Breakfast yesterday at the Rose & Crown in Writtle. For some reason we've never been there before, even though it is only five miles away from home.
I occasionally wonder whether these breakfasts are good for my myeloma, and then I think well, it isn't as if I have them every day...
Short two-sticks walk on the Green afterwards:
Writtle Jazz Festival there next Sunday. I'll be there, along with my scooter.
Still nothing much to write about. Went to Springfield for more bloods a couple of days ago. Boules at Birchanger. And still only a few occasional drops of rain...
It's six months, plus a couple of weeks, since I last touched a drop of alcohol. That must be the longest time I've spent on the wagon since I had my first-ever drink. Nothing deliberate about it, but when I came out of Broomfield's Stroke Unit I just lost all desire and interest in any form of alcohol and they haven't come back. I can't explain it. Maybe that brain MRI rewired some of my circuits...
The problem now, of course, is that if I do start again it may bounce too far the other way. Still, my liver must be grateful for the break.
Today's good news - Essex County Council is renewing my Blue Badge for another three years.
Weather - hot again, if a mere 80. Some welcome rain this evening but a lot more needed!
Myeloma - ticking along in full remission. Nothing else to report.
Boules - played one long match at Ongar, pleased to win it for my side with the final throw. Now using the frame for standing support between throws only, delivering from a normal unsupported stance just like I used to.
We went to explore new territory at the strangely named Pishiobury Park in Sawbridgeworth. Google insists that we were there four years ago but neither of us remember the park itself, although the approach road seemed familiar. I think we must have failed to find the main entrance and car park last time. The park was something of a disappointment, seeming to be little more than a large grassy dog-walking space. Access also very limited - two or three large gates were padlocked and only one of several "kissing gates" was big enough to get the scooter through. So we've crossed it off our list for return visits.
We followed that with lunch at the Hand & Crown - a C16 pub on a site where Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn used to enjoy their falconry. So they say. Lunch was good but expensive.
A much better (and cooler) night with a score of 97. Nevertheless, in response to emails from ResMed, I rang the CPAP people at Broomfield for an appointment to check out my mask seal and fitting. They'll get back to me...
Went to Birchanger for the first time in my boules come-back. Big surprise - the sand has gone and we have a brand-new piste:
No doubt that it's a "better" surface, although there are still some soft areas where the ball just stops dead. But I miss the sand, it made playing there interesting because it was so different.
Played just one game quite well but left before it finished because the evening got distinctly chilly and my left hand didn't like that at all.
A bad night last night, with a CPAP score of only 63. I couldn't get to sleep so "got up" at 3 and sat in my study and dozed in front of YouTube for three hours before going back to bed and trying again - more successfully for a couple of hours. Woke up to find an email from ResMed (the CPAP machine people) telling me to get my mask seal checked out at the hospital...
Hoping for better things, and a thunderstorm, tonight!
Yesterday turned out to be no hotter than the day before, peaking at 38 again. But cooler in the evening as the clouds built up while I was at a Parish Council meeting (held outside, thankfully) which finished just as a few drops of rain fell. Slight rain since then, but nothing like the cataclysmic thunderstorms one might expect. No doubt they'll come eventually.
Finally - I think - solved the rear-view problem on my scooter. These do the job, don't take up much hand space inside the tiller, and will easily fold out of the way when we drop the tiller down to use the hoist.
Drove into Chelmsford this morning to collect one Amazon package and return another. The car's exterior. thermometer read between 35 and 37 all the way. I'm not sure I've seen it over 30 before, except for a couple of minutes after parking in full sun.
Then late afternoon my Alexa went up to 38 (just under the time in the top left corner of its screen) and stayed there for well over an hour:
Not much else to be said about the day, except that tomorrow is expected to be hotter...
Another hot day at 30 or so (and the nights not much cooler), but expected to get maybe 10C hotter tomorrow and Tuesday...
I bought a rear-view mirror for the scooter from eBay and decided to fit it while Sue was out. That meant getting the scooter out of the back of the car - no big problem with the hoist - and then getting the scooter seat off the back seat of the car and fitting it onto the scooter. The first part is difficult because the back and arms are both folding so it's hard to find a good grip, the second because it needs precise location of a post into a hole, and that has to be done unsighted. But I did it with less trouble than I expected and that's another step towards more independence - I can now look at the prospect of taking the scooter off somewhere and using it by myself, which is really a large part of the point of getting it.
Despite promises, the mirror of course would not fit on the scooter tiller. Too small to fit around the "handlebar" tube. I should send it back for a refund, but for the sake of the fiver it cost me it's hardly worth the hassle of packing it up and posting, let alone dealing with the eBay seller's returns policy. If they have one. I've been back to Amazon and found something that should be better. Fingers crossed!
The heatwave continues, and nothing much to write about. Still sleeping well despite the heat, and a CPAP score of 97 last night.
Yesterday went down to Guildford for a pub lunch with old university friends:
Together with a two-hour drive each way that just about filled the day. Planning to go out somewhere later today before the heatwave reaches its forecast peak at the start of next week. Not looking forward to that.
Monday night's CPAP score was 99 which means I've been sleeping remarkably well despite the heat. Yesterday was a degree or two over 30 all day despite heavy cloud cover and not a trace of sunshine. It feels as as if we're due for a massive thunderstorm, but the forecasts say no sign of one.
Another blisteringly hot day yesterday, which I coped with mainly by staying inside apart from a couple of walks down Death Valley (otherwise known as the garden), and a face-to-face consultation with haematologist Dr.Ch at Springfield. That was at 09:30, before the heat got too oppressive. Not much new but an interesting sidelight on the eternal question of interpreting the free light chain numbers. My Kappa/Lambda ratio is up a bit and outside normal, but the reason is because the Lambda number has gone down rather than the Kappa number going up. Not bothered about that at all, would be concerned only if a ratio change came from one of the numbers going up.
Played two games at Ongar (quite well) in extreme heat. The plastic holder for my Blue Badge may never be the same again.
Got home, fell asleep in front of the tennis, missed the first two and a half sets. Didn't feel I could face cooking, so settled for a banana and an early night instead. Obviously I'm not yet as fully recovered as I thought - but it was very very hot.
A quiet day today with not much going on apart from tennis on TV - and again tomorrow. Can't decide which out of Djocovic and Kyrgios I most want to lose. Ideally, both of them.
The last part of last week's blood tests came in on Friday - delay due to "technical problems" at Springfield.... Paraproteins still undetectable, free light chain ratio just a bit off normal.
A better night last night (score 95) made me think I had enough energy to finish trimming the bay bush by the small pond:
It looks a lot better and less shaggy than it used to. I'd like to cut it back even further but that would need more powerful and heavier tools than I have. Just a cordless trimmer is enough to give me aching shoulder muscles at the moment, and I've been very tired this evening. Time for an earlyish night, I think, if I'm going to be in a fit state to get Birchanger boules this evening.
A new CPAP record last night:
The trouble is that no matter how long I live, I can beat that only twice more.
Lunch at The County Hotel with nephew David, over from New Jersey and Manhattan for a few weeks. Followed by a walk in the park:
(photos by Sue, from Facebook)
Not much yesterday, just waiting for those blood test results to come in...
Took a walker-assisted walk to Pepper's Green Lane and back, and got my best CPAP score so far:
Ate a banana for lunch. Ook.
Decided to attack the bay bush next to the fishpond, which has grown well out of control. No gardener we've ever had has been willing to cut it back as hard as it needs, The job is tedious (especially the clearing up afterwards) but pleasantly fragrant. The difficult thing I hadn't foreseen is the need to keep the safety bar closed with the left hand, and mine just isn't strong enough (yet) to do that for long or at awkward angles. So the hedge trimmer keeps stopping and I have to change my grip... Got myself thoroughly exhausted, and I hope I haven't strained that left shoulder and neck too much. There's a narrow line between useful exercise and overdoing it.
Springfield's blood test results gave potassium at 3.4, only minutely below the lower end of "normal" at 3.5
I'm going to stick with the bananas. More came in with yesterday's Tesco order. Ook.
I have my appointment for CT scan and pre-assessment at UCLH (Euston) on Wed 17th, probable surgery date for the cement injection Thursday 2...
