After Seven Weeks

My friend Richard stopped by to visit last night.  We chatted for a while and he reminded me that he hadn't seen anything new in my blog.  I confessed that I had been sitting around feeling sorry for myself.

Only I could have back surgery and end up with foot pain, serious foot pain.  There is a nerve running down there I guess cause I had pain in my leg and foot before surgery and had hoped I would get relief from that.  No such luck so far, my regular doctor has had me take a CAT scan, some kind of doppler test and an x-ray.  The latest, the x-ray, is looking for a stress fracture in my foot.  I wish they would find one, at least it would be fixable.  If it is nerve pain I'm just screwed. 

The x-ray was on Monday and here it is Friday and nothing said about it.  Oh, I've called the doctor's office a couple of times and just got the standard bs.  I'm for sure supposed to find out as soon as the doctor get do with her current appointment, that was an hour ago.

I see my surgeon on Monday, I don't expect much from him except that the back is doing OK now go away.

My right foot feels like a rock, can't move my toes, can't feel much.  I don't know if I could drive or not, damn foot couldn't feel anything.  The bike would probably be easier to ride than driving the car.  At least I could brake with my hand, maybe I'll look into a scooter...........

Rally on the River 2007

One Month

It was one month Saturday that I had my back operation.  I honestly thought I'd be getting along pretty well by now.  I never thought that I'd still be using a walker to get around.  So much for my plans.  Here I am still gimping around with the walker.  Today was the first time I have gone any place other than the doctor's or PT.  It was nice to be around people at Sunday School, but I was too worn out to stay for church.  

Today was a pot luck too, dang I hate missing those pot luck dinners.  If you don't go to church you won't understand what you are missing.

I have made some progress though, the pain is less and I'm using fewer pain pills.  I still can't sleep at night (it's past midnight as I write this).  I'm able to dress my self for the most part.  Not to be gross or anything but I've been wiping my own butt for a couple of weeks.  My wife, God love her, has been an angel.  Don't ever try something like this unless you have been married at least 35 years.  Any less and your spouse probably couldn't stand it.

People have been real nice to visit and bring me stuff.  My friend Neil finally got by and he brought me a box of old motorcycle mags to look at.  I was flipping through a 1969 issue of CYCLE when a name caught my eye.  It was a letter to the editor from my mother-in-law about how they used their cycles on the farm to check the cattle.  It wasn't long afterward that her son, my brother-in-law, stopped by unexpectedly along with his son and his family.  They all enjoyed reading that long forgotten phase of their parents and grandparents.

Enough of this nonsense.  Here is a photo of myself and my always present walker and brace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Weeks Post-op

  I won't bore with endless details of a hospital stay.  After four days in the hospital they kicked me out and I went home.  The first couple of days at home weren't too bad, I didn't have a lot of pain and could get around with the walker fairly well.  Something happened about the third day home and things have gone to crap since.  I have swelling in my right foot, constant pain down my leg and in my back.  The pain pills only seem to work about an hour but I can't only have one ever four.  My wife watches the medication for me, I call her the pill Nazi.  My doctor says my sacroiliac is off, one hip is higher than the other, that would account for the additional pain.

  At over three weeks post-op things haven't gotten much better and I seem to sleep all day and stay awake all night.  I've started physical therapy so maybe that will give me some relief.

  Motorcycles?  Honestly haven't given them much thought.  I'm getting a bad attitude.

Back Surgery and Biking

Back surgery and biking don't seem to go together too well.  I'm sure it is done all the time but I have never read an article about it in CYCLE WORLD or RIDING SOUTH MAGAZINE, so in the next few weeks/months, however long it takes I plan to blog it here.

Never mind how I got to the point of needing back surgery.  It was a years long decline that had recently started to have an impact on my riding activities, time to go under the knife or laser, what ever they use.

After about an hour of pre-op time where you get issued your tie in the back gown, asked the same questions over and over again by different people and get stuck several times for I.Vs. and thing like that I am getting rolled into the operating room.  It's 10:45am and I remember seeing my surgeon washing his hands and smiling.  My next conscious memory was being in the middle of an ER like tv show at 5:45pm.  Nurses are running around, people are still sticking me with IVs, taking my blood pressure.  My wife has her brave front smile on as I hear someone say, He's lost a lot of blood and the pressure is 65/37, I sure wish the doctor would come in but he says were doing the right things.  I'm thinking that doesn't sound too good but know what?  I don't give a hoot and I go back to sleep.

I wake up a few hours later and little more aware of my surroundings.  I have it all, oxygen tube, IVs all over the place, blood pressure cuff cutting my arm off every few minutes, a catheter, some kind of drainage catching ball running out of my back.  I can't move and my mouth feels like the bottom of an ash tray. 

End of day one, Aug 6, 2004.  I'll add to this as I feel like it.

Hanging it Up

Just temporarily, until I heal up from back surgery.  I have long suffered from a back condition known as spondylolisthesis and in the last couple of years there has been additional stenosis and the latest MRI shows a ruptured disk.  The plan is to fuse four vertebrae, L2-S1, and clean up the stenosis and rupture.  This is all supposed to give me some relief.  I'm just praying that it doesn't get any worse.

No, riding doesn't make it worse.  I don't hurt any more

from riding that I do from driving, walking is what tears me up.  Here is a good x-ray of what the apparatus looks like.  I joke that I get a discount if I pick up some stainless screws at True Value on my way to the hospital  

Madison, KS 7-30-08

I wasn't looking forward to the 135 mile to Madison because I just knew it was going to be hot.  Mother Nature sure threw us a curve ball last Wednesday as it was cool and overcast all day.  It didn't start warming up until I was almost home and the cloud cover disappeared.

Madison is a nice little South East Kansas down halfway between Opie and Hamilton just off on state hwy 99.  The cafe had recently opened up and was glad for the business the 32 motorcycles brought in.  Nothing unique in the menu but the service was excellent and the food good small town fare.

An old friend from my school days in Galva showed up from Iola.  He recently returned to riding with his brand new Vulcan.  We had a nice visit and vowed to do it again as soon as I heal up from back surgery on Aug 6th.

These little guys were with a couple on an older Yahama sidecar rig.

Several of us stopped by the Council Grove Dairy Queen for the now obligatory ice cream before heading west to home.  I lead coming and going and didn't get us lost once

Didn't even have my GPS.

It was a good motorcycle day and my last one for a while.