August update

Ok, here goes:


The Bridge Marathon

I did it!

I was really stoked with my time, 4:26!

It was hard work, especially the last 8 km or so where my legs seized up and didn't want to work, so I ended up in a walk-one-lamppost-run-two pattern. But I've received over $700 in sponsorship which is awesome, and it is all going to a great cause.

Unlike the Taupo cycle challenge, this is something that I might consider doing again one day.


Nepal trip

We have had a few major setbacks. You will remember that the original plan was to go to Nepal and visit some of the work GFA is doing there, and go trekking. Then after the earthquake GFA Nepal wrote to say they could no longer host us, so the we were given the option of visiting GFA work in India, which we accepted. A couple of days before the marathon we received an email saying that GFA could not host us in either country due to increased persecution.

That left us with two options: go anyway, postpone by a year (and hope that the situation with GFA would change), or cancel the entire thing. We weighed up the pros and cons of each and have decided to go ahead this year, and contact some other Christian mission organisations in Nepal regarding volunteering with them. There were several reasons; the main ones being (a) there is no certainty that GFA can host us next year anyway, (b) the trek prices have already been increased by $400 each, so we don't want to risk it being even more expensive next year, (c) thanks to training for the marathon, we are probably at our peak physical fitness, (d) we were really, really looking forward to the trip, and (e) sorting out the insurance looked like being a major headache. We also figured that helping another mission organisation will still give us an idea of the kind of work GFA does over there.

I have just paid the balance for the trek tonight. We are looking into other missions in Nepal. So watch this space :)

These are the kinds of vistas we are looking forward to: (click to see full picture)

Other trips

Melbourne last week was rather brutal - I was pretty exhausted from the marathon and could hardly walk for 2-3 days afterwards (thankfully, after 5 days was pretty much back to normal). Combine that with a severe case of sleep deprivation due to having to attend the first experiment for 24 hours and it's not a pretty picture. The second and third were not so bad - the second was simpler and the third had 5 people involved, so I was able to get a few hours' sleep during the night. I think the beamline scientist thought he was doing me a favour by scheduling three experiments back to back... I'm not sure it really worked. Or maybe I'm just getting old and need more time to recover!

I fly to the US on Sunday for a week at Berkeley (preparation and running of 48 hrs of experiments there). I'll also be giving a seminar at Stanford.

I haven't started thinking about the Europe trip yet!

Then Nepal, see above.

Finally, we received notification last week that we have been scheduled for more beamtime in Melbourne in early December. It's the week after the user meeting, so I'll just stay for the weekend. I'm hoping to have a summer student this year and to take them along - inspire the next generation and all that (with my ulterior motive being getting them to do a lot of monkey work that I don't want to do, analysing data)...

July update

Sorry, again, for not keeping up with the updates, especially about the surgery. Things have been mending, slowly. I am now able to eat pretty much the same things as before the surgery and have a bit more mobility. The joint is still a bit stiff but definitely feels better than it was. I saw the specialist again yesterday for a 3 month post-surgery follow-up appointment. Next appointment is in 6 months' time, i.e. early January 2016. He is happy with the progress.

Other things in progress have been my travel plans for the latter half of this year. I haven't had any trips since the synchrotron trip in April, which is rather unusual but has been very helpful in terms of allowing me to get into a routine for training to run a marathon. It's the same one that Raewyn and I have walked the last three years, in Brisbane, raising money for Gospel for Asia's 'Bridge of Hope' programme. At the start of the year I wasn't too sure if I was going to be able to do it, and now, 4 weeks out, I'm still not sure but have so far managed to keep up with my training plan pretty well. There have been a series of various aches and pains - knee, mostly - but I found an encouraging article that reassured me this was fairly normal. I just have to be careful not to overdo it. So far I have built up to a 28 km run; next weekend I will aim to run 32 km as the longest training run I will do, then taper off ready for the big day. If you'd like to make a pledge to sponsor me in this - maybe a certain amount per km - please let me know!

So the marathon is the first trip coming up; from Brisbane I go to Melbourne for three back-to-back synchrotron experiments. Then I come home for a week, and head to Berkeley (California) for more experiments. After that, I'm home for a week and then head to Europe for two conferences (in Madrid and Berlin) and to visit colleagues in London.

After the Europe trip I am home for two weeks before embarking on what is likely to be the trip of a lifetime. Last year, Raewyn and I raised $8000 between us for the Bridge of Hope marathon walk, and have been given the opportunity to visit a Bridge of Hope centre and other Gospel for Asia projects. Initially this was to be in Nepal, so we looked into options for doing a trek in the Himalayas while we were there. In between signing up for a trek and booking our flights, and finalising our travel insurance, the big earthquake in Nepal hit. So that put our plans in limbo. We have just had word from the trekking company a couple of weeks ago that they have had people on the ground checking all the trails, and all their treks in the next season will be going ahead. However, we've also heard from GFA that the Nepal ministry can't host us, so we have accepted their offer to be hosted in India instead. The entire trip will be just under 4 weeks. Unfortunately we will miss out on our church retreat this year, but our schedules are quite limited. We have to try and go for some weekend tramps in the snow over winter to prepare for the conditions in Nepal - I'm not sure when we're going to fit that in, but will be praying for fine weather.

That's probably enough for now. I really need to update this more often!

Week 4

The changes since the end of the first week have been a lot less pronounced. The painkiller prescription ended after two weeks, as did my mandatory time off. I was back at work full time this week, and although the first two days were really tough in terms of not being able to think or concentrate very much, it improved a lot by the end of the week.

Just as well because I go to Melbourne next week for 4 days of synchrotron experiments.

Here is my scar, healing nicely:

That side of my face close to my ear is still numb, but I'm getting used to it. The specialist said it could take a few months to regain feeling. I go back to see him on 5 May, so will update the situation then.

Day 7-8

One week on and the swelling is getting noticeably less, although there is still some there. The side of my head just above the ear feels quite tender, like it is bruised.

The steri-strips came off today so I can show you the actual stitch for the first time. However I can't quite figure out where it actually goes. Maybe it will become clear when the specialist takes it out on Tuesday.

Last Tuesday I think it was (day 5) I attempted to go for a walk. I made it to the end of the block and had to turn around and come back. A total distance of maybe 1 km at the most. That was really demoralising - thinking how impossible it was to contemplate running or biking at present. Today (day 8) I managed to get around the block, which would normally take around 20 minutes. I did it in 26 so not too bad. I don't know why walking around outside is so tiring - possibly because of the jarring and having to concentrate on every step.

Raewyn has gone up to the Hawkes Bay to visit her parents for Easter. A couple of weeks ago she asked if I wanted to go, but I declined because I didn't know how I'd be feeling. I'm glad I did - I would have struggled with 4 hours each way in a car, and then be pretty much housebound while I was there. At the moment it's best to be at home, or at least no more than a short drive away.

Day 4

Here are some pics, first from day 2 (48 hrs post-surgery):

I didn't scare too many people at church yesterday (day 3). Until they asked, 'Did they go in through your ear?' and I said 'Yes'...

Day 4. The side of my face is (not surprisingly) swollen, including my ear, which is sticking out a bit more than usual. My face is still pretty numb from the cheekbone right up into my hairline. The specialist said this could take several weeks or months to regain feeling.

Front view, day 4.

Day 1

So the surgery went well. It turned out that the disc was still attached and was still intact, but had popped out of place - all consistent with how I injured my jaw, I guess. So now it is back where it should be. I am a bit confused as to what was actually done, as the original paperwork said 'TMJ arthrotomy' (i.e. open surgery on the joint) but my discharge paperwork says 'TMJ arthroscopy' (i.e. keyhole surgery). Anyway that might become clearer once the steristrips come off and I can see the incision.

But back to the beginning. I had to be at the hospital by 7 am, where they showed me to my room and I got changed and all the paperwork checked. The specialist came by to tell me one last time what he'd be doing, then it was the anaesthetist's turn. The anaesthetic kicked in really quickly; so much so that I could barely answer the questions as we went through to theatre. Waking up was strange - it was like I woke up twice: once from a pretty vivid dream, then through another stage of blurry thought to realise where I was. It was quite different to the last general anaesthetic I had, where I felt like a zombie for several hours.

Not too long after waking up, I was back in my room and kind of dozed on and off for a while. I felt a bit sick, probably because I was quite hot (they'd covered me with a blanket and I had to wear compression stockings the whole time). Mum and Dad came by to see me as I was having lunch: Soup and jelly and icecream - not all together. I had to stay overnight. Dinner was scrambled egg. I managed to listen to most of the cricket on the radio (second World Cup semifinal between Australia and India). I even managed to get some sleep during the night!

Around lunch time, 5 hours post op

Breakfast the next morning (today) was scrambled egg, porridge and yoghurt. The specialist came by to see me, take the bandages off, and tell me what to expect i.e. more bruising and swelling to come and then eventually subside. I have a follow-up appointment on 7 April, when he'll take the stitches out, so about 10 days from now.

In the meantime, it's a concoction of painkillers, soup, jelly, ice cream, mashed veges, scrambled eggs and so forth. The pain isn't too bad right now. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me.

Bandages off, 24 hrs post op

Breakfast

36 hrs post op

36 hrs post op

'Twas the night before surgery

I haven't felt too bad this past week, until driving home from work tonight, having tidied my office and set up an email autoreply to inform people I wouldn't be checking my email for the next 10 days or so. Then the butterflies hit - millions of them, big fat heavy ones, all flapping their wings in my stomach at once.

I managed to stomach dinner - my last solid food for a while.

My bag is mostly packed for tomorrow. I was going to try to get the Sunday school lesson for this week planned tonight, but it's pretty difficult to concentrate. At some point soon I'm going to have to go to bed and try and get some sleep.

I don't understand why I'm so nervous about this. In my head, I know that in the long run it's the best thing. I know that the short term won't be particularly fun, but it is only temporary. I think it's mainly fear of the unknown - will I wake up with the disc back in place, or without it?

I have to be at the hospital by 7 a.m. tomorrow. So my next posting will be sometime after the surgery.

One week to go

One week to go until what, you might ask. I apologise as it's entirely my fault, for not updating this blog.

You might remember how I crashed off my mountain bike while on holiday last April. Then I went to see a specialist when I got back home and was told that I had actually broken my jaw. The last thing I wrote about this was in December, where I said I was going back to see the specialist in early January.

Well, the specialist referred me for an MRI scan, which thanks to having a certain friend I was able to have done the next day. The scan apparently showed that the disc on the right hand side is out of position.
This cartoon shows kind of what is going on:

So my options are basically the following:
1. Leave it how it is (i.e. some discomfort, restricted opening)
2. Surgery to try and fix it.

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, I've decided to go ahead with the surgery, which is scheduled for next Thursday, 26 March. It will be nearly a year since the bike crash.

The surgery (as written on my admission form) is a TMJ arthrotomy. That is, open surgery on the temporomandibular joint. From the MRI it's not clear if the disc is still intact; if it is, the aim is that he will put it back in place and anchor it to the condyle (knobby bit of the jaw bone). If it's not, the disc will be removed. That's one aspect that I'm a bit nervous about, although according to the specialist the only thing I'll notice is that my jaw movement might be a bit noisier. Since I've always had a clicky jaw, that prospect doesn't bother me too much. What is playing on my mind is the unknowns surrounding the recovery. It's not uncommon to have facial numbness or paralysis for a few months after this kind of surgery, not to mention swelling and pain for a number of weeks. That number could be anywhere between 3 and 8, so we'll have to see how things go as to whether I can play in our first badminton rep tie on 18 April.

Here are some pictures (if you can make sense of them):

Left TMJ, closed (left) and open (right). This side is 'normal'. The condyle is the grey comma shaped blob in the centre, while the disc is the darker grey line above it.

Right TMJ, closed (left) and open (right). This is the side I am having problems with. Spot the difference with the left hand side, above, especially regarding the position of the disc.

I had to get a new passport recently, which entailed taking photos of myself. I got a bit of a fright looking through them. I'm used to seeing myself in the mirror (left), so I got used to seeing my jaw sloping from left to right (as you look at the picture). Of course, the normal image (right) is how everyone else sees me, and most people struggle to see that my jaw is not even. (It's more obvious if I lift my chin). I figured putting the two images side by side would show the level of wonkiness.


I'll try and keep this updated as things progress. In the meantime I would appreciate your prayers that everything goes well and the recovery is quick!

Heaphy

What’s this? Three ‘Great Walks’ in a little over a month? Yes, although this one was kind of an afterthought. On our South Island trip last year, Raewyn and I had to forego an intriguing activity on our journey from Westport to Franz Josef, namely knifemaking at Barrytown. It was an all-day activity, but we weren’t able to fit it in at the time. We decided that ‘when’ we did the Heaphy track, we’d take an extra day and do the knifemaking – not knowing it would be this soon. After Milford and Kepler over the summer, we thought that would be enough. But I was going to a conference in Nelson, so we figured since one of us was half-way there (and I could take my car easily enough), Raewyn could fly to Nelson and we could go from there. The rest, as they say, is history…


Day 1
Drive Nelson – Brown’s hut road end, walk to Perry Saddle hut (16.8 km, 1246 m elevation gain, 5 hrs)

We used Derry Kingston’s car relocation service (Heaphy Track Help) and would highly recommend him! The Heaphy Track is one of the most remote tracks I’ve done. Milford is remote, but the bus/boat boat/bus connections are well set-up. Kepler is right on the back doorstep of Te Anau township. Tongariro has a shuttle service and finishes at Whakapapa village. Routeburn has good shuttle connections from Queenstown to Glenorchy, then from the Divide to Te Anau and onward from there. Even the Southern Crossing, getting to Otaki Forks is only 4-5 km of gravel road. The Aorere end of the Heaphy track is 59 km from Takaka, of which 12 km is gravel. From Kohaihai, you have 4 km of gravel, then 11 km of tar seal to Karamea, and 95 km from there to Westport. But in a way, it’s the remoteness that is one of the most appealing things about these places.

The Heaphy track is the longest land-based Great Walk, at 78 km. Despite the length, the gradients encountered on the main track are not at all difficult. It follows an old bridle trail from Tasman Bay to the Tasman Sea. The scenery is different every day – from the beech forest of the Aorere valley to the tussocklands of Gouland Downs, then descending to the Heaphy valley with nikau palm forest before following along the coast.

Unfortunately Raewyn wasn’t feeling well for most of the time, although she perked up on the last day. But I’m really proud of her for pushing through and not giving up.

A steady climb from the Aorere valley to Perry Saddle.

The track follows an old bridle trail through native beech forest.

From Perry Saddle I climbed to the top of Mt Perry (extra 3.4 km, 435 m elevation gain, 1 hr 23). This view is looking back down the Aorere valley (towards Golden Bay).

Summit of Mount Perry, looking south towards the Tasman Mountains


Day 2
Perry Saddle Hut – James Mackay Hut (23.6 km, 753 m elevation gain, 6 hrs 18)

All smiles as we left Perry Saddle Hut

A short distance from the hut we found a sizeable snail shell and were on the lookout for live snails for the rest of the day

Looking across the Gouland Downs. Bad weather coming.

Walking across the Gouland Downs, just before raincoats were required

Raewyn crossing a wire bridge

Red tussock on Gouland Downs, just after Saxon Hut


Day 3
James Mackay hut – Heaphy Hut (19.3 km, 496 m elevation gain, 5 hrs 33)

View of the Heaphy River mouth from James Mackay hut. It’s always nice to see where you’ll be going!

It might not be as big as the shell we found, but we finally saw a live carnivorous land snail.

The track passes through mossy banks...

... and over coal seams

From James Mackay hut, the track slowly drops down to the Heaphy River

On the banks of the Heaphy River

Our first taste of nikau palm forest

Being surrounded by enormous rata and nikau palms makes you feel like you’re in Jurassic Park

Thankfully we didn’t see any velociraptors

View from Heaphy hut, at the river mouth


Day 4
Heaphy hut – Kohaihai road end (16.3 km, 200 m elevation gain, 4 hrs)

Coastal section of the Heaphy track

This bridge felt like the gateway to Jurassic Park

Dense nikau palm forest all the way down to the beach

View from the lookout at Kohaihai bluff all the way back to the Heaphy River mouth

On the drive down to Westport, we took a side trip to visit the Oparara Arch. It was impressive, but if you want to visit, be warned – it’s 15 km of gravel road, which took us about 45 mins each way. Oh and you’ll be sharing said road with tourists, who usually don’t know how to drive, especially on gravel.

Moria Gate arch, Oparara Basin


Day 5
Knifemaking at Barrytown

Ever wanted to make your own knife, from scratch – steel, brass, glue and native timber? It’s not as hard as it sounds...

First you heat the steel and beat it into submission to shape and harden the blade

Then polish off the carbide surface

Drill holes and fix the brass bolster

Cut the handle pieces

Rough shaping of the handle

Having a break to take ponies for their daily walk

A 6-manpower swing...

... can make for a pretty big launch...

... as I shall now demonstrate!

After lunch we do our final shaping of the blades...

... and polish, polish, polish

... polish...

... polish...

All done! Any guesses which one is Raewyn’s and which is mine?