Cycling by lochs and glens

Things continue to progress well for me thankfully. My routine of gym and pool exercise has continued to get me out of bed and has trimmed my weight by about 2kg mostly by removing the excess fat around my middle which had built up as I lost muscle mass during chemo but was eating to try to keep my weight up. So although I managed to keep my weight constant at 85kg from Jan to May the proportion of muscle to fat did change adversely so dropping down to 82kg is just a part of rebuilding my muscle and losing some of that fat. It seems that I will probably be a bit "leaner" after the treatment as this is a common observation from other folks.

The exercise in the gym was supplemented this weekend by a fair bit of cycling as we all went off to the Trossachs with the bikes and each of the three days I cycled about 12 miles or so on average, with our family and a friend Ken and his daughter. Having two cars enabled us to pick routes which were a good length, but mostly downhill, so the level of exercise was not too much for me (and Ken who is recovering from a bad DVT clot in his leg). So for both of us and the kids this was a confidence boosting weekend, I even heard Holly say "that's not too far" when I told her we had five miles to go, so she is getting used to pushing on, even in the Scottish showers, which followed us from time to time on the routes.

The scenery around Callander is fantastic and most of the bike tracks are free of cars and run alongside rivers or lochs in the shadow of some pretty big mountains, so the views were tremendous. After three days we were sad to leave, but dancing rehearsals called for the kids, so we had to head back to Edinburgh for tea time.

I did manage my first outing to the local pub with my friend Nick for a few months on Monday night, which was very enjoyable and another milestone on the road to normality for me. A night out still has me sleeping the next day until 10am or so to recover, but the stamina to cope will come with practice. That can be my new excuse for going to the pub occasionally, I need the practice!

As the kids were on holiday today I took ours, plus two friends, to the pool and, while they played, I managed to do 50 lengths of the pool in an hour, which is a new post transplant record for me, so I am feeling pleased with progress each day, by the end of July I should be fit enough for family holidays and then work at the end of August as planned, fingers crossed, as I think I will begin to be a bit bored with domestic life and solitary exercise by then.

The hospital has sent me a "mental state" evaluation form, apparently a lot of my transplant buddies have developed depression, so they try to ensure we get the right mental support as well as the more direct medical stuff. Needless to say given my good luck and increasing well being my form will not trouble them too much!

So all is going well here, thankfully no infections or setbacks to report, lets hope it stays that way!

Cheers

Gerry