General Chat

Goodnight Linda - Have a fun day tomorrow, sleep well if it's not too hot.

I am logging off because it is a bit antisocial being in here, so goodnight everyone

It is protection against skin cancer which is important

The Duchess's brother was stationed in Cyprus in the RAF for six years. We have photo's of his two children when they were small, playing in the sea, and on the beach with very flimsy swim suits on - maybe they get acclimatised to the heat and the sun when they live with it.

I was amazed when we were in Cyprus, there were lots of small children in the old skimpy swimming costumes. It was only a couple of English children in the well covered variety

I suspect that Eve is practising for Cannes in that outfit :-D

I borrowed some of Eve's factor 50 sunscreen, but I was out in the sun for much longer than normal, although we did use a large sunshade to cover the front pool, or it would have been unbearable.
She has one of the all in one swimsuits which looks a bit like a wet suit, only pink of course. The only part of her body uncovered is her forearms and below her knees, they were covered in sunscreen. She has a special sun resistant beach hat with a large peak and a flap which covers her neck, she also has sunglasses and is very good at wearing them and her hat

Linda I think our friends down under will be gracious in defeat :-) Sue has said the best team won on another thread, so it'll be "Good on ya sport" :-D

Just think how young and fit Eve is keeping you. After all you wouldn't be lolloping about in a paddling pool at home would you?
Hope you didn't get burnt :-)

Tec, I don't think our upside down friends will be speaking to us, given how seriously they take their sport :-D

I have spent most of the day in a paddling pool. Eve has a new pool which takes up half the garden, it is actually two pools joined together with an inflatable slide between the two. I always bring my swimming costume as we often go to the pool, so Eve
just assumed I would join her in the paddling pool, being a game grandma I did. I was in the water for hours, good on such a hot day, but hard on the old joints

Thanks to both Sue and Tec. You have cheered me up. I understand now why I have been feeling the cold more than I expected to. I have only been on the reduced dosage for a couple of days, so I'll see how things go now. Yes, I do believe that doctors think we are not capable of understanding them at times. Mine is very nice but sometimes seems to say things 'backwards'. Takes me a while to interpret it. However, I didn't really want him to tell me where to buy support stockings. I would have preferred him to tell me why my ankles occasionally swell; what causes it and what, if anything, can be done about it! My brother told me to 'ditch' the doctor when I said he doesn't even have a computer. He still has the old card system. However, I remember my doctor's partner taking nearly two years to 'get to know me', doing tests until she was satisfied that what I had told her was how things were. I was 70 then. (she later passed me over to the man when I started needing the blood tests). I would not want to go through that again and you can't blame a doctor for wanting to be very wary of a "new" patient who is my age!

Hello Sue and Berona,

Berona - Just to say, when you have your warfarin test, the higher the reading, the thinner the blood, so it follows that the dosage needs to be reduced, until you reach an acceptable level.
I used to have a test every six weeks, then phone the next day for the result, when the doctor would adjust the dosage if necessary. That system worked well for years.
Then it all went computerised. Instead of taking a blood sample from your arm, they put a small amount on a strip, a bit like a diabetic blood sugar test, and put it in the computer. The computer then adjusted the dose if necessary, and if everything was stable the next test would be twelve weeks, instead of six. This is to save them work I imagine, but it is a long time if things go wrong, as has happened with me.

We are both on cholesterol tablets. The Duchess has swollen ankles, and the doctor gave her tablets for water retention. It hasn't made any difference.

I so wish I were in Sydney today, apart from visiting you lovely ladies, I could also watch the Lions and the Wallabies rugby match :-D
Good luck to them, may the best team win.

Sleep well

Hi Berona - I keep missing you :-(

My OH is on medication for high cholesterol and has been for a number of years. He has often said in the past that he feels that he has lost some muscle tone in his arms and legs but his doctor didn't seem too worried about it. I checked the medication on the Internet and loss of muscle strength is a very common side effect of his medication in even with the low dosage he takes. Again he spoke to his doctor who changed his prescription. Do some doctors think that we "common" folk are too uneducated to understand any medical information? Having said that we both have good doctors.

Hello all. Sue and Tec - I was interested in reading your comments on blood pressure and blood tests. I have a monthly blood test an it usually reads 2.4 to 2.8 so I take 3mg of warfarin. On Tuesday, it was 3.3, so my dosage of warfarin has been reduced to 2.5. I would have thought that the dosage would go up - not down, but reading your remarks, I now see why I am sleeping longer and during the day, I find my head drooping - ready for another sleep. Also, I have been on the same dose of the same blood pressure tablets for forty years and have only changed them recently - and my ankles swell up every time we have any humidity. When I told my doctor this, he merely said that it was pressure and that I could get stockings from a chemist. ??? I know we are having lovely weather for this time of the year, but I'm cold all the time and I feel that my medication has something to do with it. My doctor is very nice, but hard to talk to, as he is Chinese and expresses himself differently from the way I do, so we don't always get the right meaning from each other. Such is life.

Goodnight Tec - sleep well <3

That's worrying Tec - perhaps the doctors should always make us aware of anything we need to know about the medication we take.

I am now on high blood pressure tablets. I am on the lowest dose and it's working well. I asked my doctor - who is very good - about side effects. He said that as I am on the lowest dose I would be unlikely to have side effects. Within a week of taking them I had back pain and my ankles were swelling. I looked on the internet for information and found that these are classic side effects on even the lowest dose. I went back to the doctor and he changed my prescription :-S

Well talking of tired, I'd better get to bed,

Enjoy your day Sue - hope the sun shines again,

Hello Berona, and Persie,

Goodnight,
Tec :-)

Yes - excessive tiredness is a classic symptom, and was I tired :-D also light headedness is another symptom - but didn't have the gumption to realise what was going on, until I went for a routine blood test, and the phlebotomist went into panic mode.
The doctor was concerned about me driving, but there is no option here, and I only drive into town once a week normally anyway

Is that why you have been so tired lately?

Yes Sue thank you.
I am to start taking 1mg of warfarin from tomorrow - I was on 4mg a day. Then another blood test Monday :-(.
The blood had gone dangerously thin, but stupidly I didn't recognise the symptoms - silly me

Are your blood tests showing any improvement yet?