h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh nos. I've done it now

just made hummous. ahh. this appears to offer two improvements over the shop-bought; about 2/3 of the calories, and about 100 X more flavour

Didn't go over-exotic on it the first time, just made the plain' version;

tin of chick peas,
taihini paste/sauce,
olive oil,
a few cloves garlic,
and some cumin seed, peppercorns and decent seasalt which I ground up in the pestal and morter
Added a bit of the chick pea liqure back to it, after blending it a while, bit by bit, until we got the right consistancy

and... oh... look, its nearly lunchtime

in otter news, very very tired today... not sure if it was the gym/run yesterday, a rubbish night's sleep, or the start of the downward spiral of being poisened by the levothyroxin... sort of feeling very spaced out, somewhat dizzy, vertigo type feeling but... hummous

in otter news, doing clothes laundry today, all washed, tee shirts already dried, the socks and jeans now drying, and the skirts, leggings, gym trousers, etc., hanging up to dry

Had an amusing time earlier, watching the council over the road... painting some white lines onto the road, to change the space of a parking bay....

Took, one massive huge lorry, with various tubs of things bublbing away on it, and pumping out smoke, and four men to do - and entirely blocked the road for at least an hour... deafening loud too and directly opposite our house

in other amusing things, today, saw three men, coming up the road, carrying a bed. - base, plus matress, plus sheets, duvet, and pillows... basically a fully made up bed... no.... we have no idea what that was about

no gym today, but gym tomorrow, instead, and no gym Friday as I'm at hospital for an endocrine clinic app - still no reply from PALS, or the cardiology Dr, so I'll wait until Friday, then escilate that to a formal complaint; come the 20th this month, it will be three months since the MRI scan, and, according to the NhS website, depending on the size of the aneurysm, I could be required to have a ultrasound on it, every three months.... or yearsly if its smaller, or i think 6 monthly of course, as the hospital haven't told me the results of the scans, and as they've now not put any follow-up in at all for me, I'm a little concerned by their lack of following the NHS own's guidelines would be kinda nice to know if I'm due to drop dead any day.

Legs a little aching after the two mile run yesterday, and arms a little bit feeling like they did the weight lifting afterwards

Lazy as I am I went to the local health food shop to buy some ready made gomasio but the young girl behind the counter had never heard of it. What ARE they teaching the young these days

So I'll have to make it myself again. Luckily it's WAY cheaper and tastier too.

In case you've never heard of it either: All you need to do is roast sesame seeds on a completely dry pan till the smell is right. Then ground it lightly in the mortar and season it with salt.

Very good on with Tabasco and mayonnaise

But you can use it for dozens of other things as a replacement for just salt

nope... I'd not heard of it either! - mind, I'd not eaten avocado or hummous, until this year... I know... I know... shocking doesn't cover it - I'm just realy annoyed its taken me until beyond the age of 40 to try avocado and hummous!- I'm now utterly addicted to both

sounds good... I do like sessamae ... especially since I learnted how to spel it rite - I'm definately to have to start making pitta bread again myself -about time I got back into the bread making, seems so long ago I last made it, and TBH with all that has happened, I've only the vaguest recolections of making bread weird I know... home made hummous and home made pitta - perhaps even with avocado too

at some point I might have a look, talking of sessamae, at how to make my own taihini too I'm pretty sure that is basically just sessamae basically I just need to watch out for the calories with the hummous and the pitta, of course - my weight loss has slowed so much now despite still eating the low calori and doing the masses of exercise - probably need to cut back on the a bit more I think

Weight loss is bound to become slower over time

Tahini is as easy as Gomasio: 200 gramms of sesame seed, 4 tablespoons of olive oil and a little salt - and hey pesto - I mean hey presto, of course

So basically Tahini is Gomasio mixed with oil. But probably leaner and therefore better than Gomasio and mayonnaise. I must try that with and Tabasco on bread. But light or dark bread. Or even rye bread? And should it be toasted or not? Guess I'll have to try it all to make sure

experimentation is the only way!

gosh.... yep, I just went looked at recipies for tahini, and, was kinda supprised just how simple it is... - can even make it apparently minus adding any oil, just using the sesame seeds - but I think you get a finer, smoother paste wth the oil added in... - also looks like can either use the hulled or un-hulled sesame seeds, I think the shop bought is probably the smoother variety with hulled seeds, so might be fun to get some un-hulled (think also called black?) sesame seeds, to make it like that too - I could always try blending the seeds minus the oil, then just add a bit of oil if it looked too lumpy or not smooth enough, but I assume a lot of oil comes out of the seeds naturally anyhow, as they get blended up ... I think my food mixer oughta have an attachment that would work for doing seeds like sesame - off to the Chinese or Indian supermarket I think, as I guess they'd be a lot cheaper for the seeds than anywhere else; supermarkets would only really carry tiny little 100 G or 200 G bags I think, but the ethnic supermarkets near here, oughta do cheaper, more industrial sized bags (where I used to get my bread making flours from etc) MMm..... tahini coated bacon with avocado and hummous I'm so nearly a vegatarian <

I believe you are right about a lot of oil coming out of the seeds naturally

Experimentation it is then!

I'm only guessing.... watch my logic... I tink its kinda good:

Sesame seeds are the seeds.... sesame oil also exists.... the oil is made from the seeds, so the oil must come out of the seeds

I must try look up the nutritional content of hulled VS un-hulled sesame seeds, see if they're is better nutrition, esp things lke fibre perhaps, if its seeds with the husck still on... plus, that might be a differnt flavour too, from shop bought tehini sauce - mind, might be a while before we get to experiment and make it; we've a lot of tahini left in the jar we bought, so I've got to make, and eat a lot of hummous first to use that up before I try making some myself

I just bought a small bag of sesame seed today and will make some Gomasio as soon as I find the time. Tahini later because I don't have a proper blender but will surely be able to borrow one. No for investing at the moment

I hope my blender thing is up to the job... its got all manner of various attachment things, most of which I've never used oddly, the masher attachment (mashed potato etc), is really good actualy, makes the best mashed potato I've ever done . . . way better than doing it by hand, even if it is a bit of a drag to clean after... and the blender also has the really useful in-pan soup blending bit, which I used a lot when living off soup, a few winters ago I think some of the other attachments with more heavy duty blades would work for the tahini - I'll find out at some point; not sure I fancy doing it all by hand in the little mortor and pestal I have that would take a long long while, and only give a tiny amount

had grilled tuna steaks tonight, with a pilaf of wild rice, with some onions, garlic, mushroom, cumin seed and mustard seed; having thought of sesamae too muc today, I used sesamae oil to flavour the tuna steaks, which was really rahter nice

Made more hummus today after getting back from hospital, for endocrne endocrine clinic app , etc
used the same recipie as I did last time... guess I'll be making more again Monday, or sunday, depending
diner tonight was bulghur wheet, which was already cooked, and sitting in the fridge, with lettuce, red pepper, and cucumber, with hummus, plain yogart, whole long red and green pickled chillis, and small red pickled 'round' chillis, an d some sliced sweeter pickled red chillis plus with some chicken I sliced up coated in spices and grilled err, was with hummus, of course
Supper tonight was toast, with hummus and some ham...

Lunch was bread, with hummus but... breakfast was toast with black pudding and fried egg, and wholegrain mustard ( we had a substantial breakfast as we were out early ish to hospital, and not back until gone mid afternoon.

Turns out I'm a mathmatical genious, and endocrinologists all share an inability with maths.

Serously.
I'm sitting there, in front of my consultant, and she asks me about the liquid levo I'm on... so I say the dose I'm on... and she panics.... - she thinks I'm on twice the dose she set; no I'm on twice the volume of liquid levo from which she set; as the dose she set was so microscopic, and such a microscopic volume, that it would have been impossible to measure accurately at home...
So, I'm on a lower concentration liquid levo, half the concentration in fact, and so, hence on twice the volume of the med; 1.25 ML of a 50 MCG per 5 ML oral solution, as compaired to .65 ML of a 100 McG per 5 ML oral solution. - I did the mats, in my head, and spoke it to her, out loud. and she didn't get it. she, didn't, understand, the logic behind the maths... - W said afterwards she was sitting at the desk with a pen and paper, 'doodling' and not even knowing how to work it out herself; despite me having told her how to work it out.
I'm surrounded by idiots and morons. and my life is in their hands.

5 ML = 50 Mcg.
2.5 ML = 25 McG
1.25 Ml = 12.5 McG.
she. didn't. seem. to understand. I can't understand how she coudln't understand rest of the app was boring and uneventful, and they didn't really come up with anything new; turns out I've not got the results of the X-ray on my spine fractures, as the Dr hasn't got the results of the X-ray on my fractured spine.
"she's going to chase them up"
mentioned the heart palpitaitons again, and the acne on my back, - again she didn't even examine the acne. didn't think the palpiations/tremmours were there responsibility, told me to talk to cardiology; I mentioned cardiology weren't talking to me...

must get some flour this week, coming, and make some pitta to go with the hummus if I've the energy
Gym tomorrow, then out in evening for a Chinese meal with the LGBT group, pub after I think
Gym Sunday.
must remember monday to phone up to order more growth hormone and phone the pharmacy back, as I had a missed call from them; I think this will be my pharmacist in dispear or disbelief, at a phonecall she would hav erecived from my consultant today; 'checking my dose of levothyroxin was correct' - my pharmacist already has a very* very* low opinion of Drs, justifibably so IMO... I think she'll be very shocked at the idiocy I have to deal with from my consultant, as well as the GP Drs

had a long bath tonight, in a ton of epsom salts, bubbles and a bath bomb or two, and some bath oil and coconut shampoo and all that jazz was too knackered to mosituriser myself after, and by then it was midnight, so I had to come down to inject the GH anyhow
Visited the patient leaison people whilst we were at the hospital; to chase up their chasing up of cardiology.... told me I'd get a phonecall - which we didn't get - given my endocrine consultatn hasn't got the results of a plain XRay I had done over thre emonths ago; its actually kinda within logical thought, that cardiology consultant might not yet have recieved the MRI scan pics I had done; especialy as the MRI was done at a differnt hospital, with no electronic communication system connecting it and the hospital my cardiology Dr/consultant is based at - seriously; it seems they use a pigeon postal service to get scans etween the two hospitals, as the two computer systems are so totally incompatible.
Surrounded by incompetant idiots.

think I'll give the more strenerous exercises I do a miss from now on; they're probably more than I should be doing given I've got an aneurysm - the pullups and dips and stuff. which, sucks - I think really the cardiologist just wants me to sit in a chair, and occasionally go for a slow stroll which seems rahter unlikely to me to be acceptible to give me sufficient exercise to maintain my weight and level of fitness Ive worked to regain this year so far assuming cardioogy will ever speak to me again now

Oh, and must go to pharmacy mOnday to pick up more predisolone as I put the repeat prescriptions in a few days back... - it was too wet when we got back from hosptital, and quite late, so we didn't get round to picking up the prescriptions today - I always keep a months advance at least supply of steorids in though
BP at hospital today once they managed to make the machien work, was 120 something over 60 weight was still 86 KG - but that was clothed of course

Prednisone and Prednisolone have such a bitter aftertaste.

I learned this week, while on a two week round of prednisone that Altoids Curiously Strong Mints wipes that bitterness out right away.

That is frightening about the maths...

It is so strange that it has become a sort of "ooo, scary maths" thing, rather than "a set of tools that facilitate people to do their jobs" thing...

I've noticed a few situations in my own line of work, which is thankfully not life or death, but still has some impact eg if someone can't work out what is 3/5ths of 7, different people might get different answers depending on what day it is...

Let's hope the exercises have strengthened the muscles in your arteries as well Would be nice for you to get the actual results, though, just to make sure...

Has your blood pressure gone down since starting the levo? Did the palpitation thingys go away for a bit before you started the levo, or was it just that they had got to a point where they weren't worth mentioning?

All I can do is say good luck with it all but at least you can have a 'laugh' with the pharmacist on Monday!

Realizing I could only roughly "guesstimate" 3/5ths of 7, i pulled out the calculator (app) and was pleasantly surprised.

The palpitations never went away... just sometimes I seem to notice them more... I don't think they are palpitations anyhow, as they rarely seem to be centrerd on the heart area, or even the chest... often Ill feel them start in my legs, or shoulders, or abdomin, and then they're more or less just all over (inside) the body... - feels like I'm laying in the bed, and its actually the bed, the walls, and the floor and the roomm/house that is vibrating.... - like standing in front of a huge bass speakers, with no audible sound, only with the vibrations from a very low and powerful sub bass frequency, pulsating/ - probably more apt to call them internal tremmors I guess; I can't feel vibrations on the surface of my body, - but then i might not be able to pick that up; W can't feel the vibrations/tremmors, so I guess it is either just inside, or a complete aboration of my neurones or brain, making me feel vibrations/tremmors that arn't there - could all be weird result of perlipheral nerve dammage, though it is basically the same as a lot of people with hyperthyroidism get... - but I'm hypothyroid

Might be interesting if they seem to reduce, or vanish, if/when my levothyroxin dose increases; I.E., if they're some affect of being vastly hypothyroid

I've never noticed the tast eof the prednisolone... - hydrocortisone tastes vial! - and the tablets are a weird 'matterial', for hydrocortisone, so as soon as they touch your tongue, they start disolving, and if you dont' swallow them quick enough, with enough water, they'll stick half way down the throat, and disolve in situe; the taste from that can take hours to go away! - luckily the prednisolone tablets, are a lot smaller, and rounder, and smoother outer coating, so don't tend to get stuck on the insides of the throat, tongue or cheeks like the hydrocortisone do

on double dose prednisolone as of this morhning; woke with a dredufl dredful sore throat; probably viral as I don't have a temp but doubling the steroids as I must do for an infection until it shows signs of reducing... have taken some codine paracetamol effeveresent tablets this mroning too, (left over from when I had radiotherapy induced sore throat, and luckily still in date), plus found the bottle of the neat anasetic stuff to spray in your throat, from the last time I tonsilitus (the bout of tonsilitis, that took two consultants, a GP, and endless nurses, before eventually a nurse diagnosed it and vastly over the inability of Drs and consultants to diagnose anything) = rather hoping this doesn't end up as tonsilitis again; I never had any truck with infections, in the past, but now thanks to the reduced immune function, I seem to not get on well with them - having said which don't feel too bad ATM; have been out into town for some shopping today

- got two bargins from the charity shop; a new skirt, lined, and purple, cotton type matterial (or maybe it is cotton), and a pair of velvet female trousers - just tried them both on

the skirt, a size 14 isn't overly big at all... could be smaller actually, and the size 16 velvet trousers are a really good fit; they waist very high, so a larger size works better, but probably would fit in a size 14 too, as they're elastic waist, same as the skirt is; with the larger size on the trousers though, at least they've got really generous leg room, - actually way too much buttock room, but I always have that problem, as I don't have any bum - I prefer trousers with more space on the legs though, as otherwise I tend to overheat so easily now with the messed up temperature regulation in my collapsing body

he skirt, and the pair of trousers, together, cost just £8.50

Also bought some more deoderant spray, epsom salts, and mouth rinse, from the parmacy/chemist whilst we were near that shop too... oh, and got a battery , two actually, to go in my new gloves... heated gloves (neuropathy on my fingers makes them so painful in the cold!0) = these gloves arn'texactly comfy to wear, so heavy and bulky with th battery in, but they might be useful sometimes

Right, must be lunchtime soon, think I'll take a midday dose of steroids, so I don't end up taking too much tonight, which might get in the way of sleeping later I took 5 MG instead of 3 MG this mroning, and so I think I'll take 2 MG now, and then either 2 or 1 MG with dinner.... 8 would be double my normal dose (ment to double for infection), though, oddly, most patients are on 7.5 MG a day, so even doubling my dose I'm only hitting about an average daily dose for most hypocortosolic patients maybe I oughta do 3 MG lunchtime making it 8 at that point and then just ake an extra 1 or 2 MG go tnoight... which would be 9 or 10 MG.... 10 MG though would be 40 MG HC equivelent, so that would make sense as 20 MG HC is the normal daily dose of steroids fora addison's or secondary AI - mind the doubling the dose thing is pretty arbatory really... and this doesn't seem like a major major infection (yet)

really really really hoping; that this infection was my inability to do sod all at the gym yesterday; that might mean I'm not having a bad affect to the levo pah... doctoring its so* easy... first try this... no wkr..... then try that... no work... well try this again... experimentation isn't dead, its just performed on patients

Hmm... I must have confused prednisolone with another bitter pill.

I got around to making Gomasio and Tahini yesterday. Gomasio is just black sesame seed roasted on a pan, crushed and mixed with salt. Tahini is the same with added oil. I used truffle oil. Both turned out well if a little too salty but when used with bread, and/or other stuff it's delish

there is prednisolone (what I'm on), and prednisone (simular and yes Drs get them confused too.. which is rather worrying) - I've never taken prednisone only the prednisolone and hydrocortisone.... - it may be though, the given brand of prednisolone I'm on; very tiny tablets, and don't take long to swallo, so don't get much time to give up any taste; and I'm only on the 1 MG tablets, they come in 2.5 and 5 MG (that I know of), and probably higher dosses too, when used for treating things like chronic inflamation or in cancer treatments etc - mine is just a 'replacement' dose for the cortisol, so I only take a tiny amount; even now, doubling my dose I only pop 8 1 MG tablets of it a day, 5 AM, 2 midday and 1 MG with dinner just to even it out and protect my tunny a bit

huzzah! - it was the cold/sore throat impeding my activity at the gym on SAturday; or rahter it was the lack of cortisol produced by the infection (that hadn't yet blossomed into the full on runny nose and sore throat at that time, hence I'd not started doubling up meds) - went to the Gym, yesterday;
90 minutes weight lifting, with no stop0s or breaks, squats, curls, back lifts, all with the 20 KG bar, then err, dead lifts, and the ones where you lift it to your chest, then above head from the front, with the 20 KG bar, then sort of weird bent over rowing with the 10 KG dunbell per arm, then some lat work, and some other things too, plus dips (but missing the pullups now to try stop my aorta bursting inconveniently) and, did some other stuff too... ahh, yes, bench pressing and inclined bench pressing, both with 20 KG (my max weight according to cardiology), so increased reps from 20 to 25 on them

Then went bowling in the evening

cold and sore throat was horrid this mroning, but its calming down a bit again now. <zen.



laundry washed, and all nearly dry


and finally got a reply/letter from cardiology which... is so badly written I've not a clue what most of it means; it either says "don't do any weight lifting at all, ever", or says 'weight lifting is fine so long as you stay in the 20 KG limit)

it also either says "you are on losartan to protect your heart", or, it says "its a pity you can't be on losartan but never mind" - so now I'm not sure if the cardiology consultant ever got the letter from the GP saying I was unable to tollerate the losartan (angiotensin II receptor antagonist; reduces blood pressure) - still no sure why I need to reduce blood pressure as I have constantly low blood pressure - letter does* however say I'll havea follow up scan in January, and thankfully says I don't have any more aneurysms throughout my cardiovasular system, though I do 'maybe' have a mutant heart valve, which might* be bicuspid where it should be tricuspid - I need to tell my Brother this so he can be examined to see if he has it... - so rahter nice they were not planning to tell me any of this until I put in a complaint to force them to communicate with me - the letter does resolve nothing though, as its written is such apauling language, it could mean teh opposite of what it says, in the letter, in half the places

Still trying to decide if, for the greater good, I should try get my endocrine consultant struck off for her incompetance in not being able to do simple maths to work out drug dosages, that is just so scarey...