Taralli

I can't speak highly enough of the medical system here in France. I took Jan to the 'Centre for Medical Imagery' this morning for a scan on some potential plumbing issues and whilst she's in there they establish that she's got a stone in her gall bladder.


I love the system where you go to an independent specialist unit for different things. We both go regularly for blood tests and from time to time for X-rays and ultrasound. You make your appointment at the specific establishment, there's little waiting and you get your results very, very quickly. In the case of X-rays you leave with the X-ray and a letter to your doctor describing the findings. So efficient.


Anyway, whilst she's doing this I popped into Lidl to establish what my current needs were. They're just starting to get their Xmas stuff in. Marrons glacé for 4.49, panforte at 2.29 and, something to keep my mum happy, taralli biscuits (below), something that I've never seen outside of Italy and which I know will keep me in her good books for at least 10 minutes.

For me they are completely tasteless and should definitely stay in Italy but I know that they remind her of her dim and distant youth so that's OK. Loads of brownie points for this one.

Pain!

Panic stations this morning because I had all the pain associated with kidney stones, which I get from time to time, and I thought that with it being Saturday I'd have to go to the hospital to get some pain relief. As it happened, our doctor was still at her morning surgery so she gave me a morphine shot in the ass, which always works. Lovely stuff that morphine!

The panic was because I didn't want to be hospitalised. I leave the house at 05.00 tomorrow to catch an early flight from Girona to Leeds, to pick up my mother. I then get her back to Girona on Monday to catch a flight to Pescara in Italy on Tuesday. I hope you're paying attention to all this?

Byetta again

Whilst I think it's slowing down a bit, since I started injecting with Byetta nearly two months ago, I've lost over 6 kilos (14 lbs). All without actually doing anything much different.

It's a strange sensation. You approach food feeling really full. Quite often the thought of food makes me feel vaguely sick and ironically I can face sweet things better than savoury.

The beauty of all this is that as weight decreases other medicines can be reduced and you also become even better looking. Good eh?

Byetta

I'm a morning type of person and usually better in the morning for most things (if you get my drift girls) so last night I was in no mood to learn how to inject myself. That I did this morning. But what I did do last night, was download all the information in English from the Byetta site about this drug, and how to inject. All the stuff I got from the pharmacy here is obviously in French and given my squeamishness about this subject I was in no mood to get anything wrong. Talk about self help courses.

Anyway, this morning I took the plunge, or more precisely the needle took the plunge. I'd already bought the smallest bloody needle that the pharmacy possessed and, to be fair, it was very, very small. (There's a joke here about a small prick but I won't lower myself - Ed) It's a lot smaller than the monster above.

After prepping the syringe I had to pinch an area of fat, disinfect with alcohol and then stick the needle in for a count of five.

Verdict - it was amazingly easy and didn't hurt at all. So a good result. I'm now well on my way to being a junky.

You stick it where?

It was off to the diabetes specialist today for my usual dressing down. But, instead of a dressing down, it turned into laughs, at my expense.

Dr J is a jolly chap and whilst firmly encouraging me to lose weight he usually has a laugh and a joke as well. The latest test results were not particularly good and my weight hadn't moved much. Mind you my blood pressure was very good so he quipped that at least there was one bit of good news. Anyway, he pondered things for a while and told me that he was going to switch me onto Byetta. A relatively new drug, not insulin, which is injected and is supposed to help control type 2 diabetes and, as a side effect, you may also lose weight. That's good stuff I thought!

I have to admit that the thought of injecting myself did not fill me with glee, and I asked him where I should inject.

'Oh anywhere you like,' he said. 'You should inject into areas of fat,' and with a roar of laughter he said, 'and you've got plenty of that.'

Charming. I'm paying to be insulted, but I did see the funny side!