It was a long weekend. Really long. Really long with not much to show for it. Chip P. stopped by to pick up the Orbea. He routinely drives up I-55 and offered to drop it off at Frank's place so he can re-glue the chainstay that pulled loose in the crash last week. Wish he could do that with my collarbone, because this thing still hurts. On Sunday I started cutting down on the hydrocodone while maintaining the acetaminophen dosage so I'm not quite so loopy and drowsy. I can still tell rather acutely when the pain medicine levels start to drop, though. I have conculded through rigorous experimentation that the addition of a glass of wine at around 8 pm is of considerable pharmacological benefit. My liver, no doubt, has been working overtime even if I haven't. I have an appointment at the sports med clinic this afternoon, so I guess we'll see where this whole thing is going at that point. In the meantime, I'm feeling pretty useless and my Fun Meter is showing no signs of life whatsoever.
As luck would have it, the week before my latest crash I had bought a few things for the bikes that I'd been putting off for a long time. I finally got a workstand, albeit a cheap one, that accommodates modern bikes, and I got a few things for commuting too. Of course, lifting a bike onto the workstand is a bit of a problem right now. One thing I'd been needing for a long time was a proper seatpost for the commuter. Since it's an old English bike, the seat post diameter was 1", but after looking around a bit I found some of those. The only problem was that they only had the really long ones in stock. So anyway, it arrived the other day and, even though it will likely be some time before I'm cleared to ride to work again, I couldn't resist installing it. Let me just say that removing and replacing a seatpost is a challenge when using only one arm. Even cutting the extra six inches off the end of it took a really long time. Fortunately, one thing I have in abundance right now is time. The other neat thing I got that I won't be using right away is a travel "folder" for my shirts. It's already hot enough in the morning that commuting in my cotton button-down collar shirts won't be feasable again until Fall, and all last year I was wishing I had a better way to pack them for the ride to work. Well, the folks at Eagle Creek had apparently solved that problem, so I'm looking forward to being able to try it out.
So I'm sitting here at the office looking out on some truly beautiful weather and wishing I was on the bike instead of squirming around uncomfortably in this office chair wondering why typing makes my shoulder hurt.
4 comments:
Randy, at this point you're probably realizing that feeling better is not going to be an event but a process. You are also probably finding simple tasks like putting deodorant on, opening and closing doors, typing and such are painful. For some reason I found I was more comfortable on the TT bike on the trainer and then outside before I could ride the road bike. How are the ribs?
TPerry
Yes, some simple things have become more challenging. Closing car doors (either side, really), washing hair, and applying deororant now take a lot longer, and some things, like tying shoelaces, are not even worth trying. I have to admit that my level of personal hygeine may have dropped a notch for the time being. I don't change shirts until absolutely necessary. On the plus side, I don't feel there's any point in trying to iron them any more! It feels like one rib might have been broken, but I've noticed it only when doing things like trying to get up out of bed.
I remember after I crashed hard at HHH way back when (ribs, shoulder, hip), that I had to think through my movements before I made them just to simplify or lessen the pain of the movement. It was almost a thinking man's game for me after a while and I began to measure the rate of my healing through the progress I made in the movements I had to teach myself to do. Raising my left hand above my head was a very happy moment, as was the time I finally was able to sleep on my left side for the first time in six months! Yeh, those were the good old days.....
Being injured blows. I know you want to lay off the hydrocodone, but I've found staying on it makes me a lot less grumpy. And a lot less motivated.
I hope you heal up quickly!!!
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