Waiting, pain, mental health, God and Guns.

It's now just eight days to my next CT scan. Then a couple of weeks till I get the word on whether I've relapsed. Some days I am convinced I have, others I'm not so sure. I guess if I work on a totally logical level and remove the denial aspect, then I probably have. However it must be at a very low level because some of the little signs that point to relapse have been with me for over a year.

I think it's best to just live in ignorant bliss and get on with life. I got a big fright last week when I developed an excruciating pain in my lower back and left pelvic area after a glass of wine. A classic Lymphoma B-symptom. However I have had the back pain on and off in the past and can't 100% link it to HL and it could just as easily be steroid related as it seems to occur at a point when the steroid is at it's lowest level in my body, twelve hours after taking it.

However I've found that I am having a lot more episodes of the dreaded pulsing back pain these days. Sometimes reaching an 8 on the pain scale. So painful that you are unable to focus on anything but the pain and if it wasn't for the fact that it's a known thing.. you'd be tempted to call an ambulance. (On my pain scale 9 is akin to torture and 10 you pass out). Last Thursday night I took paracetamol, Ibuprofen and then Morphine before the pain faded over a period of three hours. I was unable to walk as each "pulse" completely removed muscle function from my legs. Not fun!

What I do now is take paracetamol as a prophylactic, in the morning and at night. If I time it right the pain never gets a chance to build and all is well. With each 1mg reduction in steroid dosage I can expect even more body aches and pain as my system goes into adrenal withdrawal.

I've finally gotten over the last of the dreaded cold that I had, it almost feels weird not to be coughing all the time. I've probably only had a couple of weeks since April last year where by I was not coughing constantly. I'm now at a point with my BOOP that I will be weening off the prednisone over the next 18 months or so. That's assuming I haven't relapsed of course.

I've had plenty of work lately, mainly suspension upgrades and wheel alignments. Today and tomorrow I've declared "Mental Health Days" and have booked no work. I'm thinking about making a low-key start on the Evo once I've posted this blog update. Maybe put some door panels on or something.. just enough to fire me up to do the bigger things later on. Perhaps once it's all back together I'll get excited about entering some events again.

Sarah and I finished work on the courtyard last weekend, it looks great! We have just a couple of metres of pathway to complete and the whole job will be done. We are so glad we broke the job down into bite sized sections. Looking at the job as a whole it was quite daunting.

Exciting things on the horizon.. Rally Wairarapa on Sept 10-12. This will be the sixth year we have "Swept" the rally and it's something we both look forward to! More so me than her she tells me. Probably because she does all the paperwork and I just drive flat out like a loony on the closed gravel roads :o) Here's a link back to my post of last year which describes what the job of the "Sweeper" is.

My brother Mark and I have gotten right into our shooting and have been buying all sorts of gizmos and addons for our rifles so we can more effectively shoot rabbits on a couple of local farms. I know not everyone likes the idea of killing small animals but they are a pest on farms and they eat almost as much grass as a sheep. We both find it a good way to get exercise and wind down.
We are having some new silencers custom made for our rifles to avoid scaring away the prey. The guy that makes them is a Reverend who is also a gun fanatic, an engineer and an amateur science nut. A strange mix of God, Guns, killing and creation.

OK.. off to see what I can get done on the race car...   :o)

UPDATE: Got a lot done on the Evo in just a short time: Door trims fitted, rear bumper mounts started, engine running. Engine will need to come out for a freshen up though. Tomorrow I'll do some more now that I'm motivated.