Blog update 22 October 2016
Well a month never goes by without
learning things about the human body. More on that shortly.
Lets start with some positive news.
After a year of being pretty lonely here dealing with pretty awful medical
stuff it was pretty awesome to have some childhood friends make the trip up
here and spend a week with me in this part of the world I call paradise. Russell,
Margaret and Samantha came up and saw what life is like for me these days. Yes I
did try to hide the bad stuff but that is impossible over a few days so yes I needed
to take naps etc. they were wonderful even cooking for me. But the most
important thing was having them here and lifted my spirits no end.
Steven and Tanya turned up for an
afternoon visit a few days later which was great as I hadn’t seen them since
last years high school reunion. Having visitors is so important to keeping up
one’s spirits and it shows people do still give a damn. When people come into
town and can’t be bothered you know if they really are friends or not. As the
old saying goes “nobody is ever that busy”.
Ok medical update time.
As you would expect when one has
terminal heart and lung disease then the heart and lungs are deteriorating. Unfortunately
every new medical problem adds to the serious issues. With proper terminal
illness every organ starts to have its own problems and no they cannot get
better. That is not how it works. That’s why it is called terminal illness. So heart
and lungs are getting worse with breathing and angina attacks deteriorating. My
bone and muscle pain is getting worse and can really only be treated with pain
killers of increasing strength and dosages.
Now in a previous blog I mentioned
briefly that my blood was getting thicker. The upshot of this is due to my lung
issues and the lack of oxygen my kidneys are now telling my bone marrow to
produce more and more red blood cells. The increase in blood cells means greater
mass and therefore thicker. So my haemoglobin levels have been high for the
past year and when they reach 200 it will be time for drug treatment and
removal of blood regularly to bring the level back down. As of Friday I was
191.
The condition is called Polycytheamia
and yes it is a form of blood cancer. As someone who has said that he would
swap places with a cancer patient in a heartbeat given what I have already been
through and know what is to come; I stand by that statement. There are much
worse things to live with and die from than the various forms of cancer and as
a society we need to start realising this and treating patients with real
terminal disease who virtually get ignored because there is no “C” word in their
diagnosis.
I for one am long over it and yes I
do have an intimate understanding of both conditions.
Over the next day or so i will be putting a bucket list of sorts for mostly my Australian readers to assist in if they can. This is no insult to my international readers its just that i live in Australia and any possible help that may able to be rendered is more likely to come from Australia.
I am looking to edit as many of my old radio interviews with well known sportspeople and a few entertainers and upload them to my you tube channel as soon as i am able. I am worried there are idiots who may think they have some sort of twisted copyright on my voice so i will fight that if it happens.
More to be uploaded very shortly.
love, Darren xoxoxo
