Health Diary Week 93: Catching Up

Image: Catching up (mohamed Hassan, Pixabay)

Home
<<<Week 92

Hi, welcome to another weekly instalment of what’s on my plate: health updates, meal creations and smile-provoking experiences. You might have noticed, this is my second post of the week, as I’ve needed to catch up after falling behind on my weekly posting…

Histamine Issues: Inflamed Eyelids

At my Optician appointment, I was surprised to discover I have inflamed eyelids, likely due to excessive histamine. The thing is, my eyes hadn’t particularly bothered me, at least not compared to everything else, but as soon as I knew there was an issue with them, they started feeling uncomfortable – go figure. Having said that, I’m glad the issue was picked up before it became severe – attend your health check-ups folks.

So, I have instructions to use a cold compress for ten minutes twice daily for two months, plus lubricating eye drops four times a day, and mast cell stabiliser eye drops four times daily for 28 days (sodium cromoglicate – same as the tablets I was prescribed by my GP but couldn’t get hold of due to supply shortages).

Histamine Food Challenge: Broad Beans

I wanted to try broad beans again (because I love them so) to check if I’m as okay with them as I think. So, I decided to add them to a simple vegetable pasta – nothing bad happened – yippee!:

Vegetable pasta, including some tasty broad beans, orange pepper, courgette, sweetcorn and sweet white onion

My Hot Chocolate Replacement

I used to love a comforting mug of hot chocolate or a matcha latte, back in the day before my histamine issues, so I was searching for an alternative. ‘My dear friend’ Bevy, and I decided my chicory drink would work well as a latte with gluten free oat milk, so I whizzed one up in my trusty Vitamix – I was not disappointed by this frothy, filling delight:

Image: Chicory latte – frothy, delicious and ridiculously filling

Positive Thinking: What Made Watson Smile

And let me share some of my week’s smile-provokers with you all…

Birdies:

I can’t believe it took us years to discover the joys of a bird feeder. While I was sat out having a mug of chicory I was treated to a visit from loads of little birdies (some kind of tit I think). It was a nice change from the squabbling starlings who currently dominate the feeder:

Image: Our busy bird feeder (I think there’s eleven tits on the feeder in this pic)

Molly and Not Molly captured together:

Neighbourhood cats Molly and Not Molly have featured in my blog for some time, but I’d never seen them together until now (Not Molly is incredibly elusive). For a while, I’d mistaken Molly for Not Molly (I don’t know Not Molly’s name), but now that I’ve seen them together, I’m confident I can tell them apart:

Image: Molly and Not Molly (finally). Top: Molly bottom left and Not Molly top right. Bottom right: Molly (Week 71). Bottom left: Not Molly (it is really hard to capture a photo of this one)

Mini work reunion:

In my University Disability Adviser days, I worked within a team of kind, caring and encouraging people. So, my highlight of this week was a catch up at a cafe (outside) with two of my former colleagues, Rachel and Marjory, who I hadn’t seen for far too long:

Image: Mum and I at work (2007) – yep, we worked together – at the university and our previous organisation. (I didn’t have a photo of Marjory and Rach together to share)

I hope you enjoyed this week’s ‘What’s on Watson’s Plate’. Please feel free to follow my bite-sized updates on Instagram or Facebook. See you next week for another catch up.

>>>Week 94
<<<Week 92
Home

More from What’s on Watson’s Plate

• Week 92: A Surreal Week
• Week 91: Look Up
• Week 90: Feeling Appreciated
• Week 89: A Day Out
• Week 88: Nature’s Magnificence