"Ooh shiny."

Just back from the docs. She was happy with the readings in this table, and we cross checked my sphignomanometer (sp?) Omron M5-1 with hers and the readings were in the same ball park. So yep, hypertension is now removed from the list of active treatments on my medical records.

All that happens now is the usual annual monitoring that anyone of my age will receive.

Alice.

Apparently for the last 7 years I've been lying on health questionnaires.

Why?

In 2003 I had high blood pressure I was diagnosed with it. I refused specific treatment and carried on my way. It was high because I was in a lot of pain having 3 days earlier binned a bike at 60mph by hitting debris on a bend, I was also 19st. Both things that would it was admitted cause a rise in BP. The treatment I was offered, sorry, it was insisted that I take was a beta-blocker, my response to that was that I'd continue to refuse them until it was obvious that with

1. weight at a reasonable level, and
2. pain free

my BP was still high. It is noted in my records that treatment was refused. Hence, when health questionnaires have asked "Are you being treated for … High Blood Pressure …" I've always answered no.

Overtime, with a big drop when the sever pain resolved, my BP declined to an average of 135/80 with occasional high readings and I thought no more about it, until Tues when the referral letter to the hospital mentioned under active conditions that I was being treated for high BP. Since late 2006 my BP has been monitored whenever I've visited the GP and I've put that down to being on HRT. Seems I was wrong, it was because of the diagnosis in 2003.

Today seeing the doc about something else gave me the opportunity to ask and so the above story unfolded. She did check my BP and yes it was higher than the target for my age (155/95 instead of 150/90), she did say that I looked very stressed and that that won't be helping. We've agreed that for the next few weeks that I'll monitor my BP at home, first thing, around the middle of my day, and just before bed. I'm fortunate that I do have a good blood pressure monitor (Omron M5). She knows that if prescribed a beta-blocker that I won't take them, but as they are no longer the drug of choice she'd be suggesting something else.

So yeah, let's add more to the things Alice will worry about, and then wonder why she's stressed and anxious.



Alice.

I've just phoned the docs to get the results of the glucose tolerance test that was done a couple of weeks ago. It took a bit of prompting to get the actual figures out of them. The 2hour glucose level is the blood glucose level 2 hours after a vile glucose drink.

	Units	Early Aug '07	15th Aug '07	Reference
Fasting glucose	mmol/L	6.4	5.2	3.6-6.1
2 hour glucose	mmol/L		5.7	5.0-7.8

The following is from http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40001588/:

• Diabetes:
  • Fasting plasma venous glucose >7.0 mmol/l
  • 2-hour Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) plasma venous glucose >11.1 mmol/l.
• Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT):
  • Fasting plasma venous glucose <7.0 mmol/l
  • 2-hour OGTT plasma venous glucose ≥7.8 mmol/l and <11.1 mmol/l.
• Impaired fasting glucose (IFG):
  • Fasting plasma venous glucose measurement 6.1–6.9 mmol/l
  • 2-hour OGTT plasma venous glucose <7.8 mmol/l.

As I was told, before insisting on the figures, "the results are normal".

What worries me about this, is how random fasting glucose levels are. For the first one I'd eaten fairly normally the previous day, and followed the recommendations for fasting (nowt but water for the 12 hours before the test). The same for the follow-up. Yet the first test was sufficiently high to trigger a follow up.

What it has done, as has TWSC — where jacqib mentioned, when seen photographing food before eating it, her photo-diet — made me aware that I need to be a bit more concious of exactly what I am eating. It is so easy at work to just nibble on a biscuit or (more likely) several, whilst waiting for the kettle to boil. The same applies to going out to do a spot of shopping, where I'll pick up something to nibble on, even if I'm not actually hungry.

Alice.