Evening @Jimbo165 et al!
Great news re your stress test for your HGV- I’ve never heard of them using sandpaper before- what sort of a nurse was she ??? A mechanical nurse?? I’ve got an HGV license but haven’t had to have an ECG for it, probably my medical history doesn’t warrant it like yours does.
Great that it’s perked you up a bit 
Sleep well everyone, or as well as we Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN)’s ever do!!
Gillyj
Good evening @Gillyj, and everyone else, hope you are well.
Yes, only us “stoopid people” who have been foolish enough to have a “cardiac event” have to undergo/endure the stress test, bu that is 3 that I have made it through now, so I must be fitter and healthier than I thought!
I think that the nurse must have been a carpenter in a previous existence.
As always, stay safe, take care, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
Good evening all- hope everyone is coping with this foul windy wet weather?
This is just a quick question, as I mentioned in a previous chat I am taking part in the Walk Of Light to raise funds for blood cancer, and I know @Jimbo165 said he might do it as well. I saw an email which said the forum was starting a walk of light thread but I’ve lost that email and can’t find anything on the forum- does anyone know anything about this or am I imagining it?? 
Gillyj
Hi @Gillyj, you are not imaging it.
I have found the thread to the Walk of Light 2025
Walk of Light 2025 - General chat - Blood Cancer UK Online Community Forum.
Really enjoy this fabulous event
Thank you! I only set up my just giving page 10 minutes ago and I have been so touched by peoples generosity!
Gillyj
Good evening @Gillyj, dear @Erica, and others, I hope that you are all well. I can report that I haven’t been blown or swept away, despite the best efforts of the recent stormy weather!
I am currently engaged in a plot (worthy of a soap opera!) to persuade/con some, all or fewer, of my daughters, into joining me on the 29th of March for the event in Brum. It happens to fall on D No2’s birthday, so I’ll be in Birmingham on the day anyway.
And so far I’ve got the 2 “even numbered” daughter’s roped in to taking part.
As for myself, other than feeling absolutely exhausted (more so than when I was on the Pegasys), and the tongue ulcers (still there but I can live with them), the headaches (fewer and less intense), I’m okay-ish I think. I seem to be suffering from more flatulence than before and I spoke with the Doctor and asked what would be good for wind: he told me a kite! Sorry, only joking, (and credit to Les Dawson!) as I haven’t spoken to the Doctor yet, and will probably wait until I am at LRI on Friday.
On the work front, I will be working “in store” for the foreseeable future whilst I wait for DVLA to extract their collective digit from their rearmost orifice and issue me with my new licence!
As always, stay safe, take care, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
Oh the games we play with our offspring, however old they might be @Jimbo165
Please do let us know how your appointment goes on Friday with each and every one of your symptoms.
Hoping you do not have to wait too long for the DVLA.
Yes, stay safe, take care, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Hi @Erica, well the “parental pressure” wasn’t really needed as 3 oiut of 4 have already signed up this evening and the 4th is waiting to see what her “significant other” is up to that weekend. Hopefully not much as it is Mothering Sunday the day after the walk!
I have gone completely wild, not to say reckless, and put my name down for the 5km walk!
TTFN
Jimbo165
Hi @Jimbo165 - so glad to hear that your headaches are a little better - the fact that you’ve suffered so long with awful headaches and now they’re alleviating a little has got to be good? And although frustrating with your low energy levels it sounds like you can take it easy for a while whilst they sort out your licence. You may realise by now that I’m a cup half full sort of person
That’s great that you’re going to do the walk- have you signed up and got a just giving page sorted? I’ve been blown away by people’s generosity, amazing to be able to raise money for blood cancer.
Look after yourself
Gillyj
Good evening @Gillyj, and everyone else, from a very wet and windy Hinckley, and thank you for your kind words. Yes, it is a bonus that the headaches have eased off a little, but it would be nice if they finally and fully cleared off!
Sadly work have got me currently working on the shop floor, and doing manual labour at that, and working with some of the younger people at work is always interesting. I have managed to raise the average age of the team considerably as I am older than the two lads combined! But I have aged cunning on my side. Having said that I am absolutely shattered this evening!
Yes, I have got a Just Giving page, as have my “team mates” a/k/a my daughters. I just need one of the more “tech savvy” ones to link the separate accounts to make things easier.
As always, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourself and keep smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
Good afternoon @Gillyj, dear @Erica and everyone else, I hope you are all okay. Just an update following this morning’s visit to LRI. For the first time in a very long time, my liver function is within the normal range for an adult male (like wot I is!) so I am quite chuffed about that piece of news. However, and it wouldn’t be a Jimbo165 post without an “however”, my platelet count has gone up again, despite the increase in the Hydroxycarbamide two appointments ago. To try to combat this rise the number of capsules will be going up by 1 for a total of 9 per week. It will be interesting to see how this change will affect my (already atrocious!) fatigue levels.
On other news, my HGV licence went “live” online on Tuesday so I was back where I belong, in my truck, on Wednesday, and the licence itself has arrived in today’s post.
The sad news today is that my 97 year old aunt passed away this morning, peacefully after a brief and sudden deterioration in her health. She would have been 98 in early March.
As always, stay safe, take care, and be kind to yourselves.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
Good afternoon @Jimbo165 - good to hear your updates . Good and bad eh- liver headaches tiredness 
platelets HGV licence
So sorry to hear about your aunt although she was a great age and good it was brief and peaceful. Sad though .
I am sitting down having my rest, “escape to the country” today! Feeling quite tired today, probably did too much this morning.
Let’s hope the extra tablet doesn’t affect you too much 
Enjoy the driving
Gillyj
Hello @Jimbo165
Glad your liver results have much improved, sad to read about your aunt. Up down up down but good to know there are ups in there!
We’ve never ‘met’ online but I’ve read many of your posts. I just wanted to say a big thankyou for your continued optimism and sharing of your journey. It has helped me so very much. I had my first hospital appointment re a recent Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) diagnosis yesterday and beforehand sat in the car with my partner talking about other people who had ‘been there, done that, bought the t shirt’. Your stories have helped me face all this, and I am someone who has previously been off running at the prospect of a single blood test. I did say ‘… people like Jimbo online, they go through it, but they get through it…’ sort of thing… and then realised that of course, you will never know that someone was taking your name in vain (very kindly) in a car park in sunny Yorkshire yesterday!
Thankyou for being there, even for us ‘strangers’. Glad to hear you are back truckin’ 
xx
Good evening @Gillyj and greetings to @Leigh65, thank you both for your kind words. I was able to visit my aunt on the Saturday before Christmas, up in not quite so sunny Yorkshire, Huddersfield to be precise, where we had a good long natter with some reminiscing about times gone by. She was the last link to my parents generation on my Dad’s side (if that makes sense!) so I had done my “duty” in keeping in close contact with her over the last goodness knows how many years. My own P’s passed 3 &1/2 years ago (M) and 32 years ago (D). It is the one certainty that we all share, even if the time is not known, but I guess that most or all of us on this site probably think of it more than most. My, that was another deep and meaningful post from me.
@Leigh65, you are more than welcome to take my name in vain, as long as you remind those you are talking to that “he’s not the bloke off of the telly!”, although I did met him one time.
You are correct though, in that we do get through what life, in the form of our various blood cancers, sling at us, (and without our consent too!) because we adapt and overcome and keep going.
You are part of this “family” now and we are here to offer help, advice and, in my case, an irreverent and comical look at what has befallen us.
As always, take care, stay safe, keep on smiling and be kind to yourselves.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
Hi @Jimbo165 and all,thanks so much for the update.
I send you my condolences and I remember you going to see your aunt before Christmas. Yes, the end of a generation and someone who knew that generation.
So a Curates egg post again from you again.
However I am so pleased you are back on the road again where you are happier and belong.
You always say be kind to yourself well that really applies to you at this time and we are here for you
Good evening @Erica, and everyone else, I hope you are as well as can be and have been able to avoid getting too cold today: definitely feels like winter is not letting its grip ease off just yet.
Well I finally succumbed today and contacted my CNS at LRI (I feel all doctor-like with these acronyms!) today after the effects of my side effects seemed to be getting worse. To cut a long story short I am to continue with the Hydroxycarbamide for the next three days, then pause for a complete week, before resuming at a smaller dose of one per day, Monday to Friday only, with the weekends free of the capsules. Then I will be back at LRI in mid-March, with the option, as always, to contact the CNS if there is no improvement or things worsen.
The biggest issue with today was feeling like a fraud for contacting the hospital, or that I would be wasting their time and, yes I know, that is a really daft way for me to feel, and I am ready to receive my “telling off’s” from you all now!
As always, stay safe, take care, be kind to yourselves, and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
Hi @Jimbo165 no telling off from me, you are perfectly entitled to your feelings, I know mine are often certainly not logical !!!
I am so, so glad that you contacted your CNS and you have been given an adjusted treatment regime.
I also got rather cold and wet today.
Please do keep us posted and keep warm, dry and as always smiling.
Good morning dear @Erica, and thank you for your kind words and also for not telling me off. I have to say that I have been on the receiving end of several “telling offs” over the weekend from 75% of my daughters, mostly for not having told them how rough I had been feeling during the week. I really don’t like to trouble them when they all live such busy lives and, I suspect, that I am not alone on this forum in feeling that way.
Still, it is all part of life’s rich tapestry I guess, and it is a Dad’s role to occasionally annoy his daughters! 
Take care, stay safe, keep smiling and be kind to yourself.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
Hi @Jimbo165 - I think you sound like you did a very sensible thing in contacting your CNS and discussing how you’re feeling- it also sounds like they’ve come up with a good plan going forwards so it has the desired effect.
I’m sure we all on this forum keep things from our nearest and dearest, especially our children, so you’re not alone there!
Stay strong and keep us updated on how you get on on the new regime
Take care
Gillyj
Good evening @Gillyj, and everyone else, I hope you are keeping well. Shush!! Don’t you go around telling people that I’ve done something sensible, I’d never be allowed to live it down!! Besides, no one who knows me would believe you either!
It does seem slightly ironic but I actually feel quite well at the moment, at least by my usual standards (admittedly a very low bar!), but I guess that is down to the fact that I’m not taking any of my blood cancer medication at the moment. However, I am quite sure that certain other, and unhelpful, activities will be continuing unopposed with my bone marrow and blood, and none of it to my benefit.
At least the telling offs by my offspring have ceased now, for now, until the next time!
As always, take care, stay safe, keep smiling and be kind to yourself.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165