Photos from the Everest Challenge

Back in action! Enjoying the fantastic Easter snow at the top of Cairngorm after the Everest Challenge

Thank you so much to everyone who have donated - we have raised an incredible £1960 so far for Friends of Anchor, which is absolutely brilliant and will directly help Leukemia and other Cancer sufferers. The donation page is still very much open, so both myself and Friends of Anchor would be very grateful for any belated donations!
Please click to Donate now on Friends of Anchor site

Summary of the challenge (Geeky stuff!)
Total ascent: 10,020 meters
Distance travelled: about 98 Km!
Total runs: 98 (Grouse 22, Eagle 76)
Total Time: 7 hours 51 minutes (includes 45 mins of rest)
Calories burnt: 4300
Average heart rate: 132 bpm
Time for legs to stop aching: about 7 days and even more baths!!


The Eagle run at the lecht which I used for most of the day. With so few people I was lucky not to have to queue more than half a dozen times in the day. My standard run was in 3:45 mins round trip: 2:50 going up and 55 seconds down! (i had a lot of time to time myself!)

I spent most of the day going up the hill on the poma....

...nearly there


Made it! Reached the Everest height after 7 hours!

Celebration, and some relief, at reaching my target!

Stopped at top for a "photo shoot" after reaching the target. I was feeling pretty good and still enjoying the snow so decided to aim for 10,000m by the end of the day!


nearly there!

After being shooed off the slopes so they could close up, my final total was 10,020 meters. It had been a brilliant day, great fun and although my feet never stopped aching I was very surprised that I still had energy and was still smiling at the end of the day....

....the real pain set in started about 24 hours later!

The final tally on the polar monitor

Click to go to previous post "Everest reached!"

Summit Reached - and then overshot to 10K vertical!

Update: a fantastic response so far on the Friends of Anchor site - thank you all so much from me and the ANCHOR unit.
OK so below is the hard proof this is my heart rate and altitude record for the whole 8 hours. The first two gaps are genuine breaks for food at the car (with the second my heart rate goes up at the end as the Grouse was down and I ran down to get back to the Eagle!) The last gap, at summit height, was due to the Eagle Poma tow also breaking for a while - I guess I wore it out! I probably only queued for less than 6 of the 98 runs, it was a very quiet day despite the clear weather. I kept my feet in the secure in the board's bindings up the Pomas to save time. I am pretty satisfied with the rate I managed, and I think this may be quite a hard total to beat unless the Pomas are sped up!

With the Cairngorms closing due to high winds at the beginning of the week, and foul weather due for the rest of the week, on Monday night I spied a weather window for the Lecht for Tuesday.
After some hasty planning I was there at 8am and waiting for opening.

The weather looked good, only high broken cloud, but still a hard frost. In fact there was a thick sheet of ice for 20 yards across the road just before the centre which almost took my car out before the challenge started!

I am very grateful to the staff of the Lecht. They were brilliant, very supportive although a little doubtful I would manage the challenge, since stormy weather was predicted for later. This may prevent the faster lower runs (Harrier and Buzzard) from opening , which was where I was hoping to put in most of the descent! They donated a lift pass, for which I will add an additional personal donation to FOA. The Poma station crews were great and kept my spirits high on the Grouse and Eagle. The lifts were scheduled to close by 4:25 so I had to get a move on!

I got started on the Grouse at 8:40. The slopes were hard and icy at this time so I took it a bit carefully at first: I didn't want to be an Everest casualty! I managed around 4-5 minutes per lift cycle of 110meters, so that looked like the challenge was a possible, although in a daunting 7-8 hours!
After the first 1000m I switched to the Eagle. This run is 100m in vertical height and again I managed around 4 minutes per run cycle. I took a couple of wipeouts on the hard sections in the morning and my shoulder is still screaming this morning, but the legs still worked so I carried on!

Around 11 am the snow started softening. The Eagle run was now perfect. The snow was a bit slower, but for me I could go now faster and was managing 60 seconds down the run, so 3:45 for the whole cycle.
By noon I was halfway there, 4400 meters of descent, so the challenge was definitely feasible as long as I could keep the pace up.
I had a couple of quick breaks during in the day, at 3000 and 6000 meters, for refueling and to give my aching feet a break.

It was great when I could see the end was possible, and I reached it (8850m) around 3pm, just as the lift broke down for 20 minutes.
Somehow my energy levels had stayed up all day, in fact I was really enjoying it so saw no reason now to stop. In the end I was the last one off the slopes at 4:30 after pushing the final total ascent/descent to 10,020 meters! I guess I have been really determined to do a physical challenge for the ANCHOR unit ever since my days on the ward pacing up and down the stairs.

Thank you all SO much for your support, it means a huge amount to me and to Friends of Anchor. And for anyone willing there's still plenty of time to add your donation if you wish on their site.

Thanks again

Martin (today feeling very sore but very content!)


click to go to "Photos from Everest Challenge"

click to go to Previous page "Everest chellenge for Leukaemia"

Snowboard Descent of Everest ! a Leukaemia fund raising challenge

UPDATE: Waiting on good weather. Expected attempt: Tuesday 23th March, Lecht Ski Centre.

please now go to my page on the Friends of ANCHOR site for online donations
note so far they have not updated the running total, but I believe there has already been a great response so thank you all so far. Please Donate, even if just a little, as this challenge and Charity is incredibly important to me.
Many thanks, Martin


Welcome back to my blog everyone, and sorry about the shocking picture!
I feel very fortunate to be able say since my Chemotherapy, bar a few hiccups, I am doing very well, touch wood. I've been back at work since November and my health is continually improving.

It is now one year post chemotherapy, so to mark this I am organising a charity sports event:

"The Descent of Everest by Snowboard!"

OK, I couldn't get the backing to go to Nepal, so instead my task will be carried out in the Scottish Mountains, very soon, at the end of March.

The aim is to climb and descend by snowboard the equivalent height of Everest in one day That's 29,035 feet or 8850 meters!

HOW?
It will take place in the Scottish mountains, at either Cairngorm or the Lecht ski slope. I will be using Ski lifts Pomas and T-bars for going up, (no cheating using the Funicular or Chair Lifts!), and will then be descending purely by snowboard power! It's going to be a tough challenge which will mean going almost non stop for around 8 hours!

I will be wearing Polar heart rate/altitude monitor which records total ascent and descent over time. So I will publish the proof on this site when all is completed!

The serious aim is to achieve this in one day, which is definitely a tough challenge. However, if I fail, I'll will go back the next day to complete the descent!

WHEN:
It will be carried out in just over a weeks time, between 22nd and 26th of March. (The date is not fixed as I aim to find a good day when the Pomas are running full speed).


The Charity - Friends of Anchor
Since my diagnosis for Burkitt's Leukaemia in December 2008, I vowed to myself that if I was well enough I would start raising money for Leukaemia. As I wrote a year ago in this Blog, I was particularly moved by the support of the charity "Friends of Anchor". It supports the Aberdeen and North Centre for Haematology, Oncology and Radiotherapy (ANCHOR). All money raised goes to good use as the Balmoral Group run the administration for free. I found their support help raise my spirits at times when I needed all the help I could get. In addition they also fund cancer research projects.

SPONSORSHIP / Donations
Online sponsorship is preferred as you can then reclaim gift aid automatically.
please go to my page on the Friends of ANCHOR site

at the bottom you will find a donation payment section

Please ensure you leave the text "Martin Downing" in top line of message box
so we can keep a running total going!

Well thats all for now. Thank you very much for your support

Martin :)

plaease sponsor me for Movember!

Hi all! I've been thinking about fund raising ever since this journey started. Some of my friends and family have already done so, but so far not me.

Hair growing has been a fun passtime for the last few months since it relented and decided to come back. Considering that in April I had no hair on me head, eyelashes, brows and stubble let alone a Mo - the fact that I can grow a weedy Mo is a pure celebration!! Unfortunately I had just shaved the latest months growth off when my brothers invite to doneate to Mo-vember came though - informing me of this event - dooh!!!
So although theres only a few days to go - I thought I would join Movember!
So have a laugh and please give a wee donation to this great cause.

click on the title above, or go to: http://uk.movember.com/mospace/507611
thanks,
Martin

revenge of Retoximab

I waited all afternoon for the call from my consultant. I dont remember being so nervous for a peice of news since this saga started on 17th Dec. By 6:30 I had assumed the clinic would have finished and that they had not managed to complete my tests in the lab, in the back of my mind hand I was worried they were double checking a bad finding.

At last the mobile rang, it was my doc, and I'll always thank him for this, he started: "Martin, its excelent news!". No leukemic blast cells were seen in the marrow, and there were "text book" signs of retoximab interfering with the blast maturing pathway, which is believed to be the cause of retoximab induced neutropenia. So while I am still neutropenic for now, it is most likely not caused by a relapse.

I am so relieved you would not believe. There is a very high incidence of relapse for Burkits Leukemia and you would expect it expecially within a few months of remission. So the last week has been close to unbearable and I have definitely become closer to my nemesis again. I am now on GCF injections again (prescribed by doc but self administered, I still had some left!). The neutropenia should pass in time so I just need to be careful or I will be back on the ward again with an infection (no take-aways, bah!).

The chances of Retoximab-Neutropenia is about 1 in 30, so combined with having one of the rarest leukemia's (c. 1 in 1,000,000) I am as always proving to be as awkward as ever!

More Tests

Blood test today at 9:30. Then waited until 11:30 chatting to fellow patients until I was called for the consultation. It showed my neutraphils have dropped again from last week, from 0.7 to 0.3. So I am now officially back at neutrapenic. This is scarey stuff as it may imply relapse, although on the good side is that all my other blood results are good, and that one of my chemo drugs, Retoximab (aka rat-flu), may have caused the neutrapenia as this has been seen with some other patients. My consultant offered me a bone marrow biopsy immediately, or to come back later. I opted to go ahead, so thats now done already. We are hoping the biopsy shows nothing bad in the marrow. In the meantime I now need to keep away from infection or I'll be back in the ward anyway! Please please be the Retoximab, I'll let you know when I do.

Time for an update

Erm, ok, sorry. So its been a while. I had wondered whether I was going to continue this blog. I was not sure what to write anymore, the thing is that mostly things now happen at a slower pace to the time in hospital. Daily updates just didn't seem relevent anymore. But it has been almost 2 months since I last wrote anything, and on reflection it does seem like a fair bit has happened or changed since and I did not mean to leave it that long. Thanks those who have sent me messages of encouragement, and those who requested blog updates, i think you must be crazier than me but here we go anyway. So I'll try to catch up later but for now jump to the present.

Physically I am improving really well on the outside. The hickman line came out in April with no hitches, and all my hair has been growing back. I have not been allowed back in the water, even the swimming pool yet, this is mostly because of infection risk since my immune system is still very much compromised. So my rehab excercise plan has changed from being swimming based to walking, jogging and a bit on an old rowing machine.

I read Lance Armstrong's book in hospital I noted that he found the followup period far harder than his time in hospital. I remember thinking that sounded about right. Emotionally this period has been very challenging. It is very hard if not impossible not to get paranoid each time I get an unexpected headache, or just start feeling more tired in the mornings than the week before.

I am now having monthly visits and blood tests at the hospital. Unfortunately the last test, which was last tuesday, has thrown me a curve ball as it was not quite bang on. My neutraphils have dropped since the last test 4 weeks before to 0.7, this is below normal and borderline neutrapenic. This could be caused by infection, but more worrying by onset of a relapse. This was followed up by a microscope screening the next day which did not show any bad cells. Thats good but I am not out of the woods yet. Now I just have to wait for a retest, which is due today.

So not a good week, its been paranoia central! despite that I am still positive and hoping for good news today.

I'll follow this up soon - promise :)

Remission!

Just a quick message to say I have just been given the results of the (painful!) bone marrow test yesterday -

my cells are in Remission!

This is great news, it means a normal number of blast cells were seen in the test slides with no abnormal ones. It doesn't guarantee a cure, I have to wait and find that out over time by implication, but everything is going to plan, hurray!

More good news is that I now get the Hickman line removed from my chest on Monday. So when that heals I can get back in the water :))

Recovery time at home

Wooops, I seem to have left it a while since I updated this blog.

For the last 2 weeks I have been at home, with only a weekly visit to the hospital for blood tests. It has been great. As I have said many times before in this dairy the simple freedom of home is amazing compared to hospital living!
The first week I was still very anaemic and coughing my guts out - the after effects of the para-influenza virus! At the moment the main problem is having very little energy, (and coughing like a sea lion). I feel like I have been fitted with old batteries that just give up without warning after a few minutes - I guess this is the chemo and the anaemia. I am recovering little by little each day but it does mean I have been sleeping heaps and going to the beach very little, something I find a bit frustrating: I want to do stuff! But I get it, I have to take it easy so my bod can recover :)

The coolest thing was that I came out of hospital just in time to go to my friends 20th wedding party, great to see so many people but ok i didn't manage any Ceilidh dances (was dizzy just standing up!)

While I haven't done much, I have repaired the surf wagon again. This time it was the power steering which seized causing an impressive cloud of smoke as the belt burnt though and Michelle yelling "get out the car its on fire!", very funny in retrospect! I have now replaced the pump and belt in a very laid back way over the last 10 days. Hope it works!
Also, don't know why, I have made some Marmalade! Well the oranges were in the freezer so it seemed the thing to do! That took me days as well.

Well today I go back in to the ward for blood tests, and possibly for the full bone marrow test. I am praying this will show remission, lets keep fingers and toes crossed and hope it does!

I'll update this when I know more :)

The Great Escape!

Thursday.
Over the last few days i have been contemplating many ideas of escape from my cell block. Option one, get hold of enough bed sheets for a rope, but left tool kit at home so not sure how I'd get through the window lock (still could ask Michelle to bring it back in). Second idea, leave disguised as a visitor, they are so used to seeing me in my stripped or tartan jammies that a good suit and hat might do the trick, and I could just walk of the ward. Third option, and you have to have this one, dig a tunnel. I like this one especially as I can hear diggers next to this block of the hospital, so maybe they could be bribed to assist, and if not their noise would be my cover. I have started collecting spoons and bags. Of course there is a fourth option, get release papers. I plan this one by becoming so healthy the doctors give in to my demands and let me out!

Before I had had a chance to work out the weakest bit of the floor to start the tunnel that is what happened. My counts were up to 2.5 on Wednesday, and my temperature has stayed down overnight. By the way last night I had Michelle bring me in a thermometer, lidl of course but digital, so I could ease my fever paranoia. Every time I got stressed and feared I was becoming Pyrexic, i.e. high temp, I checked it was still low and so relaxed again.

So this morning with the Docs it was all change to the treatment regime, "as long as today's counts show no nasties, then your off the antibiotics, and out of the door, no need to come back until next week!"

Oohh kaay, cancel the tunnel, return the spoons to the canteen, and lets wait for the blood result. Which came back late afternoon showing the army had been busy: platelets 85, neutraphils 4 point something, and the rest was "fine". Aff ya go laddie!

Brilliant so that's what happened, and I am on pass for now pending blood tests and further bone marrow tests, until next Thursday, touch wood assuming I stay healthy, I am not going to be at the hospital. A WHOLE WEEK OF FREEDOM!

So I left the hospital late afternoon. Back home I still feeling pretty shaken by the experience - I really don't recommend being locked in a room for a week, especially if you are immuno-deficient and then fed viruses. I was definitely still in battle mode for the rest of the night, but Grrrrrrreat to be home, ahhhh.

THANK YOU!
BIG thank you to everyone who has been visiting and sending messages of support this last week, and of course all previous weeks. I hope you'll forgive me if you haven't had a personal response. I had been checking emails, facebook, and the blog comments but then switching back into a lifeless bed bug/slug! Your support has been a great support and very often lift me at just the right time when stuff is getting me down, so thanks and thanks again! :)

I also found some messages on Patient Line yesterday too, (hi simon, James, cuznic and Jack!). Sorry I should have told you all - I've stopped using the evil PatientWhine phone system. Totally dude.

I am now at home. If your up for a chat, please now call/txt me on my mobile, skype, home number, or email me if you need any of those.

One maer time so were affa fine....
Dinne call me PATIENT LINE!

prisoner cell block 6

Things are looking up today! Had no temperature since yesterday morning, and my white neutraphil cells were up yesterday to 0.5 (not enough, but a great start to recovery), and whatever this chest infection has been it seems to be moving on. So all that remains is to persuade the docs to get me outta here as soon as possible before I catch the next admission's ripe disease. I'd also like to be off the antibiotics too because there is a lot of c-diff about in both the hospital and the ward, and the broad spectrum antibiotics make you very susceptible to it.

Meanwhile, myself and my two room mates, are still prisoners to the infection control team's "protocol", which incidentally we have not seen or had any patient information sheet on - (I will be seeking answers about this!). We are STILL not allowed outside our room except once a day for a bath. Our room seems to have become our prison cell!

Anyway the good news is I am feeling pretty healthy again, and itching to return to Fittie.
After seemingly days of lying flat on my back semi-sleeping, sweating, or lying still trying to avoid another coughing fit, I now feel like I have some energy again. That normally means bad news for the ward staff, but they cunningly have me hemmed in, so I can't run amuck causing trouble today! I guess I will do a load more reading!

cooking with gas - scorchio!

This title refers to me, not the hospital food. I am managing to sleep in fit ful bursts, but temp feels so high overnight I just didnt want to move. So I had to force myself every so often to sit up and drink. This morning (6am) it is 39.6c, the docs are now changing my antibiotic therapy to the "second line option".
only possible good news is that there was a glimmer of activity from the neutraphils yesterday 0.1, so maybe they will now start recovery - i'll know more later.
in the meantime I need to concentrate on breathing stready so I dont chough my lungs out.
bahhhh not how I hoped to finish my therapy!

11am update: Well being lying still sweating away half asleep, for about 4 hours, and my temp has dropped to 37.7! The cough feels different too. So maybe have turned the corner - and maybe todays bloods will show I have some wee friends back again. Fingers crossed!

spiked again

Its 7:40 and very peaceful for a hospital right now. curtains are drawn but looks like a perfect day outside- I made a partition across my side so I could have some fresh air. (the others like a closed atmosphere).

I have been trying to sleep with my arms and knees as high in the air as I can. This is not something kinky but because the joints in my wrists and knees have become very inflamed and painful over the last 2 days. It is probably a side effect. No anti-inflamatory allowed on this treatment - only paracetomol. But they are still well painful - maybe I should raise them higher!

So I said peaceful, but that is between the interludes of coughing fits. We are all coughing like crazy when awake. Yesterday the docs were quite happy with our (i.e. the boys and myself in our locked down room) various flu like coughs and ailments, and thought we would all recover quickly. However, later on both myself and another patient had fever "spikes". In here if you go above 38C and are neutrapenic - there is an immediate action plan: blood tests and first line antibiotics.
My fever came on while Michelle was here (7:30) and hit 38.6c - so I tried to get the doc to factor that in! ha ha! By 9pm I'd had the blood tests,the drip stands were back, and was recieving 2 old friends back to my blood stream - gentamycin and tazocin. Fast work :)
But this is disappointing, as yet again I am now on a complex drug course which if my neutraphils do come back soon may stop me getting home for a while longer, lets see.

My throat is much more sore today, so its lucky I've been stuffing my face while it wasnt! I'll resort back to liquids for a day or two til it eases.

sensible isolation or lab rat?

Well I seem to be doing OK at the moment. But this IVAC treatment IS stronger than I gave credit for in the earlier cycle. Maybe i didnt notice it so much spliced between two methotraxate doses. So I am getting plent of rest.
Had a couple of bags of red blood yesterday which has brought me back to a respectable 96, and platelets are hanging on in the 20s, so may be able to last out without more transfusions.

However, I am now located back in the "room of four", and yesterday there was an odd turn up. An influenza outbbreak viral lock down was instigated on this room and two others following processing of a viral swab from a different patient, quite a few days before. What this means to me is that I am stuck in this room 24-7 with others who are all starting to cough away, and getting worse by the sounds of it. So I am trying to work out why I am HERE instead of breathing pure Fittie air. I feel like I have been recalled in while I am neutrapenic to take part in some madcap MOD experiment - how can this be the best solution for ME?
(ok, well I have a very patient doc and he's now convinced me its better to stay put. So I will!)

So this is me hanging in there, perhaps with a cold, for a few days more until the white cell come back. I hope they are back and put in a better appearance than we may expect from the other Whites on Sunday!

recovery time

wednesday. Very tired at the moment, this chemo is actually very powerful, just not as flash with its side effects than the other rounds. Hard to get enough rest even at night, but I am managing all the same.
Well I have had a good break at home, but my bloods are now right down so I am being recalled to the ward until I recover. No problem, but cant wait now until i am out again!
Martin

Sea legs or Chemo legs?

Tuesday: [current status - at home on pass until weds!]

A long while ago I traveled with a van from Cadiz to the Canary Islands. The first stage was quite a rough 2.5 day crossing through the Atlantic. We eventually stopped at the harbour in Tenneriffe for a few hours, great dry land! But when I stepped out into the harbour and the lower city - the land was moving! I had "sea legs". I was so used to moving on the boat that my body compensated now on land. I never forgot than, and the tapas for breakfast were very good too!

From 8 am yesterday I was finally detached from my IV machine buddy, this time we had been inseperable for 24hours x 7days. In another sense I was being detached ceremoniously from my planned treatment as there was only the spinal therapy to go in the afternoon. Thats a massinve thing - brilliant and daunting. Its funny, I always struggle when detached from the drips: I jump out of bed and stop, half way across the room, waiting for the bungee pull back!

Well everything necessary went to plan yesterday, the final spinal tap, and it was agreed I could go on pass at home until a review on Wednesday. At home we had an awesome meal last night, I think my mum could rocket into business with a full range of soon to be very famous fish pies if she wished!

Again though by night, my body crashed and just will not settle. Now that I am at home, with more comfort, and less fluids needing to be passed, I thought it would be easier. I guess I need to reaclimatise. I think I still have chemo legs! I was constantly waking expecting there to be something else, it felt invisible and abstract, knowledge, time, position in bed? Was it the lack of an IV? or just the knowledge of the end of my planned chemo plan? The very concept of just lying and then sleeping peacefully without "some prop" did not seem to work. I was constantly searching the bed for this abstract missing link! (i am sure Buttons would have helped - but he was off doing his own thing!). So I am likening it to sea legs - Chemo legs , and for sure like that in a day or two it will pass and I'll will be sleeping easy!

Doie Doie (Al Fraz and Stu)!
and good morning to the rest of you!

Martin

Diluted Dreams

So what happens when your peeing 10 litres a day, you take sleeping pills and bed down for the night? No, no, new sheets were not needed! Somehow I have a routine of sleeping or resting between each "hourly pitstop".

Last night I actually was sleeping, and the dreams i remember got pretty surreal even for me. The first dream knew about things: objecty peices or maybe even tasks or procedures that needed to be done hourly ish. The dream was convinced a Cabinette was needed to fit each peice together better, (maybe buying me pee time?), so I was set to scour the land to find one to fix the "peices".
Waking was a double relief to from this as it made no sense and I was time for a very full pot!

A second was equally abstract, but fading as fast as I try to record it. It was about surfing, windsurf boards and rigs were being frenetically adjusted to get myself and others out on the water, but that moment was not going to happen - it wanted me to wake and pee first!

I've been cheating and stacking bottles in the room rather than using the toilet - call it "on suite", but it helps when your clearing 7 pots after midnight!

Already I want to get up an prepare for the day (and breakfast!). The pump says "450" left - thats 2 2/3 hours to bag end (7:45) my timing has been on pump syncro over every night, it also means about 40 mins to next pee stop. Brain off now please, shut up! sleep!

Still only 6:30am: Pace yourself, pace yourself, rest, sleeep! No good, I've already counted the timer down to the blood test time (from 5 to 6 am). My nurse was bang on, but I was already planned to give them 30 min more (80ml) before I would have been in the doctor room having a script made out. We/I need standard bloods early today so that I can get out today if the whites are behaving! No accidental delays this Monday.

Last few nights have been getting some chest pain both eve and in early morning (4-6am), with tacky heart type rythyms. Am sure it'll settle again. I should be time to get some stairs in and maybe settle it before breakfast! A final 3 up 3 down with the IV stair cheildh!

So hoping for bacon and eggs, a spinal injection, doc consultation, easy home drug order and free pass today. wish me luck!

end of the juice maybe nigh?

Nae too bad a night, and today was ok too. That's the last bag gone down, just IV fluid til morning and a spinal chemo tomorrow. My brain is working overtime and a long discussion about the next stage is needed with my long suffering consultant next week. Need to convince myself whether extra treatment would or would not help. What a weird space to be in, wanting to volunteer for extra juice, but that's how i feel right now!
Hoping to a home pass tomorrow night before white cells vanish. That would be good.
Was well fed up today to play with plastic weights and actually find them heavy due to the muscle loss from the last session fiasco, so yes i am a bit down but only as i know it just means so much more work in rehab that I just didn't seem necessary. But but but there's good and bad around each corner, and i know i can put that right, just maybe no forward loops in July after all.
Cooked breakfast ordered for the morning - that always proves an amusement for the ward staff and me, so will see what the kitchen delivers!

Houdoe! Tot Ziens!

Martin

Buckets of chemo, bacon and eggs!

Tuesday. Great to wake up at home again. Had enough time to make a hearty breakfast before heading back to the hospital.
Today there were no problems, treatment started with the rat poison - (Rubitoximab!).
It feels brilliant to be on the last treatment, all pain from previous treatments fades away, to material fit only for a few anecdotes over a brew, that is when I am ready to sit in a pub!
After the chemo I was briefly disconnectd from the "IV tubes", so Michelle and I were able to go to the canteen. We both had chips and tea - a very cheap date! Came back just in time to catch Dave, cheers buddy for coming in!

Wednesday. Now in the middle of final (hopefully) round 4 chemo, today and tomorow is 14 hours of chemo, starts 11 am finishes at 3 am. Then 3 days of 2-3 hours, then an injection to spine on day 6 (not normally as bad as it sounds) and thats it, then just wait for white cell drop and then recovery. Could have a fair bit of time recovering at home if i am very lucky.

It really feels like buckets of chemo are being poured down me, amounts to about 10 grams a day! Does feel tough, very tiring and a strange set of sensations, but reduces tomorrow.
So althugh this session is heavy at the moment, its not as bad as Methotrexate!

Thursday. Woke up in the night with a coughing fit. That got me panicing as my good friend sharing my room is here precisely because he has a chest infection! Nurses calmed it down with good ol cough medicine and docs are nae too concerned, so neither am I.

Friday. Chemo seems to have switched my guts back into turmoil. Lots of visitors today, great fun, but by mid evening the same as last week, totalyl knackered!

Saturday. Still sleeping poorly, more resting than sleeping. I got up early and managed a little stair climbing: bungee style 4 up 4 down! Great surprise today, the kitchen delivered me a cooked breakfast - bacon, sausages and "egg" (dont ask what!). Very tasty! Was a massive palava, but the dietician has recomended extra food so who am i to turn down cooked breakfasts! I'll definitey try ordering that again. Am also ordering sandwiches and milk as extras so maybe I'll be looking Cartman like quite soon!
Pretty mellow day so far. Hoping for a good night.
Catch you all later!

Ding Ding! Round Four!.....

Monday
I wake up early and am ready for action, today is the start of round four and I am itching to get back in the ring. Bring it on!
I have a cuppa on the beach as Miche readies for work, then once she leaves I head to the car. That job is gonna get done! I am under the car before 8 am and ripping panels back out, oops maybe too quick as one comes out in two pieces, Reaches for the silver tape...
Tape split the spring bounces back into action (not quite as impressively as i hoped but fully all the same). Panels patched and re-fixed the job is truly completed. Yeah!
Bath and breakfast of coffee, 2 eggs, 2.5 toast, ham and a tin of beans later, oh and a bit of packing, and I am ready for the hospital by 10 am!
The roots drop me off and I am welcomed back to familiar and a very pleasant surprise: I am back in the room of two, the second room I was in from the start, this is fantastic and will make this round even better!

I quickly run through my list of tasks I know are needed to be done this morning by all the staff: Rubitoximab, blood tissue type test and heart stress test. All appears well as they know all this! I settle in and get to know my new room mate. I also do my standard paranoid full cleaning of my bedside cabinet, bad, patient line machine and adjacent walls (although I wore gloves this time). Checking in forms and the tissue typing blood test follows, and later a brief doctor visit.
After lunch I am summoned for the stress test.

In the Cardio department a few things happen I was not expecting: first off more chest hair bites the dust as I am shaved to make way for the electrodes. OK, but then the skin is sanded hard with sand paper for each electrode, which are salted! Is this torture really necessary? Because I am certainly stressed now! They don't like my "Crocs", but I insist I can run in them and that they will not fall off. Still I now wish I had come in with trainers!

On the Machine it starts at a nice uphill walk, OK this is easy, no worries here. I notice the picture on the wall in front of me and ask which Harbour it is, apparently I have to guess but the clue is it on the local north coast. I try but it ain't no surf beach so I fail that test, (it turns out to be Portknockie).

The pace steps up every 3 min or so. After a few steps I ask "can I run now?", the answer is no, so I have to force my wee legs to walk faster. For someone who could not eat for over a week and lost a stone a week ago I guess I am doing OK, but I imagine Lance Armstrong looking on in disapproval as the test winds up a pace. We reach my heart maximum of 180, so I guess the test will complete. No still faster to go, so I start to hang on a bit harder one armed while the other is used to test my blood pressure. I don't want to give up and be "beaten" by the machine. Apparently there is only one level left and its up to me if I go for it, but am told I can run for this one. I am cream crackered but dammit, as its up to me, I have to go for it! I think I lasted only 20 seconds and finally shout "stop!". Beaten, I step off thinking if only I was tested 3 weeks ago when I did the 46 storey stair climb. They reassure me all the info they needed was collected, but I still wanted to beat the machine! I have since found out I had a haemoglobin (Hb) blood count of only 80, a level at which many patients are transfused at, so maybe I can cut myself a bit of slack!

It was interesting for me noting my blood pressure result during the excercise, where my systolic rose from 139 to 180 odd, and the diastolic fell from 86 to 74 .

Back on the ward I am seen by one of my docs, who takes a standard Blood test, he's a Surfer like me so we have a good crack. After a fine afternoon of visiting, and the evening meal (less fine), I am twitchy about when the chemo will start. I then find out it has been cancelled for the day as the blood test results were not back in time. I am very disappointed, so I ask if I can go for a walk off the ward. I am surprised how angry I am inside, I had really wanted to be back on the fight. I pop to the staff canteen to case it out, I have not tried it since all this started and haven't eaten there for years. I try a plate of chips as the rest does look dire tonight! Halfway through I formulate a plan, which is that in compensation surely there is no need for me to stay the night, since I have received no new treatments. I check back with the docs and they agree, and meanwhile Miche arrives so we grab my ruck sac and head for home!
I have a great evening at home, despite the fact I am stuffed with hospital food so there's no room for anything more wholesome, but never mind! (The Moral - there's always a good side if you open your eyes to it!)