Very well done Pootle & all your forward planning really paid off 👏👏👏⭐️⭐️
I think getting a puppy of even a cat is a good idea because they are so enchanting & amusing when young but of course you do have to house train them 😀 When we had to put to sleep our last cat I approached Cats Protection because we wanted to adopt two kittens a brother & sister but they inspected where we now live & said our village street which is really the high street was too busy with a bus route & cars using it as a rat run. Our neighbours have cats but we weren’t allowed to have them although of course we could have bought a kitten privately! I still miss having them although we have got used to not having a pet now & it’s of course cheaper not paying vet fees, buying food & pet care when we are on holiday.
Well my latest news is that my GP is now suspecting I have C.Difficile because of taking antibiotics for four weeks with my continuing gut problems so I am waiting for my lab results which may mean taking more antibiotics!! It never rains but it pours & I am very fed up & I am self restricting my outside activities in case I am infectious to others. My husband fortunately is unaffected even though I am back in the kitchen preparing meals. Oh well it may help me lose some weight but my poor inner biome is totally rotted up at the moment & I can’t tolerate Kefir or the pre & probiotics I am taking or any dairy!
Keep on posting everyone I do enjoy reading your updates & news 😀
Margaret xx

Ooh Pootle a new puppy! That will get you active! When I get back in November we will be looking to get another dog too ( we lost ours a few weeks ago) . As our lab got older the walks got slower and shorter so it will be nice to get out and about in the countryside again. My husband really needs a dog I think, gets him out walking as well.
Silly me, I only just realised there is a MM keto book! So I shall be taking that away with me. My keto is going well, I’m managing ok , weight loss isn’t evident but I have been forgetting to drink enough water so maybe that will help. The only carbs I have are from veg that’s in things so minimal. I don’t feel I’m in keto but must be…more fasting methinks. Have great weekend everyone x

Hi everyone, so much going on right now on the site.

Margaret, unfortunately C diff is very contagious and I dont know why you have not been given advice. You should not be cooking for your husband. Neither should you be sharing things like towels or sheets, which makes bedtime very difficult. Hopefully, you are both wearing long trouser pyjamas in bed or sleeping separately. Sorry you are still going through all this and I hope you are back to normal soon.

Pootle, a puppy or cat would be the last thing I would want due to the ties they cause. Since our local cattery closed down in France there are very few places to take them when we go away. If you can leave them for holidays either with a trusted someone or in kennels then okay. We use Trustedhousesitters and they are brilliant but it is such a pain, advertising, interviewing, welcoming, trusting strangers in our home. After 22 sits we are getting a bit fed up and there is still nowhere new opened to leave our cats. Just think about the freedoms you need and how you will continue with that.

Yerba Mate tea – it comes in 2 forms, tea leaves which you strain or as a powder (I measure 5ml into a mug). It doesnt quite dissolve completely so there is sludge in the bottom of the mug which I avoid but add some more hot water to make a second drink. As for the taste, it is quite bitter but I add a little stevia, just a touch on the end of a teaspoon. I just have the one per day after lunch and it is certainly not as nice as my usual coffee. Is it working, I dont know but last night I didnt have any snacks (cold meats) late evening and didn’t even think about it. I also dont think I had an afternoon snack which I sometimes do when my BG goes low and I get a bit shaky. Obviously one day is not enough to judge but I have told hubby no coffee from now on – he makes my coffees and teas.

I will continue with the collagen powder and decide whether to continue when I finish my current supply. New reseach is now showing that creatinine is good for older ladies. All tests were about men and going to the gym and building muscle but they have switched their research to women in general but mainly post menopause women. Not recommending but worth doing some reading as it is also supposed to be good for bone health. Going to find out more.

Well that was a lot of stuff. Still catching up with washing as the weather has been hit and miss and we dont have a drying machine. Last thing. Our boiler has gone on the blink and we have no heating (not needed yet) or hot water until the engineer comes on Monday.

Have a good weekend.

Thank you S-G & I have read up on C.Difficile & know how infectious it is but have not yet had it confirmed & I am taking precautions. My husband is fortunately feeling fine with no symptoms throughout the past three weeks that I have been feeling like this presuming it was still the after effects of taking antibiotics. I hope that my lab results will be back early next week with a definitive diagnosis.
Thank you for your concern.
Margaret xx

Hi all, not sure if the Yerba is doing any good but I have not had any snacks for the 3 times I have used it. One thing though is that I have been getting a headache in the afternoon. Not sure if I am drinking some of the powdery waste, maybe it should be strained.

I now have the problem of very high blood glucose. My last 4 readings have been 158, 153, 147 and today 144 (8.5, 8.2, 7.9 and 7.8). No apparent reason and not the Yerba as the first high was when hubby forgot and made me a coffee. No infection, not particularly stressed even with the house up for sale. Only reason I can think of is my machine is not working properly and needed replacing 2 years ago. Will see how it goes. I haven’t been having anything I shouldn’t, so not that. Any thoughts.

Margaret do you check the NHS app for your results? I find my test results often show far quicker than results through the post etc. in fact I had a dexa scan a few months ago. The next day my results were posted. Fortunately all was fine. Still waiting for results either by post or via doctor!

S-g I guess you have to wonder about the accuracy of your machine. Is there anywhere you can go to have a test? Then use your own machine to cross check?

Can’t believe we are almost at the end of September! We have a really busy couple of months coming up. We get home Wednesday then drive to the Midlands Friday for a wedding on Saturday then home Sunday. The washing and ironing for our next, and possibly last trip, again the end of October …. just three weeks after our wedding trip. Starting to feel a bit ‘dizzy’! Anyway, I’ll join in an October thread if somebody sets one up.

I will ask doctor for a new machine when I go for my December checkup but my BG was down to 114 this morning. I got hubby to check his non diabetic fasting glucose this morning and it was 94 so it seems the machine is working. However, I have been reading about a thing called brittle diabetes – although not a term medics use these days – it is just when you have unusually high bg for no reason. Besides the machine I was thinking my body is not used to doing tre so might be having the dawn phenonomen, also I have lost a bit of weight and my body and bg might not have caught up with each other yet. My weight results are for tomorrow.

Pootle, would you like me to set up the October thread. You have had a bit of a hard time lately so might want a break.

We spent the weekend discussing our next cruise, we are feeling a bit in limbo with the house being up for sale. All was decided and hubby did the booking online. This morning I thought I would glance through the folder he has set up (paper print out) and was shocked to see he had booked the wrong ship, dates and even the wrong country. I know none of you know him so I can say I am getting a bit worried about him, he forgets things so quickly. We had to go out this afternoon after the plumber fixed the boiler – yeah – and he couldnt remember where we were going and made something up where he thought we might go, i.e. farm shop and pharmacy but we were actually going to the doctors and the mairie (mayors office) to get some documents signed. He is 80 years old so has some excuse but to book us to the Canary Islands which is somewhere neither of us want to go, instead of 14 nights to the top of Norway to see the northern lights is a bit of a stretch. Lets hope it is just a glitch.

I will report back with my weigh in tomorrow.

Oh S-G,
I would also be worried about the forgetfulness. Norway to Canary Islands is a bit extreme! I really hope it is just a blip…

I hope you are able to get to the bottom of the BG readings. 🤞

Yes please to setting up the October thread…I don’t seem to have much spare time at the moment…life has become hectic again…I really must learn to say “NO” instead of “Yes, of course I will do that to help” !!!
Besides which I will have my hands full, if we go for the puppy we are viewing tomorrow!

I cannot believe that another month has passed. I slipped badly last night…for the second time…and ate quite a lot of Galaxy chocolate! It was delicious…but my fasting BG was up this morning. so I am being ultra careful today!

K.xx

Verano thank you for suggesting I look for my test results on the NHS ap & both tests are showing as normal so I don’t have C Difficile, thank goodness but I’m no further forward knowing what is causing my continuing gut upset & still waiting to hear from my GP.
Oh gosh S-G I find it concerning hearing that your husband is making mistakes now because my Mother had Dementia & it was confirmed with GP assessment. However I am guessing that might be difficult with a French doctor if your husband doesn’t understand French fluently. I hope you can cancel the incorrect cruise & get booked into the one you want & that your husbands forgetfulness is a temporary thing 🤞🤞
Margaret xx

I will set up the October thread tomorrow.

The best I can think about hubby is he doesn’t listen to me – ever. Me: where can we go as we have done the Med to death and there is only one cruise and its to the CANARIES on 11th APRIL. So that is what he heard. Cruise to the canaries on 11th April, but we also had a long discussion about going back to Norway because it was places we have not been to and right to the top to see the Northern lights, so maybe he has a problem. I said are you ready and he looked at me blankly, oh yes he said we are going to the farm shop and the pharmacy, which was wrong but he made something up which would be logical but he was wrong – again, it could be he just doesn’t listen to me. Fortunately, our doctor speaks almost fluent English. I will keep an eye on him and note down things to see if there is a pattern. His dad had problems but he was a good 8 years older before he started pouring boiling water into the sugar bowl because he couldn’t remember to make tea.

Don’t worry, I will just have to be more precise but patient.

Wendy so glad you can put your mind at rest, well at least partially. I would recommend that anybody having tests look at the NHS app as it may just save days or even weeks of unnecessary anxiety.

S-g oh dear. Those cruises are very different but they may just have been close to each other date wise or something. Sometimes it’s easy to make mistakes. Benefit of the doubt may be what’s needed in this instance? My husband is ‘even’ older than yours and yes he has ‘blips’ but we all get a bit ‘dizzy’ as time goes on. Don’t panic at just one sign.

Thanks for the offer to set up an October thread… so we need a ‘title’ …. Organise yourself in October…….. Overcome your cravings….. Only x weeks to Christmas !!
Sorry just can’t come up with anything good but I’m sure somebody will.

I’m starting a ‘Week at a time reboot ’ thread for myself tomorrow but would really appreciate company.

Thank you Verano & I am rather confused as where to go now & am wondering if I may have IBS because I had a much shorter time of something similar a few years ago which suddenly just stopped. I have a book about IBS so will re-read it & the low FODMP guidelines which unfortunately seems to recommend low fibre as well 🤔
Thank you S-G for setting up the October thread & my husband also often has cloth ears despite having some new hearing aids 😂
Margaret xx

Margaret (sorry for calling you Wendy!) maybe you should ring your doctor tell him you’ve seen your results and that you’d like to chat to him about other possibilities as they have ruled out c-diffficile. No point second guessing.

Hi all, firstly V, you didnt make a mistake by calling Margaret Wendy. Wendy 1947 is her site name. Just some of use got cheeky and started using her real name.

As for my husband I am going to put his mistakes down to what V calls cloth ears. Canaries had been mentioned but in the negative but he probably just stopped listening and the thing with where we were going, I had to pick up a prescription for my December blood tests because the doctor forgot to give it to me. Hubby hears prescription and assumes we are going to the pharmacy. There are other instances but so minor as to be just annoying. So I can forget about it for now but be clear when I speak to him.

Today is my weigh in and I am pleased to say I have lost just a smidge under 5lbs (4.95) which is one of my best weeks. I stopped the Yerba mate tea for a few days and had no headaches but going back to it today without drinking right down to the dregs, so will see how it goes. However, 5lbs from a 14lb goal is a great start.

I will set up a new thread but don’t panic if it doesn’t appear until later this evening. I have a lot to do with researching Ex pat travel insurance companies so will get around to setting up the thread later. Still not come up with a name. Optmistic October is coming to mind.

Margaret, could it be the courses of antibiotics causing your tummy problems? It’s a recognised fact that antibiotics are really bad news for our gut biome. Fermented foods like live yoghurt, kefir and kimchi and pickles are good to re-grow gut flora alongside fibre rich vegetables, nuts (and fruit, although that’s something not much eaten on this way of life). Apparently, and interestingly, taking a probiotic, as opposed to the dietary option can delay the repopulation of the gut. I know your exercise compromised at the moment but movement also helps increase the gut biome as does contact with others – hugging and kissing, at least that’s an option now you don’t have c-diff. All gleaned from Dr Google.
I found the attached article from an American health web site: antibiotics can temporarily wipe out gut microbiome.

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/antibiotics-can-temporarily-wipe-out-gut-microbiome

Hope you feel better soon.