How to lose a few pounds

Spent the afternoon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Now before I continue, let me tell you that I think the NHS is a great institution and the concept of free care for those that need it at the most important time is an important one.

About 4 months ago, I went to my doctors complaining that I was feeling tired during the day and not sleeping well at night. Several questions were asked and the GP believed I have a condition called sleep apnoea and so referred me to the Sleep Clinic at ERI. Whilst I have private health care, sleeping disorders are apparently excluded from the cover so it was a 12 week wait to get to see a specialist. During this time, I have kept a diary of my sleep patterns, eating habits, drinking habits etc. as well as completing an 8 page long questionnaire.

Today was the visit to the specialist, someone obviously paid a lot of money for her time and basically had a thirty minute conversation asking every question that I had answered on the questionnaire and surprise surprise came up with the prognosis that I have sleep apnoea! Thanks for that specialist, those extra years at Medical School really paid off, and now I have to wait another 6 weeks to be given a machine that will confirm her view that I have sleep apnoea before I can then start to be treated. Surely, 12 weeks and 30 minutes of a specialists time could have been saved by my GP saying there is a high chance of sleep apnoea just get the machine ordered or am I being too simplistic?

So why a plate of casserole? Well the added value given by said specialist was I need to lose some weight - thanks again for the blindingly obvious. If I were a smoker she would also have said stop smoking - the training these guys go through is immense! You'll note that there is no potato, so here starts my official lose four stone (that's what she said but I am really aiming for two, maximum three) campaign. Expect to see less of me over the coming months...