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| Adhisthana, June 2018 |
LTRP
The new television is up and working! I had to phone a friend to help me lift it onto the table, and after I'd connected it all up it didn't seem to want to find the Internet or the sound bar. So, ostrich-like, I left it alone to see if it cured itself. I did have a look at the manual and fixed the sound bar by changing where the cables plug in, and miraculously it found the Internet without any further intervention, so all is well at the moment. Let's hope it stays that way.
So with that little project completed I have visited a carpet supplier of national repute and a local shop to have a little look at my auditorium carpet options. I just want a plain dark grey carpet, which I thought would limit the choices a bit, but even so there were seventeen different carpet options in the big shop which seem to be suitable, and no obvious way to choose between them. There is a free sample service so I asked for four samples to be sent, and we'll see how I get on. The local shop suggested just one option, which seems just as unsatisfactory.
Work
I went to an evening meeting about Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency, which wasn't very useful but there was a nice dinner and I sat next to a very chatty doctor. Diabetes is a disorder of the pancreatic endocrine system (insulin is an endocrine hormone), but the pancreas also produces enzymes as part of its exocrine activity. These are primarily lipase, amylase and protease to digest fat, starch and protein, and it seems that this function often fails in people with diabetes. Essentially the treatment of PEI is Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy, i.e. swallowing large capsules of enzymes along with meals and snacks so that they replace the enzymes that the pancreas is no longer producing. The main lecture was about symptoms and diagnosis rather than management, so I now know how prevalent it is in people with diabetes, but no more about what to do about it.
My Team Leader was also there, and she brought me up to speed on what is going on with the DESMOND Type 2 education programme in our region. I mentioned previously that the Clinical Commissioning Group is getting very 'hands-on' with DESMOND, and it seems that courses have a very poor attendance rate and keep getting cancelled in the main area covered by the NHS Trust I work for. Apparently the Trust's Clinical Director for Diabetes (who is also Clinical Director for another couple of specialities) had a very uncomfortable meeting with people from the CCG. I don't have a great deal of time for our Clinical Director because he seems to show no interest whatsoever in directing clinicians, clinics or anything else that is clinical, so this was a very interesting move on the part of the CCG. I don't know whether anything will come of it, but it's testament to my new Team Leader's dogged persistence that this meeting even came about.
Talking of the CCG and education: I had to attend one of the CCG's regular meetings about education for people with diabetes in order to present the results of my evaluation of our short Carbs and Insulin course, which we're calling CANDI (see what we did there?) This was one of the last times I had an idea at work before I became determined to have no more ideas, and it has resulted in a lot of work for me but not much progress. The results show that the people who attended got a lot out of it subjectively, but objective measures don't show much improvement. I then compared the objective measures of CANDI with those from a similar population who attended the longer 4-day carb counting course, and those were no better. What happens next is anyone's guess, but now that we have our tenacious Team Leader I suppose she will have to decide, so I've put it on the agenda for our next team meeting. Which is the day after Boxing Day when I will have even less than my usual motivation to talk about matters at work.
Badminton
Matches and club nights continue twice a week, My duties as Social Secretary led me to try and arrange a 'Not Christmas Social' in November so that we wouldn't get caught up in all the pre-Christmas shenanigans. I offered various dates so we could include the maximum number of people, and Friday 30th November was chosen. Unfortunately in the chosen venue, this night was already designated as a pre-Christmas shenanigan, so the event became the 'Not Not Christmas Social' and fourteen people came along and enjoyed themselves at a local pub. I had the best vegetarian option I think I've ever had in a pub (a pie with mash and veg).
and the rest
I can't remember exactly how it came about, but Lola II was interviewed for a project focussing on views and opinions and thoughts on childlessness from people who have consciously chosen not to have children. She passed the contact on to me, and this week I was also interviewed. It was very interesting and I'm still mulling over some of the things we discussed.
I went to see mum and dad and this time mum had a great job for me to do. Often the jobs I am called upon to perform involve either the computer or a ladder (there were jobs of those varieties on this visit too), but this time it was all about the sewing machine. As well as using the zigzag option to sew hems in shortened sleeves, we took down the kitchen blinds and shortened them by about a foot, cutting off the dirtiest part and revealing fresh fabric. It all went very well and they look great and it felt like we had really achieved something.
There have obviously been other activities at home and at work, but having ended the weight management effort my weight has obviously gone up by a kilogram. I knew it would because I haven't been feeling hungry lately and there have been celebratory meals and food provided during work events (which always leads me to overeat). Now what shall I do?
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