Not feeling Too Hot

Planned to go out for a ride with wor Kyle early this morning. I wasn't really sure whether I would be up to venturing far as I didn't feel too good last night, think I'm stressing slightly over my visit to hospital tomorrow. You see I have non Hodgkin's lymphoma, it was diagnosed around the end of October 2008 and up till now I've been lucky in that it hasn't really effected me.

 I go for the usual routine check-ups with the haematology team,who I have to say have been very supportive. I get my blood taken  and generally either my doctor or one of the nurses gives me the quick once over.

Over the last few months I've been suffering from some enlarged nodes down in my groin. The first one was on my right side, generally these nodes don't hurt they just kind of bug me and I like them to settle down and behave themselves. This node on my right got rather sore as unfortunately the top edge of my socket used to rub right in the same area, it wasn't a big deal like I say just sore and uncomfortable. Anyhoo the node on my right settled down and disappeared, however about a month or so ago a new node came up on my left side. This node is huge and it's actually hurting, hence why "I'm not feeling too Hot"... Well at least I think it's a node. I had to go for a scan last Thursday and the results have come back inconclusive, suppose this is what is worrying me. I would much prefer to know exactly what it is.

This past week has been full of ups and downs. Like I mentioned in my earlier blog I started doing voluntary work within the NHS at the Royal Victoria Hospital. I'm helping out on the Acute stroke unit. I've only done 3 mornings so far, the work is so interesting. I was actually very pleasantly surprised at just how hands on I am involved, basically I'm getting invaluable experience which will come in handy when I'm applying for the positions I'm after, which is a physio assistant.  Speaking of which I had good news on Friday evening when I opened my emails, as I have been contacted to let me know I have been successful in gaining 2 interviews for a physio assistant position. This is great news, as though I've been applying for jobs I haven't even gotten to the interview stage in sometime.

It's Sods law,well in my case whenever I plan to do something some dam health issue crops up. And I'm not talking just Man Flu...No it's always something that involves either getting bits of  metal shoved in my body, or bits cut off, or things taken out...

So anyhoo this morning I thought sod it I'm going out for a ride. I woke Kyle up at 5.00am, we had a cuppa and some toast and made some jam as well as chocolate spread sandwiches, using fruit loaf Mmmmm gorgeous. We then headed off for a ride to the coast. Bloody hell it was cold this morning, with a lot of ground frost (Ern -my dad said it was 2 degrees) so again "Not feeling too Hot" lol

Didn't manage to get a great deal of footage on my GoPro, so much so I haven't even bothered editing it and only a few pics today.

We rode down to Roker (Sunderland) following the C2C route7 I think.  Then followed the coastline down to South Shields. Once at Shields it was a case of cutting through the main street and we eventually came out at the Port of Tyne. From there straight up to White Mare Pool roundabout and up towards Springwell. We actually got on to the Bowes Railway route and came past the Bowes Railway Museum, first time I've been past it so may venture back to check it out. I'm no trainspotter, but I do like local history, stuff about our lost mining community etc. Once at the top of Springwell it was a short ride to Lamsley and along to Birtley. It was at this point I just didn't feel to well, we had done around 43 miles I was gutted we couldn't manage the other 6.33 miles home. So I rang Johnstones Taxi's, yeah that's right my dad and he came down to pick us up along with our bike rack.

 From there it was home, shower and to updating my blog. Now going for a well earned lie down.