Skip to main content
Category

Health

What’s New: Things, Candle Creation, Support & Medication

By Health, Home, LifeNo Comments

What’s new? Lots. In this blog post I’ll be telling you all about new things I’ve bought (or been treated to by others), my latest batch of homemade and handmade candles, my experience of using Bipolar UK’s eCommunity, attending my local Bipolar Support Group and dealing with a change to my medication.

Things
I’ve got quite a number of new things recently. I saved up and bought-in-bulk the following Dorothy Morrison candles and oils from The Angry Cauldron:

Dorothy-Morrison-Candles-Big-Order-April-17

Photo above is of my candle collection.
Dorothy-Morrison-Big-Order-Oils-and-Others-April-17

Photo above is of my oils chest. Included are Dorothy Morrison limited edition oils and other essential oils.

My old hoover started making sounds like it was going to explode and takeout half of the town with it. So I bought a new one:

new-hoover-April-17

My New Hoover bought on Amazon: VYTRONIX VTBC01 1400w Compact Cyclonic Bagless Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner HEPA Hoover

Around the same time I treated myself to three Yankee candles (large) and one Woodwick candle (large). I bought Midsummer’s Night, Turquoise Sky and Flowers in the Sun Yankee fragrances. Patchouli was the Woodwick fragrance.

My mum recently got a new sofa. She kindly gifted me her old sofa. It was really appreciated as my old sofas were knackered. To protect the leather from scratches by my cats, I bought throws and rubbed lemongrass essential oil on the sofa in places they would be tempted to scratch. Cats don’t like lemongrass essential oil or at least mine don’t. I also dug out some old cushions to match the throws.

Here are the results, a lovely sofa and chair, which are both like new:

new-sofa-2017-0

New sofa with brown throw and red & gold cushions.
new-sofa-2017-1

New sofa chair with red throw and red & gold cushion.

My birthday came and went without any real celebration. Lots of people gave me money, which I am going to save for when I go away for a night in June.

But for the May full moon I’d burned one of my Dorothy Morrison Hot Damn candles. I had a load of wax remains on my altar and then came up with an idea: What if I bought a Wax Melter and burned the remains? I saw this gorgeous Yankee Candle Wax Melter on ebay and couldn’t resist:

wax-melter

This gorgeous Yankee Candle Wax Melter was what I bought with some of the money I got for my birthday. The orange wax burning is the remains of a Dorothy Morrison Hot Damn candle (purchased from The Angry Cauldron).

A good friend of mine got married yesterday. I needed a suit for her Wedding and I picked up this stylish and absolutely bargain priced suit:

suit-for-wedding-from-ASDA

I bought this Charcoal Grey suit from ASDA for a bargain price of £50 (£35 for the jacket and £15 for the pants) for a friend’s Wedding. It looks exactly like a Next suit but was probably around one third of the price.

Candle Creation
In January I made a batch of homemade and handmade White Champagne & Strawberry candles. I couldn’t blog about them at the time because a number were reserved as gifts for people. I gave one to my mum for Mother’s Day, one to my Grandma for her 75th birthday, one to Simon and two to my friend for her Wedding. Here is a photo of one of my candles:

candle-creation-white-champagne-and-strawberry

My latest batch of handmade and homemade candles. They are White Champagne & Strawberry Candles in a 500ML mason jars.

I’ve completely run out of wax and fragrance. I’m hoping to do a batch of orange Pumpkin Spice candles and possibly repeat the red Hot Cinnamon candles.

Support
I’ve been accessing Bipolar UK’s eCommunity and attending my local Bipolar Support Group for the last few months.

The eCommunity is an active forum/message board where users (who can be people with bipolar or friends or relatives of someone with bipolar) can ask one another questions, share experiences and share helpful information. It’s free to use, open 24 hours and 7 days a week, and goes a long way to reduce isolation people with bipolar can experience.

I regularly check the forum and have posted there and replied to the posts of others. You can access Bipolar UK’s eCommunity here.

My local support group meets once a month. It took a lot for me to go along to a meeting, but I’m so glad I did. Nobody can understand bipolar or a mood disorder as much as someone who lives with it.

The facilitator and all participants of the group that I have met have been really friendly. I have found conversations there to be very useful and learned a lot just by listening and talking to others.

My group isn’t well attended and I think Community Mental Health Teams could do more to promote these local support groups (both in terms of posters/leaflets in waiting rooms and speaking to patients about them). These groups are free to access and go along way to reduce isolation. You can find your local Bipolar Support Group here.

Medication

venlafaxine-antidepressant-medication

I’ve recently started on Venlafaxine (antidepressant).

 I’ve been in a depressive episode since at least last November. So I’m currently in the process of cross tapering, off Mirtazapine and on to Venlafaxine (NHS). So far the side effects of Venlafaxine have been quite severe. My side effects have included:

  • Dilated (large) pupils.
  • Daily headaches.
  • Being tired but wired.
  • Waves of nausea & dizziness.
  • Decreased appetite (not always a bad side effect).
  • Huge yawns.

Apparently Venlafaxine withdrawal is very severe. So I have two hopes for this medication. One that it improves my mood. Two that it is several years before my brain develops a tolerance and I have to be weaned off it and on to something else.

Blog soon,

Antony

mental-health-wisdom-banner

Share on Social Media:
Sunday 21 May 2017

Health Tech Review: TEE2 Glucose Meter by Spirit Healthcare

By Health, Reviews2 Comments
TEE2-glucose-meter-by-spirit-healthcare

Image of the TEE2 Glucose Meter by Spirit Healthcare. Image From & Copyright © Spirit Healthcare.

 I’ve been a Type 1 diabetic for a decade. You can read my story of how I was diagnosed with diabetes here.

I’ve used various glucose meters, but they’ve all essentially done the same job. Around 6 months ago I was switched TEE2 Glucose Meter by Spirit Healthcare by my GP. Here are the Pros and Cons of the TEE2 Glucose Meter:

Pros

  • It’s easy to use.
  • It meets the latest coding standards.
  • No coding is required.
  • The customer support is brilliant and really responsive. You can telephone a freephone number: 0800 881 5423 or email info@spirit-healthcare.co.uk
  • The meter shows trends data.
  • Apparently the testing strips are cheaper for the NHS to buy.

Cons

  • The meter and its accessories look and feel cheap. For example the zip off the pouch came off in my hand during my first week of use.
  • It’s around the average size of other meters on the market. But my previous meter was much smaller, making it feel big to me.
  • The screen isn’t colour like my previous meter.
  • The date is set in the American-style format: Month-Date, with no option to switch to UK formatting.
  • No automatic changing of time. You have to manually change time on the meter when clocks go forwards and backwards.
  • The meter has no connectivity to smartphones. It would have been great to have Bluetooth connectivity that put meter readings into a smartphone App.
  • The desktop software just wouldn’t work on my iMac. This meant that I would have to go back to recording results using pen and paper in a logbook. No logbook was provided. This again felt like going backwards, as my previous meter did connect to my computer and download test results and trends data to my iMac.

Although the pros and cons for this meter are equal in number, overall this meter has felt like going backwards for me. The TEE2 Glucose Meter feels really limited when compared to my previous meter and other meters on the market right now.

I really wanted to like the TEE2 Glucose Meter and for it to improve my diabetic self-care. But it hasn’t done this. Instead it’s given me more to remember to do (writing results in logbook).

If you have a choice on which Glucose Meter you use, my advice would be to do your research and choose one that is more sophisticated than the TEE2 Glucose Meter. If you don’t have a choice and have been put on the TEE2 Glucose Meter by your GP or Diabetic Specialist Consultant/Nurse my advice would be not to have too high hopes or expectations for it.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:
Monday 1 May 2017

Hello Hypertension :(

By HealthNo Comments

I feel like the insides of my body are like those of an old man. An old man who has lived a long life of over indulgence.

Maybe six months ago, while attending my GP for a regular medication review he asked for some blood tests. The results came back and the news wasn’t good. I was diagnosed with High cholesterol (Hypercholesterolemia). He starts me on a statin. Statins are medications that reduce cholesterol.

A month ago, another medication review and my GP checks my blood pressure (BP). Not satisfied with the result, he repeats the test several times, getting similar results. It’s high. He puts it down to anxiety, although I’m not particularly anxious. He says he will check it again at my next medication review.

Fast forward to last week, my latest medication review. He checks my BP again and it’s still high. He diagnoses Hypertension (high blood pressure) and starts me on Ramipril, a medication that lowers BP.

Both statins and Ramipril are usually given to 50+ year olds, not someone who is thirty like myself. I do have diabetes (type 1) (see How I was diagnosed with diabetes) and a ‘mood disorder’ (see my life hiatus). I probably don’t eat well enough, carry a little extra weight, don’t exercise enough, I do smoke but rarely drink alcohol. I have a family history sudden cardiac death (SCD). These medications are likely to extend my life. But let’s not kid ourselves, I don’t have a pension and the odds are that I won’t need one.

So although I have to say hello to Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia, they’re not going to stop me from living an enjoyable and happy life.

Write soon,

Antony

mental-health-wisdom-banner

Share on Social Media:
Monday 13 March 2017

A decade of living with diabetes

By Health, Thinking2 Comments
diabetes-BM-reader-large

Diabetes/Health Logo Illustration. Copyright © Sye Watts/Antony Simpson, 2014.

 I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes a decade ago. You can read my story of how I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes here.

In the last decade not much has changed. I’m still testing my blood sugars 2-3 times a day. I’ve used various BM monitoring meters over this time, but they’ve all essentially done the same job. I’ve recently switched to the TEE2 Blood Glucose Meter by Spirit Healthcare Ltd which is one of a few that connects to desktop computers and produces reports on BM readings. Tracking trends and so forth. I will review this meter on my blog in due course.

I’m still injecting myself with artificial insulin 4 times a day. I’m still going for annual podiatry checks, annual retinopathy screening and annual diabetic review appointments with my GP and Practice Nurse.

Over the last decade there’s been countless reports in the media of better treatments or even potential cures for diabetes. But so far, nothing has materialised.

My hope for the future is that one day I’ll be healthy again. Let’s hope that the next decade brings better treatments and perhaps even a cure.

Write soon,

Antony

You can learn more about diabetes by visiting these external links:



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


Share on Social Media:
Monday 30 January 2017
×