A mixed up muddled up time, ups, downs and cancer
- Wayne Annan
- Aug 9, 2018
- 9 min read
Without the organ donor, there is no story, no nope, no transplant. But when there is an organ donor, life spring from death, sorrow turns to hope, and a terrible loss becomes a gift. –UNOS-
Being happy isn’t about getting what you want, it’s about loving what you have and can do and even more what you actually do with what you have!!
It’s been a mixed up muddled up time for the last wee while. The rejection has cleared, I have seen the Kidney people and am on their watch now, and they will review my progress over the next few months. I have seen the knee doctors and will go back to them in October. My blood pressure has gone up, through the roof, for no reason, it has been recorded up to 180/110, which is a little serious. So more medication has been added. I am currently monitoring it morning and night and it is coming back down.
So it is has been an up and down time. We have been away to Rotorua to take part in a Mountain Bike event. We spent the weekend biking through the Redwoods area of Rotorua, a place I have never been to before. I have never mountain biked before either. On the Friday we traveled, leaving late due to a mediation carrying on late that evening, we stayed on the lake front the temperature dropped to 0 degrees overnight, it was nice having the heating in the motor-home, and we were very cosy. Unlike our last trip to Rotorua, this time there was no drama, well not much.
We enjoyed a slow start to the day and headed to the Redwoods information centre and then headed out onto the
trails. We were on gravel roads to start with, after a while we went on a track called Tokorangi (1.78 km) mostly downhill dropping 130 meters with only 53 meters climb, this was our first ever experience of Mountain Bike riding. When entering the track I came off, a great start. Pauline then went over, then I had another turn, light falls, mine caused by tree roots. Then going down-hill we discovered this took some skill and perhaps some experience, I thought at one stage Pauline had crashed off the track down into the bush, but she had just come off and the bike went into the bush, she had fallen hard and was a bit damaged and shaken. We took it easy from then on, still taking some falls. Then onto a track called Turkish Delight (0.844 km) with 46 meters decent all at the end and only 14 meters climb. That took us out onto the gravel road again and we headed to the Waipa carpark where the event would start from the next day, we had a go at another track that was on the course and I went down really hard, having no idea what I was doing. I struggled up and we found a way to get back out of that one.
The ride on the gravel tracks was nice, bumpy but very pleasant and different. After finding the carpark we made our way back on Radio Hut Road taking another side track (Arepa) toward the end, which was relatively easy. That was a 17km ride that finished Pauline’s mountain bike career, she lost confidence to be able to do the event the next day and over the following week as all the bruise emerged it was the right call, especially as I experienced the next morning. We went to the camp ground and rode to the registration, came back and got into the lovely hot pools at the camp ground.
On the Sunday we arrived at the event early had breakfast in
the motorhome and I got ready and even did some warm-up. I lined up on the start line a little apprehensive, but looking forward to the adventure. The other guys doing it on Ebikes were quite serious and a little intense, the gun went off and we headed for the hills. I was a little surprised at the speed they went off at. We went along the road then on a track. I got the legs spinning and caught first one, then another, into 2nd place,
I hit a mud patch and nearly lost the bi
ke and went back to 4th. I carried on and got back into 2nd place just behind the 1st guy and then we went onto a rough winding track and up hill, I managed to hang in, then we went down-hill and so did I, hard, I got tangled in my bike and struggled to get back up, that was the first time. I learned to navigate the tree roots, that created violent shakes in the bike, but couldn’t get the down hills right. I found I didn’t have the strength to hold the bike or get myself in the right position to hold the bike upright. It kept coming over me and down I would go.
So first I lost the others, then after a while the real mountain bike riders started coming past. I continued on, at times I
would stop to let groups of riders past. I felt my body, I had landed hard a few times, I found myself struggling with strength and fitness, when the “tail end Charlie” escort got to me, he told me he would be with me until the end. I continued to crash on the big down hills, but got more confident on the up-hills and gentle downward gradients. I came to where the long course and the short course separated. I decided to take the short course route as I wasn’t in shape to tackle the rest of the course, the escort left me and I continued on. I came to a massive double drop, I crashed in the middle of it and got tangled in my bike. I couldn’t get up and was worried they would be coming over the drop and landing right on top of me. Someone stopped and helped me up, I stood there for a while composing and sorting myself out. Sure enough faster riders come through, they would have landed on me, as they flew over where I was and went over the next drop as well. Their wheels were at my head height, I knew then I had got myself into something I was not prepared for. I managed to get back on and kept going through some nice forest tracks, lots of roots but I had mastered them and could go reasonably fast, even on some tight bends.
I was getting very tired, I had been going for about 2 hours 30 minutes, my body had little strength and I was not sure I could finish. I struggled on and then heard the announcer from the event, so knew I wasn’t far away, I carried on and came to a massive decent, I stopped at the top and wondered how I would get down it. I waited until some others went and watched them, then gingerly and gently made my way down without crashing and made my way out of the forest to the finish line.
I enjoyed it, I did it even if I didn’t do what I had intended. My shoulder wasn’t any worse, it wasn’t any better either. I hadn’t done any real damage, bruises same out over the following week or two. I had lots of nicks and cuts, had ripped my good cycle shorts, hadn’t damage the bike and done something I had not done before.
Bryan Eckersley was given a second chance at life in 2005 when he was the recipient of a new heart. He was waiting at the finish line, when they announced my name he came over and introduced himself. I was a humbling experience really, he has won many medal at masters game and Transplant Games. He gave me a copy of the article that was published in the Rotorua Daily Post
So that was a great experience, one that I am not sure I repeat.
I had another biopsy and clinic that went well, I sought advice about my shoulder, I am not allowed any invasive procedures for about a year after the transplant, which means I am not able to have the shoulder dealt to, apart from physiotherapy. So that could be a long process of recovery as the specialist wanted to give me an injection of Cortisone to relieve the pain and inflammation, I have to deal with it and have some exercises to do and have a massage on every week or two.
I have also develop a skin cancer, Squamous cell carcinoma or basal cell carcinoma, I believe the former. This thing has grown very quickly, faster than even the doctor believed is possible, that has something to do with the drugs I am on. Many people who receive organ transplants take medications to suppress the immune system so the body
won’t reject the organ. These "immunosuppressive" drugs make the immune system less able to detect and destroy cancer cells or fight off infections that cause cancer. There may be an increased risk of developing cancer such as lymphoma and skin cancer when taking immunosuppressive such as Cellcept (mycophenolate mofetil).
I am currently waiting for the hospital to provide an appointment for this, however the thing is growing at a speed that is concerning and may end up a little disfiguring. Below is how much it has grown over the last week
A month ago there was no real sign of it.
We spent a night listening to Rick Wells and Cameron Brown reminisce on triathlon in New Zealand and the world. Rick
Wells was the World Triathlon Champ in the early days of triathlon and Commonwealth Games gold medallist. I used to compete in races that Rick would win, there were times I would be finishing the bike to start the run when he would be finishing the event. It was nice to recall incidents he talked about that I was part of in the 1980-90’s.
Also I had the pleasure of going to an event at my Grand-
daughter’s school where she was presented with the Sir Peter Blake Young Leadership Award. Sir Peter Blake, KBE, was the world’s most celebrated yachtsman. In a 30-year career, he won every significant bluewater race on the planet. He also won and successfully defended the biggest sailing prize of all, the America’s Cup, and slashed the record for the fastest non-stop circumnavigation of the world under sail. He then turned his focus to pursue his passion in protecting and caring for the environment, embarking on a mission to show people how beautiful and unique the world is. The award celebrates
Integrity
Determination and the will to succeed
Be a good team builder, leader and member
Be hard working and know how to have fun
We did a bike event at Okoroire, the Mid Winter Fun Ride on our Ebikes. We were in the ebike category with 7 others. We
had to start at the back of the field, 5 minutes behind. It didn’t take too long before we started to pass riders. We had to peddle quite hard so it wasn’t easy. As we went past one group a bloke called out “give us a tow”. The next group we went past was the lead group and they drafted on the back of me for a few kilometers until we hit a few small hills and the ebike kicked in.
Once we dropped that group and the longer ride divided we were alone at the front with one other ebike rider. I had to be careful not to drop Pauline, I was feeling great and have to admit the competitive side popped up from somewhere. We
carried on and came down a big hill going toward Tirau, then into Tirau and turned left. The other ebike rider turned too early as the course went that way the previous year. We had a jump on him and were in front with 6km to go. I was going as hard as I could with the bike on the highest level of assistance, and then a plaintive call from Pauline “My chain has come off” as we were going up a hill. Had to stop and help her put it back on, meanwhile the other ebike rider came along and asked if he could help, said no go ahead and off he went. We got the chain back on, then the seat had slipped, so we got that fixed and off we went. I saw him in the distance, however by the time we finished he had been finished for a minute and a few seconds, wasn’t bad considering.
The day before we went on a ride on the Waikato River Trail, stage 1 from Pokawenua Bridge to Arapuna Dam. The northern most point of the Trail is the Pokaiwhenua Bridge carpark, it has capacity for about 25 cars. From the carpark the first 5.3km of Trail is next to the road, the trail is easy. From Little Waipa Reserve the Trail sits alongside Lake Karapiro and winds its way 6.2km to Arapuni Village. This extremely popular section of trail takes a route through a unique wetland over a 500m long continuous boardwalk. The destination for many is the Rhubarb Café in Arapuni Village which we stopped at for a hot chocolate and scone. The Arapuni swingbridge was cool and did swig in the breeze. The ride was very nice and pleasant, the paths were clear and gravelled. On the way back we past a couple going in the opposite direction and said the mandatory hello, how are you.
Click on the picture to see more
Later that night evening we went to the Okoroire Hot Springs Hotel for dinner and to watch the rugby game between the Hurricanes and Crusaders. We shared a table with a couple and were chatting away with them, I asked if they did the trail that day and sure enough they were the couple we had seen that day. We continued to chat away and got to where we were from and there you got they live a couple of hundred meters from us, on the road around the corner from us. Small world.
I have also been working and that has been going well. I am now back on what they call circuit work. This means that once a month or so I go to different parts of the country. So my first trip was to Whangarei, then on to Kaitaia back to Whangarei then home, a 656 km round trip. It went well with no issues health wise, I did get a little tired, but all was great, it is nice to be “normal” again.
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