Summer of Medical Adventures

You may well be wondering why two old retired girls, with nothing but time on their hands, haven't been getting their blog updated. Well, we have had some unexpected adventures, so let's get you caught up. 

As you know from a previous blog update, I had surgery on my knee in early June that took me off the bike. While I was busy doing my knee rehab, Sandy was busy getting herself fit for a one week ride she had booked in the mountains of southern Alberta and British Columbia, starting in mid July. The week before she left, and five weeks after my knee procedure, I was under the knife, once again, getting some of the hard ware that had become bothersome removed from my spine.  

Some screws removed at the top, and the rods shortened.
(sorry,  no post op X-rays at this time)

Two surgeries that close together took a lot more out of me than I anticipated, so my sister, Patti, came up from Calgary to babysit me while Sandy went on her trip.

Sandy isn't too crazy about riding uphill, so it remains a mystery to me why she took on a ride in the Rockies. Having said that, it wasn't all the hill climbing that got to her, but rather the sustained high winds (“horrible,” she reminds me) and the smoke from the BC forest fires.  

Sandy watching out for a Big Horn Mountain Sheep during her ride

Combine all that physical exertion with a number of nights of poor sleep, and by the time she got home, she was prime bait for a nasty ‘flu bug. I can honestly say I have never seen her so walloped by a virus as she just put herself straight to bed the day after she got home.

After two days of being sicker than sick, she started to get electric jolts up the side of her head. As these seemed to be getting more frequent and severe, the morning of the third day of jolts, I asked if I needed to take her to emergency.  I knew she was in a pretty bad way when she said, “yes.”

Timing is everything. We got to our local ER just after four ambulances arrived and as a cardiac arrest occurred.  As we waited, Sandy, who is not known for her patience, said, “They better be looking after someone worse off than me!” The old emerge doc in me assured her that they were.  After getting some high powered pain killers in her, the jolts finally abated, and off home we went. 

As Sandy wouldn't allow me to take any photos of her in the ER,
this is my artist's impression of her in agony.

Unfortunately, the blasted jolts came back two days later, so we went back to emerge. This time, a hallway consultation with a neurologist lead to a different treatment concoction and I am happy to report that the jolts seem to be gone.

If you want my medical opinion (but then, again, I am retired so what do I know?) I believe the fatigue from her days riding in the mountains caused her to be quite run down. This let the virus she contracted really beat her up. While it was at it, just for fun it caused some inflammation in a nerve which then kept firing off for no reason other than to cause major discomfort and havoc.

The consequence of all this medical excitement is that I have been of the bike for over two months and Sandy for over one. We are now just getting back onto our two wheeled friends. We are both feeling the loss of fitness, nonetheless, any bike ride is sure to bring a smile to our faces!  

I have decided that my racing days are over and we are decreasing the size of our bicycle herd. From a high of 13 bikes in our corral, we are now down to 10 with my track bike and cyclocross bike the next scheduled to leave home. I may be in need of more medical attention as I deal with the departure of these trusty steeds!!