I seem to be in a holding pattern at the moment.
I've had confirmation from Dr D'Souza that we will start mobilisation of my stem cells in early January. This means I'll probably be re-harvested about two weeks after that. There was no mention of salvage chemo in his email but he did say that he would discuss the finer details at next Wednesday's appointment.
I finally managed to extract the documentation out of the Doctors at the Leonardis Klinik in Germany. They seemed to use every excuse they could find to avoid sending it. Considering they originally told me it was all ready to go when I left Germany two months ago you have to wonder what they are up to.
As soon as the cryopreservation people at Wellington Hospital let me know when they are ready to receive the stem cells, I shall organise with World Couriers to have them shipped back. I have a suspicion that the cells will turn out to be not viable once tested. We shall see...
Health-wise I'm in good shape. I have been walking with Sarah most evenings and on others I either run or walk on the treadmill. Every morning I try and do as many push-ups as I can and I've gone from struggling to do just one push-up two months ago to now being able to complete twenty most mornings.
I no longer suffer from night sweats or back aches and the only obvious sign of my disease is the constant cough. I remember back in December 2006 when my stem cells were being mobilised for the first time, I had exactly the same cough. My breathing was a lot worse back at that point and my health was worse too. I think it's a real blessing to be feeling this good two years down the track. If I had not undergone any of the treatments I've had, despite the fact that they have all ultimately failed, I'm fairly sure I would be dead by now. So at least they have kept the disease relatively at bay, if not actually made me better off than I was back then.
I'll post again on Wednesday after seeing the Doctor.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Shelly Bay Sealed Sprint.
Wow!! What a day!
In my last post I spoke about my goal of breaking the record for the annual Shelly Bay sealed sprint. Joe McAndrew set it back in 1996 in his Pro_drive Subaru Impreza at a time when he was the NZ rally champion.
Today I broke his record on all three of my timed runs, culminating in a 1:11.92 final run. Exactly the time I said I'd like to achieve in my last blog post! I'm absolutely over the moon with the result.
Over the last two weeks I've made several changes to my car, mostly around the suspension. When I first went out this morning for my practice run the car was very skittish and was jumping around at speed (180kph) on bumps. I almost felt like taking the car back to the workshop and un-doing all the changes. Luckily I didn't. Deciding instead to try lowering the tyre pressures and softening the rear shocks.
The changes worked and the car has never felt so positive when cornering. Where previously the car would 'push' towards the outside of a corner at speed, it now corners like a train on rails.
Only the tyres are dictating my position on the road and they seem to slip equally from both front and rear, making the car very predictable and easier to drive. Better tyres are now on my wish list.
The car just got a new set of race tyres but they don't seem to work as well some of the other brands I've seen. Oh well they can't be too bad if I'm breaking records!
I took a passenger on my last two runs, Sarah was first out and I think she got a reminder of why she hasn't been in the 'silly seat' for over a year. She seemed to be most terrified as I approached the Light-House hairpin turn at 180kph and didn't appear to be in any hurry to stop. The huge Brembo brakes fitted to the Evo are capable of stopping the car in an insanely short distance. Next out was family friend Lara, who got the privilege of being along for the record setting run. She can now claim to have been driven over the road between Scorching and Shelly Bays faster than than any person on the planet.
I've posted some new video footage on You-tube. It can be accessed via the video-bar on the right side of this page.
Meanwhile I'm going to have another beer and celebrate!
..Ron
In my last post I spoke about my goal of breaking the record for the annual Shelly Bay sealed sprint. Joe McAndrew set it back in 1996 in his Pro_drive Subaru Impreza at a time when he was the NZ rally champion.
Today I broke his record on all three of my timed runs, culminating in a 1:11.92 final run. Exactly the time I said I'd like to achieve in my last blog post! I'm absolutely over the moon with the result.
Over the last two weeks I've made several changes to my car, mostly around the suspension. When I first went out this morning for my practice run the car was very skittish and was jumping around at speed (180kph) on bumps. I almost felt like taking the car back to the workshop and un-doing all the changes. Luckily I didn't. Deciding instead to try lowering the tyre pressures and softening the rear shocks.
The changes worked and the car has never felt so positive when cornering. Where previously the car would 'push' towards the outside of a corner at speed, it now corners like a train on rails.
Only the tyres are dictating my position on the road and they seem to slip equally from both front and rear, making the car very predictable and easier to drive. Better tyres are now on my wish list.
The car just got a new set of race tyres but they don't seem to work as well some of the other brands I've seen. Oh well they can't be too bad if I'm breaking records!
I took a passenger on my last two runs, Sarah was first out and I think she got a reminder of why she hasn't been in the 'silly seat' for over a year. She seemed to be most terrified as I approached the Light-House hairpin turn at 180kph and didn't appear to be in any hurry to stop. The huge Brembo brakes fitted to the Evo are capable of stopping the car in an insanely short distance. Next out was family friend Lara, who got the privilege of being along for the record setting run. She can now claim to have been driven over the road between Scorching and Shelly Bays faster than than any person on the planet.
I've posted some new video footage on You-tube. It can be accessed via the video-bar on the right side of this page.
Meanwhile I'm going to have another beer and celebrate!
..Ron
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