This weather has been crazy! Nearly a month of rain so far with just a couple of days of sunshine.

Yesterday we had our first really cold day in the new house. The sleet built up around the windows giving that traditional frosted Christmas window look.

My health has been a bit weird lately. I increased my steroid dose just in case the chest infection/ asthma I had been suffering was a relapse of the COP (Cryptogenic Organising Pneumonia) and that made me feel really good. However I've been afflicted by a viral infection in my left arm.

I'd mentioned in a previous post that the haematology doctor wanted me to take an anti-viral drug daily on a permanent basis. I declined. He told me to be on the watch for the first sign of Shingles. A tingling of the skin in a band around my chest. If this happened I needed to go on the antiviral immediately.

A few weeks back I had a burning sensation in my left wrist, much like a chemical burn would feel. I figured I'd got petrol on my skin. Last week I started to experience numbness in the fingers of my left hand and just assumed it was a pinched nerve, something I've had on and off for years.

Then last weekend I developed pain in my left armpit and shooting pains in my fingers. Last night I took a look at my armpit and found it had a series of small red blisters. I also have a few welts on the palm of my left hand.

I know enough to realise that it can only be a viral infection, and that it's following the nerve endings down my arm. I see my GP tomorrow, but I know he's not going to be able to do anything as we missed the 72 hour window for the antiviral drugs to be of any use. It should clear up in 3-5 weeks all by itself.

There is a risk that it can spread to the lungs in someone with a compromised immune system such as myself, however I think this would have happened by now if it were going to. At least I'll know the symptoms for next time.

Who would have thought it would have appeared in just one arm?? At least it wasn't on my face, which is fairly common.

The EVO race car is once more a thing of beauty thanks to the team at D.E McMillan panel. They tell me that there is a slight difference in the colour of the doors to the body work as they were painted at different times. I couldn't see it myself, but they tell me they are going to remedy it before I pick the car up early next week.

From there I have to put all the interior back together along with quite a number of mechanical repairs.

I have a hillclimb event in early July that I'd like to enter, however the engine is supposed to be stripped and rebuilt as part of it's Post Targa service. I may put that off till after the event.

The car looks so good that I may be too scared to drive it hard just in case I scratch it again! .. I wouldn't want to break the hearts of the team of panel-beaters that fixed it!  ;o)

I've finished the storage room under the house and made myself a lot more space in the workshop. However with the Evo returning home that will leave me very little room, so Sarah and I are looking at building another garage to store the two race cars. I'm not sure who's the most spoilt.. me or the cars!  ;o)  We never really expected that I'd be putting so many customers cars through the workshop and it's just not really a good idea to be driving the Evo in and out everyday as I put cars on and off the hoist. The short running will destroy the engine and the race clutch in no time and they cost more than a garage to build.

The insurance company has paid out on both the stolen mountain bike and the race wheels. In fact they wanted to pay me too much for the race wheels and I had to decline their cheque. They somehow thought that $1500 was a fair price for the wheels. I pointed out that I could buy another set for half that. I don't think I should be making a profit from the theft, so have asked them to reduce the figure.

Having said that I've now spent quite a bit of it on a new security system. Monitored alarm and cameras. There should be enough left over to buy a new bike too. So maybe there is a silver lining to it all.

..Ron

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