Good day all.

Last blog was written on 27th September. Quite a bit has happened since then but unfortunately not all to do with my own hospital visits and fitness stuff. My mother was taken into hospital in the U.K. with stage 4 cancer that had already spread to other areas and she died on 13th October, Rememberance Day. What a day to go out on. I have also had another relative who kept falling over for no particular reason when going walk about outside. Having spent more than a whole week in hospital having every test under the sun nothing wrong could be found. Eventually it was found that walking about exercising even a small amount was resulting in dizziness and passing out which this relative could not remember every time it happened. After a "Tilt Test" it was found that my relative was not drinking enough water. She is now drinking the recommended 2 litres of water a day and has not looked back since. All that at the expense of a broken shoulder, 2 sets of broken glasses and 3 black eyes. Something to learn guys which is why i am putting this in the blog. This relative is 79 years old and is reasonably fit but the lack of water ended in a series of accidents. If you don't drink enough water yourself, or if you know older people who don't drink enough try and drink more yourself and get older people to drink more too.

Back to my own stuff. As expected after last blog about pills helping my skin condition, itching etc with no rash i did have to go back to the original dose of that particular Jakavi pill. One 5mg pill a day again instead of ione 5 mg pill once every Mon, Wed, Fri.  

On the 5th October i had to go for an eyesight test at a local Opticians. My sight seemed to have got dramatically worse over the last month. Even the ground in front of me when running is starting to blur and driving at night is a no no. Anyway the result is that i definately need glasses and i got my first pair of glasses ever on the 8th October. Now i can see properly beyond 2 feet again. It was surprising just how bad my sight had become and how quickly it had happened. All seems ok now though but the glasses are required for pretty much everything further away than about 18 inches now. Brilliant to be able to see properly again though.

17th October saw another visit to the Dermatology crowd at the hospital. This was an all over body check for any new carcinomas. 3 small areas were suspected so got a blasting with Nitrogen. They apologised for putting me on the long finger for getting a forehead carcinoma removed which had been biopsied and diagnosed back in March this year. They made a firm appointment to take it out on the 3rd of November so i was happy with that. 

19th October saw me back in the local surgery to get my next batch of revaccination jabs. 4 in all, 2 in each arm which is nice. Generally i only feel the effects of that, if any on the morning afterwards when getting up. Back in November for another set of jabs.

3rd November. Dermatology at 1100 in the hospital. Procedure to remove a Basal Cell Carcinoma. Different from the Squamus Cell they removed previously where i was left with an area approx an inch and a quarter in diameter on the top of my head as an open hole. This was different in that you get a set of injections under the skin on the forehead to numb the area but from the side of the carcinoma. The top skin is cut back like flaps, the carcinoma is removed and the area sutured up with disolvable stitches. Then the outer skin flaps are put back over and a continuous stitch is used to pull them together. A different colour twine is used for this stitching so that it can be differentiated  from the other stitching now hidden below. The whole procedure took 45 minutes which wasn't too bad and i was told i will probably have a scar there for life. Stitches to be removed from the outside only after a week. i was able to drive home afterwards no problem. No showering for 48 hours and no running for 2 weeks. Super, do as you are told or your head might burst open. All ok for the week and i had the stitches removed on the 10th Nov at my local surgery. In doing this the nurse unwittingly got an end of the lower stitching to come up through the skin but i only found it several days later. You can't really see it but i can feel it when i pull my fingers over the area when washing my face. Not a problem apparently as it is a disolvable stitch but seeing as it is sticking out even a small amount means it probably will not disolve for several months. 

I don't  have any further appointments to see Oncology or Dermatolgy now until 19th December when i go in for bloods. I do have a visit at another hospital on the 6th December for a colonoscopy. What i am hoping has happened with my previous ulcerative colitis / crohns disease, is that going through a period of a few days where i did not have any immune system during my stemcell transplant, that it will have disappeared altogether. The ulcerative colitis / crohns is an auto immune disease. In other words the immune system attacks itself and your body as a result. With no immune system there is nothing to attack. So, seeing as i have had no problem with these diseases since the stemcell transplant i am hoping it / they have decided to go away. I shall know about that on the day of the colonoscopy but i doubt i will have time to write anything as i have to travel afterwards to attend my mothers funeral. I will then not be back until around 17th December.

Running and other exercise over the last 2 months has been a bit difficult although i am still managing to get a fair bit done. I still managed to run over 100 miles for each month. The goal at the moment si to do 100 miles minimum for December. Hopefully at the end of the year i will have averaged at least 100 miles a month for the whole year.

Hope all going well for everyone reading this and that despite the colder weather you are still managing to get out and exercise. I find it easier to run in these lower temperatures so am really enjoying running when i can get out. That's all for now. HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. Tim Ferg.