bye bye bikesplosion

The bicycle era is officially over for me. At least for now. Fate aka the universe, has decided that's not the path for me. My knee may be permanently disabled, and I've come to terms with that. Who knows, maybe someday it will get better. But either way, I'm going to make the most of this life that I've been blessed with. I'm not going to throw in the towel like my father did. So on yo bigger and better things.

I still love bicycles, and everything they represent. And I'll still be able to do very short trips. But it's probably never going to be as big a part of my life as it has been, and that's fine.

I've really gotten into motorcycles over the last year. While they may not provide the same benefits in terms of environmental friendliness and fitness, they sure are a hell of a lot of fun. And hey, mine still gets a hell of a lot better gas mileage than most cars out there. I'm chronicling my motorcycle adventures on another blog http://castorandbollocks.blogspot.com/. I'll keep everything else here.

NO MORE GRAVEYARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been working the graveyard shift for the last month and a half. The schedule was forced on me by my soon to be former employer i.e. the job from hell. This was not only the worst schedule I've ever had, but hands down the most unprofessional, aggravating, disorganized, pointless and generally screwed up in almost every conceivable way job I have EVER had.

The good news is that in 5 days... IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!

It's time to start rebuilding my life into some semblance of normality and happiness.

Road To Recovery: Mile 12

The foot / ankle pain has been a real, well...pain. It's been getting a little better lately. My physical therapist had a few approaches including ultra-sound and very painful massage treatments. The best suggestion he had so far has surprisingly been Epsom salts! I kind of scoffed at it when he mentioned it, but soaking my foot in hot water with a couple of cups of Epsom salts has actually reduced my overall pain. The foot still isn't 100%, but it does seem to be improving somewhat at least. I visited my friend / chiropractor Tarek and he gave me a couple of good stretches / exercises to try, as well as an acupuncture treatment with some electro stimulation mixed in.

I'm definitely limping less, which is my current goal. If everything continues to improve, I think I can actually start to move to my next, and most important goal of all. GETTING BACK ON MY BIKE!!!!!!!

Road To Recovery: Mile 10

I started physical therapy about a week ago with Dr. Aman Abye. His office is in the Miracle Mile area, which is extremely convenient. He was already familiar with the Microfracture procedure, and seems to know his stuff in general. I was able to get a referal through the ever-useful PAA message board. So here's' where I'm at as of now...

The crutches are history. The cane is being used sparingly. My leg is feeling stronger and the knee is feeling, dare I say, great right about now. Naturally, my ever aging, traitor of a body had to throw something else into the mix! My ankle / foot having been hurting pretty bad for the past couple of weeks as I transition to walking again. Dr. Abye and I seem to think it's due to lack of use while I was on the crutches, combined with some unconscious compensation I was doing once I began ditching them altogether. I've been icing / elevating the ankle and taking some ibuprofen once again. It seems a little better, but is still pretty troubling. Hopefully it will improve soon, so I can focus on my knee and not have to worry about other body parts starting a rebellion.

My next goal: LOSING THE GIMPY LIMP!!!

Once Again, It's Time For The "Cane"

I'm having a flashback to October of 2005. I was in the middle of Cork, Ireland, desperately looking for a cane. It was a couple of days after the Dublin Marathon and plantar fascitis in my right foot was the pain du jour. It had started acting up as soon as arrived in town, about a day before the race. The arch and heel started feeling a bit painful when I put weight on them, and I was concerned. But I was damned if I was going to back down after I had raised $2500, trained for 6 months and flew halfway across the world to do this.

I had also just come out of the most heart-wrenching, maddening, life changing and generally fucked up relationships of my life, and guess who my roommate was going to be for the first few nights? The ex-girlfriend in question! It was yet another example of an extremely damaging and mistake laden period in my life that I still have oh...let's say just a wee bit of bitterness about. But I digress...

So basically just I sucked it up and ran anyway. After mile 2, I knew that this was really going to suck. The pain continued with every stabbing footstep, and increased exponentially with every mile. I had decided to take ibuprofen during the run to help with the pain. I'm not sure that it helped any, although it's possible that it's the reason I finished at all. Of course, it it's also a terrible idea to take anything that thins blood and masks pain before a 26.2 mile run / walk, but what can I say, we all make stupid decisions, right? Right.

Yes, I finished, and yes I was in excruciating pain during and after the race. It did feel great to finish after all that hard work and emotional strife. And I had another week in Ireland, free to roam the countryside with only my ex-girlfriend and my horribly painful foot to slow me down. Great!

After renting a car and driving down to Cork, my first order of business was to purchase a cane to make my hobbling somewhat less...hobbly? It was already getting a little late and I didn't much feel like sightseeing, despite the fact that virtually all of Ireland is amazingly beautiful, and looks remarkably similar to all the postcards. There was still plenty more countryside to see, and unfortunately, probably mainly due to my emotional and physical state, I was thinking Cork kind of blew. I limped around the city for about an hour, trying to find what I thought would be a relatively common item. I asked several of the normally helpful Irish people where I might procure such an item, only to be confronted with a mixture of blank stares and misdirection. It was cold, wet and damp out. I was hurtin.' I needed to get a cane, get to bed, and then get the fuck out of Cork and away from my damn ex as soon as possible. Finally I made my way to the local chemist (pharmacy) and finally someone said, "oh, you mean...a walking stick?"

YES!! YES, A WALKING STICK!!! THAT'S WHAT I NEED!!!!!!

So lesson learned, in Ireland they don't call them canes. They are walking sticks, or they are Shillelaghs. And to me it was my ticket to more mobility so I could get where I needed to go. Out of CORK!! The next day I hopped on a bus for Galway and had one of the best weeks of my life "a rovin' a rovin' a rovin' I'll go" across the Irish countryside. One highlight was hobbling atop the Cliffs of Moher. Hands down the most beautiful piece of earth I've set my eyes on so far. And I wouldn't have been able to do it without my new walking stick.

So now, as I attempt to ditch these damned crutches, but still need some more mobility, I'm dusting off my old friend and calling on him once again. I just hope it's the last time I'll need him for a very long time.

Road To Recovery: Mile 6

I went to see Dr. Mandelbaum for my 6 week post-op checkup yesterday. He seems to think everything is coming along fine. I still have some swelling, but he said that it looked normal. The big news is that he officially gave me the OK to ditch the crutches!! That would be bigger news if I could actually do without them right now. Unfortunately, my right leg is so atrophied that walking without assistance is a joke. I am trying to start using only one crutch though, and although it's difficult, I can pull it off for short distances. The best part of this is that I can actually pick something up and carry it from one place to another!!! WOW!! It's the simple things in life, really.

It's time to start official physical therapy now as well, so I'm trying to set up some appointments now. One thing that I'm hoping will go away is a weird combination of pain and numbness in my right foot. I'm hoping that it's just the result of it not bearing weight for 6 weeks. In the meantime, it sucks!!!

Something Bike Related For a Change

OK, enough knee updates. When (if) I get back on the bike someday, I found a couple of cool emergency flat fixes I could use on one of my favorite sites, Lifehacker. The two that it mentions are using a sunglasses cord and a stuffing a bunch of leaves in your tire! It sound like these might a actually work in a pinch. Crazy!