not so fast there, cowboy!

Well, we finally followed up with the surgeon today. She is pleased with his progress and says that these things tend to go better for athletes. She also indicated that she cycles some. Then, we talked about his injury and surgery.

She said it was a "very serious" injury and that his bone was basically shattered in a "high energy" impact. There was apparently traction and a whole box full of hardware needed to get the thing back to some semblance of normal. She is also not sure this will be the end of surgeries, but she is hopeful.

I asked if his x-ray was good in two weeks and if he cleared the blood clot check today if he could think about riding the trainer in the garage. She said "absolutely not!". I guess that was a definitive answer. She basically said not to count on anything for the first 8 weeks. She is going to monitor him every couple weeks until then and then see how things progress. I'm sure that's not what the Boy wanted to hear. In the meantime, he will enjoy his "exercise" on crutches and moving the ankle and leg around as much as possible.

Looks like our vacation this year will likely not feature mountain bikes in Argentina and will more likely feature tropical drinks and a beach - not that there's anything wrong with that!

cookie monsters and Rick's massive quads

Well, one of Rick's dreams has finally come true. He now has massive quads - well at least one massive quad. I bet he is in the 60cm club. Now, nevermind that this measurement comes in large part due to swelling and that it has the definition of a tree trunk....it is quite impressive.

Our new hobby is eating the two dozen cookies that were sent to us by some of our cycling buddies (you know who you are). I'm sure our quads will become even more massive in the near future, due to our new hobby. Thank you for the super-food!

We're getting along OK. Rick is getting more mobile each day. As soon as he gets a little more comfortable, generally, I think he'll be itching to get on the wind trainer. We'll see what the surgeon says next week.

Home so soon?

Wow, at 10:30 this morning, I was busily trying to cram in some work on a big presentation I have to give on Thursday. The phone rang, and it was Rick saying he was going to be discharged. I said I'd plan to be there around noon. Then, at 11, he called back to say they wanted me to come get him. Well, we got him in the car (no small feat) and into the house (another not-small feat). I fed him some lunch and got him all doped up for the afternoon. He's been sawing logs for the last hour or so. I took the opportunity to get some shopping done. Phew!

So, no shower for 3 more days. No driving for 3 weeks and no "work" for 6 weeks. I'm pretty sure he'll be working from home this week. But, he can take his time. They can wait until he's ready.

I'm glad he's home. I missed him the last couple nights. It's going to be a busy time!

Today's Update

This morning, they had Rick up bright and early with the physical and occupational therapists. He spent about 2 minutes on the walker and asked to be "upgraded" to crutches. He then did the full length of the hall and back and showed them he could get up and down from the toilet and in and out of bed. The therapists were giddy at his ability to get around. We're hoping he can come home tomorrow or Sunday and then we'll get a little routine established here. He was also taken off IV meds and fluids and oxygen late this morning, which is another good sign of his improvement.

Thanks again for all your emails, voice mails, visits, posts and offers of help. We so appreciate our community of friends and family!

Quickie updates on Rick

Hi all.

I just came home for a brief moment from le hospital. Rick had a crash at the track last night, as some of you may have heard. By about 12:30 am he was cleared of all head/neck/spine trauma. Good news. Bad news is a femur fracture, just below the thingy magigs that hold the hip into the socket. He had surgery starting about 12:00 pm today and emerged by 2:30. He's had a couple brief conversations, which I'm sure he won't remember. Keep sending good thoughts and prayers for speedy and incident-free recovery.

Thank you Michael for your kind words, Sabine for taking care of our stuff, Linda and Erika for brining our car to the hospital and Ali and Lorri for checking in and helping with communication stuff. Thanks to everyone else who's asked how he's doing. And, most of all, thanks to my mom and dad for coming up on short notice to lend a hand!

More later.

Sarah

A huge pain in the butt (literally)

So, I've got this new injury/problem related to cycling, and it is a huge bummer. Ever since Kern when I ride my racing bike, I end up with pain around my coccyx (aka tailbone). Sometimes it is a mildly irritating pain that is gone the next day. Sometimes it lasts several days. When I ride my other bikes it is OK. And, it kind of depends on the length and muscular intensity of the ride.

I broke my tailbone when I was in junior high, and it feels about the same. Kind of creates an aching sensation in the back of my throat like whacking a "funny bone".

Yesterday, I incurred the worst episode of this problem so far. We did a 3 hour ride with some short climbs - keeping it aerobic (meaning I was mashing at times). I felt pretty uncomfortable on the bike the entire ride. Couldn't seem to get comfortable with seat, hands, feet or shoulders. When we got home I could tell it was not good. But, I spent a goodly amount of time stretching and relaxing and took some NSAIDs with dinner. Then, we slathered it up with some icy hot (being careful not to color outside the lines with that!) and headed to bed.

I was feeling pretty good during the night. No lingering pain and was able to find a good position. Then, about 3:00 am, I did some sort of a strange movement and ended up causing a stinger in the nerves around the tailbone. I have not felt pain that intense in a long time. I contorted myself and hobbled to the kitchen to find the ice, but unfortunately woke up the Rickster, too. Sigh. The icing helped a little and I was eventually able to get back to sleep around 4:30. Ugh!

Now I need to figure out what is causing the problem and eliminate it (hopefully not cycling generally). But, I did a loop of the Pescadero course on my other bike on Saturday (equally mashy on the hill climbs), and felt great afterward. So, it's clearly related to my racing bike somehow.

Anyone else have this problem while cycling? Any suggestions?

So, so far behind, but I now have upgrade points*!

*OK, so upgrade points were mostly obtained due to some attrition in last Friday's track ominum when some of the ladies preferred beer drinking to racing another Chariot race.

Apologies to all for the lack of posting. I've had some unexpected circumstances arise in my non-cycling life that have led to many hours of focus away from blogging and cycling. More on that later!

Anyway, the Velo Girls were sponsoring the track races on Friday, so I had to race, right? This was my first night of 'real' racing. We did 30 lap points, 2 x chariots, 2 x Keirin (or is it Kierin - Michiko is going to kill me) and were supposed to do a miss-n-out. But, all the ladies were pretty spent after 5 races and opted out of the 6th. I pretty much stunk in the points. Hey, there is some pretty rigorous competition out there! But, fortunately, the ominum was comprised only of the chariots and K...n races. I got 5th or 6th in the first K. Then, I got 4th (I think) in both the chariots. I've never been held before and was super-slow off the line, so not too bad considering. I was next-to-last in the last K. I know the chariots are pretty basic races, but they are all sorts of fun! I was like a kid in a candy store after those with a big-'ol grin on my face! But, I ended up 3rd place overall. Wooo hoooooo!

Then, I raced again on Saturday morning and got totally spanked. I'll try to add some pics soon.

Later y'all!