Another New Year – More Challenges.

I think we will all be greatly relieved if this wet weather stops for more than one day at a time. Hardly any outdoor work has been done since November. The last job in my garden and my neighbour’s was to clear away several large bins of autumn leaves and other tree debris from lawns and paved areas. No sooner had this been completed than the wet weather started and it has stopped for only a few hours at a time since. We shouldn’t complain. There has been no storm damage and no flooding near us.

The new Acer Aspire laptop is playing up again. It’s latest trick is to freeze web pages at about 30-second intervals. This makes surfing the internet rather tedious, and posting to the blog almost impossible.

So, a quick update about what has been happening since my previous post: The cancer treatment (quarterly injections) has continued with only minor additions to the side effects. It is hoped that this will finish in about six months from now. It will then take several months (I am told) for the side effects to wear off. I have managed to confirm with two doctors that the injections have prevented me from losing weight during the past several months. I need to lose around one stone, or a little more if I can and will be glad when this becomes easier. I suspect that the biggest threat from being overweight is the possibility of diabetes, and I really don’t need that.

Fortunately I feel quite well though almost perpetually rather tired – another side effect of the injections and of all five of the prescribed pills that I am required to take. I can report a small triumph here, in that my lovely family doctor agreed to let me stop taking statins to lower my cholesterol. I decided, after studying the subject in some detail, that statins are not for me. I was prompted to investigate them when their side effects started to become intolerable. The first of these was pain and weakness in the legs, which became so severe that I had to drag myself upstairs using my arms only. The other, much more frightening experience, was when I suffered complete mental blanks – not just a momentary loss of memory, such as might be described as a “senior moment” but a complete loss of memory and of current thinking which lasted several seconds. After that I decided that enough was enough, especially as I had reached the conclusion already that high cholesterol was not the danger that conventional medicine made it out to be, that reducing it was unnecessary and that statins interfered (directly or indirectly) with too many other vital processes in the body.

Months before the statins episode happened it was decided that I should see a specialist at the University Hospital in Cardiff about chest pains whose origin were not at all obvious. Two weeks ago I attended the Cardiology Day Case Unit where a cardiac catheterisation was carried out. Apparently, two arteries had narrowed and a third was blocked completely. So I returned home that evening with two stents in one artery and can look forward to the same in the other narrow one a bit later in the year. It seems that the only option with the blocked artery is a by-pass and I will think about that in due course. I must say that day in hospital was perfectly comfortable. The “operating” team were very professional and clearly on top of the job and the nursing care was very good throughout. So much for my health-related adventures.

The Morris Traveller has remained in my neighbour’s dry garage through the winter except on a few dry days when I have taken it out for a drive. Now I have a problem with the “up-and-over garage door which requires the attention of a specialist repairer. This should have been sorted today but the appointed repairer didn’t arrive this morning and hasn’t been in touch since. Unfortunately I will be busy all day tomorrow so I will deal with this on Monday.

The VW campervan continues to go well though its mileage is limited to visits to local supermarkets and very little else at this time of the year. We hope to do some UK touring this year and postpone any ideas about cruises until 2015. Before I forget, this quick update would not be complete without mentioning that Henry (our tortoise) awoke from hibernation halfway through January and is now housed in splendid comfort in my “office” while awaiting the warm weather. Actually, I am sharing the splendid comfort with him while awaiting the same thing!