with a bike survey at the station yesterday, standing in the cold for an hour and a half at rush hour. Between us we counted (as best we could) every bike going through the gate line to the platforms, every bike leaving or arriving in the main bike parking areas, and at lunchtime every bike currently parked. Turns out there were half as many again bikes as parking spaces, which shows what a problem there is, and well over 1000 bikes through the gates too. It feels good to have helped out.

Planning a quiet weekend now, definitely needed!

Addendum: Oh, and apparently my liver function test came back perfectly normal after a month off the statins. Will go see doc next Weds and discuss the other tests that were done at the same time as the abnormal liver one, and see if I still need to take the metformin.

Woke up on Sunday randomly achy, for no good reason, and not obviously full of flu. By Monday morning it was no better, and I remembered a note in the leaflet about the statins I'm taking that I should talk to my GP about any unexplained muscle pain or weakness, so I went along and he took some blood to test my liver function, and also did some other tests at the same time, since they're due soon anyway.

GP rang this evening. Turns out I don't need to worry about the statins destroying my muscle tissue, as the blood test is all clear on that front. But the liver function test isn't right, in fact when they tested it last March it showed some signs of fatty liver (one aspect of the Metabolic Syndrome), and now it's looking worse. Dr Tweedale briefly considered sending me for a liver scan, but he's decided I should stop the statins for a month and then come and have the liver function tests repeated and see if it improves. I guess if it hasn't then I'll be off to the hospital again :/

Dammit, I've lost over 20% of my body weight, I'm practically out of the "obese" category by both BMI and body fat percentage. This sort of thing is supposed to get *better*, not worse. *sigh*

Still, the random viral achyness seems to be fading at least.

I have seen the parathyroid surgeon today and have surgery booked for September 3rd
I'm going to go visit baby Oliver (and his mum and dad and grandad and granny) next weekend while Mike is away in Nottingham
We are going on holiday: staying in Exeter for a week from the 16th. Conveniently letting me travel there directly from Rae's hen night in Cardiff, rather than coming home first.

It's all good. Apparently the urology appointment I have on 27th August will just be to discuss what to do about the kidney stone, rather than actually do it, but that's not the end of the world. And I have to visit the hospital for pre-assessment 2 days before the parathyroid surgery, but hopefully that'll just be a reasonably short appointment rather than taking a day off work. And I'll have over a week to recover before we're off to Bath for Rae and Adam's wedding.

Sprained/chipped ankle: sufficiently better that most of the time I don't even remember I did it any more. Even when doing things like attempting to scale a climbing wall. Success.

Hyperparathyroidism/hypercalcaemia: Have appointment to see surgeon on 28th, at which point they'll make an appointment to actually have the operation and take my overactive parathyroid out. Relatively minor day surgery, will need to take calcium/vitamin D supplements for a while afterwards until the other three glands reset to normal operation.

Kidney stone: This is almost certainly caused by the excess calcium in my urine because of the above. CT scan results are in and I have a 4mm stone in my left kidney. At this size it's 50/50 whether it's worth treating, but since I have symptoms (pain again this Tuesday, and I can still sort of feel it now) the GP has referred me to have it broken up using external ultrasound. No idea how long this referral will take. In the meantime I still have enough diclofenac left to deal with the pain.

Metabolic Syndrome: Having lost some weight I've discussed this with my GP. Since I have a strong family history of diabetes it's very likely that even if I lose more weight I'm still going to get diabetes later. He'd rather I continued to take the Metformin and statins, since apparently they can have a protective effect and will hopefully delay its onset. I'm not terribly happy with this, but will review in maybe 6-8 months time, at which point I'll ask them to re-do all the sugar/cholesterol level tests too. This does mean I still can't drink.

Weight loss: 13kg so far to 97kg, which is over 10% of my weight and more than 5 BMI points. I expect to reach 90kg (around BMI 31.5, and my next target) by mid-September. I need to reach 85kg to no longer be classed as obese. Still following Slimming World online, still trying not to go on about it.

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A slight case of overblogging

Entries tagged with health

Medication update

Diabetes update

Quick catch up

Wegovy time

Well that was a thing

Type 2 diabetes

GP

Weight loss, and maintenance

Healthy me

I Aten't Dead

Health update

Things

Health update

Hurray

Health update

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June 2025

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