Today has been awful

I took my first dose of Doxazosin yesterday evening, along with all the other meds I’m supposed to take at that time. There was no major issue then, but this morning I didn’t feel that great and I’ve been feeling exceptionally tired and shaking all of the afternoon and most of the evening.

I think the BP readings tell the story, really.

My concern about the high heart rate is growing, I have to say. It might be ok during hard exercise, but it doesn’t seem healthy that it is at that level for several hours when I’m effectively doing nothing.

I’ve also had a very upset stomach all day. If that doesn’t stop by next week I think I might be asking about alternatives to the Doxazosin.

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Second try at sauerkraut

My first attempt wasn’t looking entirely healthy, so I binned it and decided to have another go, having done a bit more research.

The proportion of salt seems to be something of a movable feast, with some people saying 2% of the weight of the cabbage, some saying 3% and some even more. I’ve gone with 2.7%, purely because that’s how it happened to measure out.

I’ve also packed it a lot tighter in the jar than the first time around, having seen someone use a “plunger” to pack theirs into the jars. I don’t have a suitable plunger, so I just used a large spoon to push it down.

There also appear to be many variations in the amount of time the ferment should run for. The shortest I’ve seen being four days and the longest three weeks. I’m not sure what I’m going to go with there, but there’s time to do a little more work on that yet.

So, here it is.

Hopefully this time we’ll get around to eating it.

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Cucumbergeddon has begun!

It’s cucumbers with every meal at the moment 😀

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Another poor afternoon

So much so that I forgot to take a reading in the evening.

In the afternoon my daughter and I moved a sofa out of her workroom in the cellar and up the stairs so we can get rid of it. It’s not that heavy — just a small two-seater — but by the time we’d got it to the door at the top of the stairs I was barely able to stand up. I lay on the floor and poured sweat for about ten minutes 🙁 Got the job done eventually though, even if I was good for nothing else that day.

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Picked up my latest prescription yesterday

Because I use the dispensary at the surgery, it can take a few days for them to sort out. So I’m now taking Ramipril, Indapamide, Spironolactone, Doxazosin and Sertraline, some in the morning, some in the evening. I believe that’s the limit of what the GP can prescribe for me, so we’ll have to see what happens next. I suspect it’s going to turn into a major fag if he’s still not happy with my blood pressure in a couple of weeks.

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No dig diary, 25th August 2026

Between sleeps this afternoon I got out and did some weeding in the polytunnel. It was unpleasantly hard work despite sitting on a stool and the weeds only being small. However, to cheer me up a little I found a Corno di Toro pepper beginning to turn red.

And the next plant along appears to have plenty of good-looking jalapenos on it.

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The news is good

I toddled off to the local hospital this morning for my ultrasound kidney scan. When I did an ultrasound heart scan it took ages, but this one was over in less than ten minutes, and I had my bladder scanned into the bargain. No idea what they expected to find there. Aliens, perhaps?

Anyhow, it turns out that my kidneys are both looking perfectly healthy and I should be able to abuse them for years to come. Ok, so I made up that last bit. Just as well though, because after a dreadful afternoon that I spent mostly sleeping, here are my BP readings.

Not a good heart rate in the afternoon reading, and way higher than is ideal in the evening 🙁

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Plain brown packaging required

For this cucumber.

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What a fail!

I was doing so well, too. Only morning and afternoon readings today.

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Can you believe it?! Three in a row!

The first two are pretty much where I’d expect them. No idea why the last one was so low.

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