"My Mate Factor VIII"

Me yesterday on Pitch Hill with a very clean Elvis...and look!, I've got my ruck-sack on back to front and I lost my Hep C Badge that was punned to it too! What a wally!



Firstly let me wish my best mate Lee a very happy birthday for Friday just gone. He turned a whopping 36 years old on that day. I've known him for nigh on 26 years and you couldn't even dream of finding a nicer buddy such as Lee has been to me! Cheers dude and thanks Nicola & Evie too for the wonderful BBQ in your new garden. Also hello to Pam (Lee's Mum) who was there too who might be reading this Blog for the very first time.

Right, so on to my Factor VIII level test results...again! This second lot (taken on the 1st August) of doing without F8 for a full 6 days produced some just as interesting results as the last time. This time I went to 4% after absolutely no F8 for 6 days when I am supposed to be less than 1% considering I am a severe haemophiliac! But no! I am 4%. Not 5% like I was last time a few weeks ago...and not less than 1% like I must have been when I was diagnosed back in 1973...but 4%. So...they want to do it all over again a third time in a few months time to see if it changes again. I reckon that the rate I am giving away my bloody blood I shall have less bloody blood in me than a blood bank that has just been bloody robbed!
They (My docs) said that your original haemophilia diagnoses can actually improve as you get older. The normal range for a normal normal person is between 50% and 150% Factor VIII. Maybe by the time I am old and grey (around the 360yrs mark) I shall be a Haemophiliac no longer. Will I become a Moderate to severe as time goes on or shall I remain a severe for as long as I live no matter what my Factor VIII levels are? I was born a severe...therefore I shall die a severe! So up yours ugly!!

Christ! You should have seen the needle they stuck in my vein! And it was a vein I have never ever used in the whole of my bleeding life ever in the whole wide world...ever!! It was just three inches short off the height, length & width of an actual London Underground train! But fortunately not as blunt and as slow;) And did it suck the blood out too! When I cut myself shaving later on when I was back home I bled water! They bloody took it all!

Ok, the weekend. Saturday was spent down on a small section of the South Downs Way just outside Worthing on the South Coast where my friend Matthew lives. He's the creator/founder of the website Blood, Sweat & Tyres. He raises money for the Haemophilia Society by riding bikes over long distances with other riders who are willing to ride along with him and raise a little money on the way. He's the chap and his mate Phil (among others) who I am riding with next weekend across the North Downs Way.

Phil (left) & Matthew on the South Downs Way Saturday.

Matthew, Phil & I did 35 miles in total on what has to be one of the best days weather wise this summer (see photo above). The sun shone the whole time, the route Matthew choose was very scenic and was a very pleasant ride indeed. It was kind of a small taster of what to expect maybe next weekend during our 100 plus miler across the North Downs Way from Dover to Dorking. There will be seven of us riding and an eighth man (My mate Lee) who'll be driving the support vehicle. All seems to be going according to plan and the ride should be hard but very rewarding. I can't wait!

Next comes Sunday (yesterday) and I went for my second ride of the weekend this time with Lee. And instead of the SDW we headed for a small section of the NDW and did 10 miles around Pitch & Holmbury Hills. And what a complete contrast in the weather! Just half a mile into our ride the heavens opened and completely and utterly drenched us and our hills! The trees were next to useless at being umbrellas so we headed off back to the car and almost went home because we were so wet but the rain stopped and the sun kinda came out again and off we went and did another nine and a half miles through water logged single track where the roots are as slippery as eels and the mud was as brown as dark chocolate ice cream! I fell off twice at very slow speeds because I couldn't get my feet out of my pedals quick enough. I blame it on the eels! We had a bite to eat by Peaslake Village and watched the other mountain bikers come and go covered head to toe in mud and water as were we. We did in fact end up having a great time and a good laugh too. I certainly didn't look as clean as I do in the photo at the top of post.

Oh...remember I said I went to see The Eighties MatchBox B-Line Disaster late last month? Well, I went again last Tuesday in London. I took an old friend who used to live down my Mums road in Twickenham as I knew he would like them. Another great live band experience! Very loud & atmospheric! This time I recorded the whole gig on my digital camera and have been uploading it onto YouTube the last several days. If you go to this link; http://www.youtube.com/TheMightyC you'll see all my videos in one place. Check out the gig at London's The Scala. The quality seems to be worse on YouTube than it is on my Mac. I think the uploading process downsizes the file size and therefore the picture quality too. But it's still ok. The highlight of the night was when I stole a poster advertising the gig from one of the inside doors directing us to the stage area. I missed out last time in Brighton as I waited until I came out and well, it was gone! Also right at the end of last Tuesdays gig, Guy (singer in the band) threw some bottles of water over and into the crowd and one of them landed right at my feet. And being the sad case that I am...I picked it up and still got it in my kitchen.




Jason


Happy Birthday to Claire (15th) & Becky (11th) too:)xXx






(C) JPT 2007.........2426.98 miles.