The 7"C" words............health updates
Feb 15, 2023 2:05:08 GMT 12
percy, gregobro, and 12 more like this
Post by BarryB on Feb 15, 2023 2:05:08 GMT 12
Covid, Cancer & Cyclones Cancels Concerts, Cookouts & Championships
The Covid, Cancer and Cyclones are all self-explanatory, and none are good.....
As is Cancel, not something I like to hear.....
Concerts are something else I generally fill my summer with, alongside speedway.
However, to retain the "C" focus the good old summer BBQ has become a "Cookout", and "Championships" has been used to cover all of the speedway that we all love, and are all missing this (so-called) summer.
After the disruption to the speedway summer of 2020/21 (which began really with the abrupt ending to the 2019/2020 season when Covid first hit New Zealand in March 2020), As I was severely immunocompromised and for my own wellbeing had to retire early from work, I thought "could things possibly get any worse?"
The following summer, 2021/2022, Covid made the future of public gatherings so uncertain that Speedway New Zealand cancelled all of their allocated titles for that season. As things eventuated it was inarguably the fairest decision to make. Concerts and festivals also disappeared from the scene. I again thought, "could things possibly get any worse?"
As many speedway people now know I was diagnosed with Cancer (Myeloma, terminal) in May, 2022. I had my first related operation 9 months ago today (although it was 9 months + 1 day by the time I finished writing). My left femur had fractured and that is what led medics to the diagnosis after scans and a biopsy on my pelvis. They inserted a rod from hip to knee. "If you take, and react well, to all of the treatments offered" they told me, "you might get a few more years. But in saying that, make the most of the next 12 months".
That, to my way of thinking, gave me a few months to get over the leg fracture, start my chemo treatment and get back on my feet and enjoy one more summer of speedway and concerts, largely with commentary bookings at Rotorua and Huntly for all of their major meetings and SNZ Championships that had been postponed by 12 months (otherwise I'd have already served my last season in that role during 2021/22), plus a few concerts including one that I'd held tickets to for years due to a Covid delay. That all went reasonably well until maybe late September, and I say "reasonably" as my left leg was not really reacting terribly well to the physio, and there were other time-consuming interruptions such as my mother's death, ridiculously high blood pressure and later my legs swelling for some undiagnosed reason. Then, in October, I began getting familiar-feeling pains in my right leg. X-Rays showed nothing, but I knew it was only a matter of time. They treated by suggesting another medication I was taking was creating muscular pains, even though my left femur had already suffered a fracture due to Myeloma and I told them it felt exactly the same. They said they'd wait one more week and if it hadn't gotten any better (they'd stopped what they thought was the offending pill by now) they'd do a scan. I told them if it continued as I expected it to, I wouldn't be able to get in to see them in seven days time (which was for my weekly chemo treatment). And sure enough, I was right. Transported to Middlemore by ambulance they did a scan the same night and found my right upper leg had fractured in three places, one up in the hip joint and two in the femur itself. A 14 hour surgery followed (I was out of the ward for 17.5 hours, to which one roommate joked he thought I must have died when I was away for so long......the tragedy of that joke being a couple of nights later he died before my very eyes in the bed directly across from me). The Haematology team at least had the balls to come down and apologise for their misdiagnosis, but really it made no difference other than delaying the big op by a couple of weeks. By now I was constantly thinking "can things possibly get any worse?"
My hope of a final summer of speedway was looking very distant by late October, but the right leg, despite being a much larger operation than the left leg (including a hip replacement due to being unable to piece together the area of the hip joint that had fractured), was recovering much faster than the May operation on the other leg. I definitely had a better surgeon second time around, as the team leader took on the far more complex right leg surgery himself (more complex due to existing bone grafts and metalwork in the leg from a 1982 post-MVA surgery) as opposed to the cowboy who put the nail in my left leg. I also had better physio's I think, plus I probably worked harder than after the previous operation where the Haematology Dept seemed to be making more calls over my overall treatment than the Orthopaedics Dept. Despite one massive wound-bleed (blood all over a white bathroom floor looks like something out of a movie), I was released much sooner than was originally anticipated. By now I was reading about Go Slideways challenges as well, and knowing what friends like Macgor, Ramjam and Mintie had been/were going through gave me extra motivation. Sadly, after 3 days at home, my leg bled again and it was back in the ambulance, back to Middlemore, back under anaesthetic and opened up again, this time just for a good clean out of anything that remotely looked like an infection. They didn't anticipate I'd be there long, but physio stepped in again to help fill in the days. Then things got weird. At first a staff member thought I was 'nil by mouth', but then said it was okay that I eat. Then somebody mentioned "infection", I asked what they meant, and when they checked with their boss they said I'd have to "wait and talk to the doctors about that". So I knew something was up, but had no idea what. Then, after lunch, two nice ladies from 'Infectious Diseases' (a Department I didn't even know existed) turned up. During the original operation on my right leg, 2-3 weeks before, they'd done six swabs whilst I was open on the table. Apparently they regularly do that, but I'd never heard of it before. I guess you only hear if you pick up something infectious off the surgical tools? And most people don't. It takes about 10 working days to analyse these swabs, apparently, so that by the time they'd discovered that I had tested positive to three creepy crawlies with long unpronounceable names on all six swabs, and they'd spoken to my surgeon about getting me back into hospital, I was already back in there. One of the bugs, apparently, loved hanging around with old damaged bones and metalwork, and guess what my right leg was made from? Yep, old damaged bones and now enough metalwork to build a spaceship. So my stay was extended, with a long course of antibiotics in front of me. The only bonus was no weekly chemotherapy treatment while I was on the antibiotic treatment. In hospital this consisted of going on the IV every 8 hours, for 4 hours at a time, 24 hours per day 7 days per week. During the 4 hour breaks I got to do things like shower, get dressed, eat, physio and ummm, that was about it. 4 hours on and 4 hours off. Once back at home I had the District Nurse visiting every morning for six weeks, including Xmas Day, for about the 45 minutes it took to set up and inject a weird concoction of antibiotic they had to prepare daily on the property. It was about now I decided that things couldn't possibly get any worse.
This was followed by 6 weeks of antibiotics in pill form, and as I write this I hope to get a clearance from the Infectious Diseases people later this week. This hopefully, will mean I can restart the chemo treatment later this month after meeting with my cancer man next week. I still have 14 of the originally-planned 36 weeks to go, although as I stopped at week 22, half way through a 4-week cycle, I'm not sure just how the restart will work. They've also mentioned starting on a reduced dose, until they're sure the antibiotics are completely out of my system. As I understand it, my Chemo mix (Cy/Bor/Dex), largely targets the white blood cells. The antibiotic I was on has a certain component in it that means the two treatments can effectively finish up at war with each other and create some sort of super-infection that leaves you sicker than you were before the treatment even started!!!
It was really Go Slideways documenting his battle that motivated me into writing some of this down, even though it's taken me 9 months from diagnosis to get started. Like Slidey though, I can only offer nothing but the highest of praise to all of the staff that I've dealt with during this process to date. I've likely dealt with a few more departments than him, as I've had the bone fractures as well as the Cancer which is in my bones from skull to feet and everywhere in between. So Haematology, Orthopaedics and Physio early on, then Dental as I had to have my bottom teeth extracted before I could start on a 2-year bone strengthening treatment I desperately needed, with treatment being via IV every 3 months. Had I have looked after my teeth better I might have been okay, but apparently while taking this treatment extracting teeth can be extremely hazardous to one's health. Three or four bottom teeth looked doubtful they'd last the required two years, so I suggested they just remove the lot and be done with it. The Outpatients group, OPAT, have also been an extremely helpful group of people.
Meantime I'd missed the Huntly Superstock Teams meeting in November (whilst still in hospital, but it rained off anyway) and the Steve Williams Charity Meeting at Rotorua (was not well enough to travel, but rained off anyway). I also missed two December meetings at Baypark I'd pencilled in to spectate at as I wasn't really up to the drive (but guess what, they were both rained off too). But I was well enough to get to Huntly for all 3-nights of the NZ SuperStock Champs at Huntly, but sadly, other than the practice night on the Thursday, the Friday and Saturday where that actual racing was going to happen were both rained out too. I did manage to get to Rotorua for the World 240's, and it actually happened. Actual racing was witnessed and commentated on!!!!
As I write this I've been informed this weekend's New Zealand Stockcar Teams Championship at Huntly has been rain delayed, hopefully by just the seven days announced. Huntly ran the Saloon GP on Saturday night just passed, after two previous attempts were rained out. A previous cyclone (it seems we have one every week now) also took out the annual Whitianga concert that i attend every year (after Covid took it out last summer), or at least washed out access roads caused the cancellation. Of course the most recent cyclone has smashed the area again. An incoming cyclone also took out the Elton John concert, which had already twice been rescheduled due to Covid and that I'd held tickets to for almost 4 years before its eventual cancellation.
I'm still on crutches, 9 months after this all started and due to a variety and number of setbacks, but am at least finally getting around the house a bit without them. I was close to getting off them months earlier before the second leg cried enough. I still need them when going out or walking long distances however. And when I say "long distance" I'm not talking very far!! But the day I can safely leave them at home will be a day to celebrate. I have 3 months left of the "year" I'm supposed to be making "the most of", but delays due to surgeries and antibiotics have meant I still cannot plan too much, especially any trips away, because I cannot do that until I finish the weekly chemotherapy treatment. And I cannot finish it until I restart it!!!
I was at Huntly on Saturday night, not specifically to commentate but mainly to play around a little more with the MyLaps system before all of their big meetings come up, should the cyclones ever cease. It's going to be good, I believe, but I just hope I live long enough to see that. The intermittent bugs are the most annoying, things that happen one night but not another, when nothing has been touched from one meeting to the next. This sort of thing has happened at both Huntly and Rotorua, where you can battle an issue all night and then, inexplicably, the system suddenly starts doing exactly what you expect it to without you actually changing anything. The fact every track has been left largely to set things up on their own, and some appear to have received different advice to others, means the system works slightly different at one track to another. And what I'm talking about here is only what the commentator sees. That was one of the early issues in that 'downstairs' (using Rotorua last season as an example) everything was working fine whilst 'upstairs' using the 'commentator' setup we were not getting the same information. The local computer geniuses have introduced us to things like "mirroring" and "merged points", and we're slowly making progress. I believe Covid meant a lot of training that was scheduled never really happened as planned, but I also wonder whether all of the correct people were invited along to some of the training that did happen. Certainly a lot more questions needed to be asked. The MyLaps system was definitely not intended for the three-heat format we use here for our contact classes which the old Dorian system coped with adequately. So were we sold a lemon? I enjoy lemon juice with sugar on my pancakes, so I have nothing against lemons, but it will be interesting to see how MyLaps stands up in the long term when it's set up slightly different at every track when compared to every other track. And I base this not just on my usage at two tracks, but from comments from other commentators that have used it at a number of other venues, and a couple of computer geeks that have been speaking with their counterparts at other tracks too.
Everybody wants it to work, SNZ largely walked away from it saying "it works, there are no problems", but that is blatantly untrue. Anyway, while on the mic last Saturday night Craig Tonkin remarked that he was sure last time he saw my I didn't have bright yellow hair growing out the back of my head. My hairdresser, who has been responsible for my head for over 20 years now, was shocked when I told he about my cancer diagnosis, especially after losing my brother only a few years ago. She said "we need to do something" and knowing my sense of humour we came up with the idea of growing a rat's tail (which actually looks more like a duck's tail or a squirrel's tail to be honest) and never cutting that small segment of my hair again. Then if anybody asks "how long has Barry had cancer?" I can turn around, point to the length of the tail and say "that long". Then a couple of haircuts later she said "it doesn't stand out enough. We need to put some colour into it". I agreed, as long as we came up with a colour that actually meant something. I went away and thought about it, and the NZ Cancer Society, and we decided their "daffodil yellow" that they use in all of their fundraising was probably the most cancer-apt colour there was. So the "tail", now bright yellow, is growing month by month. It's getting long and actually starting to annoy me. I always had long hair when I was young, but I'm a pensioner now!!! But some of the comments I've received after explaining both the hair length and hair colour to people when they've asked what it's all about, and one old lady who guessed exactly what it was for, have encouraged me to keep it so far.
A huge thanks to the support people have offered here through Macgor's, mostly via PM but a lot of calls by phone too; it means a lot. This is a great community and we support a great sport. You'll never know how much I appreciate it. To those that didn't know, or maybe don't know me; if you see a rusty old pensioner hobbling around the pits on crutches over the next few weeks at Huntly Speedway with bright yellow hair billowing out the back in the gale force winds, come and say "hi". There's a pretty good chance it'll be me. I'm not the only pensioner, and I'm not the only person on crutches, but if you spot the bright yellow hair as well my guess is there's only one person meeting all three criteria!!
Oh, I also managed to dislocate my brand new right hip joint last week too. Another trip by ambulance (my fourth in the past 9 months) to Middlemore Hospital, my home away from home, where under my fourth anaesthetic they put it back into place as I snoozed the afternoon away.
Look after your teeth, and any ache or pain you feel without really knowing or understanding the source, see your GP ASAP. And fight for your rights!!
Like Go Slideways I'll update this from time to time, and I want to see much less of the Covid, Cancer, Cyclones and Cancellations, and more of the Concerts (there has to be at least one more, even if I have to go overseas to find it), Cookouts (I'm sure BBQ weather will return one day) and Championships. I want to see Championship after Championship after Championship, and if the weather holds for the three consecutive weekends at Huntly coming up, and my health is up to it as well, that's exactly what I'll see. The New Zealand Stockcar Teams Championship followed by New Zealand SuperStock Championship followed by the New Zealand Modified Championship. I hope to see you there too
Barry B
The Covid, Cancer and Cyclones are all self-explanatory, and none are good.....
As is Cancel, not something I like to hear.....
Concerts are something else I generally fill my summer with, alongside speedway.
However, to retain the "C" focus the good old summer BBQ has become a "Cookout", and "Championships" has been used to cover all of the speedway that we all love, and are all missing this (so-called) summer.
After the disruption to the speedway summer of 2020/21 (which began really with the abrupt ending to the 2019/2020 season when Covid first hit New Zealand in March 2020), As I was severely immunocompromised and for my own wellbeing had to retire early from work, I thought "could things possibly get any worse?"
The following summer, 2021/2022, Covid made the future of public gatherings so uncertain that Speedway New Zealand cancelled all of their allocated titles for that season. As things eventuated it was inarguably the fairest decision to make. Concerts and festivals also disappeared from the scene. I again thought, "could things possibly get any worse?"
As many speedway people now know I was diagnosed with Cancer (Myeloma, terminal) in May, 2022. I had my first related operation 9 months ago today (although it was 9 months + 1 day by the time I finished writing). My left femur had fractured and that is what led medics to the diagnosis after scans and a biopsy on my pelvis. They inserted a rod from hip to knee. "If you take, and react well, to all of the treatments offered" they told me, "you might get a few more years. But in saying that, make the most of the next 12 months".
That, to my way of thinking, gave me a few months to get over the leg fracture, start my chemo treatment and get back on my feet and enjoy one more summer of speedway and concerts, largely with commentary bookings at Rotorua and Huntly for all of their major meetings and SNZ Championships that had been postponed by 12 months (otherwise I'd have already served my last season in that role during 2021/22), plus a few concerts including one that I'd held tickets to for years due to a Covid delay. That all went reasonably well until maybe late September, and I say "reasonably" as my left leg was not really reacting terribly well to the physio, and there were other time-consuming interruptions such as my mother's death, ridiculously high blood pressure and later my legs swelling for some undiagnosed reason. Then, in October, I began getting familiar-feeling pains in my right leg. X-Rays showed nothing, but I knew it was only a matter of time. They treated by suggesting another medication I was taking was creating muscular pains, even though my left femur had already suffered a fracture due to Myeloma and I told them it felt exactly the same. They said they'd wait one more week and if it hadn't gotten any better (they'd stopped what they thought was the offending pill by now) they'd do a scan. I told them if it continued as I expected it to, I wouldn't be able to get in to see them in seven days time (which was for my weekly chemo treatment). And sure enough, I was right. Transported to Middlemore by ambulance they did a scan the same night and found my right upper leg had fractured in three places, one up in the hip joint and two in the femur itself. A 14 hour surgery followed (I was out of the ward for 17.5 hours, to which one roommate joked he thought I must have died when I was away for so long......the tragedy of that joke being a couple of nights later he died before my very eyes in the bed directly across from me). The Haematology team at least had the balls to come down and apologise for their misdiagnosis, but really it made no difference other than delaying the big op by a couple of weeks. By now I was constantly thinking "can things possibly get any worse?"
My hope of a final summer of speedway was looking very distant by late October, but the right leg, despite being a much larger operation than the left leg (including a hip replacement due to being unable to piece together the area of the hip joint that had fractured), was recovering much faster than the May operation on the other leg. I definitely had a better surgeon second time around, as the team leader took on the far more complex right leg surgery himself (more complex due to existing bone grafts and metalwork in the leg from a 1982 post-MVA surgery) as opposed to the cowboy who put the nail in my left leg. I also had better physio's I think, plus I probably worked harder than after the previous operation where the Haematology Dept seemed to be making more calls over my overall treatment than the Orthopaedics Dept. Despite one massive wound-bleed (blood all over a white bathroom floor looks like something out of a movie), I was released much sooner than was originally anticipated. By now I was reading about Go Slideways challenges as well, and knowing what friends like Macgor, Ramjam and Mintie had been/were going through gave me extra motivation. Sadly, after 3 days at home, my leg bled again and it was back in the ambulance, back to Middlemore, back under anaesthetic and opened up again, this time just for a good clean out of anything that remotely looked like an infection. They didn't anticipate I'd be there long, but physio stepped in again to help fill in the days. Then things got weird. At first a staff member thought I was 'nil by mouth', but then said it was okay that I eat. Then somebody mentioned "infection", I asked what they meant, and when they checked with their boss they said I'd have to "wait and talk to the doctors about that". So I knew something was up, but had no idea what. Then, after lunch, two nice ladies from 'Infectious Diseases' (a Department I didn't even know existed) turned up. During the original operation on my right leg, 2-3 weeks before, they'd done six swabs whilst I was open on the table. Apparently they regularly do that, but I'd never heard of it before. I guess you only hear if you pick up something infectious off the surgical tools? And most people don't. It takes about 10 working days to analyse these swabs, apparently, so that by the time they'd discovered that I had tested positive to three creepy crawlies with long unpronounceable names on all six swabs, and they'd spoken to my surgeon about getting me back into hospital, I was already back in there. One of the bugs, apparently, loved hanging around with old damaged bones and metalwork, and guess what my right leg was made from? Yep, old damaged bones and now enough metalwork to build a spaceship. So my stay was extended, with a long course of antibiotics in front of me. The only bonus was no weekly chemotherapy treatment while I was on the antibiotic treatment. In hospital this consisted of going on the IV every 8 hours, for 4 hours at a time, 24 hours per day 7 days per week. During the 4 hour breaks I got to do things like shower, get dressed, eat, physio and ummm, that was about it. 4 hours on and 4 hours off. Once back at home I had the District Nurse visiting every morning for six weeks, including Xmas Day, for about the 45 minutes it took to set up and inject a weird concoction of antibiotic they had to prepare daily on the property. It was about now I decided that things couldn't possibly get any worse.
This was followed by 6 weeks of antibiotics in pill form, and as I write this I hope to get a clearance from the Infectious Diseases people later this week. This hopefully, will mean I can restart the chemo treatment later this month after meeting with my cancer man next week. I still have 14 of the originally-planned 36 weeks to go, although as I stopped at week 22, half way through a 4-week cycle, I'm not sure just how the restart will work. They've also mentioned starting on a reduced dose, until they're sure the antibiotics are completely out of my system. As I understand it, my Chemo mix (Cy/Bor/Dex), largely targets the white blood cells. The antibiotic I was on has a certain component in it that means the two treatments can effectively finish up at war with each other and create some sort of super-infection that leaves you sicker than you were before the treatment even started!!!
It was really Go Slideways documenting his battle that motivated me into writing some of this down, even though it's taken me 9 months from diagnosis to get started. Like Slidey though, I can only offer nothing but the highest of praise to all of the staff that I've dealt with during this process to date. I've likely dealt with a few more departments than him, as I've had the bone fractures as well as the Cancer which is in my bones from skull to feet and everywhere in between. So Haematology, Orthopaedics and Physio early on, then Dental as I had to have my bottom teeth extracted before I could start on a 2-year bone strengthening treatment I desperately needed, with treatment being via IV every 3 months. Had I have looked after my teeth better I might have been okay, but apparently while taking this treatment extracting teeth can be extremely hazardous to one's health. Three or four bottom teeth looked doubtful they'd last the required two years, so I suggested they just remove the lot and be done with it. The Outpatients group, OPAT, have also been an extremely helpful group of people.
Meantime I'd missed the Huntly Superstock Teams meeting in November (whilst still in hospital, but it rained off anyway) and the Steve Williams Charity Meeting at Rotorua (was not well enough to travel, but rained off anyway). I also missed two December meetings at Baypark I'd pencilled in to spectate at as I wasn't really up to the drive (but guess what, they were both rained off too). But I was well enough to get to Huntly for all 3-nights of the NZ SuperStock Champs at Huntly, but sadly, other than the practice night on the Thursday, the Friday and Saturday where that actual racing was going to happen were both rained out too. I did manage to get to Rotorua for the World 240's, and it actually happened. Actual racing was witnessed and commentated on!!!!
As I write this I've been informed this weekend's New Zealand Stockcar Teams Championship at Huntly has been rain delayed, hopefully by just the seven days announced. Huntly ran the Saloon GP on Saturday night just passed, after two previous attempts were rained out. A previous cyclone (it seems we have one every week now) also took out the annual Whitianga concert that i attend every year (after Covid took it out last summer), or at least washed out access roads caused the cancellation. Of course the most recent cyclone has smashed the area again. An incoming cyclone also took out the Elton John concert, which had already twice been rescheduled due to Covid and that I'd held tickets to for almost 4 years before its eventual cancellation.
I'm still on crutches, 9 months after this all started and due to a variety and number of setbacks, but am at least finally getting around the house a bit without them. I was close to getting off them months earlier before the second leg cried enough. I still need them when going out or walking long distances however. And when I say "long distance" I'm not talking very far!! But the day I can safely leave them at home will be a day to celebrate. I have 3 months left of the "year" I'm supposed to be making "the most of", but delays due to surgeries and antibiotics have meant I still cannot plan too much, especially any trips away, because I cannot do that until I finish the weekly chemotherapy treatment. And I cannot finish it until I restart it!!!
I was at Huntly on Saturday night, not specifically to commentate but mainly to play around a little more with the MyLaps system before all of their big meetings come up, should the cyclones ever cease. It's going to be good, I believe, but I just hope I live long enough to see that. The intermittent bugs are the most annoying, things that happen one night but not another, when nothing has been touched from one meeting to the next. This sort of thing has happened at both Huntly and Rotorua, where you can battle an issue all night and then, inexplicably, the system suddenly starts doing exactly what you expect it to without you actually changing anything. The fact every track has been left largely to set things up on their own, and some appear to have received different advice to others, means the system works slightly different at one track to another. And what I'm talking about here is only what the commentator sees. That was one of the early issues in that 'downstairs' (using Rotorua last season as an example) everything was working fine whilst 'upstairs' using the 'commentator' setup we were not getting the same information. The local computer geniuses have introduced us to things like "mirroring" and "merged points", and we're slowly making progress. I believe Covid meant a lot of training that was scheduled never really happened as planned, but I also wonder whether all of the correct people were invited along to some of the training that did happen. Certainly a lot more questions needed to be asked. The MyLaps system was definitely not intended for the three-heat format we use here for our contact classes which the old Dorian system coped with adequately. So were we sold a lemon? I enjoy lemon juice with sugar on my pancakes, so I have nothing against lemons, but it will be interesting to see how MyLaps stands up in the long term when it's set up slightly different at every track when compared to every other track. And I base this not just on my usage at two tracks, but from comments from other commentators that have used it at a number of other venues, and a couple of computer geeks that have been speaking with their counterparts at other tracks too.
Everybody wants it to work, SNZ largely walked away from it saying "it works, there are no problems", but that is blatantly untrue. Anyway, while on the mic last Saturday night Craig Tonkin remarked that he was sure last time he saw my I didn't have bright yellow hair growing out the back of my head. My hairdresser, who has been responsible for my head for over 20 years now, was shocked when I told he about my cancer diagnosis, especially after losing my brother only a few years ago. She said "we need to do something" and knowing my sense of humour we came up with the idea of growing a rat's tail (which actually looks more like a duck's tail or a squirrel's tail to be honest) and never cutting that small segment of my hair again. Then if anybody asks "how long has Barry had cancer?" I can turn around, point to the length of the tail and say "that long". Then a couple of haircuts later she said "it doesn't stand out enough. We need to put some colour into it". I agreed, as long as we came up with a colour that actually meant something. I went away and thought about it, and the NZ Cancer Society, and we decided their "daffodil yellow" that they use in all of their fundraising was probably the most cancer-apt colour there was. So the "tail", now bright yellow, is growing month by month. It's getting long and actually starting to annoy me. I always had long hair when I was young, but I'm a pensioner now!!! But some of the comments I've received after explaining both the hair length and hair colour to people when they've asked what it's all about, and one old lady who guessed exactly what it was for, have encouraged me to keep it so far.
A huge thanks to the support people have offered here through Macgor's, mostly via PM but a lot of calls by phone too; it means a lot. This is a great community and we support a great sport. You'll never know how much I appreciate it. To those that didn't know, or maybe don't know me; if you see a rusty old pensioner hobbling around the pits on crutches over the next few weeks at Huntly Speedway with bright yellow hair billowing out the back in the gale force winds, come and say "hi". There's a pretty good chance it'll be me. I'm not the only pensioner, and I'm not the only person on crutches, but if you spot the bright yellow hair as well my guess is there's only one person meeting all three criteria!!
Oh, I also managed to dislocate my brand new right hip joint last week too. Another trip by ambulance (my fourth in the past 9 months) to Middlemore Hospital, my home away from home, where under my fourth anaesthetic they put it back into place as I snoozed the afternoon away.
Look after your teeth, and any ache or pain you feel without really knowing or understanding the source, see your GP ASAP. And fight for your rights!!
Like Go Slideways I'll update this from time to time, and I want to see much less of the Covid, Cancer, Cyclones and Cancellations, and more of the Concerts (there has to be at least one more, even if I have to go overseas to find it), Cookouts (I'm sure BBQ weather will return one day) and Championships. I want to see Championship after Championship after Championship, and if the weather holds for the three consecutive weekends at Huntly coming up, and my health is up to it as well, that's exactly what I'll see. The New Zealand Stockcar Teams Championship followed by New Zealand SuperStock Championship followed by the New Zealand Modified Championship. I hope to see you there too
Barry B
