Immortality is ubiquity in time

So what have I to tell you?

Again I have had lots and lots of visitors, and while it is always a pleasure (especially those who have come from a different country), it is mentally exhausting. So now I've got a few days where I can rest up and just feel a little better within myself.

I mentioned the last time I posted that I was going to see the respiratory consultant but that it was merely to keep him abreast of how things were proceeding. It didn't turn out that way at all. I am now just shy of 63kg (9 st 12 lb in old money) so all the docs are happy with my weight, they just want it to be more muscle than fat. That's quite a difficult thing to achieve when you can't exercise because your lungs won't allow you to, so he's looking into another option. You know the things they advertise on telly that can give you a six pack stomach through electrical stimulation of muscles? Well they used similar equipment on a study a few years ago and it was quite successful so they're looking for the gear that will allow me a whole body version of it. This is also because I am now suffering from muscle atrophy because they're barely getting used. With the muscles wasting away I'm getting a dull pain in them too so anything that would improve that situation would be fantastic.

He also wants me to do another set of the dreaded pulmonary function tests. When I was at my lowest weight they couldn't get a reading from their machines because my lung function was so low. Apparently though not all of that is down to damage to the lungs but some of it because I was so underweight. So theoretically they'll now be able to gauge much more accurately the level of damage done to my lungs. Yay.

I had them done when I was in Newcastle so I know I'll be able to adequately provide them with all the info they're looking for but I do hate them so. Having people shout at you to breathe out just that little bit more when you already feel you're about to flake out is just grim.

Oh aye and today would have been my dad's 67th birthday. Still miss him every single day.

You're so blind you flounder drowning

I've had a brilliant last few weeks. I got out to my niece's christening - I missed the last one because I was too ill to go and I've felt bad about it ever since. Seeing so many family and friends in the one place is always great. So many of my cousins have children of their own now as well so it was all very civilised but it was so good to see them all. I didn't even feel terribly tired after it.

On top of that my best friend has been home from Sydney and it's given us a chance to really catch up. It's not that easy to communicate all the aspects of my treatment through the medium of Skype so sitting him down and explaining it all was very much needed. It was also just nice to sit and talk about all the usual nonsense we do. I miss the fecker greatly, as I've mentioned here before.

In between times I've kept myself busy by building a rather large lego set (~3100 pieces). It is the Super Star Destroyer from the Star Wars films. I already have the normal Star Destroyer (which somewhat ironically has more pieces) so this was the next logical step. It cost a lot but I don't have anything else to spend my money on so I thought 'why not'?

Here's the various stages of development.

Stages 1 & 2

Stages 3 & 4

Stages 5 - 7 Complete

It's 1.25 metres long and took me a week to build. The other Star Destroyer took far less time but this one was much more fiddly and I couldn't get comfortable when building it so did it in little stints. Being honest my concentration wasn't up to much either so doing it in little sections was the best way to go. I know it's really geeky but it is genuinely awesome.

I'm also in a really good mood because I'm getting some great visitors this week. Today my mate Olly was going to come through to see me before he moves to Amsterdam on Friday but he's had to reschedule to Thursday due to taking an unfortunate tumble in the park yesterday. I've also got my friend from Uni Yvonne and her wee family coming at the weekend, which I can't wait for.

In between times I've got a trip to see the Respiratory consultant, but that should just be a quick appointment to keep him abreast of progress towards transplant.