Forgive me Kili-Blog for I have sinned, it has been 9 weeks since my last post, and updates are well overdue.

In our last episode, our daring hero was undergoing physio therapy as treatment for a persistent injury manifesting as moderate to uncomfortable pain, numbness and pins and needles in the left arm and shoulder.

And in an even earlier chapter we saw our protagonist connected to a pulmonary function measuring device, expelling as much air as he possibly could, to ensure he would be signed-off as Kili-fit by his respiratory consultant.

But what we have not delivered, dear reader, is resolutions, and cliff hangers deserve to be resolved, this is not Season 5 of Lost, so please accept my apologies.

So, in the matter of the earlier thread, I had really started to sweat the pulmonary function test results – It wasn’t so much the results themselves, although inevitably any medical testing is accompanied by a certain degree of anxiety. The real issue was one of timings and getting an appointment due to the waiting list. I had chased the department for the results in early December, where I learnt that a previous appointment had actually been cancelled, and I was now waiting ‘to be rearranged’ from the ‘long list’. Calling again in January, I was told that my next opportunity to have an appointment was likely to be February…The issue there being that we are due to fly out on Feb 5^th…  So this news really did notch up the score on the anxiety-o-meter.

However, the deus ex machina in this episode came in the form of Sally, the angelic secretary, who couldn’t promise anything but offered to leave the test results on the consultant’s desk with a note mentioning the timescales. 2 days later a letter arrived at my home, confirming breathing sacks with normal capacity and gas transference – which is a fantastically tremendous result.

The work with the physio however, proved to deliver less miraculous results, so we agreed to try some acupuncture.

Which did provide some short term relief, but I seemed to take another big step back around Christmas time – I can’t put my finger on what had happened or why, but the recovery trajectory certainly took a few steps backwards.

This little image I randomly encountered on social media at the time, gave me a little bit of perspective.

So, as desperation started to take hold I also consulted a sports physician, where I underwent an ultra sound, and after confirming there was no significant damage we tried a steroid injection into the shoulder. Taking the total number of needles over the Christmas and new year period well into double figures by the time I had completed the acupuncture, the steroids, the Rabies, Hepatitis, Yellow fever, and Typhoid jabs (only 2 more left to go).

Christmas itself was great from a kit preparation point of view (if bad from a waistline point of view) Santa and his elves helping me out with a badass sleeping bag, mitts, thermals, water/pee bottles and mosquito repellent.

So with 19 days to go, still on the to-do list are; fix the shoulder, get a visa, get final bits of kit, raise another £800 in sponsorship, check whether The Bribes re-union is a goer, release a fund raising charity single, and do some light exercise (not having done anything since the end of October).

There’s a lot still rolling around in my head, and if you’re wondering whether it’s all a bit daunting… Yes, yes it is.