MEDICAL MIRACLE MAKES FOR MORE MILES

 

• Just met with the doc after 4 weeks of medical assessment and will be getting outpatient arthroscopic rotator cuff surgery in two weeks.  
• While climbing Yarnell grade five weeks ago the rear wheel slipped on a clump of hay (from hay wagon), rear wheel slipped and right pedal torque made bike go down (left side ... no derailleur damage, thank god).  Took impact on left shoulder.  Tore supraspinatus tendon (rotator cuff).  In past 4 weeks tendon has retracted 4 cm already.  
• Failure to get surgery will result in further retraction, development of arthritis and probable candidacy for reverse shoulder replacement.  
• Six months no outdoor cycling while tendon reattaches to shoulder joint (ball at top of humerus).  Critical rest and PT to get tendon firmly attached.
• Indoor training not a problem.  So ... no competition and awards this year.  Next year will be incredible!
• Very aggressive plans for indoor training.  
• Absolutely miraculous.  Two fake knees. And the miracle of surgery to get shoulder in top shape for crushing cycling competition in last half of my eighth decade.  
• We live in amazing times.  

Another Police Report of Dangerous Driver - April 16, 2021

Yavapai County Sheriff's Office:

Over the past month I and other cyclists have been `buzzed' and harassed by a driver on Kirkland Road (between Hillside and Kirkland - both directions).  I've ignored this at least a dozen times but the driver persists in this dangerous driving.  

I'm linking you to two YouTube videos (very short) of the event that occurred today.  

FROM THE REAR

FROM THE FRONT

Someday this fellow is going to miscalculate and kill someone.  Or there is going to be a sudden crosswind pushing the cyclist a few inches into the road surprising the driver and killing the cyclist.  

I and many others would appreciate even a telephone call to this fellow to let him know that he is being video'd and will be held accountable for dangerous harassment or worse.  

On the video (front view) I can barely make out the license plate to be: 

• Arizona passenger vehicle --------.  
• A green 4 door sedan.  
• Probably ten or more years old.  

Two fellows with `cowboy' hats were sitting in the front.  

I make a very deliberate effort to not hassle you with whining and complaining.  However, when this fellow repeats and repeats this dangerous driving it is only a matter of time before somebody on a bike gets hurt.

Thank you again.

Fake Knees, Fake Ears, Fake Teeth, Fake Eyes ... Providential

Really, this is getting to be both very, very strange and very, very funny. 

Mid-eighth decade.  And I continue to push hard in cycling.  Actually improving, in fact.

While climbing up Yarnell Grade, from Congress, Arizona, a few weeks ago I rolled over a clump of slippery hay that had fallen off a hay wagon.  As I put force to the pedal the rear tire slipped on the hay and I fell over (left side).  My first concern when something like that happens is the rear derailleur.  But since I fell on the left side ... no problem there.  

Remounting the bike (Bacchetta Pelso-Brevet) I noticed a sharp twinge in my left shoulder.  This wasn't a `new' thing.  Over the past several years I'd notice a little pain there at times, but it went away very quickly and didn't constitute an impediment.  But this time it persisted.  Now, two weeks and several nights of `iffy' sleep I know I'm on a familiar trajectory. 

A few months of cortisone shots to get me through the bicycling season and then in late November or December ... a `Fake Shoulder' surgery.  Some healing, therapy and ... back to normal. 

UPDATE: Xray and MRI show no bone damage or arthritis.  A small tear on rotator cuff.  No surgery.  Time, careful physical therapy and it should be fine.

Frankly, what we now consider `normal' is nothing less than miraculous.  

Fifty years ago my parents and others of their generation didn't have these miracles available.  My mother died of heart failure after years of painful arthritis and simple family vulnerability to blocked arteries.  I lived in an immigrant neighborhood where older Italian ladies would gather on their front stoops shelling lima beans ... while virtually blind with clouded over eyes - cataracts.  My grandfather just folded over one day at age 76 from blocked arteries.  Both my sisters would joke that when they had dental problems they'd just put their false teeth in a box and mail them off to the dentist to get fixed.  "WHAAAAAAT?!!!" was the common expression from folks in their middle age, suffering from hearing loss.  

Me?  Two total knee replacements.  Hearing aids.  Dental implants.  Cataract surgery.  Drugs to virtually eliminate a family history of blood pressure problems and atherosclerosis.  Resting heart rate in the 40's and perfect blood pressure.  

With a careful diet and exercise my only worry is that meteorite with my name on it.  

But I'm also aware of my good fortune.  Luck.  Accident of birth.  Elderly white guy in a developed nation (even with all the faults).