Actually he doesn't know what to think.. He says I'm a bit of a puzzle. (I've always claimed to be an enigma). I have a CT scan scheduled for Sept 7th, about 2 1/2 weeks from now, so he will take a look at that and see what it shows.
The lump on my neck is not in a good place for a biopsy and although to me it feels the same as all the other lymphomas I've had, he says it doesn't feel like a typical involved lymph node.
I told him that at the end of the day when we look at all the symptoms, there's not much else it can be. To me it's just more of the same; been there, done that. Still kicking so why stress?
He's also very puzzled by the constant fever. That is consistent with Hodgkins but it's never been a symptom for me in the past. He's ordered a number of auto-immune type blood tests to try and get his head around what's happening there. I understand where he's coming from, he needs to be absolutely sure it's a relapse before he can plan any further treatment.
He has agreed with my request to try steroids to reduce the fever, and to that end he has given me a script for 3 months worth. However I'm not allowed to start taking them until after the CT scan, as the steroids will shrink any nodes that are involved and make it harder to get a clear picture on the CT.
On the Dunlop Targa front things are progressing really well. We have come up with a name for the campaign "Targa Life Challenge". We will be using this in all our promotions, website and media releases. We have also had word from the Cancer Society and they are going to suggest to some of the mens magazines that they our run a story. There seems to be so much to do and so little time. Personally I'm leaving all the organising up to Victor. I'll just concentrate on getting myself and the car to the start-line ready to race. :)
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The house, Targa and Hodgkins
Yeah I know.. it's been over a week since I last posted. I've been so flat our during the day in my so-called semi-retirement that I just don't get a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts.
The 150M long trench for cabling of power, telephone and water supply to the new house and workshop was done last week. It was a big job but a lot of fun too. Really good to get out in the sunshine and do something other than fix cars. We had the trench dug on the Thursday before by an excavator and on the Friday I helped the builder and electrician lay the cables and make up a pipe conduit for the telephone cable that also allows for anything else that may need to be added in the future. We can just pull it.JPG)
through the conduit.
Next week the waste-water treatment plant and water storage tanks will be installed. This has to be done now as once the foundations are in place access to the front of the house is impossible.
The week after that we should be all go for construction start. Fingers crossed.
Dunlop Targa 2009 planning is now well underway. We have approached The NZ Cancer Society about fundraising for them and they are very keen. The exact system by which we raise the money for them has yet to be finalised. It may take the form of a sponsorship website, in which supporters can donate directly to the society. What we gain is a higher profile which should make us more attractive to larger sponsors who will hopefully contribute to the running costs of our campaign.
The four man team has been named: Victor Yuen as Co-driver and Team manager, Myself as Driver and car preparation. Murray O'Neil will be service crew chief and he will be assisted by John Raptis. There are several other people who will play a part putting this whole project together and it may well be a very large crew that gets the car to race start in late October. However to keep costs down to a minimum only four people will actually be involved on the day (week) so to speak. I've also registered the domain rustyracer.co.nz which at present redirects back here to the blog, but in the future will be the hub for updates, sponsorship etc.
Healthwise, I'm a bit flat at the moment. Still a lot better than I was a few months ago. I have an appointment tomorrow with the Haematologist. I'm hoping to get some relief from this constant fever. It drains what energy I do have and ruins my sleep and appetite. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that my Hodgkins has returned again. The new lump on my neck just confirms what I already suspected. Although the hospital will want to run tests to confirm. There's not much else that it could be.
My attitude is that I've been at this point many times before. It started with a lump on my neck five years ago and I'm still here and enjoying life. So I have another lump! been there, done that.
I'm sure I'll be around for a few more years yet.
I'll post tomorrow once I've spoken with the Doctor. In the meantime I'm off for a ride on my mountain bike :)
The 150M long trench for cabling of power, telephone and water supply to the new house and workshop was done last week. It was a big job but a lot of fun too. Really good to get out in the sunshine and do something other than fix cars. We had the trench dug on the Thursday before by an excavator and on the Friday I helped the builder and electrician lay the cables and make up a pipe conduit for the telephone cable that also allows for anything else that may need to be added in the future. We can just pull it
.JPG)
through the conduit.Next week the waste-water treatment plant and water storage tanks will be installed. This has to be done now as once the foundations are in place access to the front of the house is impossible.
The week after that we should be all go for construction start. Fingers crossed.
Dunlop Targa 2009 planning is now well underway. We have approached The NZ Cancer Society about fundraising for them and they are very keen. The exact system by which we raise the money for them has yet to be finalised. It may take the form of a sponsorship website, in which supporters can donate directly to the society. What we gain is a higher profile which should make us more attractive to larger sponsors who will hopefully contribute to the running costs of our campaign.
The four man team has been named: Victor Yuen as Co-driver and Team manager, Myself as Driver and car preparation. Murray O'Neil will be service crew chief and he will be assisted by John Raptis. There are several other people who will play a part putting this whole project together and it may well be a very large crew that gets the car to race start in late October. However to keep costs down to a minimum only four people will actually be involved on the day (week) so to speak. I've also registered the domain rustyracer.co.nz which at present redirects back here to the blog, but in the future will be the hub for updates, sponsorship etc.
Healthwise, I'm a bit flat at the moment. Still a lot better than I was a few months ago. I have an appointment tomorrow with the Haematologist. I'm hoping to get some relief from this constant fever. It drains what energy I do have and ruins my sleep and appetite. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that my Hodgkins has returned again. The new lump on my neck just confirms what I already suspected. Although the hospital will want to run tests to confirm. There's not much else that it could be.
My attitude is that I've been at this point many times before. It started with a lump on my neck five years ago and I'm still here and enjoying life. So I have another lump! been there, done that.
I'm sure I'll be around for a few more years yet.
I'll post tomorrow once I've spoken with the Doctor. In the meantime I'm off for a ride on my mountain bike :)
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