Friday, December 23, 2011

HEADING TO SURGERY

On December 27 I'll have my 11th orthopedic surgery (second on my right shoulder). On my follow up doctor visit after my accident in France an MRI revealed a torn rotator cuff. I had similar surgery in 2004 and although I was back riding on the road in 4 weeks the rehabilitation took a very long time. In an effort to continue my 200 + km streak I had scheduled surgery for 12/15 and then completed a 200 km brevet earlier in December. However during my pre-op visit, I was advised the surgery had to be moved to 12/27. The reason: since they plan to take fascialata from a cadaver's leg to help re-build the superspanatis the procedure has to be done in the hospital instead of a surgical center--thanks to Medicare. I suppose I shouldn't complain since my out of pocket expenses are nil--except for the $250/month I pay for medicare and a supplement.

So imy streak was in jeopardy since it would have been pretty near impossible to get back on a bike for 200 km ride next month. But fate intervened: Kevin Kaiser the Regional Brevet Administrator reminded me that by pre-riding his Augusta brevet within 15 days of the event date I could get credit for the ride ON THE EVENT DATE OF 01/01/2012. So last Sunday I rode the event route with 3 other RUSA members. My shoulder hurt enough to keep me from a normal pace as evidenced by fact that on 01/01/2011 I did this exact route almost 60 minutes faster on a single speed bike where it rained for the last 2 hours. Nevertheless, I'll have until the end of February to complete another 200 km event. That's my goal which gives me something to aim at (yeh, I know one's not suppose to end a sentence with a proposition).

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