The visit was once again fairly routine. It was good to see that the bloods had risen again to nearly the point they were just before the hiccough back at the beginning of April. As I was nearly at the 100 day mark, the doctor advised me that the visits can now be reduced to once a fortnight. That's pretty good as it has started to feel like a fag driving to hospital all the time for the weekly visits.

At the consultation the questions were based around what I can and can't start thinking about doing at this stage. For example I wanted to know if it would be alright for the body to play squash, or have our favourite Chinese takeaway. As I was hoping to have a very slow game of squash tonight I wanted to know that I wasn't pushing myself too hard at this point. As it turned out it wasn't a case of not having the strength to play, it was the total lack of endurance that got me. After thinking about it for a bit I could understand why I felt like I'd just pushed a car 10 miles after only ten minutes of some very light squash. My body hasn't really had any physical demands on it for nearly four months. Also with the haemoglobin level about 50% lower than it used to be there is also less oxygen in the system so the heart is given a huge demand to pump enough oxygen around the body, more so than usual to overcompensate for the lack of oxygen. This is really down to a matter of time. With more games to start pushing myself a little and a gradual increase in the haemoglobin levels things will improve.

It just felt great to leave the house for a change and do something 'normal'. It felt just as good as the game itself, although I felt quite shattered later on. I'll just have to wait until the next game to see if I can last out a bit longer. This could take a long time..