More deckchair rearranging on the Titanic

Again I must apologise for the long break between posts.
Almost every other day I've been in the Blood and Cancer Centre (day ward) getting blood in one form or another.
What that means is that on the few days I have free I tend to sleep in as long as I can, then get up, process my internet sales and collapse back to the couch with some oxygen.

First it was my platelets that were in short supply, I can barely rally a count above five or six on a good day. The transfusions are gobbled up within a day or two and then it's back for more.
Now my haemoglobin is doing the same. Dropping by about two points every day until I get to around 100 and am barely able to function.

Earlier in the week at the Blood and Cancer Centre I was promised two units of red cells because of my poor count of ninety ( I was wiped out, nothing to run on) But as the day unfolded it became apparent that there wasn't enough time left in the day to run both bags. So I said "no problem, we'll get the other unit tomorrow when I come in for more platelets (for my eye surgery that afternoon). But of course when they took my blood counts the next day I was above the cut off point because of the one unit I had the previous day! Result no extra blood, and me totally wiped out yesterday. So much so that Sarah and I were seriously considering going into hospital for a check, I was that fatigued.. barely able to travel the distance from the couch to the bed (four metres)

Today I cornered the duty doctor Vickie as soon as we got to the day ward and explained the dilemma. She agreed I could have two units today on top of my scheduled unit of platelets. We just got back home now and it's after 6pm. It makes for a long day, but at least I now have enough energy to write my blog :)

So it looks like my lymphoma is running full speed ahead at the moment. Bone marrow involvement and several large nodes in my groin that are about 40mm long by about 20mm wide. (plus whatever is hiding inside me)
Because I'm the sort of idiot that looks at total disaster and thinks "Now where's the upside in all this?" ..and then finds one. I've come to the conclusion that having the enlarged lymphnodes in my groin isn't all bad because now I have something visual to look at when we start my next chemo and if the chemo is working I'll know long before a CT scan is scheduled and results come through. 

I have an appointment on Thursday with the Haematology clinic and I'm guessing we will lay out a treatment plan then. At the moment I'm so fatigued I'm barely able to function. (This blog update is now taken me four days to write up to this point)

Last Wednesday I had the cataract surgery on my right eye. The result so far has been spectacular!
Although they chose to do my good eye first the improvement has been amazing.
Because of the risk of bleeding it was decided to perform the operation without the usual anesthetic.
Instead they just used eye drops to numb the eye. It was quite freaky laying there and literally watching my eye being cut open, the view being from the inside. I knew when he had taken out the old cataract because the bright light I has been rather fuzzily staring at suddenly became a soggy wash of light.
Then once the new lense was inserted the light instantly became a razor sharp image and I could see the filament and the ceramic base. Truly amazing seeing it from that point of view, and with no pain .. just a slight pressure feeling on the eye ball on the odd occasion.

The great thing was that I required no bandage on the eye, there was no bruising and the eye worked and felt fine straight away. It did take until the next morning for perfect vision to come into effect due to the pupil being dilated by the eye drops.
Next Wednesday I get the "bad" eye done and I can hardly wait to see the results!

In light of my current state of health some might wonder why I'd bother getting my eyes fixed. A case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? Well to me it's a quality of life issue, and seeing everything clearly certainly improves my quality of life.

The other thing I've done in the last two weeks is purchase my dream car. A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6.5, Tommi Makinen Edition. This limited edition model of the Evo 6 is regarded as being the best Mitsubishi made  (and the rarest) and with me being a bit of an Evo enthusiast then what better to spend the money from the sale of my race car on!
This particular car is immaculate in every way has extremely low mileage because the previous three owners have never driven it in the rain, have always garaged it and it's not been used as daily transport. I would suggest that there would not be many examples in the world that are so pristine.

I first spotted this car twelve years ago at a motorsport event and I engaged the owner in  conversation. He told me how special this model was, how it was a NZ new example with all the factory "go fast bits". In those days (2000-2005) he used to show up at club events and enter the car against purpose built race cars.. and win!  I told him I'd own his car one day.
The car changed hands a couple of times and was then purchased by another local motorsport enthuiast. I told him if he wanted to sell it to give me a call. The rest is history. The sad thing for him was that he didn't want to sell it but he needed the room in his garage.

Once my eye's are all sorted I will take it out for a nice fast drive in the country, but not a long one.. don't want to put too many miles on the clock.  ;)