Just another cancer tale? One close to SPACE...and personal! http://www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Mutch-Bill-Mutch

http://www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Mutch-Bill-Mutch

My dad's got terminal cancer.
"It doesn't look like cancer Mr Mutch" he heard in hospital. 

City of Edinburgh from the Pentland Hills

What appeared initially to be a few days in hospital for 'Observations' turned into over three weeks in a variety of wards under different Consultants. This ultimately resulted in keyhole lung surgery ultimately becoming an open incision of several inches' length.

It was then that the severity of the situation became apparent as his body recovered from the insult of surgery, and the deliberate irritations to the lining in order to generate a good outcome from what has now been diagnosed as Pleural Mesothelioma. You can read more about this here Mesothelioma: what is it?.


Despite a complete absence of working in an asbestos-laden environment or smoking history at any time in his life, he appears to have been unfortunate to have had some form of exposure which has resulted in this rare and aggressive cancer.

On learning that this situation had also affected the ability of the kidneys to function and the protein leaks that had been as a resultant, it became apparent that no medic was prepared to consider a timeframe in the prognosis. Having initially intimated days, they have hopefully extended this as dad distances himself from the surgery to the lung.

But the cancer is aggressive and spreading evidently, and the family is coming to terms with all that entails, including the hospital visits, tests and consultancies with doctors of various organs and body systems.

This has appeared to be a sudden decline, as my dad was dancing at the Scots' Country Dancing at the end of April, and continuing with his regular exercise at Dalmahoy in May.

At an early stage, fundraising of some description seemed appropriate when there is so little positivity in an improvement in the situation and an absence of available treatment. Of course many families have been through this and worse in multi-organ failure and cancers, but you have to play the cards dealt. It therefore seems a sensible option to try something associated with health, fitness and the city of Edinburgh in a bid for fundraising, even if dad may never become a patient of our chosen charity, St Columba's Hospice.

So I, Stephen Mutch, Physiotherapist and son, am attempting to run or row a minimum of 5 kilometres every day for 50 consecutive days. This has been a successful fundraising method for Comic Relief, and presents quite the logistical challenge: not least starting it up in South Africa when the joys of (outdoor) Urban Running can be tricky, hence the (indoor) rowing. Urban Running is now an attractive and inexpensive form of exercise, and hopefully this may also inspire some folks to try it, much as we have suggested SPACE Blog The Joys of Urban Running.

So if you fancy donating, or even sponsoring (at ten pence a kilometre that still draws in an attractive £25 for the 250 kms to be completed minimum!) then please try using the links attached, or check out the page and donate there. Most days I anticipate the runs to last between 6-10km.

St Columba's Hospice, Edinburgh

SPACE is seeking to establish links with St Columba's Hospice as a local Edinburgh based charity that has physiotherapy as an option for both Day Hospital and Palliative Care patients, and therefore is a natural fit for us. It needs to raise £3million each year to allow them to continue providing care for people with advanced illnesses and support for their families. http://www.stcolumbashospice.org.uk/

In the meantime we proceed with a positive mental attitude, and take each day as it comes.

Visitors are most welcome, but be warned my mum is running a spreadsheet detailing visiting times for morning coffee, lunchtime sandwiches, afternoon tea and the coveted dinner bed & breakfast options!

Click here to Sponsor Me NOW!

SPACE Physio helps Scottish Sport II - Mens' Volleyball (and social media helped too-here's how!)

Another competition another trophy for @SpaceClinics from Edinburgh! As described earlier in our blog Scotland benefits from SPACE there was a key contribution made from our physio, 'King' Kenny Watt. Here in his own words, he describes the experience of assisting these terrific part time athletes prosper in European competition.

In Sight-The Championships!!!

Proof he was in Cyprus!

"Being a small nation in the world of volleyball, qualification for any European or World championships is achieved through a two stage process starting with eight teams in two groups of four (with our group meeting  last June in Luxembourg) competing for the first two places in each group then the top four meeting a year later. 

This final qualification group was played out in Limassol, Cyprus at the beginning of June with the prospect of a first place finish providing qualification to the World Championships and second place qualification to the next round of the European Championships.  We entered the competition having spent the previous few months training almost every weekend so motivation was high as were expectations. 

The medical management of the squad in the build-up to this competition had been adapted and changed to allow for improved dissemination of information through the use of social media. A private Facebook group and YouTube channel were set up to allow the players access to videos of specific rehab exercise, travel health information, links to pertinent scientific papers and to give the players the chance to report any changes to on-going issues or new problems. 

Healthcare like so many other professions is now making more use of social media to raise their profiles but its use a “treatment tool” as such is just in its infancy. One of the first pieces of information placed on the Facebook group was new a review paper looking at the effect of travel on performance that had been published online by the British Journal of Sports Medicine in November 2012. The players were provided with the paper and then given the opportunity to discuss any information they didn’t understand or were given advice on how to implement the papers recommendations.  Some of the recommendations we implemented as a squad were:

-shifting the body clock to the new time zone through means of gradual, 1hr shifts in sleep   scheduling

-exposure to natural light, where possible, was preferred to artificial light

-Caffeine was avoided during travel, as a stimulant it can interfere with appropriately timed restorative sleep and alter ability to effectively adapt to a new time zone

-short (20-30min) naps were recommended in recovering from sleep deprivation and to help with restoring a normal state of arousal

-extra fluids were taken on during the flight to prevent dehydration

-players were instructed to avoid any non-bottled water, and where possible to avoid raw or minimally cooked foods and wash and peel any fruit.

On a performance front the first game against Luxembourg was to be one of our most important. We have struggled over the previous few meetings to get over the winning line pushing them to 4 or 5 sets each time but always narrowly losing out. 

Pool Session post victory

If we had any hope of qualifying we would have to win and sure enough we did, 3-0, with one of the best team performances I have ever seen us give. This was celebrated with a trip to the hotel pool to run through our post-game cool down and stretching. This active recovery was all important with three training sessions and three games in three days and was carried out after every game. 

Our next opponents Cyprus have consistently won the Small Nations competition and our record head to head is heavily in their favour, as such, we went into the game more hopeful than expectant. While we pushed them incredibly close in each set, once again we came up short and lost 3-0. 

This meant that a win against San Marino, and anything but a Luxembourg win against Cyprus would give us second place. The first two sets went to plan with comfortable wins but in the third set we

found ourselves 8 points down and only through a fantastic run of serves from GB Olympian Mark McGivern did we claw our way back in to win, confirming our place in the next round of the European Championships, one of the greatest achievements for Scottish Volleyball in the last 10 years. 

The trip was once again rounded off with a great personal achievement when I was presented with the trophy in recognition of my work and we can now look forward to SPACE being represented at one of the highest levels of international volleyball. "

SPACE Physio helps Scottish Sport I - Wheelchair Rugby League

Recently @Spaceclinics physio Ross Mayberry travelled into new territory, working with the Wheelchair Rugby League Scotland team on their bid for World Cup success!

Here are some of his thoughts on operating in a new sporting environment: as  always, physios are encouraged by SPACE to work in areas that can be outwith their comfort zones, and comlement their current range of skills!

"After arriving and familiarizing myself with the squad and staff, Scotland faced the defeated finalists from the last World Cup, Australia, in their opening group match at the Medway Centre in Chatham, Kent. I have to say the staff and volunteers here were excellent and were doing their best to address all the teams issues, and requirements.

I have to say it’s been a steep learning curve for me, getting to know the characters in the squad, their personalities, disabilities and injuries, but a mutual love for 1980’s classic movie “Big Trouble in Little China”, and the fortunes of the British & Irish Lions, seemed to be a point of common ground, and may have helped with team bonding. Apart from getting to know the the team I have also been learning about Wheelchair Rugby League (different from the more well known “Murderball”).

The sport was invented by a French Rugby League player in 2004, and more resembles the Rugby as we know, than “Murderball”. The key differences between the sports being Murderball allows forward passing and uses a round ball, where Rugby League involves lateral/back passes only, using a size 4 Rugby ball, though you are allowed a forward “kick”. There are 5 players on the pitch for each team and as with regular rugby league you have 5 tackles to try and score a try. A tackle is made by tearing a bit of cloth off your opponents arm, or by physically bringing them to a stand-still. The sport is surprisingly dynamic and fast moving, with collision inevitable. 

This link demonstrates these attributes in a recent 'friendly' between France and Australia.

Anybody interested in following how the tournament progressed can find all the information they need on this link http://www.rlfowc2013.com/article/9603/wheelchair-world-cup-draw-and and all the information they need about the Scottish team on Scottish Rugby League website http://scotlandrl.com/ or follow them on facebook https://www.facebook.com/scotlandrl"

Ross hopes that this recent experience with the wheelchair game might lead to further opportunities of working with the squad, and he enjoyed even participating in training! With SPACE at Dalry being wheelchair accessible, we look forward to seeing just how well the boinding went when we welcome some of the players to Inner SPACE in order for Ross to continue his excellent recent work!