Health Archives - Page 30 of 40 - Antony Simpson is an Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.

Review: A Marvellous Massage by a Masseur found using GuysWay

Saturday 5 September 2015 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

guysway-website-screenshot — GuysWay – The Ultimate Male Masseur Directory in the UK

Being a Reviewer has its perks. Like being offered the opportunity to review the experience of finding a Masseur on GuysWay and having a massage. Naturally, I jumped at the chance.

Within two clicks on GuysWay I had found a professional, gay-friendly massage therapist local to where I live. It couldn’t have been easier.

On GuysWay my first click was to select my geographical area, which resulted in a list of local Masseurs. The second click to select a profile of a Masseur that took my fancy. I had the option to make a quick phone call, text or email to book.

I booked with a gorgeous Moroccan named Saeed via email. As well as having a profile on GuysWay he has his own website where he offers his massage services. Saeed happens to be the Owner of GuyWay. On my arrival at his house, I felt instantly at ease with Saeed. We spoke a little about GuysWay.

Saeed was quick to reassure me that the order Masseurs are displayed on local listing pages are always random, meaning that no Masseur gets preference over another. He explained that he had set up GuysWay because he had seen a gap in the market. There were directories that were slightly sleazy and seedy offering additional services to massage, but no gay-friendly Professional Masseur Directories out there. I had to agree with this, prior to GuysWay, I had always found it difficult to find a good Masseur.

massage-room-saeed — Saeed’s Massage Room

Saeed led me upstairs to his massage room. The room had an air of comfort to it. Candles, low-lighting and background music created a calming atmosphere. I undressed, leaving my underwear on to maintain my modesty and climbed on to the message table. I had opted for a deep tissue massage.

Saeed started on my shoulders, working his way down my body using massage oil liberally. His hands were like magic. They were warm, muscular, applied the perfect amount of pressure and moved in rhythm with the music. The feel on skin-on-skin contact was stimulating, sensual and very relaxing. I found myself being transformed into a blissfully calm and carefree state. Throughout the massage, I had the option to talk or just lie there and enjoy.

The message was just what I needed. It left me feeling both relaxed and energised. It was fantastic and left me wanting to take Saeed’s hands home with me.

Afterwards I thought about the experience. I decided that massage is essential for everyone’s wellbeing. Massage has so many benefits. For me this massage helped to reduce my stress levels, enabled me to unwind and get a goodnight of restful sleep.

I’ll definitely be booking another delightful and marvellous massage with Saeed in the future. Hopefully making massages with Saeed a regular thing.

Review soon,

Antony

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Health Tech Review: Contour Next USB Glucose Meter by Bayer

Sunday 5 July 2015 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

diabetes-BM-reader-large — Diabetes/Health Illustration Logo.
© Antony Simpson/Sye Watts.

I’m a type 1 diabetic. See my blog post How I was diagnosed with Diabetes to learn more about my diabetes story. Anyway today I’m reviewing the Contour Next USB Glucose Meter.

Sometime ago, I switched to the Contour Next USB Glucose Meter. It was one of the best diabetes-related things I’ve ever done.

The Contour Next USB Glucose Meter is small, easy to use and track trends. There’s so many good things about the Contour Next USB Glucose Meter, that I’ve put together a list of features that I like:

It’s small – tiny in comparison to most other Glucose Meters. Something I appreciate and that I imagine others would.
It’s easy to use – with it’s big colour display and three options. It’s three options being: Logbook, Trends and Setup.
As well as logging blood sugars it has the options to log carbs and/or insulin.
USB connection to the computer with java-based software that’s Windows & Mac compatible.
Software – That creates great detailed reports in PDF format that you can then share with your GP, Diabetes Nurse, Diabetes Consultant, etc.
Both the device and software track trends – the software reports giving much more details on trends.
USB charges meter battery – not that in the plus 6 months I’ve had it I’ve needed to charge it.
Meter allows you to fill the same strip with extra blood if you didn’t put enough blood in the first time. Rather than starting again.
No coding or quality testing required.
Finger-pricking device is small.
Comes with a slightly bulkier case that keeps everything together – the meter, the testing strips and the finger-pricking device.

Here are some images of the Contour Next USB Glucose Meter:

Contour Next USB Box	What The Meter Looks Like
Sample of PDF Report that the software creates.

The only thing I dislike is that the java-based software can be slow and occasionally crashes. But the benefits the software brings far outweigh these slight annoyances.

Overall the Contour Next USB Glucose Meter is by far the best glucose meter I’ve used. It’s probably the best on the market. An improvement on future models could include connection/communication with Apps that could be used on the iPhone or iPad.

You can Request a FREE Contour Next USB Glucose Meter or Find Out More about the Contour Next USB Glucose Meter here.

Review soon,

Antony

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Ruby Wax Live: Inspirational, Funny and Informative in her Sane New World Tour

Sunday 31 May 2015 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

the-lowry-salford-outside — The Lowry Theatre – Salford Quays

My good friend Jayne had bought us tickets to see Ruby Wax live at The Lowry, Salford Quays for my birthday. But on the day, unfortunately Jayne wasn’t well. My anxiety went into overdrive, but I manage to arrange for Simon to come along instead.

Simon and I just made it on time and took our seats, as Ruby sat on stage about to start. Ruby had split the show into two sections. In the first she delivered a scripted, but still exceptionally funny and informative talk on why we’re screwed.

Ruby explained how she became the Poster Girl for mental illness, shared some of her experiences and schooled us in the functioning of the brain. She covered the chemicals of the brain and their functions including dopamine, serotonin and cortisol. Ruby explained what happens in the brain in the case of dysfunction – such as in the cases of depression and anxiety. Then she briefly explained how mindfulness effects the brain before taking the audience through a short mindful exercise.

After the the interval we returned to our seats for a two way discussion about mental health between Ruby and the audience. I actually reached for the microphone, which I couldn’t imagine doing when I was well let alone in recovery. But I just thought: I’m only get this opportunity once. Plus there was something about Ruby that made me feel at ease. I disclosed about being ill, to Ruby and an audience of about two hundred, no less. I explained that I had been worried about the stigma and only went to get help when I completely lost the ability to function.

I told Ruby that I agreed life getting busier, with too much information to retain and that it often felt unmanageable. I stated that often I feel like I’m not achieving anything, as every time I reach a goal – my mind moves the goal posts further away.

I explained to Ruby and the audience that I am learning to control my negative thought patterns and critical inner voice. I said that I feel that I can control my thoughts, but that I struggle with controlling my feelings. I asked Ruby what she thought the difference was. She said that there was none, that they were both just chemicals in the brain.

Other people asked Ruby questions, shared their experiences or explained projects that they were involved with around mental health. Then Ruby brought the show to a conclusion.

Afterwards, I treated myself to two of Ruby’s books (see below). She thanked me for my question and she was kind enough to sign both of the books for me.

ruby-wax-books — Treated Myself to Ruby Wax’s two books – both of which she kindly signed.

I did become a little star struck, being so close to this inspirational woman. – Sorry about that Ruby.

Overall the experience including the Sane New World show, discussion and book signing left me feeling less alone and that Ruby is without doubt a inspirational, funny and informative woman. Thank you Ruby. It was a superb experience that I would recommend anyone whose experienced poor mental health, been effected by another’s poor mental health, or is just interested in keeping mentally well.

Oh and if you can’t get to see her, you can buy her book Sane New World on Amazon.

Write soon,

Antony

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Finally…in Recovery and getting Back to Life

Friday 22 May 2015 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 5 minutes

me-drinking-coffee — Me Drinking Coffee. Slowly Getting Back to Life 🙂

In January, everything stopped. I stopped being able to function and was ill. The truth is that I had been ill for a long time before this, but that I had continued to solider on – hoping that I would start to feel better.

Here were some of my symptoms:
No concentration span. I wasn’t able to watch TV or films, read or write. I didn’t feel safe to drive, so I didn’t.
Short term memory loss.
Feeling constantly exhausted despite sleeping for many, many hours.
Some insomnia and night terrors.
Back pain – despite resting and regularly completing physiotherapy exercises.
Head aches.
Stomach ache/constipation despite eating a reasonably good diet.
Poor personal hygiene and not cleaning my home environment.
Overeating or forcing myself to eat despite feeling that I didn’t want to.

No motivation – I found it extremely difficult and tiring to do the smallest of tasks.
Reckless spending of money – mostly through online shopping.
Any extremely variable mood which changed throughout the day and night. From being void of any feelings to a tornado of fast swirling feelings including: guilt, inadequacy and feeling like a failure.
Anxiety – resulting in becoming antisocial and finding it difficult to leave home.
Worry and panic about what people would think of me.
Feeling hopeless, which is the worst feeling in the world.
Feeling like I was loosing my mind.
Feeling like I was falling down a dark bottomless pit.
Feeling frustrated at not being able to snap out of it and that nothing I did made a difference to how I felt or my ability to function.
Overly self-critical thoughts and zero self esteem. A critical inner voice that was loud and repetitive.
At two particularly bad points I suffered from compulsions to end my life.
In short, feeling like my mind, body and soul were being devoured and destroyed by this illness.

So I went to see my GP who completed the PHQ depression test and diagnosed me with severe clinical depression. At several points throughout my treatment, this test was repeated to check on my progress. At one point, I was scoring 24 out of a possible 27. My GP started me on antidepressants and encouraged me to self-refer for counselling.

The first antidepressant didn’t work, despite gradually increasing the dose to the maximum. Apparently this is really common, happening to at least 50% of people. So my GP gradually withdrew the first antidepressant and then started me on another – which thankfully is working. I self-referred to counselling, had an assessment and to this date am still on the waiting list.

January to May has felt like a write-off in every sense of the word. But I feel extremely lucky to have made it through this dark and difficult time. What’s that phrase? Ah yes…I believe I made it through by the skin on my teeth.

Looking back, I’ve had depressive tendencies for at least the last few years. I’ve been rubbish at spotting the symptoms in myself, but am much more aware of signs, symptoms and triggers now.

I’m still in recovery and it is a gradual process. I’m still on the antidepressants and will be for sometime. I’ve started taking multivitamins to make sure my body and mind is getting what it needs. But now I’m feeling good, better than I have felt in years. I’ve even started laughing again, proper belly laughs, which I haven’t done for what feels like forever.

Now I’m getting back to life. I’ve thanked those close to me for their support, love, care and kindness. I’ve gone back to work and realised that I have the most brilliant, amazing and fantastic work colleagues. They’ve been so supportive and I feel so lucky to work with such wonderful people.

Blog soon,

Antony

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