29/09/22 Double century

 Another CPAP  100 last night!  Definitely no more liners for me.

28/09/22 100!

My first perfect CPAP score of 100 last night:

There's a bit of a story to this. I found the mask a bit uncomfortable at first, so bought some liners which I've used ever since. But yesterday one of them vanished in thewash, leaving me without a clean one to put on the mask. I found the liner-less mask more comfortable than I remembered, and the 100 score was the result. Will be interesting to see what happens tonight.

In other medical news, after my complaints of various aches and pains, neurosurgeon Dr.Ib ordered neck x-rays, which were 100% ok. He's now ordered a full spinal MRI which will be done locally at Springfield. No date yet. I think I can see more surgery in my future...

I had an eye test this morning, which I asked for because I have become sure that my cataracts are getting worse. That was confirmed, so the next step is going to be cataract surgery. NHS waiting time is now over two years so I'm gong to go private (also because that will give access to the more modern varifocal and accommodating lenses, which the NHS doesn't offer.) I've started talks with my insurers AXA who say they may cover depending on the optician's report and etc. Certainly it's outside their normal processes and trying to start a new claim online as advised ran into a problem when I had to choose whether my consultant was NHS or private. There's no honest answer to that one at this stage, so back on the phone in the morning.

24/09/22 Maldon

 Went to Maldon for lunch and a walk/scoot along the Promenade and the Quay. It was both high tide (for once) and market day with various entertainments on the Quay:

And us:

Lunch was vegan sausage rolls. Very nearly but not quite like the real thing.

Got home and made my signature beetroot and goat cheese risotto accompanied by a tomato and mushroom salad. Delicious as usual!

Mourning the death of Pharoah Sanders, R.I.P.  The Creator has a Master Plan, Peace and Happiness for Every Man. If only...

21/09/22 Dragons, Rings, and Dreams

Now we're a few episodes into both The House of the Dragon and The  Rings of Power it's time to attempt a comparison. Dragon was a little slow getting started but has gradually shown all the strengths of Game of Thrones apart, perhaps, from the leavening of humour provided by Tyrion and Bronn. Its strength is that the large cast of characters and their various intertwined story lines are held together by the single issue of the successor to King Viserys. Rings, by contrast, has an even larger cast and more storylines but lacks - so far at least - any coherent focus to hold them all together. You can see where all the money went, but to what purpose? Much tighter scriptwriting needed.

Dragon has one stand-out performance in Milly Alcock as Rhaenyra. For me she just beats Morfydd Clark's feisty warrior Galadriel, and not least because her part is much better written. Not only does Galadriel have some pretty awful dialogue to deliver, but it's also a bit too much of a stretch to see her as the same character as the Galadriel of LOTR

So far, Dragon is well in the lead. I look forward to watching a new episode, but I'm already feeling that keeping up with Ring is more of a duty than a pleasure. Tempting to turn to The Sandman on Netflix instead...

Good boules at Tower last night. Played one very long game and lost it 11 - 13. The heated gloves are back!

18/09/22 Poachers

 I like to think I mastered the art of poaching eggs the traditional "cheffy" way years ago. Drain off the watery part of the white, enough salt in the water to make the eggs float so they don't catch on the bottom of the pan, 2mins 50 seconds for room-temperature eggs, and drain off on kitchen towel. But despite doing all of that, yesterday evening's poached eggs on toast were a complete disaster. 

The first one somehow retained far too much water so the toast turned disgustingly soggy, the second one for some reason split into two, giving me an overdone yolk quite separate from a blob of white.

Nobody's perfect...

17/09/22 Breakfast

Still no reaction to the Covid shot apart from very slight soreness at the injection site, also still no symptoms from last Sunday.

Full English breakfast at the Horse and Groom followed by a short walk in Tower Gardens which I did with just one stick.It might have been longer but a chilly wind cut it short. Much colder this evening, and heating on for the first time this year. It's going to be a bitter night for all those people in the queue  for Westminster Hall. I can't imagine doing that at any time in my life, certainly not now.

16/09/22 #6

I had my sixth Covid vaccination this morning - the new "bivalent" Moderna  which is effective against Omicron. No side-effects, as usual.

Also no undesirable consequences from four hours of Wagner without a facemask at Saffron Hall last Sunday. That gives me confidence to return to more live music.

12/09/22 (2) Mist

Forgot to post yesterday morning's photo of the first of the autumn mists. The first I've been awake early enough to see, anyway:

12/09/22 Tannhauser

Saffron Opera Group did it again with a superb concert performance fully on a par with their pre-Covid Wagner productions. How they do it with such limited rehearsal time and for so low a ticket price is a mystery. It wasn't perfect - what Wagner ever is? - but the wobbles were minor. The brass were a little uncertain in that very exposed opening to the overture, and Elizabeth interrupted her own big aria early in Act 3 with a coughing fit.

Here's the Hall before it all began and at the end:

Getting there involved a big diversion between Thaxted and Saffron Walden but I still got there in time to get a disabled parking slot right outside the main entrance. Getting back afterwards was a nightmare. In order to avoid that diversion I used - or tried to use - an alternative route through Bishop's Stortford. I got yet more diversions, roadworks, lights, queues for no apparent reason, mysteriously blocked exits, and just about everything. A trip that should have taken 45 minutes took all of two hours.

Not much problem with any of the aches and pains yesterday. Even the neck one didn't hit until I got out of the shower, and then only mildly. Now hoping I haven't hit the panic button too early and unnecessarily, but can't take chances were myeloma might be concerned.

10/09/22 Music

Tomorrow will mark my return to live music indoors after two and a half years. I'm indulging my inner Wagnerian with The Saffron Opera Group doing Tannhauser at Saffron Hall. I booked my ticket for it in 2019 shortly after the 2018 performance of Parfisal, but it's twice been postponed for a year because of the plague.

I haven't engaged much with this year's Proms anything like as much as usual, but not all that happy about the Beeb's decision to cancel the Last Night "as a mark of respect" for the late Queen. I'm guessing that it's rather more out of fear of anti-British anti-monarchist etc. protestors. No-one wants to see riots in the Albert Hall but the Last Night is above all a celebration of Britishness, and what better way to mark the things that don't change as we come through this time of upheaval? Of course it should be a rather different Last Night, but all the more potent for that.

Unfortunately being at Saffron Hall tomorrow afternoon means missing the opportunity as Vice-Chairman of the parish council to read the Proclamation (probably to a very very small audience in our tiny Parish). I would have liked to do that.

Some good news - that vicious stabbing pain in the back of my left rib cage has been very much better. Looks as if we can write that one off as a muscle problem that has taken rather a long time to heal.

10/09/22 Aches and pains

I saw my haematologist Dr. Ch at the start of the week and described three problems on my left side that have  developed or substantially worsened over the last few weeks.

1.      Pain in left side of neck and shoulder.This goes back at least as far as the 2017 fall. It can appear for no obvious reason or after standing for some time. It is partially controlled by paracetamol (now back to 8 daily) and by lying fully reclined for ten minutes or so.

2.       Pain in back of rib cage, left side. This is a very sharp pain which is particularly triggered by getting up from a chair (or trying to). It is intense but not persistent. At first I thought it was a strained/torn muscle, but it is not healing after several weeks.

3.      Pain in front of left thigh and hip. A dull persistent pain which can stretch around the hip and behind. It comes and goes without obvious cause and is often present first thing in the morning.  Five or ten minutes in my recliner chair often alleviates it.

All three are intermittent but severe at their worst. Dr. Ch thinks that these are unlikely to be related to myeloma (although #3 is very reminiscent of the pain caused by the left hip lytic lesion which led to the myeloma diagnosis) and suggested that the cause may be neurological – or at least that this should be eliminated first.

So I contacted my neurosurgeon and he decided first step should be a neck X-ray to check the metalwork etc. probably followed by another MRI. He sent me an X-ray request form to have it done at Springfield and I took the form in yesterday afternoon.To my huge surprise the radiology receptionist said "Do you want to do it now?"

That's speed and efficiency for you!

08/09/22 And another era ends

Impossible to ignore the death of Queen Elizabet II and the passing of the second Elizabethan age. I have never been a monarchist for several reasons, but she was a truly admirable woman and lived a life that was the most potent argument imaginable in favour of the institution that she led for so long.

The Coronation was the first public event that I (rather vaguely) remember. She was there all my life, and almost in the words of Shakespeare and the Night's Watch, we shall not see her like again.

So now it's King Charles III, Best of luck to him and he's going to need it. This succession will take place in a very different world from the last one, and the extremist wings of the anti-monarchists, republicans, anti-Charles-ists and anti Camilla-ists will be out in full force on Twitter and Facebook, let alone on the streets. I think he's going to have a very hard time.

R.I.P.

07/09/22 A new era has begun...

Two changes in this new re-launched version of the blog on its third birthday, more or less:

First, I'm abandoning the self-imposed target of posting at least every couple of days. From now on it'll be when I feel like it or when I have something to say.

Second, myeloma is no longer at the centre of things. It'll still be there of course for as long as I'm around but after two and a half years of remission it's no longer something that dominates day-to-day life, except for the week of blood test results. I think this blog should reflect that.

I'm giving myself licence to write about anything - which will certainly include petanque, eating out, country parks, and my return to live music, starting with Wagner's Tannhauser at Saffron Hall on Sunday (postponed twice because of Covid) - without feeling that I'm somehow failing myself and the readers if I can't come up with a tenuous connection to you-know-what.

To get us started in this bright new future - guess what, it's myeloma again. This appeared in the Facebook group yesterday. No comment necessary.

06/07/22 Back!

It's been more of a long weekend than a fortnight in the sun, but I'm coming back after a good long think about how this blog should develop.

More about that in the next post.

02/09/22 Vacation

I've been writing this blog for very nearly three years now and with a very few exceptions I've stuck to my intention of posting at least every couple of days. But I've been in remission for over two years now and it gets harder and harder to find things to write about that are even vaguely myeloma-related. I could do a piece about my recent (minor) problem with dental appointments, but why?

I don't know why, so I've decided to take a break from blogging. I'll be back when something important happens about my myeloma, or maybe just when the blogging urge becomes refreshed. Until then, and before the last of this extraordinary summer fades away, I'm off on holiday. See you when I get back...