A few months back I was told that I had an underactive thyroid, and that as a result of this I have developed diabetes. I had only gone to the doctor because I had conjunctivitis and needed some eye drops. Anyway, that was way back in April. In fact, it was on 25 April, the anniversary of Portugal's Carnation Revolution - not that that has any bearing whatsoever on today's ramblings. Well, as I am relatively newly diagnosed I have been up and down to the medical centre and hospital to have all sorts of tests. They needed to photograph my retinas, which is something they will be doing annually now, so I'm told. Mainly, though, they take blood. I've seen more needles going into my arm in the past six months than I'd seen in the entire 44 years preceeding them. Well, to cut a long story slightly less long, the wonderful people at the NHS (and they have been wonderful) have been trying to find the right level of medication to best control my two conditions. The thyroid they seemed to get right first time; the diabetes is proving a little more troublesome, although they are getting there. In fact, if truth be told, they had got it right and had brought my blood sugar levels down from 18 to 6, but I had heard the drug they had prescribed had been refused a licence in the US, and that there were some doubts about its safety - although it had been approved for use in the UK. So, at my last check-up I told the doctor of my concerns and she agreed to change my medication, but warned me that the new treatment would have to be very closely monitored because one of the drugs could result in hypoglycemia - and that cannot be a good thing. Well, to the point. This afternoon I was pottering about tidying the house when I suddenly felt very unwell - dizzy, lightheaded, shaking and generally bleuch! I tested my blood, and found that my sugar levels had gone way down below what they ought to be. Long and short? I had my first chocolate biscuit and bowl of ice cream in six months, and boy did they taste good! Shame about the Celtic, though.
Past years -- 2006, 2005 and 2004 respectively