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 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 :)

A tiny lump.. and a new focus

I've just found a tiny (4mm) lump on the left side of my neck at the collarbone.
It may be just an enlarged lymph node as a result of this horrible cold I've been battling for the last week, however it does have the same feel to it as the last lymphoma that appeared on my neck back in October 2007.

I've found that I still have an appointment logged in the hospital system for next Thursday.
It was supposed to have been deleted as they now don't want to see me until mid October.
However I phoned the hospital today to see if it was still in the system and it is. So I will just show up next Thursday and show the haematologist the lump. It's not like they can send me away :)

I'm battling with lethargy this week. I couldn't get out of bed today till late morning. Hope it's just the legacy of this darn cold.

Oh and speaking of energy and lethargy.. I didn't get another round of prednisone last week. The doctor said she didn't know enough about my situation and wanted to do some research and ask my haematologist. I might as well bring that up next week too and sort it myself.

The new house has finally gotten underway with the breaking of ground happening last week.
An excavator cleared the section and drive of topsoil in preparation for the cut into the hillside for the foundations.

On the motorsport front there's some very exciting news. One of my goals has been to one day compete in the Dunlop Targa road race. This is an event that is held every year and runs from Auckland to Wellington over a period of six days.
It's rather expensive to enter so I've always considered it a "wish list" item. You know.. one of those things you'd love to do if you had the money.

I've had a proposal put to me by fellow motorsport competitor Victor Yuen that we enter the event with the aim of raising money for the NZ Cancer Society. Our costs will hopefully be met by sponsors that we bring on board who want to be a part of this exciting adventure.

More details later as the finer points are sorted. (email me if you think you can help us in any way)

Huge improvement in lung function

I've been feeling really, really good lately so tonight I decided to have another crack at the treadmill and do a spot of running.
The last two times I tried, about a month ago, I was left coughing and struggling for air after less than two minutes of running at 7kph.

I've done no exercise since than time and yet tonight I ran for twelve minutes at 7kph without getting uncomfortable at all. My breathing was fine as was my heart rate. I only stopped because I didn't want to over do it first time out.

This would indicate that my lungs are in a lot better shape than they have been for a very long time. The areas of concern that showed on my last CT scan must be further resolved.
I'll celebrate tonight with a glass of vegetable juice!

Now if I can just crack the cause of this darned fever I'll be feeling completely well!
Tomorrow I'll see the my GP about another course of prednisone to that end.
Had to laugh at the published list of side effects for prednisone "may cause fever"
..I've always been an enigma.

Closing of the workshop all done.

It took two solid weeks to complete but I managed to complete the job of packing up the workshop on time. I had help from friends on the days that I needed to move the heavy stuff, and want say a special thanks to my friend Colin who put in three days of hard work this week when he could have just as easily been at home relaxing.

I couldn't believe how much stuff (read junk) I had collected over the last twenty years. I had a big clean out when I moved from the old workshop to this one, but there was still a lot of stuff that had been brought over. Some of it I had not touched in thirty years. That was all thrown out or sold. However even the true treasure that just has to be kept, takes up the two outside sheds we have here at the place we rent and all of the double garage. I can see I'm going to have to condense it all a bit and maybe have a second look at some items..

I sold nearly all of the plant to private buyers. Some items that I found during the cleanup went for quite good money on Trademe. It was funny how serendipity came into play on so many occasions during the two week clean-up. There was the time when Colin and I had loaded the van ready to do a final trip to the landfill and were about to leave when I got a phone call from the buyer of the Wheel Alignment machine asking if I could wait at work another ten minutes so he could pick it up. While we were waiting for him, the guy who won the auction on Trademe for the mig welder showed up (a day late) and spotted my old engineers press in the back of the van and offered me $60 for it.

When we finally got to the tip we were unloading everything into the concrete trench, I pushed the old welding plant trolley out of the van and over the side. No sooner had it touched the ground two metres below us, when the guy unloading a trailer beside us jumped into the trench grabbed the trolley and raced up the ramp and loaded it onto his trailer! He then climbed into the back of my van with me and asked if he could have the small desk I was about to throw out. The cool thing about it was that I didn't really want to throw out either of the items but I didn't have the time or inclination to try and find them a home.

I'm going to spend the next two weeks taking it easy and getting all the stuff sorted.

Healthwise I'm pretty good. I have a head cold at the moment which is annoying.
The great steroid trial was a moderate success. My fever has returned but it seems to me more mild than before, and the cough is just a shadow of what it was. I no longer cough until I gag which is great. My plan is to get the TB test out of the way this week and see if I can convince the doctor to put me on a low dose course of prednisone that is just low enough to keep the fevers at bay.

Right! It's a beautiful day outside, time to get out into the sunshine and enjoy my new life without the stress of running a workshop on my shoulders. :)

Amazing improvement in my health.

It's been eleven days since I started the prednisone and today I took the last 1/4 of a tablet.
The original prescription was for four days at 40mg and four at 20mg. However as always I had to have a wee tinker and do it my own way. As a result I'm now just finishing on 5mg. That way I shouldn't have any problems with the dreaded "coming down off steroids". Something that's been a problem in the past.

Results so far are exceptional. No fever since day 1, and the cough is completely gone as of today.
My weight is still going up, I have a healthy appetite and my energy levels are the best they have been in years.
Considering that just a few weeks ago I was so ill that I was convinced I did not have long to live, This is an amazing turn-around. I'm expecting a drop off to some degree once the steroids are out of my system but I can't see the reduction (in health) being that great.

When I had suggested that I take a course of steroids to Dr D'Souza he said that it would just cloud the picture and give no clear idea of what the problem was. If it were Hodgkins he argued the prednisone would reduce that too and we would be none the wiser as to the true nature of the problem. (constant cough and areas of concern on CT of my lungs)
However prednisone was part of the chemo regime I had back in early 2007 and that showed no effect against my lymphoma and I actually got worse. So I can't see all of my new found health being totally dependant on the prednisone.

I believe, and I'm going to know for sure in a few days, that I did in fact have the "Radiation Pneumonitis" as I suggested several months back. That the steroid has stopped the inflammation and suppressed my immune system enough to stop the fever response. By slowly easing off the prednisone I'm hoping my immune system won't over-react again. Again I'm assuming that my immune system can learn what's a problem and what is not.

If I'm right I'll be the happiest man alive, If I'm not I'll probably delete this post and pretend I never said a word
Oh I should also mention that I'm still taking 12 apricot kernels a day and 6000mg of vitamin C.
Whether they have had any part to play I have no idea. I took them because I had nothing to loose and everything to gain.

I've almost completely packed up my workshop and have sold most of the plant and equipment.
In one more week I will be unemployed. (Well as far as that's possible for me)
I've already had several job offers but if I wanted to continue working on the tools, I'd have kept my own workshop open.

The idea is to build up the Flextech side of Total Performance plus one or two other ventures I have planned. This will be much less physically demanding and give me time to work on my health with more regular exercise and less stress. The new house construction starts in two weeks so that will also demand quite a lot of my time.

It's so good to feel normal again!!!