Day: February 20, 2018

After a treatment cycle lasting eight months, my chemotherapy finished half way through January, on the 11th of the month to be precise. So now I’m officially in ‘recovery’ mode, which is why I took myself off to Hurghada for a week to feel the warmth of the sun on my body again, having missed out on the experience for the whole of last summer. But although the worst is over, I’ve still a little way to go.

My finger tips and toes are still slightly numb and I’m still highly deficient in the hair department. Although I have a light fuzz now showing on my head and have had to start electric shaving my chin again every morning, there are still no signs of the emergence of new eyebrows and eyelashes.

I’ve almost got used to the bald head now and don’t bother covering up, especially now I have a light suntan, except when it’s cold. One of the nurses at Rouffignac said that she thought that I looked quite fetching without hair but she wasn’t hitting on me and I suspect that she was just trying to soothe me in one of my moments of hairless anguish!

But I think that the absence of eyelashes and eyebrows is something completely different. Although my friends have disagreed, I think that their absence imparts to one a kind of serpent-like quality which I don’t think is at all flattering and I can’t wait therefore for new ones to grow back. I just hope that they do because I have heard of cases of their never returning at the end of chemo and I just hope that I’m not one of those so affected.

My health team here in Périgueux have been, and continue to be, fantastic. They have lost no time at all in shifting gear into follow-up mode and my upcoming highlights are CAT and PET scans on the 12th and 13th of March followed by a consultation to discuss the results with my oncologist on the 22nd.

I still get occasional twinges in my stomach and chest but I think that this is not surprising as I’ve had poisonous chemicals pumped into my system every two weeks for the past eight months and I can hardly expect just to bounce back in a couple of weeks. If all is still clear, which I naturally hope it will be, I will then really be able to breath a sigh of relief, turn the page, shrug my shoulders and just get on with things.

It looked as though things would begin to warm up here as from the end of this week and I’d looked forward to at last being able to start getting my ‘fleet’ of ULMs organised. However, it now looks as though I’ll have to wait another week for the temperature to rise enough for me to start working longish hours outside.

The X-Air is in the barn which is open-fronted but not facing in the direction of incoming weather and with a clean up will be ready for sale. It’s uncovered since a prospective ‘buyer’ came to view it a few months ago but it’s not very dirty and there’s no problem with UV just now so to all intents and purposes, it’s flyable.

Jean-Michel had a small ‘pendulaire’ in the barn up until a few months ago but he and it have now left Malbec. I’m hoping therefore that I’ll be able to get my little French Weedhopper in there fully assembled together with the X-Air rather than leaving it with wings detached in the back of the Savannah’s hangar. I finished repairing the Weed using some MYRO bits plus MYRO’s old 503 engine more than a year ago (in October 2016 actually) but was then overtaken by events.

It hasn’t even been run sadly for nearly a year and I can’t wait to fly it. To be honest, if I had to keep one of either the X-Air or the Weed it’d be the latter as it’s in good nick and is the ideal ‘low and slow’ machine compared to the X-Air. It will also fly at the same speed as Wim’s single-seat Weed so we would be able to fly together which we can’t do with me in the X-Air. Plus it would be an incentive for Wim to keep flying as he’s getting involved in other interests (RC model aircraft and boats) and it would be a sad day for me also if he decided to give it up.

And as for the Savannah, it’s been in the hangar ever since May of last year waiting for its new Ukrainian scimitar prop that I’ve had in my living room for many months to be fitted. I’m looking forward to getting around to it next week now that I’m getting my health and strength back, together with fitting a crossbar to the nose wheel that my pal Victor made for me for a towbar.

So I’ve plenty to be getting on with, and that’s without even mentioning the work that I’d like to get going extending my house. Plus, of course, I’ve got my electric bike and must keep up the exercise regime that I’ve started. We’ve had a few dull, wet days lately but that hasn’t stopped me from getting out on my bike.

Today’s ride was my most ambitious to date involving my heading downhill on the main road in the direction of Montignac. I’ve remained cautious about going too far, especially downhill, because I need to know that my bike will get me back up again. And today it did, so I’m extending my boundaries every day since my illness. And that’s what I want to keep on doing 😉