This is a short post just to reassure you all that I am still here, still well and still fighting. I apologise for the silence since my last post over a month ago. I have been working hard to capitalise on a number of opportunities that had unexpectedly come my way, and I had been hoping to bring you completely up to date with great news of opportunities successfully seized. Sadly, I am having to be extremely patient as I have not yet managed to secure anything concrete, but neither have I been idle.
You will remember that I required emergency root canal surgery after a jaw snapping episode during a neurological seizure snapped my jaw shut so hard that it killed a tooth requiring emergency root canal surgery. Well it transpired in January that I actually snapped the tooth in half which led to an eventual tooth extraction. The good news is that the extraction cured my neuralgia.
I have also been working hard on my balanced daily lifestyle to try to prevent my brain tumour from ever coming back as is predicted by my treatment team. All the while I am thoroughly enjoying encouraging three courageous others, themselves locked in battle with cancer, to fight back using my balanced daily lifestyle, or at the very least their own versions of it, to reinforce the treatment that they are being given. I pray every day for their salvation and give thanks for the purpose that the privilege of walking the path alongside them gives me.
I have managed to climb a mountain with a friend Ewan, and share numerous decaf almond milk mochas with friends who have been coming to provide moral support and encouragement as well as just see for themselves how I am.
My wonderful mother-in-law sent Allie and I tickets to be entertained by the wonderful cast of the brilliant play ‘Art’ in the King’s Theatre Edinburgh. She is determined to teach me all that she can to assist me on my road towards trying to become an actor.
I continue to work hard on the courses delivered by the Acting Out Drama School in Edinburgh and the Royal Conservatoire Glasgow three times a week, while torturing Allie’s ears while I try to learn how to play and sing Moondance by Van Morrison on the keyboard at home. It was once her favourite song, but I rather feel I might have ruined it for her now. I still have an awfully long way to go!
I have very nearly managed to learn to juggle and sense that it might not be too far away now but have to learn quickly before Allie tires of the constant thud on the floor of dropped juggling balls.
Allie is in her final few months of wading through treacle on her PhD which is behind her original work schedule because of the time lost to caring for me during my Neurological Dysfunctional seizures, while also supporting and assisting me during my multitude of medical appointments. So I am doing all that I can to buy her back some time. Although I am not so sure how successful I am being. I do all the food shopping now on my bike with the help of panniers and a rucksack and thoroughly enjoy the exercise but struggle to write accurate shopping lists, so Allie has to do that for me or at the very least check and edit what I have attempted to write. We have recently turned to producing another check list to assist me in the process that has proved to be successful in assisting me in the production of a coherent shopping list. I have to admit that although the food I cook is delicious and nutritionally balanced thanks to the brilliant recipes that I follow slavishly from cookbooks, I do make one hell of a mess in the process. But I also iron and clean the floors and do all that I can to help when I can. Allie insists that I tell you how grateful she is for all my help!
So I am still fighting and in so doing my numbers are stacking up so I give you the challenge in numbers since the start of the challenge on 20th August 2015
Years spent Beating the Beast: 3.58
Months spent Beating the Beast: 41
Weeks spent Beating the Beast: 164
Days of challenge activity completed: 820
Total Miles Cycled: 2,993.78. Both the cycled and walked distances are close to the equivalent distance of Edinburgh to Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania in the Sahara.
Total Miles Walked: 2,758.4
Total Miles Run: 674.4 The equivalent of Edinburgh to Berlin in Germany.
Total Miles Paddled: 17 The equivalent of Edinburgh to Dunfermline.
Total Distance Cycled, Skied, Run and Rowed in the gym: 335.35 miles which has taken me all the way down to London in England.
Total Distance Swum: 6.37 kilometres at 3.88 miles still bobbing around in the outskirts of Edinburgh!
Total Miles covered under own steam: 6,789.81 The equivalent of Edinburgh to La Paz the capital city of Bolivia in central South America
Total Height Gained under own steam: 346,623.019 feet. At over 65 miles and climbing I am now reaching the outer edge of the Mesosphere of Earth’s Atmosphere.
Total Golf Balls Played: 2,254
Total Holes Played: 171
Mountains Climbed: 9
Hills Climbed: 46
Days of Voluntary Activity: 27
Monologues learned and performed: 3
Songs and Piano Accompaniments learned and performed: 0
Weight Training Sessions: 26
Weight shifted: 6kgs lifted over 13,146 metres, at 8.16 miles, the equivalent of pulling a 6kg weight from Edinburgh to Easthouses Midlothian.
or 82,320kgs, 82.32 tonnes moved over a metre, the equivalent of pulling 6500 stacked Gold Bars over a metre.
Aerobic Circuit Sessions: 45
Pull Ups: 744
Press Ups: 6.092
Sit Ups: 13,118
People Met and Hands Shaken: 858
Pots of tea shared: 63
Pills popped: 3,601 thankfully now rising only very slowly because I no longer need drugs to manage my epilepsy or the symptoms of my Neurological Dysfunction, just an Aspirin a day to help thin the blood to the brain to help manage my SMART Syndrome.
Total Almonds Eaten at approx. 8g a day: 6.56kgs
Total Apples Eaten: 820
Total Bananas Eaten: 820
Total Blueberries and Raspberries Eaten at 80g a day: 65.6kgs
Total Brazil Nuts Eaten at approx. 13g a day: 10.6kgs
Total Bread Pumpkin and Sunflower seeded (preferably wholemeal) Eaten at approx. 2.5 slices a
day and with approx. 18 slices in each loaf: 113.88 loaves.
Total Butter Eaten at approx.. 20g a day: 16.4kgs
Total Carrots Eaten at 100g a day: 82kgs
Total Dark Chocolate 85% Eaten at approx. 14g a day: 11.48kgs
Total Eggs Eaten: 820 (68.3 dozen)
Total Flaxseed Eaten at approx. 37g a day: 30.34kgs
Total Green Tea Consumed at 3 cups (237ml each) a day: 583.02 litres
Total Mango and Passion Fruit Smoothie consumption at approx. 150 ml a day: 123.0 litres
Total Milk consumption at approx. 330ml a day: 270.6 litres
Total Oat based muesli and Granola Eaten at 110g a day: 90.2kgs
Total Oily Fish Portions: 164
Total Oranges Eaten: 820
Total Pumpkin Seeds Eaten at approx 9g a day: 7.38kgs
Total Raisin and dried Cranberry Mix Eaten at approx. 15g a day: 12.3kgs
Total Red Grapes Eaten at 60g a day: 49.2kgs
Total Red Meat portions: 164
Total Spinach, Rocket and Watercress Salad at approx. 26g a day: 21.32kgs
Total Sunflower Seeds Eaten at approx. 8g a day: 6.56kgs
Total Tenderstem Broccoli Eaten at 50g a day: 41.0kgs
Total Tomatoes Eaten at 60g a day: 49.2kgs
Total Vegetable portions of any type additional to those specified as part of my balanced daily lifestyle taken alongside tea meal (at 2 additional portions a day) with an additional portion a week as a completely vegetarian tea meals: 1,804 portions
Total Walnuts Eaten at approx. 4g a day: 3.28kgs
Total White Fish Portions: 328
Total White Meat portions: 328
Total Yoghurts Eaten: 820
My balanced daily lifestyle has helped me to reinforce my most excellent medical treatment to beat my brain tumour that was supposed to be terminal and has so far staved off all the possible side effects from such a robust treatment regimen as that I had to endure including 12 monthly cycles, an entire year of Chemotherapy. None of my vital organs have been adversely affected by the treatment and I have so far managed to stave off the threat of diabetes and brittle bone disease and other nasty diseases that can be associated with such a robust regimen of medical treatment. True I am fighting Neurological Dysfunction caused by the damage to the brain done by a combination of the tumour, the treatment and each and every epileptic seizure. But I am using my balanced daily lifestyle to fuel myself like a formula 1 racing car, and exercise my body and brain, in order to strengthen it, protect it from disease, and provide the best possible nutritional support to aide my efforts to retrain and strengthen the brain while attempting to head off any decline towards Dementia or Parkinson’s or any other form of neurological disease.
For a healthier and much happier life I implore you all to seize responsibility for your own health, follow my balanced daily lifestyle and in so doing greatly increase your chance of preventing disease from ever happening in the first place. I so very much wish that I had developed my balanced daily lifestyle 20 years ago. It really isn’t that difficult once you get into the swing of it. Neither is it expensive, in fact I have found it cheaper because I am wasting so little food now. Neither am I trying to sell you anything. You really can have a much much healthier and happier life with just the fruits, vegetables, protein and calcium sources available from your local shops with the requirement to supplement only, with a little turmeric and a tiny amount of Vitamin D. No extra lotions, potions, diplodotions or specialist equipment needed.
Yours aye
Archie
Deo Juvante
I will Beat the Beast
Keep eating the Tenderstem!