Thursday, June 26, 2008

Rack of Ribs

Well, the verdict is out. X-rays show that I have two cracked ribs (2nd and 3rd) on my left side. That crunch I heard when hitting the ground Saturday was not imagined after all.
It's no wonder I had a hard time breathing and a good deal of pain and discomfort while on the bike Tuesday morning and this morning. Good thing I have a fairly high tolerance for pain.
I did make sure to ask the Doc if it would be OK for me to continue riding, albeit at a diminished level. He looked at me somewhat dumbfounded and asked. "Why would you do that?"
Answer..."I just like to ride." He said that the pain would definitely dictate how hard I could go, which I realize now will not be very hard. He also emphasized no crashing. No shit!
Also, I need to continue with the beta-blockers until I can re-evaluated by my regular doctor.
I new back in Feb. that this could be an ongoing thing, but I didn't have any issues until yesterday. I also scheduled a complete physical. People have no idea how much I hate going to the doctor, but I realize now that it needs to be done.

On the positive side, my new 29er is in and Travis will be putting it together for me. I'm looking forward to heading north in a couple of weeks to spend the week riding forest roads and fire trails. No technical stuff which will be good for my condition. Just a lot of woods, gravel, dust, and bugs. Gotta just love that. Oh! I forgot to mention, no traffic. One of the areas I'll be riding in is the Button Box Lake area.

5 comments:

Kenny said...

I hate getting old! Or, are we getting SF'ing dumb for what we do?
How do you like my new word???

Ride all you can, even if you suck at it.

Judi said...

Well 2 cracked ribs is better than a heart attack!

Vito said...

Yeh, the ribs are no big deal. Just freaking painful and very uncomfortable to ride with. I have some issues with atrial fib. There are some issues with the heart that still need to be figured out. It's an anomaly at this point in time. Really sucks, but from what I understand is much more common than you think.

Bob said...

Damn, broken ribs suck. Just look forward to that new bike.

Ali B. said...

Some people just don't get it... when I separated my shoulder last fall the guy doing my preliminary work asked what I was doing to damage my shoulder so badly. I told him about riding through the woods on my bike. Of course I tried to make it sound very innocent and incredibly safe - the way I describe it when I talk to my mom.

His next question was... "Well, was it worth it?"

Dumb question huh?

Well worth it! I became proficient at riding with one arm.