Fit as a fiddle - apparently

2006-09-19T19:39:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd update any one who's interested following my latest batch of blood tests and weigh-ins.

September has seen the start of my walking home from work experience. It's a nice walk, approximately 6 miles, from Trinity Square, down to the canal and then along the towpath to Beeston. A quick walk up Meadow Road and Station Road and a jaunt across Dovecote Lane Park and I'm home. I do this every night now so you'd think the pounds would be dropping off me, wouldn't you?

Unfortunately this increase in my exercise has coincided with a new symptom of whatever lurgy this is I've got, namely 'fluid retention'!

Having been steadily losing weight at the rate of about 2lb per week, I was looking at the distinct possibility of getting back to my pre-illness weight by the end of the first week in September. Imagine my language when my scales showed a weight GAIN of 2lb. OK I'd had a Chinese takeaway the night before, and a pizza the night before that, but this was a right pisser, I don't mind telling you.

Still, I put it down to a temporary blip, caused by overpatronising the local food delivery executives. Until, that is a weigh-in four days later showed another 2lb increase.

I had also noticed that at the end of my nightly 6 mile walk my arms tingled with pins and needles and my hands were bloated like a couple of balloons.

My feet were swelling up when I sat at the PC for any length of time as well so I went to see my GP again.

He seemed to know straight away what it was and even gave me a name for it, which, of course, I instantly forgot. It may, he said, be a side effect of the tablets I was taking to reduce my cholesterol. He said this reaching into a drawer for a book, which I can only assume was 'The Observer Book of Drugs' or somesuch publication. Rifling through the pages he stopped, read and said that there was no mention of such a side effect but, to be sure, I should stop taking the tablets after my blood test which was due on the 8th. He would see me on the 15th and if the fluid retention had stopped, this would point the finger clearly at the pills (and presumably prove his book wrong). Of course, he said, you'll probably find that you'll put a bit of weight on due to the excess fluid. Yes, I said. Nevermind he said, keep up with the diet and the exercise, it'll sort itself out. My God, it's no wonder they need so many years training!

So the blood tests happened on the 8th. These were fasting tests which means no food or drink, other than water, after evening meal the night before. No big deal, but it meant I didn't take any tablets that morning. By lunchtime my headache was back, as bad as it had been in May.

I hastily downed my three aspirin and eventually it eased off. All this demonstrated, as far as I was concerned, was that I wasn't cured yet and the aspirin was still necessary.

The following Tuesday, the 12th, I toddled off to my first appointment at the Weight Loss Clinic at the QMC. A 3 mile walk to the hospital and 3 miles back would replace my 6 mile walk home.
The dietician was very nice and went through my usual diet, giving advice on cutting out any remaining 'treats'. My weekly pizza came in for some stick of course. Couldn't I have less pizza and supplement it with a side salad. I pointed out that Pizza Night was the only night I didn't have salad, so, whilst I accepted her advice, I did not intend to follow it. She laughed and said this a fair comment. She also told me her colleague, who I had seen at the end of July, had made a note to the effect that I spoke my mind. We laughed. Then she said it was time to weigh me and measure my waist.

With trepidation I stood on the scales. 114.2kg. Means nothing to me!

Apparently this was 4.3kg less than in July and was excellent (her words not mine). I hastily converted 4.2kg to bags of sugar and multiplied by 2 (a 2lb bag of sugar is now a 1kg bag so it must be about the same!). 8lb-9lb. In 7 weeks. Didn't sound so excellent to me. At this rate it'll take years to lose the weight I have to. My frustration was interupted by the arrival of the tape measure. I held one end against my belly button while the dietician did a lap of me with the other end. My waist measurement was 150cm, 3cm MORE than in July.

How can this be, I've lost 4.3kg I cried. I should be getting smaller, not bigger.

The dietician looked sheepish. I suppose the measurement may have been a bit out in July, she mused. Apparently different people measure waists in different places! Well my waist's always been in more or less the same place, but this was an excuse I could live with. I was finding it hard to accept the premise that I could lose weight and go up a trouser size. I mentioned the fluid retention, basically trying to excuse my poor weight loss performance. The dietician's eyes lit up and she explained that this was probably why my waist measurement had increased. Apparently the fluid is being retained in my waist! Like some reservoir it stores water, occasionally pumping it to my arms and legs, hands and feet. My body has never worked so hard!

Back to the GP on the 15th for the blood test results. All tests were normal, he said. This washed over me. I hadn't realised the importance of what he had just said. All tests were normal. He brought up the test results and sure enough, all my cholesterol level were within acceptable parameters. The triglyceride count, which had been 7.9 initially and had reduced to 2.9 at the previous blood test, was now 0.9. That's 1.2 below the 2.1 threshold which is allowed.

Obviously my GP was pleased and he asked about the fluid retention. I explained that there was no significant difference and he advise me to start taking my fenofibrate tablets again. This would keep my cholesterol down. He weighed me. 112.5kg. I was impressed. I'd lost nearly a whole bag of sugar in just 3 days.

I asked what happened next. I explained about the headache the previous week and summised that this suggested that high cholesterol wasn't, in fact, the cause of my mini-strokes and the resulting headaches. After all, I no longer had high cholesterol, but I still had the headaches. He advised me to keep taking the tablets, keep up the diet and exercise programme and he was sure it would sort itself out. He said I would hopefully find out more when I visited the cholesterol specialist at the Lipid Clinic at the City Hospital on the 27th. This made some sense. The GP said I should have my next blood test in February and see him the following week. He prescribed me another tablet to reduce the fluid retention so I now take six tablets every morning with my bran flakes. Oh joy!

The next day it occured to me that the cholesterol specialist at the Lipid Clinic is going to take one look at my blood test results and discharge me. After all, I don't have a cholesterol problem any more.

I've just weighed myself and I'm back to the weight I was before all this started back in March. Yep I'm 17½ stone again. That's 1st 2lb down on my top weight back in May.

So here I sit, blogging. The headache's still there, my feet are swollen and my body aches from my 6 mile walk home. My hand's have returned to normal size and my stomach is happily processing the Flora pro-activ low fat cherry yoghurt (with plant sterols, clinically proven to dramatically lower bad cholesterol and help maintain a healthy heart).

Still at least I'm fit as a fiddle now - apparently!

Try reading Jasper Fforde

2006-08-14T21:03:00.000+01:00

If you've never read anything by Jasper Fforde I can highly recommend his books.

His first book, The Eyre Affair, introduced heroine Thursday Next, a literary detective in a parallel Swindon. It's 1985 and the Crimean War is still going on, people own pet dodos and someone's messing with Jane Eyre.

Many hilarious adventures ensue and carry on in the sequels Lost In A Good Book, The Well Of Lost Plots and Something Rotten. We meet great characters like Jack Schitt, Braxton Hicks, Hamlet, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Emperor Zhark and St Zvlkx, a thirteenth century saint 'whose revealments have an uncanny knack of coming true'.

His latest series features nursery rhyme characters and began with The Big Over Easy. The second book, just published, is The Fourth Bear. Seriously try these books, they're brilliant.

Stik

Starter for 10

2006-08-13T13:12:00.000+01:00

Well here it is. An old geezer's attempt to do something modern. I'm only just getting the hang of texting on my mobile and now I'm blogging. Whatever next.

Those of you who know me will be aware that I've been a bit crook for some time now. You'll be glad to know, I hope, that I am getting better now thanks largely to prescription drugs, and have finally returned to work.

I have had to make several lifestyle changes.

Gone are the cigarettes (Ah sweet tobacco, how shall I miss your tender embrace!). Over two months now and no major cravings.

I have also had to change my diet, replacing crisps, cakes, pastries and chocolate with salads, vegetables, fruit and low fat yoghurt. Even my beloved Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes had to go. Bring on the Bran!

Alcohol is restricted (six units per week), as is caffeine (one cup of real coffee per day). The latter has not been as bad as it might have been as Kenco's decaff is actually very pleasant and even caffeine free diet coke tastes OK after you get used to it.

The biggest change though is my new commitment to exercise. Walking at least three miles a day is the extent of it at the moment but I am investigating the possibility of adding swimming to the regime at the weekends. So far so good, let's see what happens when the weather turns!

One thing I have learnt over the past five months is that the wheels of the NHS move extremely slowly when your condition is not life threatening. I am still waiting for two appointments promised when I left hospital on 9th June. Whilst I am happy to wait for the treadmill tests and cardio-vascular torture of one of them, I am rather keen to see the specialist in the blood disorder which has given me grief since 13th March. Ho hum, keep taking the tablets!

The next step will be to try and get my social life back. I must admit I have become a bit of a hermit, partly because I've not felt well enough to party and partly because my headaches seem to get worse when I'm in the company of lots of people I know. Put me in room full of strangers and I'm fine, in a room full of friends and family and ooh my head hurts!

It was great to see many of my BMTG buddies last sunday at the BBQ. Small steps.

Well that's about it for now. Feel free to comment if you feel like it.

Stik.

stiksblog

Fit as a fiddle - apparently

Try reading Jasper Fforde

Starter for 10