I guess I'd better write something.. It's been a while.

I've been suffering a bit of a chesty cough for the last few weeks, so I've increased my daily prednisone dose up to 27.5 from 21 just in case it was the COP returning. I must say I do feel a lot better for it. No nightly back aches and pains. However that will probably change once my body gets used to the higher dose and starts complaining again. I threw in some antibiotics too and things seem to be improving.
The change from hot to cold as I move around the house and workshop can bring on a bit of a cough too but that's not entirely exclusive to me, I think most asthmatics would get that at this time of year.

My brother Mark and I have spent the last two Saturdays building a secure storage area under the house to keep all my long term car parts and spares stored away. It's all finished now, I just have to lug all my wheels and heavy boxes of car parts down under the house. Not a small job! However this will be great as it will open up a lot more space in the workshop.

What's more.. It will also allow me to lock stuff away securely as we have been the subject of two thefts in the last month or so. First time was set of spare wheels for the Evo from under the house and the second was my mountain bike from the covered courtyard. I'd originally written the wheels off and wasn't going to claim insurance on them. However once the bike was stolen and I priced replacing everything the bill was over $3500. So well worth claiming on. Sadly I need to spend a lot of that on a better security system.

The really annoying thing is I'm 99% sure I know who took the items, but without firm proof it's a waste of time pointing the finger. I just wish my security camera had been working on the day... that's the first thing I will be upgrading!!

...Ron

Time to get motivated.

I spent most of today at the hospital. Don't panic.. it was just my regular check-ups. An X-Ray and Lung Function tests.

The results are a little concerning but ultimately I shouldn't be surprised as it's something I've suspected all along anyway.
There is an area of fibrosis on my right lung. That's permanent scarring that will never recover. So it's effectively an area that's non functioning. Gone forever.
My overall lung function is no worse than my two previous measurements, which is good. In fact there has been a slight improvement. So at least I'm not getting any worse.

Bad news is that we really need to tread carefully to make sure we stamp out the COP and prevent any recurrence in the meantime. So with that in mind Darren has recommended that I stay on prednisone for a lot longer. Possibly up to two years!

Considering I've put on 15Kg's in the last six months, I really need to modify both my diet and my exercise requirements. I've been a bit lazy about it all. I've assumed that this would be all over within the next couple of months so really haven't bothered too much with restricting my diet. Now is the time to start or risk the secondary health issues that come with long term prednisone use. (Weight gain, diabetes, bone density loss..)

I plan to cut sugar from my diet, drink more water and work on getting my lung capacity better through regular exercise. Heck if people can run a marathon on one lung, I should be able to get through this on one and three quarters.
I refuse to have my life quality reduced by it all. Ironically it stems back to that first dose of chemo. The one that I believe contained an over-dose of the lung damaging drug Bleomycin. Add to that the mantle field radiation treatment I never wanted, that was a total waste of time and massively damaging to my body and it's no surprise my lungs are in the state they are in. But hey! I'm alive to complain about it!  :)

I've started keeping an XL spread-sheet so I can hopefully work out a pattern and see why on some days I am particularly ill and on others I'm fine. This Monday I had a repeat of the aches and pains that I suffered last week (see previous post) and yet I can't see an obvious cause, both occurred on a Monday.

The house had it's final inspection this week and passed on all items except for the water cylinder that required strapping down. The annoying thing was that I had the strapping kit just sitting there ready to put on but had never got around to installing it. I didn't realise it was part of the compliance inspection so had left it. (You'd think the plumber would have installed one when he fitted the cylinder since it was a legal requirement!). Anyway it's all fitted now... did it last night. So we should be all signed off in the next week or so. Apparently one of our neighbours has not had his house signed off yet and he built it eight years ago. Wonder what he's failed on..

OK time to put on my overalls and do some real work. Gotta fit a steering linkage to that Mustang and solder some wires in the boot. Tomorrow is a huge day.. that will teach me to do bugger all for the first half of the week! I have this habit of bulldozing my work towards the end of the week and then I wonder why I get so busy on Thursdays and Fridays. Must stop doing that! :)

Cheers!  ..Ron

A little bit of pain never hurt anyone..

As I sit here typing, I'm in a lot of pain. It's almost certainly a result of my slow weening from prednisone. I've been dropping the dose for the last month by 1.25mg a week. A tiny amount, but it would seem that my body is so used to the higher dose of cortisol that it's kicking up a hell of a fuss.

My lower back is pulsing and twingeing away like crazy, I have pain in my hips, groin and between my shoulder blades. I feel like my spine is made out of a collection of loosely assembled bolts and each one is out of place. I've taken a couple of paracetamol. Hopefully I will gain some relief soon.

Checks temperature... 37.5C  Hmm would like it to be a little lower.. won't worry about that unless it becomes a daily thing, or my cough returns. It really is a delicate balancing act. If I get it wrong and the COP/BOOP returns like it did in Feb, I'll be back to square one. Six months wasted treatment.

I haven't done a lot around the house in the past couple of weeks. There's plenty to do, but no motivation to do it. We are waiting for Code of Compliance to be completed by the council before we plan any more work such as the driveway resealing etc.

Workwise I've got some interesting jobs booked for this week. A 70's Buick in to have the suspension leveled as it sits a little crooked. Then on Wednesday a beautiful Mach1 Mustang, powered by a 390 cubic inch big block engine. That's in for steering repairs and wiring faults.

I've also been asked to do a long term project in a few months time.. a Chevy Blazer that needs to be put back together after ten years in pieces. Could be a big job!!

I have to wonder though, where all this Muscle car work is coming from? Maybe I've earned myself yet another reputation.. old guy.. old cars ;)

The Evo is now back on it's wheels. I spent an afternoon at the panel-beaters reassembling the rear suspension last week. It's now awaiting final panel finishing and undercoating before it's painted.

I'd like to have it back together in time to compete in the next round of the Duncan McKenzie series in late July. Last years poor points tally meant that last week's annual prize giving was the first time I hadn't won the series in four years. A combination of ill health and Targa meant I was not able to compete in several rounds, missing out on the necessary points. However I did come third, so not all bad.

Oddly enough I have the trophy here in my office waiting to present it to Tim Sillay who shares the trophy this year with Webster Gough. It's great to see it go to them both as they really worked hard towards winning the series. Some spectacular drives from both of them by all accounts.

Oh good... the pain is starting to ease :)  Just shows you how slow I type!

Last week I received an email from a Dentist in the UK who had been trying to locate a long lost friend of his. He had typed his friend's name into Google and my blog came up with the name of my respiratory doctor.

After a few emails were sent back and forth, he ascertained that this was indeed his friend from fifteen years ago and they have now reacquainted themselves..  I shall have to be careful in future not to post any scathing comments about the NZ health system.. you never know who is going to be reading them!  ;)

Oh! just got an email from my haematologist! Reads...

Blood counts are still low, platelets 38, been that way for months.. No need for concern.. CD4 counts are now 360 up from the scary AIDS-like figure of 200. I can now stop the weekly antibiotics as opportunist infections are now unlikely!  YAY!!

My T and B lymphocytes are still low but there's just no info out there as to what that means.

"Stay on anti-fungals until steroids have finished"...

Well no bad news there, so that's good.I next see the doctors in a couple of weeks.

OK, pain is almost at a level that I can move around.. so shall go and complete my stock-take of Silicone Hose. Fun, Fun!  :(

Cheers!  ...Ron

It's May already!

We have been in the new house for over two and a half months now and there's still heaps to do.
There's been no progress on the courtyard. Like the kids from the Mitre Ten advert... To be honest it's a pretty big job. Might have to get a bloke in to do it. (Mitre Ten advert)

Back when the building platform was being cleared, the digger operator decided we needed a back lawn and piled up all the top soil to form a nice flat area where there was once just a steep slope. Sarah planted some native grasses and flaxs around the edge a few months back and they have taken well. We kind of missed the best time to have sewn it in lawn, which would have been back in September last year. Had we done it then when it was wet for weeks on end, we would have a great lawn by now. But now it's kind of taken off by itself anyway.. half weed and half grass.

We have sewn two huge bags of expensive lawn seed onto it in the last month but the birds keep eating it.
It's hard to get angry at them, as it's kinda nice to have so many birds in your garden. Chasing them away is a waste of time as the cheeky devils sneak back the moment your back is turned. I'm sure by the end of winter we will have something to show for it all.

I've been flat out with work, (eight wheel alignments last week alone) which is great if you want to save up enough money to upgrade your driveway, but not good if you want to get stuff done around the house. It's all a balancing act and I always have the option of saying "no" or booking weeks down the track.
I've been consolidating all my tools, filling in the gaps where some have been lost or broken. I purchased a new roll-cabinet tool box and chest, something I've always wanted. It's amazing how when you collect thirty years worth of accumulated tools into one place how you find you have four or five of some things because you think you've lost them and buy more!

The Evo race car is coming along nicely since being cut in two and rejoined. I was originally a bit upset at the thought that my "mint" original car was having another car's rear end attached to it. But it was discovered by the panel-beaters that the rear had already had massive repairs done to it in an earlier life and that with fitting the complete replacement rear section the car would be better for it.
PPG paints have kindly offered to supply the paint free of charge which is amazing considering I hadn't even asked for sponsorship. A big Thank you to Greg Buckland and the team at PPG for their generosity!

On the health front I'm pretty much stable. I have the odd "off day" from the steroids but nothing too bad.
My weight is now 79kg. A full 14kg's up on my lowest figure from last year. I've bumped into more than a few people of late who have jokingly called me a fat bugger! (at least I think they were joking) so I must be looking a lot better. Sarah seems to think so. She said she doesn't feel scared now that the weight is back on me. I imagine it would have been hard to watch someone you love fading away and not knowing when or if it will stop.

Till next time...  Ron

When people drop in..

Last Saturday we had the strangest thing happen at our property...

Some guy tried to turn around at the top of our driveway, he left the car in reverse thinking it was in "drive". The car shot down our step drive and he panicked leaving his foot hard on the gas pedal thinking that he was on the brake, he then bounced off the inside bank, then over a steep drop, bulldozed his way through the bush and then rolled it into a ravine.!!
The car finally stopping on it's side against a tree some thirty metres from the road and completely secluded deep under the canopy of trees.

He remained trapped in the over-turned car, unable to open the door due to it's weight, for over an hour. At no point did he think to sound his horn and let someone know of his predicament.
My brother and I were working outside all day and we heard nothing. Eventually the driver found his cellphone and called his wife who rescued him.

The first thing we knew of the crash was when she knocked on our door to say if we saw a car down the bank (on our land) not to worry because they had called a tow-truck!.
Apparently the driver swears the accelerator stuck.. yeah right! no skids marks and wheel spin marks right down the drive and over a bank.

Three tow trucks turned up that night to extract it, along with a team of operators. It did provide a ton of entertainment for my guests who had arrived for a BBQ dinner, most of whom had driven straight past the crash site in the drive and not realised someone was trapped in a car below the road.

Had the guy been more seriously injured and not found his phone (or his horn) he could have been there for at least another 24 hours before I would have seen the damage to the surrounding trees and driveway and investigated.

The car is a total write-off. On the plus side, the driver and his wife stopped by the next day to apologise and give us a two native trees to replace the ones that were up-rooted by his out of control excursion.