No More Injections...& Filthy Germs!

Tree protected in Richmond Park today....It seems I need it;)

"No more injections My arse" But you know what I mean...I can only wish;)

So along came last Thursday (my Interferon injection day) and.......well, straight by me it went. Seems as though my tx routine has already been forgotten. I didn't even think about it until the following day. My Ribabvirin tablets I always new that I wouldn't miss those, just because that they went in amongst my HIV tablets. I know that not even a week has passed by since I took my last Riba, but I feel great still, just as I have done for months. But having said that, I can't really tell how I am feeling properly since on the day before my last Riba, I came down with a cold. The sore throat & swollen glands type. It hasn't gone down to my chest yet (I'm waiting).........this is what I am always paranoid about. Apparently the whole area where I live (Richmond-Upon-Thames) has had it or is suffering from it, including the whole of my family! I reckon I first got it from sitting on the Richmond to Hampstead Silverlink line on the 5th Feb. If you want a common cold to take home with your PCR test result or a specific germ to put in your sandwich or even a particular bacteria to stir into your favorite hot drink, then look no further than that train and the coughing, spluttering, puss-spewing passengers that live in it! They should be shot!
So here I am six days later still with a body full of my fellow humans sickness and contemplating if it would be a good idea to go out for a local bike ride (check at the bottom of this post to find out if I did indeed get out on 'Dessert Storm'). Oh, that reminds me......I haven't been out on my bike since last Tuesday. I am going stir crazy for sure! My recent crash on my bike in Richmond Park (Tuesday) saw me with a very sore shoulder, a smacked left knee, a walloped right shin (that bled) and a knocked right 'Bridge of foot'. When you crash into a foot odd high fence, you don't just fly comfortably through the air until you settle softly onto the kingsize mattress that has been conveniently placed down for your landing!........Oh no! What really happens is that as the bike that was just at the moment before impact your bestest friend in the whole wide world, now becomes you own worst enemy! The bastard thing comes to a complete and utter standstill from......at a guess......20mph, and you & your bicycle bid your farewells with one another (very quickly) then out go your arms as if to grab hold of a wad of fifty pound notes that are dangling just in front of you by a thin piece of string. Then, following your arms comes the rest of your body. But wait! What is this thing made of aluminium and other assorted grades of (hard) metals just in front of my legs? It is my once friendly bike........He's not going anywhere! Wallop goes my knee square on the stem! Crunch goes my shin as it scrapes along (in slo-mo) across my handlebar amd then crack goes my 'Bridge of foot' (the last piece of my body to touch my bike) as it slightly........Just slightly taps the hard, pointed tip of my bar end! Then.........and only then do I begin to fall back towards a very hard and mattress free area that is the ground. Ouch!
But my crash injuries are the least of my worries. I was very fortunate not to brake anything and thankful for having a helmet on top of thngs. But this cold, sore throat and soon to be chest thing will really piss me off if it doesn't get better soon. If it does go to my chest I shall be forced to ring up the RFH for their opinion and as usual, they will almost certainly tell me to get my lazy arse up there right away so they can give me more of those wonderful, tasty sweets called antibiotics.....Thats 'An-e-bye-oh-icks'. I just stopped taking six tablets per day; I don't need anymore......We'll see.

***Update***

The River Thames view from Richmond Hill today.

Well, I did manage to find myself out this afternoon, despite my sore, swollen throat and the beginnings of what feels like a very annoying cough. But I just had to didn't I. I couldn't stay in any longer.....it was driving me mad! I thought I would take it easy and just have a pleasant stroll around Richmond Park. Which I did, & it was, but as anyone knows on a Sunday afternoon in the park, it can get quite busy what with other cyclists, runners, whole families with their bikes and whole families without their bikes and about six thousand dogs too (without their bikes I think I ought to add;) So although it was a very pleasant ride, it was also rather slow. Probably just as well as I didn't want to crash again so soon after the last one. I must admit though that I did have a few close shaves on my way to the park along the streets by the Thames in Twickenham. I clipped the end of my handlebar on one of two wooden posts that I was trying to squeeze through.....too fast! Instantly, I told myself to calm down and take it easy.......so I did. I don't know what the matter with me is these days! I just want to go as fast as I can and bollocks to everything else! I will change.
The weather was great although since I last ventured out on my bike it had rained a little and the Tamsin Trail was littered with numerous muddy puddles. After just two minutes, I was speckled with tiny black dots of mud. 'I'm back.' I thought to myself:)
So one single loop of the park later, as close to the perimeter wall as is possible (kind of) & a throat that felt as though I had let an arsonist move in, I was back at Richmond Gate. I had a quick look at the fence that I cycled into on Tuesday and giggled to myself before having a look at the view over the Thames just outside the parks entrance (see photo).
I think it amazing just how quickly the body heals after a fall like that. All I can say is that I hope I am as lucky next time........and there will be a next time (unfortunately). You can't expect to do what I do with minimal experience and get away scott free everytime. I'd like to bet that most Haemophiliacs are the same in that when they were growing up and always being told not to do this & don't do that........Well in the end you just start to rebel I suppose and think bugger that! I'll do what I want to!
All in all I feel good. Bit of a headache. I was with my friend Jac this evening for a meal and I shook my head and she asked what the hell I was doing. I said that I was checking to see if I had a headache.........and that indeed I did have one. 'Why shake your head though'. she said.
'Because I very rarely get headaches and don't know if I have one or not unless I shake my head'. I laughingly said back.
She just thinks that I am crazy!..........She's not wrong there eh;)



Jason

P.s. Ample; The river photo looks like another one of those 'C's again...Also, If I'm not mistaken, the beam of light must be coming down on roughly where my flat is too.







(C) JPT 2007