Aside from commuting yesterday, I haven’t ridden since last week. Heck, I didn’t do any rides outside of commuting last week, either. Sometime late in the week, I pulled a muscle in my leg, or something. I’m not sure what it is, it’s not too bad, but I have been trying to stay off it.

Then I got sick. I could feel it coming on last night, so I took a bunch of meds before bed. I woke up still feeling crummy, but not as bad. I still have a sore throat. Not sure what’s going on, but I don’t like it.

So, I guess I’m taking it easy for the time being.  I found time to work on some music over the weekend, which was enjoyable at times, but overall it was frustrating. I ran into a bunch of boring technical problems. I managed to get a few things accomplished, but until I have all my equipment set up, it’ll be difficult.

I have missed riding, but I’m also enjoying a bit of a break. Hopefully I can get out soon.

I had doctor’s appointment today, and they removed my stitches. As is often the case, I went to the doctor’s office feeling fairly well, with not much pain. By the time I left, it was a much different story. The suture removal was painful, and then they were poking and prodding to make sure everything was OK. Ouch.

So, that was pretty rough, but, I’m glad that part is over. The doctor said everything is healing well and that now I can do any activities I feel comfortable with … including biking. That’s great in theory, but my foot is still far too tender to do anything of the sort. It was an absolutely gorgeous day today, in the 6os and sunny, and being cooped up was driving me crazy. It was absolutely perfect weather for a ride.

As it was, I managed to go for a walk around the block with my wife and dog, and it was glorious. I feel lucky I was able to do that; I just need to take it one step at a time.

They took more X-rays today and showed me before/after x-rays of my toe. In the before shot, you can see where the bones in my joint had a bulge that was digging into the flesh. In the “after” shot,  you can see how my doctor shaved off part of the bones to smooth things out.  Pretty amazing, really. I complain about the pain, but given what was done, it could be a lot worse.

I’ve been working from home since the surgery. Tomorrow is my first day back in the office … and I’m not exactly sure yet how I’m going to get there, since we only have one car. Logistics could be interesting. I hope I don’t have too much trouble getting around the office. I’m hoping this will be another step in getting things back to normal.

Difficulty, and Progress

Thursday was a rough day. I had more foot pain than on any other day … my foot just really hurt badly all day. I had to run a few errands in the evening and that made things worse. Friday morning I called the doctor to see about a refill on pain meds, which he was able to arrange, even though he was out of town. However, oddly enough, my foot was feeling quite a bit better on Friday. Better enough that I didn’t take any pain meds all day. I probably could’ve used them, but I was being stubborn.

Saturday I took more pain meds, after a particularly difficult time cleaning/bandaging the wound. But later in the day I realized my foot was feeling pretty good. I couldn’t tell if it was genuinely better of if the meds were just masking the pain. So Sunday it was no meds once again, and even so, my foot felt a lot better than it had in a while.

Today, things are pretty good, too. Don’t get me wrong … there’s still pain, and I’m still hobbling around. But, I can hobble a little faster and more comfortably than before. And while the doctor said I could wear any shoes that felt comfortable after my appointment last Tuesday, I haven’t been able to wear anything other than my surgical boot. I suppose if I had shoes two sizes too big, they’d work, but for now my shoes are too tight and the pressure hurts. I don’t mind the boot, so it’s not a big deal.

Great Weekend

Sarah’s sister Rachel and her boyfriend Bill came down from Fort Wayne to visit us this weekend. It was great to see them, we didn’t really do much, other than a lot of hanging out and talking. I sort of figured we’d watch a movie at some point or something, but we didn’t … we really spent the time catching up. Good times.

Last night, my family went out for dinner to celebrate my nephew Avery’s 12th birthday.  We had a steak dinner followed by presents and swordfighting competitions on the Wii, followed by cake. What’s not to like about that?

Stitches Out?

Tomorrow, I’m supposed to get my stitches out. Initially, the doctor said the stitches would come out after two weeks, and once they did, I could do anything I feel comfortable with, in terms of walking, biking, etc. It hasn’t quite been two weeks, so I’ll be curious to see if the stitches are really ready to come out.

Bicycle Thoughts

Given the amount of pain I’m still feeling, I don’t think I’ll be jumping back on the bike right away, even though not riding has been driving me nuts. I hate that I’m missing the very first warm, springlike riding days of the year. Some of my fellow bike bloggers are already doing epic rides and camping trips, and I’m insanely jealous.

However, I don’t expect to be off the bike for too long. If everything is healing properly I may even get the green light tomorrow from my doctor. Then I just have to see just how painful it is. I’m sort of thinking that I can do some short jaunts around the neighborhood this week, and some longer rides next week might be realistic. Time will tell.

I picked up my bike from the bike shop over the weekend. It got a tune-up, and some new brake pads on the front. I still had the Kool Stop black pads on the front, which I had put on the bike when I bought it. They lasted for over 3100 miles, some of that in the mountains in Pennsylvania, and that includes a lot of mixed-terrain rides, rain, and show, which are harsh on brake pads. I’m pretty impressed they lasted that long. This time, salmon Kool Stops are  on there. They probably won’t last as long, but since the Trucker is now my main commuter, I really need better wet weather performance. I also had the shop order a couple more pairs of Panaracer Paselas, so I have a nice stock of tires for the Trucker for a while. I examined the drivetrain and it looks great, I am hoping things will be running quite smoothly.

I have some ideas for some phenomenal rides. Hmm, maybe I should use some of this downtime to map some rides so I can just pick one and go, once I am able to ride again. I have been using my time productively so far, working on some side projects, and some improvements to this blog that I hope I can make happen sooner, rather than later.