Plink...

was the sound it made as it landed in the metal tea strainer I have been peeing through for a week.

I'm awarding myself 4mm and I don't know if the jagged bit came out first or the rounded end but the final leg of the journey was pain free and now I feel much better. I just need to get over the lingering lung infection and I'll be right as rain.

No I can look forward to Friday afternoon Crossfit and a weekend of sailing, playing and cooking.

It's out!!

Very happy to say goodbye to this (it's the kidney stone!)

Regatta!

I've just entered the regatta to be held by the Danish Royal Yacht Club in Rungsted on the 7th and 8th June. Having not sailed for a couple of weeks I will really need to get some time on the water this coming weekend and also get the boat packed up ready for the short trip through Copenhagen.

The club house looks pretty fancy - I suspect that membership is a little more expensive and exclusive than my club...

There is a risk that this cough and kidney stone will continue to hold me back and the pain is quite exquisite if I let the pain killers run their course but in general I am doing fine and just waiting to drop the thing in the pan! It is incredible how good these pain killer are and impressive that I am still able to function more or less as normal whilst on them. I just hope that there isn't side effect waiting for me around the corner.

Where did it come from?

Someone asked if I know why I have a kidney stone. I don't know, but I have a theory.

Since I had my herniated disc, I have had periods with a lot of cramps in my leg. I have now resigned myself to this to a large extent and I think that it is a result of the nerves having been trapped by the disc bulge. The problem seems to be slowly going away and the cramps are a lot less frequent since I am not really cycling any more.

However, at some point I was not consuming any dairy in my diet and was having a lot of cramps. I experimented with taking a calcium supplement often a couple in the middle of the night when I was awake with cramp. It didn't help so I stopped, but not before I had an initial blood in urine experience last autumn which first alerted me the kidney stone problem.

Now I have done some more reading on the subject, it seems that there is a correlation between calcium supplementation and kidney stones. I hope very much that this is what caused the problem because it is then within my powers to get rid of it. I already drink quite a lot of water and the rate of recurrence of kidney stones is rather high unless there is a specific cause that I can eliminate.

I've stopped the calcium supplements and I am not taking any vitamin D at the moment because I am able to get some sunshine now that it is summer. I may start it again next winter if necessary otherwise I don't plan on taking any vitamin supplements at all for the time being.

For the record, it hasn't come out yet.

kidney stone update

Unfortunately this is not mine - that is still inside me

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that I could have avoided some of Friday night's agony-fest with a more competent use of medication. The pain killers that the doctor prescribed for me is a Dicolon suppository (again - nice) and as it doesn't stop me driving or operating heavy machinery, I had assumed that it wasn't very powerful. I have subsequently found out that it is quite effective but only whilst it hasn't been flushed down the pan.

Around 02:00 on Saturday morning I took one of the opiate based tramadol tablets but I threw that up again fairly quickly so I don't think it had much time to work. Then I rolled around on the sofa for a couple more hours with trips to the loo every 10-15 minutes. I finally decided to try another of the Diclon "treatments" but failed to link the fact that the pain went away with the medication. It was late and I was a bit delirious at that point.

Saturday was OK, Sunday was a bit rough so I let MK take the kids fossil hunting without me (and in the rain) so that I could do some ironing and cook dinner on my own whilst feeling sorry for myself.

Sunday evening was a bit rough again, but after administering another diclon, I was able to sleep well and Monday is proving to be fairly OK. Nothing really hurts too much, but my hands are a bit shaky and I am having trouble concentrating on anything - I guess that is the fault of the drugs.

The blood tests last week showed no problems so now I just have to wait until I get an appointment from the hospital for another scan to see where the stone is and find out what is to be done with it. In the meantime, I am rather disappointed that I have not been able to manage to get to crossfit or out sailing. I am working on the premise that I will get over the kidney stone and chest infection more quickly with rest than risking swimming in cold water or doing max effort weight lifting.

Agony

That was the worst night I have had in a log time, maybe ever. Nine hours of pain fluctuating between really uncomfortable and so agonising that you throw up.

Fun

It finally eased at 04:30 and I fell asleep on the sofa for a few hours before DK woke us all up.

The good news is that it is currently not hurting so I am able to function, the bad news is that the stone it still in there somewhere. I hope that it has now reached my bladder but I really have no way of knowing where it is until it comes out and I catch it in the wee sieve!

Giving Blood

I have given blood a few times in the past and decided that I really ought to start doing it again. It generally gets you a free cup of tea and a biscuit if you like that sort of things and makes you feel like you're giving something back above the usual taxes.

I checked out the givblod.dk to see where and how I could sign up and then whilst checking the restrictions on who can donate I found this:

OBS: Har du været i Storbritannien samlet i 12 måneder eller mere i perioden 1980-1996, medfører det karantæne indtil videre på grund af en teoretisk mulighed for overførsel af kogalskab (variant af Creutzfeldt-Jacob sygdom). Storbritannien er her forstået som England, Wales, Skotland, Nordirland, Isle of Man, Kanaløerne, Gibraltar og Falklandsøerne.

A rough translation is that if you have been in the UK for a total of over 12 months between 1980 and 1996 you cannot give blood because of the risk of infection if mad cow disease.

I was absolutely amazed by that and now I feel like I am being discriminated against!

Spoke too soon

Now I am in agony again :-(

Wow

I have apparently passed a kidney stone this morning (from my kidney to my bowel) and OMFG it hurt a lot.
Worse than the disc prolapse.
I have been to the doctors and they could see that the scan I had last year had found the stone, but my assumption that they would call me if there was a problem was apparently an incorrect one. I understand that they are able to "zap" the stones with some electromagnetic pulses to break them up which could have avoided this mornings pain.

I don't really mind that, it has stopped hurting now so life may continue. I just hope that it's the end of it and that there aren't more to come.

Illness

DK was ill for most of last week with a cough and a fever. He had more or less recovered by the weekend in time to give it to the rest of us.

DK, MK and I joined the in-laws on a canoe trip to celebrate BHP's birthday on Saturday whilst J was at a birthday party. The sun shone and we had a idyllic jaunt along a local river for a champagne picnic before fighting back up stream to get the car and J.

We then headed out to the summer house for a couple of days of sea air. We were all pretty much under the weather without the usual energy to do much at all. We cooked a big meal and spent a lot of time watching the clouds go by.

Monday was a bank holiday so we managed another long sleep followed by a trip to "GoldFish" to local fish munger who seems to have finally crossed the line to thief. His fish-cakes are very good, but they are very expensive and this year appear to be about half the size that they were last summer. I think we'll try another place next time.

I'm at work today but feeling rather under the weather with the continued cough, cold, bad back and now a bit of a fever on top of it all so I may just have to take the day off tomorrow.

Vitamin D

Apparently over 40% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D

I guess that there is a good chance that the statistics for those of us who work with computers and spend most of our time indoors are likely to be similar. I have been taking a vitamin D supplement for a while and that seems to have helped somewhat with my general well-being. I have also read that the process of making vitamin D in your skin also triggers other processes that are linked to reducing cancer risk, improving testosterone levels and helping cope with stress.

I am making a concerted effort to get more sunlight exposure this summer so that I can improve my vitamin D levels and see if it effects how I feel. So far I have been wondering around the garden without a shirt on in the sunshine for half an hour in the evening or whilst mowing the lawn. If nothing else, I guess I'll get something of a tan.

New glasses

Dairy

The paleo way of eating should preclude dairy from your diet, I have some trouble with that being somewhat of a lover of all things dairy.

The general advice is that the higher the fat content the better so I am sticking to double cream, Greek yoghurt and cheeses. I try to limit all of them, but without too much success as I eat yoghurt most days and cheese at least a couple of times each week. The other aspect of dairy that is considered important is that the products should be:

1. Grass fed (for the health of the cows and the quality of the milk) 
2. Organic (reduced presence of antibiotics and hormones used to increase milk production)
3. Non homogenised (the fat particles in homogenised milk are so small that they can pass through the gut lining and are not digested correctly)
4. Full Fat (reduced fat dairy increases insulin response and therefore potential fat storage)
5. Fermented (the bacteria that cause the fermenting process should be good for gut health)
6. Raw (this is a tough one as it is tough to get hold of, but the pro-biotics in raw dairy should improve the balance of good bacteria in the gut)

I should try giving it up totally for a month and see how I feel and if there is any improvement in my itchy skin, allergies and or body fat which seems to be pretty stable these days but not quite as low as I want it to be.

Blueberry shoes

Never wanting to ass up an opportunity to acquire another type of footwear, I was delighted to find these Inov8 shoes on sale in this rather outrageous colour and a UK13.

Apparently there aren't too many people interested in purple trainers in that size so I got a flipping big discount as well. Most importantly they fit perfectly and work a treat.

Long weekend

Thursday was really good. There was some wind, but not too much most of the time and the sun shone for most of the day as I mentioned below. Other than emphasising how much I have to learn about racing a Finn, it was a pretty positive experience all round and it was a lovely surprise to meet the rest of the family on the slipway.

MK had to work on Friday whilst the kids and I had the day off. We made a new variety of gluten free pancakes for a late breakfast (with rice flour this time) and then walked to the station to take a couple of trains to Holbæk to meet MK and go to the theatre. It was a bit of a long way around to get there, but it meant that we only had one car to come home in and the kids like going on the train. We were seeing Rasmuss Klup på eventyr which was pretty good. DK was wide eyed with amazement throughout having only seen the characters in a cartoon before.

MK delivered the boys to her parents on Saturday for a trip to the summerhouse as we were going to a birthday party in the evening. I did a tough crossfit session (that I can still feel throughout my body today) and we had a short and fruitless shopping trip in the afternoon. The party was fun and we took advantage of Sunday morning at home alone to.... clean and tidy the house.

Grilled!

It was overcast when we left the harbour but 6 hours is a long time on the water without a hat or sunblock.

My first Finn regatta was as good as I could have hoped, we started an hour late because there was no wind early in the morning and then we waiting an hour on the water before there was enough constant wind for a race. I remember sailing with no wind at all in some lakes but that was a long time ago.

We race short 4 leg races, twice up wind and twice downwind and must have fit 6 or 8 races in the day. It took me a while to figure out that starting g procedure and get enough nerve to participate in the start line hustle and bustle but my starts got better as the day went on. Having said that, I was firmly at the back of the fleet. I achieved my goal of not being DFL (Dead Flat Last) in all of the races, I was even 3rd from last once! Which was a success in my books and I didn't end up swimming or make a total prat of myself.

Apparently the sail I am using is blown out and the fact the my mast is held together with gaffer tape hasn't gone unnoticed, but the main handicap must me the helmsman.

Lessons learned:
Wear sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses (or at least take them)
Take some food - I was pretty hungry by the time we got home at 18:00
I need to work on my nature break technique to avoid filling the bait with pee ( it looks like kneeling on the side is the accepted practice)
I need some sort of dry back to carry stuff out on the water

Now I'm looking forward to the next regatta and my fellow Finn sailors have started a campaign on my behalf with MK to get me a newer mast and sail.

Gone

I just sold my carbon race wheels that I had been so certain would make me into a racing cyclist. As I should have known (and did know in my heart), it's not the wheels that make the difference, it's the engine. If you don't train enough, you won't be fast enough.

I ran out of time and finally enthusiasm for training, it had become a chore and all of the evidence also seems to point to it not being a particularly healthy for of training either. Considering the amount of time and effort I put into training, I never really looked fit. Vanity I know, but it should be part of the motivation to train that it improves your physique, cycling didn't seem to give a good return on the time spent doing it.

So the result is that I'm not really a cyclist any more. I am trying to be a sailor and perhaps more importantly trying to train like a sailor. Apart from the inevitable consumption of G&T which I am still avoiding, that should involve general strength and conditioning so that there is some cardiovascular work and some strength training. That seems to be something akin to Crossfit and that is the direction that I have headed in.

Bodywork Ringsted opened in January as the first Crossfit type of gym in the area. MK tried it with one of her friends and has enjoyed going once a week and I have also been going a couple of times each week with J coming along more often than not.

It's a mix of bodyweight training (pull ups, push ups etc), running, skipping, box jumps and weight lifting with normal barbells and kettlebells.

I've enjoyed it a lot and took the plunge yesterday by paying for a years membership up front (saving quite a lot over the monthyl membership price). Now I need to carry on getting bigger stronger and fitter.

Camping

We have considered a camping holiday for some time, but shied away from it on the grounds of comfort, lack of equipment and destinations with dodgy weather.

This year we are taking the plunge and heading south with the tent in search of good weather and adventure (in that order)

We have booked a camp site in Chamonix for 2 weeks with the proviso that we can always head further south for better weather if necessary or we can just come home if it all goes wrong.

Temperature

Sunshine

Rainfall

The kids are looking forward to it with great excitement, us with a  little trepidation, but I am sure we'll have fun. In the meantime, we need to figure out what have and what we need to be able to surevive in the Haute Alpes in the summer and how much hiking we can get out of the kids.

Weekend Off

I am feeling significantly more human after a weekend off, some good sleep and general relaxation.

J and I went to crossfit on Saturday morning as usual although the kids class was cancelled but he played with another girl who was supposed to do the class and enjoyed himself none the less.

After lunch I bought a cheap trolley jack and used it to put the summer tyres on the new car, it should be even quieter on the motorway now and having splashed out on a full wash for both cars during the weekend, they are shiny and more importantly, hopefully free from salt for the summer.

I didn't manage to prepare anything for the regatta in Dragør yesterday which was OK. I needed a rest and didn't need the stress of preparing and transporting a boat and taking part in my first real competitive sailing race on top of the amount of work that I have been done in the last couple of weeks. I am sailing in a regatta at my club on Thursday so I don't have to wait long.

Sunday was yet another relaxed day. I spent a couple of hours in the morning ironing whilst watching Star Wars with J and then got the mower running and cut the grass in the afternoon before grilling some cheeseburgers (minus bread) on the barbecue for our first time in 2013.

Worn down and worn out

We are live with our big project and my responsibility to get the data moved from the old systems to the new and to move the users to the new system has run pretty smoothly.

It has been a very busy week and now I am ready for a relaxed weekend. I had been hoping to take part in a regatta on Sunday, but I don't have the energy to pack the boat up tomorrow and get it over to another sailing club so I will spend the weekend with family, take J to crossfit and get the lawnmower out for it's first run of 2013 if it is dry enough.

Amazingly, there was ice on the car this morning!

Other people's misfortune

The older you get, the more of life's highs and lows you get to experience, both your own and other peoples.

Sometimes you get to experience the elation or misery yourself and other times all you can do it stand by and watch others go through it either from close range or from afar.

Many people have watched MK and me accompany DK through his operations, trips to hospitals and generally being poked and prodded by many different specialists. But in the end, it is DK who has had to go through it all, we just watched and hoped it would all turn out well in the end.

There are always people we know; friends and loved ones going through something that you wouldn't wish on anyone. Whether it is babies with life long problems to come, relationships ending or simply bones being broken, all you can do is offer your help and then wait.

It's tough to watch, but nowhere near as tough as it is to be the one going through it.

New rugby kit

Just arrived in time for breakfast

May Challenge

I've been enjoying cross fit a lot and have just bought a new pair of trainer as the ones I have are from 2004 and pretty tired.

Yes, they really are purple and size 13!

I seem to be doing fairly well in most of the weight lifting and body weight exercises except for one - pull ups. Apparently it is supposed to be a combination of core (stomach and back) strength and upper body strength that one uses but I don't seem to be able to get the core part involved. I am then left with the challenge of lifting me entire body weight with my arms and that do doesn't work too well.

My May challenge is to get the pull ups sorted and then the project for the summer is to learn to do handstands and then handstand walking.

I hope it's true that it's never too old learn new things!