Thursday 10 August, 2006 The weather has gone really cool on us. Sunshine and showers, a north westerly wind, and temperatures around 22?C. What a contrast to the low to mid-thirties we were having last month.

It seems I have high blood pressure. The nurse at Bridge Cottage Surgery did my ECG today and thought that it showed my left ventricle to be rather enlarged, evidence she said that my heart had been pumping for quite some time against the resistance of elevated blood pressure. The sphygmamometer test confirmed that my blood pressure was too high. Not dangerous, the nurse said, but it’s likely to need treatment.

I’m back to the surgery next week for blood samples to be taken (I shall have to fast overnight and until the samples are taken). Thereafter I shall have to see a doctor to discuss the results.

My body mass index is rather too high - but I don’t think I could be said to be obese. I don’t smoke (haven’t smoked since some experiments in my teen years and during that time at university when one is at ones most pretentious - when I smoked Disque Blue, just for the look of it) and I don’t drink alcohol. I eat a pretty healthy diet, the same as Erica, who doesn’t have high blood pressure. But I don’t get enough exercise, nothing like enough.

So, I have to get my weight down. I’m sure my cholesterol is up, so I’ll have to work on that too. I’ll have to exercise more - brisk walking, not the gym.

I’ve hardly used the NHS for years. Ive been to the doctor once or twice with potential cancer worries, which, thank goodness, came to nothing. It looks as if I’m going to have to get used to the inside of Bridge Cottage Surgery. I must say that I’m impressed with the thoroughness with which they are dealing with this, from my preliminary health check (a requirement before being accepted as a patient at the practice) to now. If I hadn’t moved house and had to change doctor, I might never have known about the blood pressure problem until something more drastic happened.

Unfortunately it coincides with a number of visits to the dentist (in Abingdon, about 90 minutes drive away) for a filling and root treatment on a back molar.

But that’s much information than you wanted to know!

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