My Butt Blew Off

My water butt that is, in the recent winds. I was running it directly into the pond so it was empty. I put it back and then discovered it had cracked and was leaking. Well it must be well over ten years old and plastics DO biodegrade, albeit slowly, so the replacement I just bought will outlive me.

Meanwhile I've had my toes pruned. After nearly losing one last year I have them professionally looked after by the local podiatrist who is a confirmed low carber. We had a good chat about the likes of Aseem Malhotra and Rangan Chattergee and dieticians.

Now the wind's died down and it's snowing. No worries, the house is well stocked with food and I've been to the mender's. Think I'll hibernate for a while. Night!

My foot doctor is conspicuous by her absence, and I wonder if I forgot to make the usual 'next appointment', last time. She is a strict 'low-fat' devotee, so whenever the subject of diet crops up I just say nothing, other than the usual platitudes. She's the one with the clippers you see!

Water butts are handy things to have ... do water companies still do 'special offers' on any I wonder? I know they did some years back because at the time we got one, and was very pleased with it.

It is so important to look after your feet - we expect a lot from them and sometimes it is easy to almost ignore them, which of course if you are diabetic is so important NOT to do.

Do readers have good attention from their health specialists, I know when my mother was having trouble with her feet some years ago now she had to wait up to three months for and appointment ... not fun if your foot is being painful and troublesome ... anyway the family got it sorted satisfactorily in the end!

Sticking my head out of the window this morning for some fresh air, I quickly pulled it in again - rather chilly - will need a thick coat and gloves for any walking later ...

Hope everyone's Sunday is going well so far ... must go and put the kettle on ...

All the best Jan

Yep it's chilly today. It was -5 last night over here, and my Sunday chicken is still too frozen to cook. It's either gonna be a late lunch, or a veggie one!  Heck as like! I'll wait.

Wobbly

@Wobbly

Well I hope you enjoyed your Sunday Lunch ... eventually!

Brr not too sure whether I like this weather, think a cold dry day is better than a wet warm one though .... just!

Mustn't forget our feathered friends at this time of year - they need food to, and plenty of fat!

All the best Jan

Our podiatrist like our dentist is private, it's worth paying to be seen quickly and efficiently AND not be fed the NHS line. When my toe was damaged, actually by an ingrowing toenail corner which then became infected, I went to see the "minor injuries nurse" at the local cottage hospital, only to find she had been taken over by the GP Practice. The receptionist told me I could NOT see the minor injuries nurse but could make an appointment to see a normal nurse. Well frankly they are as much use as hen's teeth, most all they do nowadays is waste your time and tell you there's nothing they can do and you will have to make an appointment with a doctor, which routinely takes three weeks or more. Less than ten years ago they were excellent but have since been "modernised" and I think they have been retrained to control patients, not disease. 

I got to see the podiatrist the following day. I'd probably have lost the toe before I got to see the NHS one.

The long term problem turned out to be hypERthyroid which had shot up my BP and permanently damaged my circulation (probably my heart too). I couldn't see "my" doctor at all because she had no appointments available. It took three weeks to get an "urgent" GP appointment with a clueless Porsche driving arrogant narcissist. Well to be fair he may be good at acute disease and diagnosis but he knows less than nothing about chronic conditions. He promptly "undiagnosed" me and claimed I was not only not diabetic but had never been prediabetic, all based on A1c and ignoring my GTT and postprandial BG, refused to believe I had normal numbers because I was low carbing, and was completely uninterested in my lipid panel where I DOUBLED my HDL and reduced my trigs to 1/10 of what they were, and kept these numbers for over ten years.

Yet he never broke a single Rule.

In fact I heard from the podiatrist that so many people had complained about the contemptible behaviour from the GP Practice staff, especially the receptionists, that the Practice Manager has now been replaced. Now the PCT has gone and been replaced with a CCG it may be that the actual medically qualified doctors may have more freedom to make medical decisions for medical reasons, that remains to be seen.

It all reminds me of what I saw too often in industry, lions led by donkeys, managers who would squander pounds in order to save pennies and then award themselves a bonus.

My optometrist is private too, he actually was an opthalmologist before leaving the NHS to run the family business so is also knowledgeable without the attitude. Same for the dentists. I get to hear about some of the competent doctors around the area, which is good, but I wonder how long they will be permitted to remain competent.

"nothing they can do and you will have to make an appointment with a doctor, which routinely takes three weeks or more."

I am lucky if I phone before ten am I always get an appointment the same day. Mind you it costs me £300 sheets. Seriously I am NHS and very lucky it would appear.

Until about five years ago we could see a doctor within about three days, and if it was urgent there was a Triage Nurse who would if necessary pull a doctor out of a consultation to see you on the spot (I did this once or twice with my mother, and once the GP pulled out a second GP for a second opinion before deciding to send her to the hospital). The nurses were pleasant friendly and knowledgeable and even the receptionists could do impossible things like make us adjacent appointments, or simultaneous appointments with a doctor and a nurse, without complaint.

Then it all went south. So make the most of what you've got while it's still there!

I just lost my podiatrist. She has decided to retire from pedicuring. Still, now that the weight is coming off maybe I won't need such services, and will be able to clip my toenails myself! I'll do a 'Jimmy Nail'; clean them with a pointing trowel, and clip with garden shears!

To get with the thread, I refuse to pander to arrogance. I go through doctors like a mouse with cheese, in the hope I find one that has some idea of what is what. Usually I find it's the more mature specimens. Thankfully, for real worrying problems, my original; NHS Doctor is semi-retired and sees patients privately. But of course, for how much longer don't know! Oh heck! I have to go and see the diabetes nurse on Wednesday, and she is another low-fat bigot. I think she might have a surprise when my test results  arrive.  I'll just tell her I have taken her advice to 'eat properly'!

There was a time when it was the older doctors who were patronising and the younger ones who had more Clue. Now it seems to have switched, the older ones with experience vs. the young ones spouting their "Evidence Based" medicine, which isn't.

Getting rid of the PCT and the previous Practice Manager seems to have helped a lot, the doctors and nurses seem to be a lot more relaxed and even the receptionists have returned to being helpful.

"My" doctor has become an order of magnitude more clueful. In the past I'd printed out research by the likes of Volek, Phinney, Krauss and Reaven to explain and justify what I was doing. She looked resigned and told me her job was to "follow rules and tick boxes".

When I saw her while ago she said

"By now we would have expected you to be on two or three diabetes drugs". I gave her David Unwin's twitter feed.

Last time she said

"You are twenty years ahead of your time. One day we will all be doing this!" Which was ironic because I learned from many people who had been low carbing for decades, some going back to when diabetics were put on low carb as standard operating procedure.

Currently I'm finding it very confusing, some dieticians are still vehemently anti-low carb especially for diabetes, while others are indignantly claiming they NEVER prescribed high carb low fat.