It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. On Sunday
2nd I completed the Kidney Research London Bridges Walk, it was a good event
and I really enjoyed it. I covered the seven miles in my target time of two and
a half hours, a reasonable pace given it was a hot day and the route went through
some of London's most congested pedestrian areas. Parts of the Southbank and
Westminster Bridge took far longer than their physical distance suggests due to
throngs of tourists and numpties blocking the pavements trying to take selfies
against the backdrop of the Palace of Westminster. Also, on the narrow
stretches of the northern Thames Path it was easy to get stuck behind gaggles
of Sunday shufflers out for a lazy stroll.
I spent most of the walk listening to the Black Tapes
Podcast, which I've become addicted to of late. Although I was nominally walking
alone, and it was by no means a race, the other walkers helped me maintain a
decent pace and I never risked losing motivation, which might have been the
case had it been a random walk along the river. Factoring in my travel to the
City Hall start, the walk itself, and the trip to Byron afterwards I clocked up
a personal best 25.8k steps. I'm now looking for other similar activities, I
know there are walking groups in my area, but my preferred modus operendi is a
bit too anti-social for that, I might try and map out some local 5k routes I
can walk/jog when I have time.
Last week was my 40th birthday, so my wife, knowing I'd taken
a day’s leave, booked me an extra special treat... a trip to the dentist! It's
not that I'm afraid of dentists, although I did have a couple of horrible experiences
as a child, I just got out of the habit five or six years ago. The practice I
was registered with wasn't convenient and as it's not always easy to register
with a good NHS dentist I never got around to moving. So, after years of
nagging, my wife took matters in her own hands and registered me with her
dentist. It was about time; I'd been starting to worry about occasional pain
twinges from a twenty-year old filling.
It started with the Hygenist giving my pegs a good scale and
polish, they weren't too heavily scaled but what was there was stubborn. Afterwards
the Dentist did a check-up and x-rays. Fortunately, nothing of real concern
came up, the twinges appear to be the old filling pressing on a nerve, but the
filling itself is sound. There was the option to drill it out, line it and
refill it, but given it's a negligible issue I decided to leave alone for now.
On the 7th I gave my second semen sample to Andrology
at East Surrey Hospital, so I should know this week if my vasectomy has the all
clear. If I don’t get the all clear I’ve no idea what happens next. It will be a
complete bugger if I have to have another procedure. Also, if my tubes haven’t been
properly sealed up what the hell has happened? This week I need to arrange the second
blood test for an underactive thyroid, I’ve held off renewing my NHS annual
prescription certificate as if I do have hypothyroidism then my prescriptions
should become free.
I’m hoping any treatment for potential hypothyroidism will help
with my weight loss, but I’m not holding out great hope. The reading that
triggered the whole inquiry showed only mild hypothyroidism and my brief
reading around on the condition suggested weight loss is only likely with more
serious hypothyroidism. I’m still kicking around 113kg, I briefly went up to
114kg after my birthday celebrations, despite high activity levels, but that was
due to overindulgence. It just seems I’m in that zone where it takes a lot of
activity to shift the dial down even slightly.
No comments:
Post a Comment