Winter is upon us.

The clocks went back this morning, and we had an extra hour in bed. Being a Sunday, I made the best of it as I'd been up at 2am with one of the dogs. After the beautiful sunny, clear blue skies of yesterday today's were the complete opposite grey, dull and heavy looking. The sun would never burn off this greyness today, so glad we took the dogs walking in Sherwood Forest yesterday.



There were several photographers out taking photos of the trees, the colours have been glorious this year. Unfortunately, I still can't hold my camera as it causes pain in my should so I have picked this photo from Photobucket as an example of the beautiful colours yesterday.

Once again, dog walkers are being warned of SCI, Seasonal Canine Illness. 

Read more here: http://www.chad.co.uk/news/local/sherwood-forest-and-clumber-park-dog-walkers-warned-over-mystery-illness-1-4846191

We were first aware of this problem 2 years ago and are fortunate that our dogs do not wander into the undergrowth, they do not eat flowers, leaves or other items in the woods and tend to stay very close to us on the paths. Until I saw the notices yesterday I had forgotten about the problem in previous years, maybe time to give Sherwood Forest a little bit of a miss for a few weeks. It's normally a problem September to November.

Although our dogs are showing no signs of the illness after our walk yesterday, I'm off to complete the questionnaire into SCI as they want feedback from dog walkers in Sherwood Forest as one of the 5 research sites, whether the dogs have become ill or not.

http://www.aht.org.uk/cms-display/preworkingForm.html

Pacemaker Blog

I have taken the posts on my pacemaker story onto a separate blog: http://livingwithapacemaker.blogspot.co.uk/

For anyone wanting to know how I'm getting on,which is very well at the moment, please follow the link and add me to your list of blogs to follow.

Not done that in a long time.

I work opposite a large supermarket so it is too easy to call and shop after work, on my way home. It's logical but sometimes a pain. Sometimes it nice to finish work and go home.

I always seem to do the main weekly shop on Monday. Last week I realised I should not be shopping on my own. I was fine filling the trolley. I was fine putting it all on the conveyor belt at the check-out. I was even fin putting it in bags once it had been checked out. I could do all that one-handed and protect my left arm.

What I couldn't do was lift the bags into the boot of the car without it involving my left arm.

So today, I have ordered my shopping on line. It will be delivered tomorrow after i get home from work. And Neil can put it all in the cupboards and fridges so the only thing that I had to do today that hurt a little...

... was pay.

And it meant I could shop from my favourite store which I don't normally as we don't have one close enough.

Job well done.

In the right direction, but more work needed....

I was so sure the results would be good, I'd tried so hard to eat the right things and I'd read on the internet that triglycerides react well to changes in diet.

But they don't react well to blood tests that are not done correctly.

I purposely checked my form to see whether I needed to fast from the night before, if I could only have sips of water for the 10 hours before my test. The box was not ticked, I could have breakfast.

It should have been ticked.

My overall cholesterol is down from 6 to 5.3 a good reduction and almost there, it needs to be below 5, but it's the triglycerides that are the problem, these are the bad cholesterol that were at +3. They have come down to +2.8, not a big move, and there are 2 reasons for this.

Firstly, my good cholesterol is too low and secondly having breakfast and coffee would have affected the results.

So, it's heading in the right direction but I could not help but feel disappointed.

The internet came into action again once I got home. I needed to know how to get my good cholesterol up. Losing weight is good and that is still reducing gradually, without any effort. More exercise helps but I can't do anything about that until I get the all clear from my operation in another 3 weeks. So, we're back to the foods we eat. In cutting out so much fat from my diet, it seems I have cut out too much good fat too. Now I need to re-introduce good fats. More oily fish & avocados are back on the menu. 

I have another blood test in 2 months, and this time the box is ticked, I will fast before the test and hopefully next time the results will be better.

Has a low saturated fat diet done the trick?

It is over 3 months since I was told that my triglycerides were too high at +3. According to the internet I should be aiming for below 1.7. From reading up about triglycerides, they do respond well to diet change so I am hopeful I will see some significant reduction in the level if I'm not actually back to where I should be. 

I've been for my blood test this morning, once again joining the ranks of the pensioner brigade in the dash for a ticket to try and reduce the waiting time. I've been a couple of times now, so I know the routine and I'm quicker on my legs than most of them so a bit of body swerving normally gets me from the door downstairs to the waiting room upstairs in a few seconds less then the majority.

Now, I have another week to wait for my results - appointment next Tuesday. 

Having had my test I can now be a little naughty as it won't influence the outcome, but equally, if I'm not there yet all I'll be doing is giving myself more work to do, oh the decisions we have to make as a grown up!

It's almost 2 weeks since my operation and I have yet to get the Wii fit out to see what my weight has done in that time, I have certainly been less active and probably not been as good with my diet as I should so I expect to be told off by the little Wii monster that waves me goodbye each time.

Well, no time like the present - I'll go and find out right now!

Wish me luck!

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And it's not bad, not bad at all. I have only gained 1lb in 2 weeks of sitting about recovering from my operation. I'm well pleased with that.

Tomorrow, back to work full-time, back to normal and back to healthy living!