Month: August 2023 (Page 2 of 2)

Health Update

I don’t usually like putting up health updates but I was talking to Rick J Peterson and changed my mind. I’m pretty screwed at the moment. The leg has been damaged for over a year. I’m coping but need a full leg day at the gym for another year to get back to a usable level. The muscles are actuating now for the first time but I still have to lock the joint to walk distance and still cant walk up and down stairs without a hand rail. I’m refusing to take heavy meds for the pain and not touching beer anymore.

I’m having more problems with the lungs after having COVID. Lung function is down at-least 10% on the 70% I did have that’s now gone. On top of the COVID and pneumonia, I have a fungal infection in there too. The Posaconazole I have to take for three months of which I have 5 weeks left of are giving me the following side effects of which there are even more of listed. (belching, constipated, irregular heart beat, change in moods, itching, depression, trouble breathing, urination, stomach pain, swollen glands, trembling, weight loss, loss in appetite).

My concentration is shocking for instance I charged the bike after three months and it wouldn’t start but would work if plugged into power. The guy who built it for me came around to check out the connections and I sowed him everything I was doing to try and work through the problem. Ended up I hadn’t turned on the on/off switch for the battery.So I don’t trust myself to do any knife testing. The meds are also causing kidney damage and Im having to drink as much as possible a day to keep them flushed with electrolytes.

I’m getting about 2 hours of work done a day then im exhausted, my head is hitting the table at 4pm and im in bed by 5pm. I’m getting a little work done on the van but no motivation. I still have to insulate rear and side doors, trickle charger from alternator, paint inside doors to match the walls, weld the rear door hinge, change bed lights, flare kit install, build a table, install sink and plumb it, tow bar attach.

I usually do most of the cooking and my house mate is in a wheel chair and hes doing most of it since I came back. I’m just too tired at the end of the day. The mate who owns the house has been told hes stage 3 lung cancer so Ive been trying to clear out his shed and sell off what he hasn’t used in years. Half a trailer of rubbish and it takes me three days to recover. First time back on the bike today. I was doing between 5 to 15kms per day depending on pain level before I left for Tasmania and now I did 2 kms. Ill see how I pull up by lunch time.

At-least I’m staying busy all the time here. Haven’t made it back to the gym yet, maybe once the shed is cleared out but I’m trying to get back into the habit of riding each day to clear the lungs out. I can motor back if it gets too much. Living in the van full time in the backyard, having fun, trying to get back into the bushcraft blogging mindset but don’t really want to open up the computer. It requires too much thought. Lots of ideas for posts from my experiences in Tasmania. No idea when Ill be able to get back into the field again. Id be able to train with Rick, al Ainsworth and Jake Cassar but would be pushing myself and I don’t want to go back on heavy meds to recover or get through the day so there’s no chance of doing more advanced multiple day training with ASI or BSA and Tacmed.

As they say, every day above ground is a good day. Ill have another CT scan in 6 weeks to see the level of scar tissue in the lungs. Doing a bit more each day.