Health

There’s Nothing Quite Like Tooth Pain

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Last weekend, I had a Rituximab infusion aimed at keeping my vasculitis in remission. Then on Tuesday I started with pain in my lower jar and noticed that part of one of my wisdom teeth had broken away. I got an emergency Dentist appointment on Wednesday and had to have the tooth extracted.

Before the extraction and since, I’ve had pain in my lower jaw and face. There’s nothing quite like tooth pain is there? This actually reminds me what I’ve written about pain, in FINDING YOUR HAPPINESS:

Your Pain

Part of being alive is experiencing pain. There are different types of pain. Pain can be physical, mental or emotional. Any type of pain reduces your quality of life and will make you less happy.

You should address any pain promptly, to prevent it from getting worse and to promote healing.

Physical Pain
Physical pain is often managed, rather than cured or healed. Pain management can involve medications, exercises and sometimes surgery. Physical pain can be acute (coming on suddenly and is short term) or chronic (long term).

Acute physical pain is a sign that something is wrong inside your body. Chronic pain is caused by diseases and disorders inside your body. If you’re in physical pain, I highly recommend that you see your GP.

Your GP will complete an assessment, tests/investigations to work out the cause of the pain and work with you to develop a treatment plan.

A good example of physical pain is a broken leg. Imagine you fall and break your leg. You are in pain and seek medical attention. You have an x-ray that confirms the broken bone. You have surgery to repair it.
After surgery you have a period of immobilisation to allow the bone to heal and then have physiotherapy to regain muscle strength.

Within 3-6 months you are back to doing everything you used to do before the injury. Walking, running and dancing. Your leg is healed. You are healed.

Mental Pain
We don’t know enough about mental pain. Sometimes mental pain is managed, sometimes it is healed.

Mental pain is caused by mental illnesses. Sometimes mental illnesses run in families, suggesting that the cause could be genetic. Sometimes mental illnesses are caused by life events.

There are many different types of mental illnesses, some are acute and some are chronic. Examples of mental illnesses include anxiety, depression, bipolar and schizophrenia.

It can be difficult for a doctor to diagnose mental illnesses due to similar symptoms. Even Psychiatrists (doctors that specialise in mental health) have difficulty diagnosing mental illnesses.

Diagnosis of mental illnesses can take a significant amount of time. There’s no blood test or scans that can be completed to confirm whether an individual has mental illnesses or not, let alone which specific mental illness they have.

I would highly recommend that you see your GP if you are experiencing mental pain.

If you’re experiencing mental pain, don’t wait for a diagnosis. Start to manage your symptoms immediately, to the best of your ability.

In some cases people can fully recover from mental pain/illnesses. Whereas in other cases it is about long term management of symptoms.

Recovery from mental pain/illnesses doesn’t have set timescales. It usually takes months to years, depending on the individual and the circumstances. But every year many people do recover from mental pain/illnesses.

Emotional Pain
A conversation about emotional pain in western healthcare is not currently happening, but it needs to.

Symptoms of Pain
With all types of pain you will have a combination of physical, mental and emotional symptoms. Let me give you an example of this from my own life.

I once had severe stomach pains. They’d come and go, but were incredibly painful when present. I went to see my GP and had a range of tests/investigations. Everything came back normal.

However physically, my body always felt tight. Sometimes my chest felt tight, like it was difficult to breathe. At these times, my heart beat fast and I sweated excessively.

Eventually my GP diagnosed me with anxiety, a mental illness. I was prescribed medication and referred for therapy. It took several years, but I came to realise that my anxiety was often caused by my emotional state. Fear seemed to frequently trigger my anxiety.

I realised that in order to effectively treat my anxiety, I needed to address the fear. So that’s what I did.

Whatever symptoms of pain you have it is essential that you work out what it is and address the cause(s).

(From: FINDING YOUR HAPPINESS by Antony Simpson, 2026, pages 55-57.)

I’m currently on antibiotics and prescription painkillers. So I will be taking it easy this weekend.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Author Interview: Antony Simpson in 2026

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In 2025, I did an Author Interview with Wigan Literature Festival. Author interviews are a great way for readers or potential readers to get to know you. But they are only current at their time of publish and soon become outdated. So I’ve decided to update this author interview for 2026 here:

Published Works: FINDING YOUR HAPPINESS (2026), Funny Emails To My Friend (2025), Z-VIRUS Monsters (2025), Z-Virus Powers (2024), Ways The Human Body Can Go Wrong (2024), My Royal Navy Friend (2024), The Alcohol Therapy Workbook (2023), SpellCast – Folk Magic for the 21st Century (2021) & Mental Health Wisdom – Developing Understanding & Empathy (2019).

Tell me a bit about yourself?
My name is Antony Simpson and I am an Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch. I’m 40 years old, a gay man and live in the North West of England.

What sort of literature do you write?
I write books, articles, blog posts and very occasionally the odd short story.

In terms of my books, they are mostly non-fiction and on a variety of topics including all aspects of health – physical, mental and emotional, a book that is general humour and a book that is about paganism.

My two fiction books are about a group of teenagers that develop powers after the world has been overrun by zombies. Their powers help them to survive at first, but then get increasingly out of control and dangerous, so they go on a journey to try and find the cure for the Z-VIRUS. The Z-VIRUS is responsible for both their powers and the zombies.

What inspires you to write?
A wide range of things inspire me to write, including: my passions and interests, anything that I find inspirational, my life experiences, my family and friends.

Tell me what your latest creative work is about?
My latest book is titled FINDING YOUR HAPPINESS and is an invitation to the reader to learn the knowledge and skills that they need to be happier. It is partly inspired the journey I have been on in the last few years and partly inspired by the work I do as a Nurse, helping people with addiction issues to become healthier and happier.

About 2 years ago, I was diagnosed with a medical condition that would significantly reduce my life expectancy. That diagnosis made me rethink every aspect of my life. I made the decision that I wanted however long I have left to be as happy as possible. I started to immediately plan for and take action to improve my happiness. Today, I can honestly say, after a lot of work on myself and change, I am the happiest that I have ever been.

What do you hope your readers will get from your latest creative work?
I hope that anyone who reads FINDING YOUR HAPPINESS uses the knowledge and skills in the book to transform their lives. To become happier and to be excited about what their future holds for them.

What is the most exciting thing and the most challenging thing about writing?
The whole creative process is exciting. Getting an initial spark of an idea, developing it and eventually holding in your hand something that you have written, edited and published. I also get really excited by meeting readers or potential readers of my work.

The most challenging thing for me is marketing and promoting my creative works so that they sell. Although I do make small amounts of money from book sales here and there, so far, none of my published books could be considered a commercial success.

Luckily, I write for my enjoyment and pleasure, not to make money. I currently have a full time job as a Nurse, which I love. But balancing a full time job, writing, medical appointments and other commitments can be challenging at times. It can leave me with limited time, energy and motivation to write. But that said, I am still managing to create on average 1 book a year, plus other content including blog posts and articles.

What advice would you give to anyone who wants to be a writer? 
Writing is a skill, and like any skill, it has to be practiced regularly for you to get good at it. So don’t just say you want to be a writer, do it! Start today.

Reading is also a good way of learning how other writers write. So read as often as you can, ideally, work by a wide variety of writers.

Where can readers learn more?
I have a website: www.antonysimpson.com, which has a blog that I regularly post on. I also have a monthly email newsletter, so if you’re interested in me, my work, or both, subscribe to that.

Social Media Links: 
Facebook: Antony Simpson – Page | Antony Simpson’s Blog
X: @antonysimpson
Instagram: @antonysimpsonuk
Threads: @antonysimpsonuk
TikTok: @antonysimpsonuk

Oh and I’m on goodreads too: https://www.goodreads.com/antonysimpson

Take care,

Antony

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The MiniMed Flex Insulin Pump by Medtronic

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MiniMed Flex™ Insulin Pump/System by Medtronic (Image From & Copyright © Medtronic, 2026)

In the USA, Medtronic recently released a press release about their new insulin pump called the MiniMed Flex.

I currently use Medtronic’s MiniMed 780G insulin pump, which has been nothing short of transformational, reducing my HbA1c from 99 to 52.

You can learn more about my experiences using this pump on these blog posts:

So you’d think I would be excited by this announcement, but I’m not. Instead of being excited, I’m very concerned. I’m concerned about:

1. Smartphone Control

The new MiniMed Flex pump will be controlled by smartphone. This means if my battery dies on my smartphone and I’m out, I’ll have no way of knowing my current blood sugar, no way of delivering insulin, no way of adjusting settings for exercise and no telling my pump what I need it to do. Bluetooth could also fail on my smartphone or the pump itself.

Currently on the MiniMed 780G insulin pump, I can control the pump through use of the screen and buttons on the actual device.

2. The Update Cycle of Medtronic’s App

Historically Medtronic’s update cycle of the App has been painfully slow. Everytime I have an Android software update on my phone it can take Medtronic a month or longer to update their App.

This has meant on some occasions in the past, I have been unable to get my phone to pair with my pump, sometimes for a number of weeks. Imagine if this happened with the MiniMed Flex, it would literally be unusable until Medtronic updated their App.

3. Lack of a Screen

Lack of a screen = lack of information. Especially if the bluetooth connection or pairing to a smartphone failed for some reason. My blood sugars could be going high or low without my knowledge. This could lead to a failure or delay in me taking appropriate actions.

4. No Information about Sound / Vibration / Flashing Light Notifications

There is currently no information about the MiniMed Flex pump’s ability to deliver sound, vibration or flashing light notifications. The MiniMed 780G insulin pump does all these and to different volume, intensity and number of repeats (depending on settings). I find these are extremely useful, especially when I am asleep at night.

4. A New Algorithm

The press release mentions a new algorithm for SmartGuard. This could lead to better or worse blood sugar control for me. I know the algorithm on my current MiniMed 780G insulin pump works for me. It helps me to spend much more time in range and is proven to lower my HbA1c. I have a real fear that this new algorithm might not be as effective for me.

5. How it is Powered

There is no information currently available on how the new pump is powered. Some people have suggested a button battery, others that it could be rechargeable and others have suggested it could be powered by an AA battery, like my current pump. Rechargeable would be a nightmare and I would definitely prefer a battery that can be replaced.

But again, I would be reliant on it being connected to a smartphone (and the smartphone being operational) to know the charge of the battery.

6. Whether I’ll be Forced to Upgrade

I get my current insulin pump from my local Diabetes Centre, provided by the NHS. This is the only way to get any sort of insulin pump in the UK. Privately funded or funding through an insurance model isn’t even an option.

It is likely that my local NHS Trust has an agreement with Medtronic for the latest tech and for free upgrades. According to the press release, users of the MiniMed 780G insulin pump in the USA will get a free upgrade to the MiniMed Flex.

But what if I don’t want the free upgrade and would rather stay on the MiniMed 780G insulin pump, will that be an option?

Conclusion

I am not alone in having concerns. There is a reddit post about it here. With the information I’ve currently got available and what I’ve learned from past experiences, I would 100% choose not to upgrade at this time. I only hope that I am given that option.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Health Update: Vasculitis Remission, Blood Sugar Reduction (Type 1 Diabetes) and the Hole in the Roof of My Mouth

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I am pleased to announce that my vasculitis is in remission (see this page on Vasculitis UK for more information). This means that there are no active signs of the disease and my blood results show no signs of inflammation.

This is thanks to the excellent care of the Specialist Doctors in the NHS and the Rituximab infusions provided by the NHS.

All of the care I have received from NHS Staff has been nothing short of exceptional. Staff have been kind and compassionate. They have delivered safe, high quality and evidenced-based care.

The care has been driven by clinical need, without staff having to worry about the cost and without me having to worry about my ability to pay. I am beyond grateful.

My blood sugars have continued to reduce with my Hba1C currently being 52. My Hba1C was 58 in February 2025 and 99 before that. My Medtronic insulin pump (the MiniMed 780G) has played a massive role in this reduction, but so have better diet, increased exercise and loss of a bit of weight.

I have come off all medications, apart from insulin. This includes medications for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and mental health medications. I have made a number of changes to my life to become the happiest that I have ever been.

The hole in the roof of my mouth has gotten slightly bigger, now being about 1cm in size. However given the improvements to my overall health and the fact that the vasculitis is now in remission, the surgeon is keen to repair the hole in the roof of my mouth in the coming months.

That’s about it for my health update. Write soon,

Antony

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