Tag Archives: Health

Triple Bypass Week, Tuesday – On the Way to Colorado, Drive Interrupted, a Newborn Niece and Arrival

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Due to health issues that I won’t go into in depth, we had to make many (many) stops on the way out. We hit every rest station, and then some. Our 9 hour drive turned into more like 11 or 12. We weren’t in a huge hurry, though, so it really wasn’t a big deal.

Finally arriving in Denver, we stopped at the Swedish Medical Center, where the GF’s newborn niece was… well… born. A week premature, and weighing in at almost 7 pounds, she’s very very tiny. She’s almost, but not quite, as long as my forearm. I didn’t hold her, but the GF did, nearly swooning in the process she was so taken by her.

While at the hospital, we decided to head off at the pass the health issues that were plaguing us on the drive out. That added about an hour to our hospital stay, and having driven for about 12 hours already, I was getting tired and even a little cranky. However, I’m not one to force my agenda on anyone, especially when there be health concerns on the table. In the end, the wait was worth it. Health concerns dealt with.

Leaving the hospital, we made our way into the mountains where our hosts, Diane and Julie live with their two sons, Andrew and Matthew, two dogs, RJ and Sadie, and three cats, Charlie, Sparks and Bogie. It was dark, and the road winds up the mountain, and my already overly tired mind had a hard time with it. I made a couple of wrong turns before we finally landed safe and sound in their driveway. They live in a beautiful log cabin at 8,400 feet on Bear Mountain, just up the hill from Evergreen, CO. With a gorgeous view of Denver in the distance and a wraparound porch, we were set for the week. My brother arrived earlier in the day and met our hosts for the first time. All socializing aside, his first order of business was to tackle the mountain they live on with his bike. He did so, and experienced first hand what altitude can do. He was fine through the ride, but when he was done, the light-headedness hit hard. Naturally, I was jealous that he was able to get out and ride, but I took some small comfort in his misery.

Potential New Commuter and a Bonk

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As I was leaving work yesterday, preparing to ride home, I encountered a coworker in the hallway. He asked me about my bike and riding to work. Standard stuff… “How far do you ride?” “How long does it take?” “How much did you spend?” etc. By the end of the conversation, he was psyched to ride to work himself! He’s only 4 miles and change away, so it was easy to convince him to bite the bullet. I assured him that bike transportation can be gotten for *much* cheaper than what I spent (and will continue to spend) on mine, and suggested (rather strongly) that he stay away from department store bikes, and spend a little more money at an LBS to get well fitted and a bike that won’t fall apart on him.

That makes two people who have expressed serious interest in biking to work. The other lives slightly closer than I do, and the majority of our route would overlap. That would be fantastic!

After that uplifting conversation, I went about my way. About halfway home, I got really hungry, and soon lost nearly all the power in my legs. I could go, but I just didn’t have any ooomph. I don’t think it was a full fledged bonk, but it sure didn’t feel great. I was hungry, tired, and even felt a little feverish by the time I got home. Clearly I didn’t have enough to eat yesterday before I left, though I’m sure I was well hydrated… two full water bottles throughout the day, and less coffee than usual. 9.41 miles and I nearly bonk. How pathetic is that?

There’s no fear of bonking today, as I drove in so as to not waste my legs before the (my first) time trial this evening. Given the storms in the area, however, it may be postponed yet again. If it’s not rescheduled, and it’s raining, I won’t be racing. It’s not worth it to me, having just spent all that money getting the bike ready for the TBP. I’m not risking those components now.

A Few Days Off

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My Big Ring streak continues, but this morning wasn’t a hammerfest, much less a slamhammerfest. See, at some point on Sunday, I developed quite the seemingly random, out of the blue infection on my right shin. At first I thought it was a spider bite. It swelled my shin to mammoth proportions and had the general look of a bite, plus the pain I would associate with same. For most of Sunday I was a slightly feverish and generally out of it. It was bad enough, in fact, to keep me up most of Sunday night and home yesterday. I did not sit completely idle, however, I took advantage of the freedom allowed by VPN, and hit the doc up for some meds between work related tasks. Since Saturday was spent helping the GF clean up her old apartment to expedite the retrieval of her security deposit, and Sunday was spent feeling generally lethargic, there was no riding for me this weekend. No riding this weekend translates to an easy pace into work this morning.

What I/we/she did accomplish, aside from finding health issues to deal with, was

  • give her old apartment a good thorough cleaning,
  • pack the remaining items and transport them to my overflowing garage and basement,
  • rearrange said garage and basement to make room for the GFs’ (much nicer) washer and dryer,
  • set up the Cat Genie in the basement bathroom,
  • install and enjoy Lazarus, a Dungeon Siege total mod,
  • gobs of loads of laundry, and
  • make it through seasons 1, 2 and part of season 3 of BtVS.

Sunday night and last night I really didn’t get that much sleep. This infection on/in my leg causes a fairly consistent and constant low level ache accented by moments of sharp pain. That makes for the tough time sleeping. I’m pretty sure today will *not* be a decaf day. Regardless, I’m back up in the 230′s for my mileage deficit, so tonight I pick things back up again with the long way home. Pain or no.

Blah. Blah blah blah blah. Blah.

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I’m sick. It hit Thursday night, and really kicked into gear Friday. Now it’s Sunday and there’s been no improvement whatsoever. I’ve not looked down the gullet, but I suspect I’ll see the same thing I saw the last time I had strep. It feels the same, with the only strange thing being I don’t think I’ve run a fever. The throat hurts, the ears feel full and dim, and the energy level is low.

That pretty much means that the lake is out this weekend. Blah.

I never did hear back about the job on Friday. I’m going to call on Monday, but I don’t have a great feeling about it.

He Who Stops Being Better, Stops Being Good

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I’m below 200lbs for the first time in 6 years. I noticed this a couple of weeks ago, after several people asked me if I was losing weight. It actually felt a lot better than I thought when I weighed myself and saw those numbers. I’m not fat, but I do have some extra weight where I don’t really need it. Thing is, when I noticed it, I hadn’t done anything as far as increasing my activity level. All I’d done is cut out Mountain Dew, and cut coffee back. Where before it was 4-6 cans a day, I went to zero, and where it was 3-4 cups a day, I went to 1, and plan to cut that down to zero as well. That was enough to get below 200lbs.

Now I’m notivated… Until I got my car 5-6 years ago I was pretty fit. I rode my bike everywhere, worked out several times a week, and felt pretty good. Now I’m… not so fit. I have, however, repaired the bike (the first ride, late at night, was very very cool!), gotten back into racquetball, and am looking at memberships to a couple fitness centers here in KC. I’ll probably save that for after the house purchase due to the price, but it’s definitely on the horizon. I’ve been thinking about a home weight system, but a gym membership has the weights (and better ones, at that) as well as racquetball courts, swimming pools, and a mess of other things to boot. I’ll likely go that way, rather than take up space at home with equipment I (if I’m going to be honest with myself) may or may not actually use.

As for where I want this to go, my goal is to get back down to between 165lbs. and 175lbs., to be able to ride 20 miles or play 3 hours of hard racquetball again w/o feeling like I’m going to die. I think I can make that happen… it’s just a matter of time.