2014...back in action!

It's been over 4 years since I have entered another post here at the old blog. I kind of jumped ship and had my own blog thing going but got tired of fighting all of the Wordpress stuff, php updates, so the other day I found the link back here and thought what the hell!

4 year is a long time and things have certainly changed some. My wife and I are "empty nesters", we moved out from my dads place last Fall. My Dad is doing OK, well actually he is back in a rehab hospital, about where he was when I last posted here. He fell on the ice last week and busted his knee cap. He is doing much better now, with his mobility and should be released to go home in a day or two. He still doesn't take his medicines like he should, eats whatever the hell he wants, but hey, whatever makes a guy happy.

I gave up on trying to convince him to eat healthier a couple years back now. All of the stress of worrying about help started diminishing my health. I had a stint in the hospital where my blood pressure was like 240/120, which cost me 3 days, but I got that under control, sorta and have moved on.

As far as biking goes, I bought a road bike and two summers ago rode a lot of miles. I found several group rides for different charities and did those. My longest trip was a 48 mile jaunt that I pulled of, even to my own surprise, nearly 50 miles wasn't as bad as I thought. I got on the mountain bike a lot that summer too and found a lot of good riding at Harmonie State Park, Scales Lake and a few other places. I did two races that summer with no luck what so ever. I crashed my brains out at French Lick, and tried again at Ben Hawes, but blew a tire out about a mile into that one. They were both fun, and I have big plans of doing more racing this Spring & Summer.

What else? Two, make that three wonderful grandkids! My daughter gave us Landon and he is 2 years old. My son and his fiance had a little boy, Ryder who will be a year old this week. His fiance also has a 8 yr old daughter who is sweet as she can be. Good times with all these little ones. Becoming a parent is great feeling, but being grand parents is just as sweet.

Me? I'm still fat as ever and have again tried loosing weight. Really been trying to watch what I eat and as soon as the weather gets a little better, I'm hitting the bikes again. I have lost almost 20 pounds this time around, although I have been sick for a few weeks with a stupid cough and lost 10 lbs. in a week just from hacking all the time.

Bittersweet day...

I took off on the 29'er with the new rubber and man did it make a difference. I hadn't rode in almost two weeks, but rode the farthest yet last night. 9.1 miles in 0:50:28

Now it's my turn!

Up until Britt's wedding I was riding at least a couple of time a week. With the wedding, it just got hard to find time to ride, and afterwords it got so, damn hot it made it even harder to ride. I di mange a ride here and there and did get over twelve miles one time, but things have suddenly changed.

I have been having leg numbness since about February and have seen Dr. Whitacre for pain injections every since. These usually last about 3 months and then I schedule another shot from there. My last episode had to be the worst. I got to where it was hard to walk at time, especially on concrete and not just at Walmart, as my lovely wife suggested!

I was starting to have doubts about the Moab bike trip and was fearing surgery. My last appointment I scheduled a visit to Dr. Whitacre who suggested an MRI to just get a better look at my lower back. If you've never had an MRI, you're a lucky SOB! I hated it, all 4 of them!

Yeah, I ended up having 4 MRI's. The first one went, well, not real good but I managed to stay in for about 30 minutes. I got claustrophobic really quick, when my big ol' wide shoulder were rubbing the side of the tube. The tech had me raise my arms back over my head, which allowed me to enter the tube, but still it was a struggle to get through it.

The doctors found that I had an "bulging" disk, right above my surgery from 1986, but also found a spot higher up my spine they called a "mass". Now a mass to me means cancer, no if, and or buts about it. Dr. Whitacre assured me it was most likely nothing, but dammit, I have a mass in my back.

I was scheduled another trip into the the tunnel of hell, but this time I had a plan...Xanax! Yeah, I have a prescrition for it, so I popped a couple before going and had no problems! Problem was, they needed more veiws up my spine for sopme reason, which I'll elaborate on here in a second.

Back for round 3, and I did not bring the Xanax, which was a huge mistake! They were doing a cervical scan which requires a apparatus that fits very snug around your chest and up under your chin, kind of like the "halo" things you see on people with neck injuries. This was a little creepy in itself, but being jammed back into the tube, with this thing, just didn't work. Panic button, nurse, are you okay, NO, get me out, now. Round 4 now scheduled in an open MRI.

Open MRI was OK, still a little freaky, but I made it, now to Dr. Whitacre to see if I'm dieing!

Well, I'm not dieing, but I do have a tumor in my back, an ependymoma is what it's called. This particular tumor is slow growing and usually doesn't cause much trouble, as Dr. Whitacre advised, "if you have to have a tumor, this is the one you want, and most importantly you have it "where" you want it". He had conferred with a neurosurgeon and both agreed at this time, we should just keep an eye on him. The picture shows an MRI with an ependymoma (not my actual image), but pretty close!

The good news, besides I don't have cancer, I guess, is I do have a herniated disc, causing me problems! He prescribed more pills, Neurontin (Gabapentin), to be exact, and I of course started taking to much yesterday and got all loopy. He told me to take one a day for three days then, two a day for three days then 3 a day. I jumped straight into the three a day routine and was all screwed up. Pays to listen to the doctors!

Hoping the new dope takes effect soon and dulls the pain more. I guess as long as I can manage the pain, the surgery will have to wait, but I'm not sure on the bicycle thing, although the other day I received a new saddle and rode for about 2 miles with zero pain! So we'll see how that goes.