Friday, February 02, 2007

50th & Final Injection & still waiting...

Dad & I on Tuesday, Holmbury Hill.



That's it! All 50 injections done and just one week of Ribavirin left to go. I am so excited to see how I will feel when I am not on the tx. Personally, I don't expect to see too many changes. I feel great right, have done for months and as far as I can remember, exactly as I did before I started tx. Is this possible? I would much rather be stopping my HIV meds to see how I feel off those. I can only imagine what it might be like not to have so many drugs inside of me. Maybe one day I will be able to let you know:)
I am however still waiting for the results to my PCR that was taken on the 22nd Jan. Just how long does it take? I suppose there is no rush.....but I would like to know wether I am right at the end of this tx with a failure or wether I still have to wait for my six month post tx test with a clear result. If I am still clear of Hep C I still have a while to go (six months). It can still come back. I won't be celebrating for a while yet. But I will feel a whole lot more.........happy if I am still clear now. I want to know!

I was out with my Dad (on the right of the photo.....with the binoculars) on Tuesday afternoon. We haven't been out for what seems like months together. Probably longer! He can be a bit of a handful at times and I would just much rather pop around to his flat and play golf on the PS2 than take him out in public. But it was a very Lovely day and I drove us to a few of my mountain biking haunts in the Surrey Hills (the bike stayed at home;). All he said when he saw the trails etc, is that I needed my head looking at!
Before I showed him the trails up Holmbury Hill I took us up to the top of Box Hill so he could use his binoculars properly. It's got to be better than him looking at the old ladies in the flats opposite to his I bet;)
Everything was fine until I pulled up in one of the disabled parking bays at the top, when as soon as I stepped out of the car, I heard a voice call from across the parking lot....'Have you got a blue badge to park there?' I turned around and saw this man wearing a Barbour wax jacket and sensible tweed 'Walking' trousers tucked into these rather long woollen socks! He had hold of a snazzy walking cane with a brightly polished ornamental head on top. Situated on top all of this apparell was a tweed flat cap, the type 'Andy Capp' used to wear in those unfunny newspaper comic strips. The only thing he was missing was a double barrel shotgun and a string of pheasants slung over his shoulder. He even had the pretty Golden Labrador. He came bounding over having spotted that I wasn't in a wheelchair and my bike racks attached to the top of the car and stood right in front of me. He obviously thought that I was in no way disabled and saw fit to act in this righteous manner. I thought for a second and almost said 'Yes, of course I do my friend', 'Let me show it to you.'.........I would normally say exactly this kind of thing.
But instead I said, 'Why don't you have a look?' Only for him to say, 'Well I am asking you'. I said that people don't normally ask me if I have my badge on display, especially if they are standing right in front of my car! They just look at it and then decide wether or not to 'Have a go!.'
It did annoy me somewhat with his rather 'Jumping to conclusions' attitude. All he had to do was look over my shoulder and he would have seen my badge and the clock that goes with it. I haven't been treated like this many times at all and it was a bit of a shock the way he approached me.
My Dad just had to say something and he never thinks before he opens his mouth and I am always afraid that something like this will happen when I am out with him!
It started to get a little heated and this gentleman even used the word 'Aggressive' three times as to our attitude. Believe me when I tell you that if I was aggressive, he would not have been holding that cane! He would have needed a cane extractor;) But as soon as I saw my Dad getting overly involved and also me wanting to avoid turning into my Dad I put a stop to it, told my Dad to f*ck off over to one side and said we weren't being aggressive and I was just upset as to the way he approached me. I mentioned the cycle racks and to the fact that I wasn't in a wheelchair and if I told him (which I wasn't going to) my life story, he would be on his knees in tears in a matter of moments! So we left it at that and apologised to eachother and went on our merry ways.
The bastard thing is that somewhere through all that, My Dad asked this man what right he had to ask us in the first place. The man said he was the head ranger for Box Hill. I mean please!! He should have known better than to jump to conclusions right?
You know, if my Dad wasn't there, I am almost certain that I would have not have acted the way that I did. I just like to keep my mouth shut.
Suffice to say that the whole thing very much pissed me off and all I wanted to do was hit someone! We walked to the viewpoint and looked at the view for a few minutes.........I saw Leith Hill sloping down onto Holmbury on the horizon and decided that we would go there instead. So back in the car we got and drove back down the hill the seven or so miles to Peaslake and instantly I felt a whole lot better. Ignorance is such a dark, opaque veil! I tolerate it as much as I can, because if I didn't I would be just as ignorant myself! I am entitled to that badge and I am going to f*****g use it!

My Dad did really well walking up some of Holmbury Hill and a small section of 'Barry Know's Best' considering his knee and thigh muscles playing him up. I said the more he does it the better it will be for him. I know he ain't young (66) but he is more healthy than I will ever be (if only he realized this himself). He just needed to get out and about more over the years since his divorce. But instead saw fit to carry on smoking like a chimney (he's given up now......doctors orders!.....Wouldn't listen to his kids) and pack up cycling......He used to cycle everywhere when he was a teddy boy in the 50's. Actually, I used to remember him cycling back in the very late 70's too. I remember seeing him off from my bedroom window to work first thing in the morning. He would don his cycle clips and scoot off up to the end of the Meadway and turn right towards where he worked. I would quickly run to the other side of the house and look out the back window and just see him cycle past the small gap in between the houses up Staines Road:) Why did he stop cycling? I have know idea....I think I will ask him. I might do a post soon all about my Dad. That should be interesting;) Just as I took the photo of my Dad & I on top of Holmbury Hill, a three legged dog came bounding over to say hello. I thought that even a dog missing a leg doesn't moan as much as my Dad;) My Dad does embarrass me sometimes. He asked the owners if the dog was alright and wondered how on earth this three legged dog actually manages. He can't see what's in front of him sometimes.....My Dad. Some of us deal with shit (most of us) and some of us just can't even begin to start dealing. I do Love my Dad & my Mum:)
You can't beat a good bit of excercise:) Even if it hurts a little. If I can't cycle my bike when I am 64 I will kill myself! Just as easy as that! Presuming I reach 64 that is;)
Talking about knee's & health........My Mum has a date for a knee replacement operation next month (March). She has been having trouble with her knee for several years now and the pain I see her in sometimes mirrors exactly the kind of pain that I feel most of the time. I feel for her but she is the same as me in that she is just sooo independant and won't ask for help and just gets on with the pain and doesn't moan about it one bit........unlike my Dad. I am so glad that I take after my Mum in that respect. You can't get anymore mentally stronger than my Mum & I. She is 64 next month btw. She is having a brand new kitchen & bathroom fitted over the next two weeks starting with the kitchen. I popped around to see the work in progress, just to make sure they are doing a 'Good' job. It seems they are. It will be great for my Mum to have a nice new bathroom & kitchen to come home to from the hospital. She does Love her little house:)
I was also out on my bike this afternoon (yesterday now....Thursday). Great weather and dry! There hasn't been any rain for at least two weeks.....just a tiny bit of snow! Hose pipe ban just around the corner me thinks;) The trail in Richmond Park was ever so grippy. Nice and fast & quiet too. I took a sandwich to eat whilst looking over the Thames from the 'Promanade' on Richmond HIll by Mick Jaggers place. And what a wonderful sunset over Teddington and Kingston! Did I tell you I saw Pete Townshend from 'The Who' coming out from his front door last week? I was cycling past his house 'The Wick' right at the top of Nightingale Lane on Richmond Hill and out he popped combing his hair. He was with his wife and after nodding to him with a smile, he nodded back with his own cool Mod smile and jumped into a VW Lupo. Why not the £80k Merc sitting right next to it;)
My God......don't these posts go on! I just remembered something from yesterdays bike ride. I met this bloke who was riding his mountain bike in the park and was stopped at the top of this particularly steep off-road climb. I stopped by him and said......puffing a little.....'Great View eh.' Obviously he agreed and we got talking for a bit about cycling and how the weather at the moment is particularly good right now for off-road cycling. He new all the trails up Leith, Holmbury & Pitch Hills in Surrey and even spoke of something called 'Golden Birdies'. What he was talking about was "Barry Know's Best". It actually has two names......probably more. It was good to talk to someone who knows the hills who is from my area. He was from Putney. Anyway......What I noticed instantly was the fact that he was wearing sandals.....the open toe kind. I didn't mention them to him as it was none of my business, but I could't help thinking of the time I wore very similar sandals when I had those horrid things growing on my toes from taking that god awful 'Indinavir' drug for my HIV. That was during the winter months too! I wonder what he was wearing sandals for? You just never know do you?



Jason






(C) JPT 2007

7 comments:

minerva said...

Hiya Jae,

Well, thats you FINALLY done!! :D

H U G E CONGRATS Jae!!! Hope they don't keep you waiting too long for your results...and yes, it is one of the toughest parts...i have everything crossed for you...you deserve a good result and i'm glad that you found tx so 'do-able'.:)

Pompous ass asking about your badge!! Peeps like that really get up my nose!! Is sad there is so much ignorance out there...

Best wishes to your mum with her op;)...my dad is due an op soon for cataracts (he is 66 too), no stopping him tho...he is a very active person!!

Anyway, im rambling. You DID IT JAE!!!:D ALL DONE!! WELL DONE!!!

Best wishes and Hugs
Hxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

TeaStarWitch said...

Congratulations!!!! And Happy Birthday!!! Wishing you all the best.
Your pics are amazing.
Don't get upset over some idiots. I loved "He would have needed a cane extractor;)" LOOOOOL

Ample said...

Great picture!!

Not Blank said...

Well done on the injections, hope to see you at the finish line soon

Ample said...

I keep thinking how awesome it is you've had your last shot, the final one, done. I bet you'll feel a difference (once the pills stop, that is). Great job Jae! You got it DONE!!! Big huge hug!

Chris Vacano said...

Way to go, Jason! 48 + 2... no small task there, mate! It will be interesting to see if you notice any difference in how you feel after you finish up with the Ribavirin.

Cheers!

Chris Vacano said...

Incidentally, I feel you on the whole badge incident! It pisses me off when anybody flips me any sort of sh*t about my parking placard... particularly the passive-aggressive old people who just flash me dirty looks. Makes me want to get in their face and scream "this parking space is reserved for the DISABLED, not the GERIATRIC!"

The one time someone mustered the nerve to actually ask me (by politely pointing out that the space I was in was for handicapped parking), I smiled sweetly and told him I was in fact handicapped and had hemophilia. He then turned sort of an ashen gray, winced and said "I'm so sorry!" Being myself, I said thanks, but not to sweat it... at least I got good parking out of the deal. He couldn't get away fast enough.