Rainy Monday Morning

It's bucketing down outside, it's been like it all night. Not exactly a great day for doing anything much more than paperwork.

If I had my way I'd spend the day in bed watching videos, but that little voice inside my head won't let me. (One day I'll find out who he is and give him a darn good talking to!) ;)

Last night as I went to bed I checked my temperature and it was a feverish 38.4, I'd already taken one Nurofen so who knows how high it was before that. I took another. In hindsight I probably should not have. I absolutely soaked the sheets in sweat for the next eight hours. A totally miserable experience on a cold night.

It's still another week before my CT scan, and until I've had it I can't start on the steroids which will reduce my fevers. The small lump on my neck is steadily growing, it's still small, but now it has been joined by several other small nodes. It kinda feels like "tic-tacs" under the skin on my collarbone. There's certainly no doubt that I have relapsed now. I've emailed Dr D'Souza today and suggested that we extend the CT scan to include my neck, he emailed me back and agreed.

I had asked Dr D'Souza when I saw him last, what would be the expected treatment if I had relapsed.
He replied that he would have to take a look at the drugs I've had so far and find a mix that I have not had yet. I'd say that would be something like BEACOPP but then again it contains a couple of the drugs I've already had, so possibly not. Ultimately it means another summer spent with no energy, constant hospital visits and no hair! It's taken me six months to regrow what I have now! ;)

Arrangements for Targa are progressing well, we are still hoping for one or two large corporate sponsors of the race car itself. Donations to the Cancer Society are rolling in and we have been pleasantly surprised at the level of support shown by friends, family and even total strangers.

If you feel that you can help and would like to donate to our cause, 100% of which goes to the Cancer Society, click on the following link.

http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/TargaLifeChallenge/

I can't tell you how much your suppport means to me. To achieve a life goal and at the same time raise money for the cancer society is just awesome.

I picked my Evo race car up from Motorsport House on Friday. It's been on display there for the last couple of months. I was like a little boy on Christmas morning as I sat behind the wheel again and turned the key. It really is an awesome car. I can't wait to let it have it's head and open it up to the maximum 200kph (as limited by Targa regulations) on some of the best roads in the country. (Closed to the public while we are on them)

Victor got his first taste of what he is in for when I picked him up from his place in the Evo on Saturday morning for our photo-shoot. Although when you drive a race car on public roads you almost have to drive slower than the speed limit just to prove you aren't a hoon.
People stare and not everyone loves race cars. Some are just waiting for you to do something that would give them cause to complain.

We met up with Tatiana and her husband Nick and we discussed the new website design over lunch at a cafe in Mana. Tatiana will be designing the site and we needed some pics of the car and Victor and I. To that end we headed out to Greys Road in Pahatanui for the photo-shoot.

I'm not the worlds most photogenic person but we managed to fluke a couple of good shots, and after a bit of touching up in Photoshop I almost look human. :)

Targa Life Challenge: Please help

Things are now on the move for our Targa campaign. Victor Yuen (Team manager and Co-driver) is a virtual steam roller when it comes to getting thing done. Once started there's no stopping this man!

We have set up a website that enables people to show their support for both myself and the Cancer Society. If you would like to help out then click on the following link to go to our fundraising webpage. http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/TargaLifeChallenge/
There you can find details of our campaign and a means to donate directly to the Cancer Society.

By showing your support for the Cancer Society you are directly helping me achieve my goal of racing in the Dunlop Targa 2009. Sponsors like to back winners and the more we raise for charity the more attractive the team looks to sponsors. Plus you are directly helping the fantastic work of the Cancer Society. It's a win/win situation.

Thanks for helping ....Ron

What the Doc thinks..

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. :)

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)