Look away if you're a bit sensitive about health symptoms!

 It's been quite a busy couple of weeks, what with health appointments, a couple of unexpected landlord maintenance visits and family visitors.  That has meant that my low-fodmap diet had gone off track, resulting in a return of some of my IBS symptoms.  The diet needs a lot of thinking about and has to be stuck to quite rigidly, which isn't very easy to do when we have unexpected appointments and visitors.  So yesterday evening I went through my books and the Fodmap app I have on my phone, reacquainting myself with the 'can eat' and 'definitely can't eat' rules.  I'm pretty much having to start on the Stage 1 Restriction phase again, to clear my system of the problem foods I've gone off track and eaten recently.  Ah well, at least I know the diet works, having already done around 4 weeks of the first phase and eliminated most of the IBS symptoms.  Hopefully, I can get through the Restriction phase and start on a few Reintroductions before we go on holiday.  

So far I've been able to work out that wheat and gluten are a major problem for my insides, as are onions and garlic, these things are - for me anyway - the biggest cause of my IBS problems.  I have a mild oral allergy, things like citrus fruits, apples and tomatoes make my lips and tongue kind of 'fizz', for want of a better explanation.....this is manageable though, the 'fizzing' effect (and sometimes some mild swelling) only last an hour, it's just slightly uncomfortable rather than debilitating.  The wheat/gluten and onion/garlic though cause me major gut problems.....pain, bloating and the runs, not easy to ignore or live with - having to stay within quick and easy reach of a toilet isn't really conducive to normal daily life!  I also get aching joints and muscles after I've eaten a lot of carby foods - I think that's probably wheat/gluten related as well, and/or due to the high levels of sugars in some carby foods.  My lactose intolerance isn't really that much of a problem.....some people have gut issues with it, I don't, it's a sinus and mucus thing for me, I get sinusitis, a blocked and/or drippy nose and PND (post nasal drip), which makes me cough or do a lot of throat clearing.  This post is all a bit graphic and distasteful, sorry about that!  

I guess I'm just writing things down to remind myself of the effects certain foods have on me, and therefore why I shouldn't eat them if I want to stay healthy.  

Blogger is still being a pain in the bum, so many of the regular blogs I read aren't appearing on my daily blog reading list - including my own!

Nothing much going on, thankfully

I feel like I've had more than enough excitement and stuff going on, could do with a couple of weeks of nothing much!

I did our monthly budget yesterday (bit late but I was distracted by other things earlier in the week), then a freezer inventory, meal plan for 10 days and a small top up shopping list.  I plan on eating out of the freezer for the next couple of weeks, it's quite full and I need to make space for yet more garden veggies.  Tomorrow I have dog food to make, a trayful of courgettes to roast and freeze, and a large panful of tomato, chilli and onion pasta sauce to make, portion up and freeze.  Another carrier bagful of oversized courgettes and cucumbers, along with some more tomatoes, to take to the zoo as well.  

I've suggested husband goes to the barbers tomorrow for a hair and beard cut, he's looking like Santa Claus again.  In a couple of weeks I shall want a haircut too.  I've noticed my hair - and skin come to that - has got much drier as I've got older....another of the joys of ageing.  

Another heatwave forecast this week, it's already just about too hot for Betty and I but will be even hotter for the next few days.  Looks like we've just got to get used to this 'new normal' from now on.

Nothing else to report.

Waiting....

 The few days with husband's bro and sil and their young grandchild went pretty well.  Unfortunately, sil received a phone call on their first day here when we were all out at lunch, giving her some distressing news, which was upsetting.  One thing I will say - although the grandchild (a 6 y.o. girl) was a perfectly nice kid, I'm quite glad we don't have hyperactive young grandchildren who seem to be constantly on the go all day long, are very bouncy and never stop talking!  (It's quite enough having husband to cope with).  They spent one day riding the steam train, just coming to us for supper later on.  And then yesterday they went to Porlock Weir, taking husband with them whilst I stayed home with Betty, who is showing signs of ageing more and more.  That meant husband had quality time with his brother, I knew he was being looked after, and I had a few hours respite at home, so good for all of us.  This morning they're leaving early for home so we said goodbye yesterday evening, after supper at their holiday place.  We shared meal hosting duties, I did no cooking, simply buying buffet type food with a few minor easy additions here.  I even bought scones rather than making them!

It's been lovely to see them and I know they've had a good time, but I do rather hope we don't have any more visitors before our holiday - I need some quiet time to get my head together.  Our next scheduled visitors will be in early November.

Last Monday we had the normal monthly phone call from husband's key worker.  To be frank, I don't really see the point of this phone call, it serves very little purpose from our point of view, even husband says so.  They say it's to support us whilst we're waiting for his appointment for the in-depth testing for dementia.  Well, it's virtually the same conversation every time - the lady, who seems perfectly nice (well, going by her voice, we've never actually met her), starts off by asking "How are you?" in a very slow and earnest manner, as if husband is already deep in the throes of dementia.  Her next question is always "And how's your memory been?" - to which husband always immediately replies "Fine!" whilst I answer "No it isn't!".  Upon which husband laughs and says "I don't know what she's talking about - who are you again?!" in his usual jokey way, which he thinks is hilarious....the key worker always chuckles politely.  Whilst I'm just silently sighing and rolling my eyes.  Two things I wasn't happy about this time - I asked about husband's brain scan results, again - last time the key worker said they'd not had them, they weren't supposed to give them out in any case but she'd try and come up with a way to give us the results, as I'd said we really want to know.  Well, she said this time they definitely won't be letting us know until we attend the testing appointment, it's their policy.  Hmmm.  And on the subject of the appointment - we were first told (by her) that there's a backlog and we won't get the appointment until December.  Now she says it'll be January!  So it almost seems like we're never going to be any nearer this further testing appointment if they keep pushing it back (and thus no nearer receiving the brain scan results, which aren't on his NHS app either, I've checked).  And in the meantime, husband's condition is slowly getting worse, by a little each week, and we're still left in total limbo.  It's no wonder I'm finding it harder and harder to cope.  It's so bloody frustrating.  They referred us to the Alzheimer's society a month ago, but they also have a backlog!

Almost nervous breakdown time

 We'd literally just got back from shopping this morning (a small top up shop) when husband's brother and sister in law phoned to tell us they're coming down for 4 days.  Arriving this coming Wednesday.  And they're bringing a grandchild aged 6, who we've not seen before.  They're not staying with us but at a local caravan park, they are wanting to spend lots of time with us though.  Pity they didn't tell us before we went shopping.....I'll have to go again now.  This is typical of them, they never give us much notice - they even turned up on the doorstep one time last year completely out of the blue, no notice at all.  It's a bit disconcerting I think having surprise visitors, especially if one is left thinking 'oh no, I haven't got anything much to feed them, or enough milk for teas/coffees, or only one teabag left!'.

Husband was talking to them whilst I was putting the shopping away, so I only heard snippets of what he was telling them and he, of course, forgets anything that he's told.  When he came off the phone he did say that he'd told them how to get to the caravan park (they've got satnav but husband does like to give directions)....however, the road he told them to use has actually been closed to traffic for the past couple of years, due to subsidence!  He also told them that we'll meet them for lunch at the farm park near where they're staying on the day they arrive.....the trouble with that is that there are extensive ongoing roadworks on the way there, which we didn't know about and got stuck in when husband's sister and niece were here recently, there were several diversions in place but not clearly signposted and it was absolute chaos.  The roadworks will be ongoing for several weeks yet apparently, so I'm not at all keen to go through that again.  So I've had to message them back to correct what husband told them.

I never get consulted about things like this, I'm just informed about it, and then left to deal with it all and make appropriate plans.  Whilst it is nice to see family - and it's nearly always husband's family - I do find it very tiring, both physically and mentally, it's extra work on top of all the everyday life stuff I have to cope with anyway.  This will be the 5th lot of family visitors we've had so far this year.

To be perfectly honest, I am finding things are getting on top of me lately, especially with the worry of husband's newest health problems.  And all that bloody veg he's kept bringing in armfuls of and simply dumping it all on the kitchen table has added to the irritation - yes it's nice to have free homegrown food when people are starving elsewhere, I do know that.  But I'm the one who has to deal with it all.  Oh, we took 2 carrier bags full to the zoo this morning.

So now I've got 2 days to gather my thoughts, do some food and day out planning, go shopping again and do some extra housework/tidying up.  As well as supervising husband when he's doing his BP readings and making sure he's taking only half the dose of his ACE inhibitor, like the GP said (he's already got it wrong once, yesterday he took the full dose of that and only half the dose of a different tablet, I have to watch him like a hawk).  Well, one of those days is going to be a 'me' day - I'll take the bus into town, go and find a quiet spot on or near the beach (well, relatively quiet, it is holiday time after all) and just sit and people- or wave-watch for a couple of hours.  By myself.

More health worries

 Lovely day today, sunny and pleasantly warm with a nice breeze to dry the washing.  Still no rain - although, actually, we did have a few spots the day before yesterday, and I do mean literally just a few spots over the course of about 20 seconds, and then it was gone again, with no sign that it had happened at all.  Another nice week forecast, at least it's not blisteringly hot although will apparently be very warm tomorrow and Monday.

Having said we had no medical appointments on the calendar for this week or next, a rarity, we did end up having 2 GP appointments - well, husband did, which I obviously accompanied him to.  Just as well I did.  I've noticed husband's losing his balance and stumbling around even more than usual lately, so mentioned it to the GP, who was a locum we've not seen before and therefore knew nothing about husband's medical history.  Despite having it on the screen in front of him, he kept asking husband to elaborate on his conditions and medications, which husband was unable to do so I had to answer for him.  He checked husband's BP which was very low, which I'd guessed was probably the reason for his unsteadiness.  He suggested halving the dose of one of husband's meds, an ACE inhibitor, then doing a week of BP readings at home and taking them in to the surgery, marked for the GP's urgent attention.  I'm always a bit anxious when one of the GPs suggests altering husband's meds - GPs aren't cardiac specialists.  When you have heart failure you're on a lot of medication, which is all prescribed and finely tuned by the cardiologist.  Lowering one of his BP meds could possibly have ramifications for the control of his heart failure, so it's a bit like walking a tightrope.  I shall have to watch husband (even more) closely for the next week or 2, if there are any changes or worries I'll have to ask the GP to discuss things with husband's cardio team, or possibly even refer him back there (he was discharged from cardiology back to the care of the GP over a year ago).  Meanwhile, he's being referred to physio for his back problems, and of course we're still awaiting the results of his brain scan and the further in-depth tests appointment for the possible dementia.  If it's not one thing it's another.

My worry about husband's balance issues is that he'll end up hurting one of us - he's always stumbling and knocking into the dog, or a doorway or chair, or me - he's almost sent me flying a couple of times, if I hadn't grabbed the doorframe or table for support I'd have been on the floor.  Neither of us wants broken bones at our ages.  I have suggested that he think about using a cane or even a walking frame, but he absolutely won't hear of it.  Totally stubborn as always, he just won't be told.  Well if I end up on the floor with a broken hip or collarbone, and thus obviously unable to do anything around the house for a few weeks, then he'll only have himself to blame.

Podding the last of the overgrown French beans took ages, they're nowhere near as easy to pod as peas, in fact my fingers were sore after an hour.  Still, it yielded a small panful of beans, half of which looked like flageolets, the older ones more like haricot beans.  I boiled them up, cooled and then froze them, enough for about 5 or 6 meals altogether, so worth doing I suppose.  I shall be roasting another trayful of courgettes tomorrow, making another panful of tomato pasta sauce and boiling or roasting a load of beetroots.  Still a load of carrots in one of the raised beds but at least they don't have to be pulled all at once, just when we need them.  We have tons of little yellow cherry toms, which aren't all that tasty to be honest.  There's also still 4 or 5 bags of potatoes to be harvested.  We've got probably a couple of dozen mini (torpedoes!) cucumbers and a couple of courgettes that were hiding and are now marrows - neither of us is very keen on marrow - so will be taking a bagful of produce to the zoo tomorrow.

I've finished the first sleeve of my cardi and have just started on the second one, it's easier to crochet now that the weather's not so blisteringly hot.

Getting inventive with veg, and I'm not a (verbal) punchbag

 I realised this morning I've done hardly any cooking for weeks now, mainly due to the hot weather, all I do is prepare and serve cold stuff mainly, with maybe a jacket spud or a fish fillet of some kind.  What cooking I have done has been pretty basic....ok I did make scones and an apple cake whilst our guests were here, but that's about all.  For meals I did a prawn salad with homegrown potatoes and salad veggies one day, a bought pizza (which I added some extra toppings to), bought oven chips and more salad another day.  Most of our meals have been salads since we've had all this hot weather, I really don't feel like cooking - who does?!  And now I've more or less got out of the habit of cooking.....it'll come as a bit of a shock when autumn and cold weather arrives and I've got to start making hot dinners again.

Our French beans are finally going over, the plants are going yellow and there are quite a lot of (overgrown) huge beans with very wrinkly pods.  We were going to just pull them all up and chuck them in the compost bin, but I thought it seemed a waste to get rid of the actual beans, even if the pods aren't edible now.  It occurred to me that the beans inside the pods should be perfectly edible, so that's what I'll be doing tomorrow - shelling the remaining beans then boiling and freezing them, we should get at least a couple of meals worth.

I was chatting to our neighbour earlier, she said exactly the same thing as me - she's telling her other half not to grow so much produce next year, it's all far too much for just 2 people, same as I've been telling husband.  It's all very well them growing tons and tons of stuff, but when they keep picking armfuls of it all and simply dumping it on the kitchen table, us wives groan and think 'oh no, not again!'.  We were both laughing and saying that being presented with 10 so-called 'mini' cucumbers that are the size of small rugby balls all at once is no joke - it's not like we can cook and freeze them (no I don't like cucumber soup).  I told her about the local little zoo accepting bags of surplus veggies, she hadn't realised they did that and thought it a brilliant idea.  Like me, she said her freezer is now full of prepped garden veggies, to the point where there's no more room.  She's also made several jars of chutneys but said she's still got some left from last year.  We're now getting loads of tomatoes, which I don't really mind as I do like them roasted, drizzled with olive oil and thick syrupy balsamic vinegar on sourdough toast, makes a lovely lunch with some mozzarella.  I must have a sort out of the freezer tomorrow, I think I can probably make enough room for another few tubs of tomato pasta sauce or soup.

Husband's sister messaged me earlier, she's now got herself an electric mobility scooter as her daughter, who's a slim dainty little thing, was finding it hard to push her wheelchair.  She's also had a discussion with her cancer nurse, who is arranging for her to have another scan to see whether her lung cancer has progressed, before going over treatment options once more.

Husband seems to be getting more and more bad tempered just lately, he's bitten my head off several times the past few days.  I know he's got backache (so have I!!!) and he's not good with pain, but I've told him he can't keep taking it out on me.  He just scowled and muttered under his breath.  I've needed the patience of a saint this week - and I'm no saint!

Brainwave!

 It's back to being hot and sticky again, I really don't like it, it's the humidity that gets to me, it drains me and I feel like a soggy mess.

Nevertheless it's been a productive day, I've now got several bags of French beans, sliced roasted courgettes and courgette fritters in the freezer, along with a couple of tubs of tomato based pasta sauce.  Husband said he'd picked all the mini cucumbers.....well I spotted a large one he'd missed and when I had a proper look, found several more that were like torpedoes.  How he misses them I don't know, especially when they're so big - well, I do know, if something isn't right in front of his nose he just can't see it, it seems beyond him to move leaves out of the way!  The big fat ones have tough skins and are crammed full of seeds, no good for eating.  We've had a brainwave, don't know why we didn't think of it before - the local small family run zoo, Tropiquaria, will happily accept donations of fruit and veg for their animals, so that's what we'll do with our excess produce now.  At Christmas when the supermarkets are doing their very cheap veg wars, we generally buy a couple of bagfuls of them to take to the zoo.  So the problem is now solved.

I've also finished the second front of the cardigan and started on the first sleeve, if I try and do half a dozen rows every day it shouldn't take me long to finish both sleeves.  I'll crochet all the parts together, then do the cuffs and edgings in a contrasting colour - the main body is navy, with white for the edges and cuffs.

Tomorrow we're going to Aldi for our monthly top up shop of the things I like to get there, like my barista oat milk which is cheaper there than our local supermarkets, I buy at least a month's worth at a time (it's long life milk).  We also want to go to Home Bargains, there isn't one here in Minehead, and I'll pop into the big charity shop to get some more books.  As I've said before, their books are 2 for £1, far cheaper than our local charity shops in Minehead - they generally charge £1.50 or £2 each for books.