Two Weeks In

    It's been two weeks since my injury so it's time for an update. It's healing nicely and everything is looking good. I have had little pain since the first day. It would have been easy to overdo things with the lack of pain, but the swelling was enough to keep me in check. After a week, the majority of the swelling went away and I could walk normally, but my range of motion was still pretty terrible. I was hoping to be back on the bike by day 10 at the latest, but the swelling was putting way too much stress on the stitches to bend anywhere close to enough to make a full revolution on the bike. I actually popped two stitches on the shallower end of the gash. It wasn't from activity, just from the amount of swelling. I've actually been very easy on the knee and not done anything crazy. I definitely don't want to pull this thing open again and have to start over or risk getting an infection.

We have had a little fun with the knee. The cut kind of looks like jack-o-lantern mouth and I had another cut to form a nose. Couldn't resist adding some eyes.

    Speaking of infection, the worst part of all this has been the antibiotics they put me on. If you want to stop exercise and not gain a single pound, just get on some antibiotics. They made me not want to eat. When I did eat, there is no way I gained anything from it because it did not stay in body long enough for anything to be absorbed. That was a rough week! But there's no infection so it was worth it.

     The stitches came out just before the two week mark. There are two places that are still a little open at the surface, but everything looks good deeper inside the leg. I am still covered with steri-strips to help pull the skin together and relieve some of the stress on the wound. I'll probably be wearing those for a while. It really is in a bad spot being right over the knee joint. Every knee movement stresses that area, and more so with a horizontal gash than the vertical incision you would see with a total knee replacement. That's what I'm used to working with in physical therapy. This horizontal cut has been a learning experience.

     The first try at a ride came last weekend with me just trying to pedal while sitting on the bike inside. I leaned against the wall in the kitchen and tried to make full revolutions. I could only get all the way around going backwards and without shoes. The next day I could go forwards, but still could not tolerate the extra height of the shoe and cleat. I was patient and did not start adjusting my seat height. Today, I was able to start some light exercises and that loosened my knee up enough to put on a shoe. I did 10 minutes on the trainer without shoes, then 20 minutes with shoes. It is still tight inside from the swelling, but riding did not stretch the skin around the cut so it was a good day. Just that little bit of spinning pumped a lot of swelling out of my quad and from inside the knee joint.  It's still sore down deep so I think it will be a while before I'm doing any real riding, but this is a start and I'm really excited about it!

     The support I've had at work has been so different this time compared to any of my past injuries. Usually I'm frustrated because none of my colleagues will help me out, but this time I have been surrounded by a great group. I've been working in Springfield lately and they are a bunch of momma bears up there. They actually care about my well-being. They were the ones that cut out my stitches and have been monitoring the healing every step of the way. I had to skirt around the momma bears initially. I did not tell them when it first happened because I knew they would cancel my patients and send me home from work. While work was uncomfortable at times, it was not slowing my healing and the injury was not impacting my ability to treat patients . Still, I know they would have wanted me to rest, so I just went to work and informed people once they noticed my limp. I've taken advantage of the down time to work more than I normally would and shattered my previous record for total number of PRN hours worked in a month.

     Working more has also helped the time pass more quickly. I would likely have gouged out my eyes by now if it was not for working and our garden. I've spent a lot of hours out in the garden just looking for something to do. Luckily, with a garden there is always something to do. We have been picking peppers and okra by the bowl. Last year, we picked enough of everything to fill one of our large mixing bowls about twice per week. Now, I am picking two large bowls and two medium bowls at least three times per week. It has been crazy at times, but the shelves are filling back up with jars of pickle/pepper mix, pepper relish, salsa and pizza sauce. I finally got to grill a pizza on our new grill this past weekend and it was delicious! We made our own dough, then covered it with Shannon's homemade pizza sauce and added some peppers and basil from the garden. Cheese and a bit of turkey were the only toppings that did not come from our garden.

     One of the challenges we hoped to overcome this year was figuring out how to turn our bell peppers red and yellow. It really is hard to do in the south with all the humidity. Often as the pepper begins to turn, it will start to rot and mold from the moisture. It is also more susceptible to insects and other animals once it changes because it starts to taste sweeter. I can usually keep the animals at bay, but there is nothing you can do about humidity in Tennessee. It's going to come and it's going to be heavy. We were able to turn some peppers after picking, but have not mastered getting big bells to turn on the plant just yet. I do have a few golden bells on the plants now, but they are smaller than I would like. They cayenne's are my favorite because they don't mold and nothing eats them. If only they could all be that easy!

     Besides the garden, I have occupied my time by going out to the Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway in Calvert City, KY. It's a 3/8-mile dirt track next to I-24 just southeast of Paducah. We have driven by it many times, but never seem to have the time to go for a race. We went this past weekend and had a lot of fun. It was the first time I have ever watched anything other than winged sprint cars on a dirt track. And the last time I saw them race was when I was around eight years old. It's a totally different kind of driving as compared to pavement. I enjoyed watching the cars sling dirt 20 feet high in the corners as they slid by with the gas wide-open. We left with a coating of dirt on us from the dust that was kicked up. The body and chassis on a dirt car have much more movement in them than a pavement car. There were times in the corners where the left front tire was not even on the ground. It was a smaller turnout than what they normally have up there as far as cars and spectators, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. I'm actually glad there were few spectators. I don't think I could have bent my knee enough to sit in a crowded grandstand. There were two classes that had full fields and they put on a great show under the lights in the Main Events. I could totally get into dirt track racing. Then again, I just like racing no matter what kind it is. I think I would race a shopping cart if there were races for them. It's in my blood I guess. NASCAR has even been dabbling with dirt races in recent years with the Camping World Truck Series. They actually raced the dirt at Eldora Speedway just last week. It was a great race with an awesome finish, which you can see here.

Heat races

     My parents met us at the track and added to the fun evening. My Dad was bringing up old embarrassing stories, which is normal for him. He couldn't seem to remember to take his ear plugs out between races so he shared his stories with everyone in the grandstands this time. And let them know how the pizza we ate was affecting his stomach and how it was going to be a long ride home. Even when you're 29 your parents can still embarrass you. 

Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway

Saturday night dirt track racing

Video: Clips from the Open Wheel Modified races at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway on July 25

     I also had plenty of time to watch the Tour de France this year. It was a good Tour overall. I'm not a Froome fan, but I have a lot of respect for his performances and the amount of time the guy trains to be in that good of shape. I hated to see that our sport is still overshadowed by doping. We all knew it was, but to see people on the side of the road yelling at Froome was terrible. And the guys that spit on him and threw a cup of urine at him were ridiculous. Nobody should ever be spit on or have urine thrown at them, even if they did dope. I was hoping to see some story where other fans beat up those guys, but I haven't heard anything about it yet. It's really sad now that winning automatically places you under suspicion. I am glad that nobody punched him or knocked him down. That has happened before. Eddy Merckx was punched in the 1975 Tour. As a rider, sometimes it is scary to get so close to people. Most of the people I pass are behind a barrier and have no idea who I am. I can't imagine being so close to people that are running crazy in the street and some of them despise you.

     The best part about the Tour for me was following the Orica-GreenEDGE Cycling Team. I really like that team. They're mostly a bunch of English-speaking riders with Aussie management and Aussie attitude. They know how to race hard and also how to have fun. I never see them getting mad at each other or putting too much pressure on a rider. If I ever rode at that level, I would hope to be on their team. They do videos each day called "Backstage Pass," where they go behind the scenes with the team before, during and after the race, and also include some extras with the fans, mechanics and even the team chef. You can watch the Backstage Pass videos here. My favorite one from this year is from Stage 10 and it's posted below. It's my favorite only because of the Hulk Hogan look-alike they found on one of the mountains. America!
   

Orica-GreenEDGE Backstage Pass - Stage 10

   
     It was also good to see cameras being used on the bikes this year. The television commentators and teams keep referring to the onboard cameras as "new technology" and a "new concept." That always makes me laugh because cameras have been on bikes for years. GoPro has been around for several years now. I have had mine on my bike since 2011. Before GoPro, there were several other companies with working cameras on the market. I raced for FlyCamOne at Dirt, Sweat & Gears back in 2009. FlyCamOne was a small helmet cam that did a pretty good job capturing race footage. I still have it. CamOneTec actually makes a camera now very similar to the GoPro Hero, they just don't market it as heavily as GoPro. Technology has come a long way since the first cameras, but it is far from a new concept. Riders like Sven Nys have been practically begging the UCI to use onboard cameras in cyclocross for several years now. The UCI is behind the times and trying to make a big deal out of finally deciding to get with the program. The GoPros got excellent footage from every stage of this year's Tour, capturing everything from crashes and scary-fast mountain descents to insane fans on Alpe d'Huez and even a fly-over from the French Air Force on the Champs-Elysees. Even the mechanics wore cameras on several stages. Watch some of the videos posted by the Velon CC group here. A best-of video from the Tour de France is posted below.

Best of the Tour from onboard cameras

     Shannon and I did a fantasy game for the Tour de France. She totally kicked my butt! I guess she does listen to some of my race chatter around the house. She not only picked good riders, but also had good reasons for picking them. She got off to an early lead with having Fabian Cancellara and Tom Dumoulin on her team, and I was never able to close the gap. We stayed basically the same gap apart from the end of Stage 4 to the finish. She also had Peter Sagan which really is what won her the game. I picked Mark Cavendish as my sprinter and he did not do as well as in years past.

     I want to end by thanking everyone for all the well-wishes. I am happy to be recovering well and so, so grateful to have not damaged anything else in my knee. The recovery could have been much longer, or even not at all. I may not get to finish my season like I hoped, but I will be back!