Hope you are all enjoying the last day of your Easter weekend?
Health updates first and the week started with our usual 4-weekly physio, which was straight forward enough for me - some stiffness in the usual lower back, but also on the right hand side, which he got to work on; I did feel a little tired after that.
There are still no updates on the planned radiotherapy, but I did eventually get to talk to Dr Rahman’s secretary. He is off for the Easter weekend, but she will ensure he gets the message, which will hopefully get some activity going.
Whilst I await that, I had a flare up that started late on Wednesday night and lasted through to Friday. Thursday was the crescendo, regarding pain levels, and they started in the early hours of that day. You may know, from previous updates, that I am not a medication taker and avoid basic pain meds, unless really necessary. In a 24-hour period, I consumed 8 tablets; that is probably as much as I would take in a normal year, which hopefully helps illustrate the impact of whatever ‘flared up’. The pain was emanating from the new growth area, but also across my prostate area. That overall ‘central’ location meant that the impact was very debilitating throughout Thursday. Sleep was shot to bits during Wednesday and also Thursday night. I do not know the cause, but certainly felt the impact. By close of play Sunday, the pain had dissipated notably, but was still there.
I did manage 1 walk at the start of the week, with a slow time of 13:32 - the growth is starting to make itself felt, when doing the walks. The arrival of the pain flare up on Wednesday night put paid to any more plans for walks; I did not see sense in exacerbating anything further and will see how the coming week unfolds.
Regarding non-health aspects, the majority of the week was book-shaped. Monday saw me approve the WSS Knights series Index booklet cover, as well as the next non-English language translation of one of my books. I focused on various aspects of both of my new current book projects, the Münkemer book and the ‘117’ book - 3 full biographies completed there!
On Wednesday, I spent the day clearing out the garage of junk and tidying things up a little. Great to get done and Karl helped me do a dump run on Friday, to dispose of that junk. There are a few residual aspects to finish off, but they involve going through items that have a resell opportunity. That was my ‘outdoors day’ for the week and is an evolution of my usual Thursday, when Karl would have come around. His working pattern has changed, but I have kept my mindset on retaining one day (weather driven) for that sort of DIY / outdoors type of stuff.
As I started to feel better, Sandra developed a cold, which hit her over the whole remainder of the weekend. We therefore rested up over the weekend, which did neither of us any harm.
Late on Friday evening, Alanna, Dan and the grandkids called in. It was my grandson’s birthday and we helped him celebrate that, after they had spent the day at Harry Potter Studios, north of London. Great to be able to take part in another family birthday celebration; key dates like these really matter to us all.
In summary, an enforced slower week, but as always, adjustments made and progress achieved in other areas. The impact of the disease is not under my control, but how I cope with what it brings, then try to adjust, is.
Regards, Peter