Statrix Redux

I managed to get in a couple extra hours of sleep today, though I have to admit I was up several times during the night to take care of business. That was annoying but not problematic. I haven’t had any trouble getting in and out of bed. Thank goodness.
As for the day, I showered for the first time today and patted the wound dry. It seems to be doing well and I can’t see any hint of infection. I’m developing quite a bruise though. That, however, was expected so it’s nothing I need to be concerned with.
Today I decided I’d try my cane instead of the crutches as I was feeling pretty spry. It turns out to be on a par with what I’m used to doing. In other words, I’m good to go with the cane. I was told I might be, so all is well. Yes I’m still slow, but that horrible bone pain is gone and in it’s place is muscle pain that is getting better every day.
I ran into a friend around lunch time. I was actually up the street at my moped thinking I should start it to make sure it keeps running. It’s been a few days and you really don’t want to leave them sit for too long without starting ’em up.
My buddy asked if I wanted to go to lunch, I did, and since he was driving I hopped in off we went to a local Subway. It was great to be out chatting and meeting with friends this early in the game. In fact after lunch he drove me back to the moped and ran off to the drugstore to pick up a prescription and some bandages and tape to cover the wound when I need wear clothes. The doc says to keep it open most of the time, but that I can cover it if it’s going to be rubbed by clothing. Makes sense to me.
By the way, I’m already way down on the pain medication so I wasn’t in any danger driving. I’m not sure I would do it if I were also sleepy, but freshly showered, well rested, and full of lunch it seemed okay. I didn’t have any trouble but it’s not something I want to do often till next week perhaps. Besides it looks like I’m going to be able to walk pretty well, if slowly.
I’m just so grateful for this operation. The difference between Monday morning and today is incredible, even though I’m nowhere near 100%.
The thing that remains the same for the moment is that I do get tired pretty quickly so it’s time for a nap. I’m getting picked up later to go meet up with the guys and chat tonight so I want to be ready. I hadn’t expected I’d be able to go this week, but amazingly it seems that it’ll be fine.
Aloha

My last post covered the time through the afternoon of the day after my surgery. After that nap I asked for help moving to my chair so that I could get in a little movement. Things were better than they had been before for the rest of my body. Yes, I still had aches and pains, but now that I’d been able to move a lot more during the day it was was much better.
I had dinner, kaluha pig, cabbage, poi, salad, and for a treat, some vanilla pudding. The fresh fruit bowl would have been a better choice, but hey, a fellow deserves a little something after being wounded.
After that another friend dropped by, one I really didn’t expect to see and that was great. We didn’t just talk about my surgery, she filled me in on her life too. Here’s a hint for folks visiting someone in the hospital, at least folks like me, we might prefer to talk about anything else. We’ve just been through it and reliving over and over is, well, at best dull. Mind you, this is me, other’s may feel completely different and want to chat about themselves all evening.
After that I moved back to bed and settled in for the night. Once again I wasn’t given pain medication and as it turns out, that was fine. I slept until I was woken before midnight for some test, blood pressure and the like. Then I went back to sleep.
I did wake up a couple of times during the night, mostly to pee. They want you to be very hydrated so if you can prove you’ve been drinking a lot of water they won’t hook you up to a drip.
Then I slept till about four in the morning. I generally start waking up about then as I’m at work before six so this didn’t surprise me. I was able to get back to sleep though, at least off and on till about seven-thirty when things picked up at the hospital.
I had breakfast and a final meeting with my PT person. We went up and down the halls, tried some steps, then did the halls again until I’d worked up a good sweat. I decided I’d stay till after lunch as the friend picking me up was engaged in some good works that morning and I didn’t want to pull her away. In retrospect she might have preferred that I did.
By two in the afternoon I was out of the hospital with my prescriptions, I have five pill bottles with directions to take some together, some when needed but not more than so many times a day, and some other basic basic instructions. Since I’m not sure what I was given last I’m starting tomorrow. Though I may have a pain pill before bed. I haven’t had one since eight in the morning and I am a bit achey. On the other hand, I won’t move much during the night and truly I don’t care for the stuff. It works, but there’s a price in mental acuity.
After exiting the hospital grounds I asked to be taken out for coffee. I really wanted something besides hospital coffee and my driver was glad to agree. We headed for a nearby Starbucks and chatted for thirty minutes over our drinks. Then it was home.
To be honest, my home is kind of mess. In this case it works out for me as I’ve got handholds pretty much everywhere. Yeah! So far I’ve been in and out of bed twice with no trouble, less in fact than before the surgery. I’m beat and ready to head back for a good night’s sleep. I’m looking forward to seeing if I’m a lot better tomorrow. I was this morning compared to the day before so I’m hoping to have improvement again. I’m going to try walking around the block tomorrow so if you are in Makiki and see a ‘big guy down,’ why not stop and ask if I need help. I’ll say no, but don’t believe me.
Till laterz!

After far too long I was finally able to get my new left hip yesterday. It’s been a long road leading up this surgery and I’m hopeful that soon I’ll be able to walk and get around with much less pain. So far so good.
A quick recap reminds me that this all started a little over two years ago with what I thought then was bursitis or a pulled muscle. My hip was a bit ‘achey’ but didn’t think too much of it. Of course it got worse. By the time my friend Erich and I did our Oregon Coast ride about this time of year it had deteriorated to the point where walking without a cane was getting difficult.
There was a lot going on in the family so I wasn’t able to do much about it till that fall when I did go to the doctor. I had an MRI and xrays and discovered that it was more than just bursitis. My hip was definitely arthritic if not necrotic. My doctor suggested a non-surgical approach to begin with, so off to PT I went through the spring. It helped a lot, but sadly my hip just kept getting worse.
Finally last fall I’d had enough and asked my doctor for another solution. My doc recommended a surgeon and set up an appointment. Now here’s the deal with good surgeons. You can’t just get non-emergency appointments right off the bat. I had a wait a couple of weeks, but that was okay, the holiday season was upon us. In fact I ended up meeting my surgeon on Christmas Eve of all times.
He told me that my hip had gone far enough that total hip replacement was about the only choice, other than continued pain that is. He impressed me with his knowledge and I’d done some research on him prior to the appointment that when he suggested we schedule the procedure I was just fine with the idea.
But of course you can’t just schedule surgery the next day, it took four months before I could have my operation. The last couple of months were really awful because my hip hurt more and more all the time. Still there was a light at the end of the tunnel, I did have a date.
So what did I actually have to do prior to the surgery? About three weeks before surgery I had to have a chest x-ray, an EKG, and some blood work done. This was all fairly routine, but if any of them showed trouble it might have postponed things.
Then a week before surgery I was scheduled for a visit with my primary care physician to go over the results of the blood work and such so that he sign off say I was healthy enough for surgery. The next day, a Tuesday, I spent the entire day at the hospital running, or something like it, from one appointment to another. I met with the surgeon’s nurse, his assistant, a physical therapist, and to top it off an intake nurse who spent thirty minutes checking my medical history. She was really a nice lady and I think we spent most of the time laughing.
I was also given a anti-bacterial soap to wash with every day for the next week as well as prescription for an ointment to put in my nose twice a day. It began to seem like I really would be having surgery soon. I was, as you might imagine, getting a wee bit nervous. I trusted my doctor and his team so I wasn’t really concerned, but it is surgery and…well…things happen.
The other thing I needed to consider was whether I’d be having general anesthesia or spinal block and sedation. The team pushed for the spinal and in the end, yesterday in fact, I opted for that. The advantages are that when you done with surgery your legs are still numb so you get a few hours of relief before any pain sets in. Further you are much less likely to have nausea or other problems coming out of surgery. The disadvantage is that you are completely out so you might notice something, not pain, but perhaps noise or pressure.
I arrived at the hospital via a cab at around six in the morning yesterday and went to admitting where I had to sign and initial a ream of paper. That finished I was off to pre-op. I had to wait a while but chatted with other folks, some waiting for their own operations, some waiting to visit their loved ones.
My surgery was scheduled for nine-thirty but due to circumstances I had to wait till almost noon before they prepped me. I’ll be honest, waiting in the pre-op area was not great. I didn’t have anyone with me so basically I was left alone with my thoughts and that’s never a good thing. But finally it was time to go.
I was given an injection of some sort of sedative to make it easier to do the spinal. I recall someone scrubbing my back in the area they were going use for it and then…it was three o’clock and I was in post-op.
At this point my legs were still numb so I really wasn’t feeling anything. I was told that the surgery had gone well and I’d be moved to my private room. I like a private room – and this hospital has only private rooms. Good deal.
After getting to the room and hearing the rules, don’t get up unassisted, really don’t get up unassisted, and never get up unassisted, I watched a bit of television and waited for the numbness to wear off. About an hour before that was calculated to happen I was given a pain killer so that when my legs were back I wouldn’t have a lot of pain all of sudden.
So far I haven’t had to have any morphine, they’ve been giving me Ultram which is strong, but not on the order of morphine. I do have some pain, but really it’s only muscle pain, like a bad strain, as the have to move the muscles out of the way to get to the bones. It hurts, but if I’m not moving it doesn’t really hurt at all and even in PT it doesn’t hurt like the ‘old pain’ did.
That afternoon, after I could feel my toes, a PT nurse came by and took me for my first walk using a walker. It was really pretty easy and didn’t feel terrible at all. A bit of pain? Yes. A lot of pain? Nope. Of course my legs might not have been completely free from the effects of the spinal, but it was a great start.
Sadly I didn’t sleep all that well last night. It wasn’t from pain in the leg though. Rather it was simply the pain of being in bed for so long without much movement. I guess I could have asked for something but I never feel that’s a wise idea for me: your mileage will vary. I did finally drift off, only to be nudged awake, presumably to see if I were sleeping. All in all, it wasn’t a bad night and I found out later that I’d gone the whole night with no pain meds after nine o’clock. I did have some in the morning though as PT started early.
This time I got to go a lot further using the walker and it felt good. I really don’t have that deep inside pain anymore. Yes! Next up was an occupational therapist to make sure I could get in and out of a shower, use the toilet, get on and off my bed, and the like. Really I had no problem with any of that. I’m stiff, but I should be okay.
A friend dropped by to visit just before lunch and I was allowed to have actual coffee. I ended up only drinking half a cup but boy did it taste good.
After lunch I had my second PT visit for the day and this time I was shown how to use crutches. My PT person was very happy with my performance and we did twice the distance of the morning. I’ve also been given a number of exercises I can do while sitting or in bed. I’m doing one even while I type.
And now? I’m beat. It’s time for a nap, so I’m going to hit the publish button and roll ove…oops, can’t roll over. Soon though I’m told. I’m a side sleeper and now that I think about it that may have played a part in my restless sleep last night. Of course it could also be the fact that I’ve just been opened up, shot full of drugs, and tool the first step to being a bionic man.
That’s all for now. Time for a rest. Surgery does take it out of you (oh, that’s bad).

It’s been too long since I’ve posted here – life has definitely conspired against my having any time. So what’s going on?
I was just in Hilo for my Dad’s 80th birthday party! It was a blast and I got to jam with my brother (in-law) Sherwood at the after-party. I played the mandolin for the first time with someone and guess what? I didn’t completely suck. How’d I do it…well…a lot of practice, keep the darn thing handy and play it whenever you have minute. I also has some help with lesson I found for free on YouTube and some I paid for from:

• The Mandolin Cafe – This online resource is simply great and has links to pretty much everything you could want.
• Homespun Music Instruction – They have a wealth of great lessons. Yes you have to pay, but they have a make a living too and…if you sign up for the mailing list the lesson you want will probably go on sale sooner rather than later…my experience anyway.
• Mike Marshall’s Artistworks Mandolin School – Mike is a super player who, when all is said and done, is actually rather famous as well. The idea here is that you do the lessons, practice, and then submit videos and he’ll comment and video back. Just watching the videos of other students and his comments is invaluable, but don’t be like me and do submit a video. Yes you have pay, but where else are you going to get a teacher like Mike?

I can’t wait to play with Sherwood again and he liked the mandolin so much he wants to get one…but don’t tell my sister!
Just before that I was in San Diego for the first time with my buddy Erich (RAGBRAI/Oregon Coast/etc) and we had a super time biking around town and acting like tourists. I’ll try to get some pictures up when I have a little more time…
And I will have a little more time soon…my hip replacement is just around the corner. Yes, the pain got bad enough last fall that I told my doc, “I’m toast. No more pain please.” He sent me off to a surgeon and I diagnosed as needing a replacement. The surgeon’s a good one; I did my research. Things should turn out well. It’s soon and I’ll be off work while I heal up and do PT so I should a lot more time for the blog.
This means I won’t be riding a bike for at least a few weeks though (and then no big rides for months or so it’s been suggested – by my surgeon), so the focus (which was pretty soft anyway) around here will change for a bit – not so much bike, a bit more music.
And on that note (ouch), have you heard The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band? No mandolin ’tis true, but excellent finger style blues! Here’s a full concert recent concert for your enjoyment:

It’s always nice to come across something that reminds you just how lovely the place you live really is. How often have I been numb to the beauty of Hawaii? Too often. Sometimes it takes a lovely video like this to remind me to open my eyes next time I’m outside.

House of Clouds from Julian Tryba on Vimeo.

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted last and really I have little excuse other than sloth. ‘Tis true I’ve been very busy at work recently as we work our way through the latest bunch of projects. I’ve also been a little too tired too often.
This really is a medical problem and it doesn’t have much to do with sleep. As I’ve mentioned in the past my hip has been in real trouble for some time. It’s timee to get it replaced and I have found a surgeon to do the deed. I feel comfortable with him and he has a good record of success (and hips are pretty much all he does). Unfortunately the earliest we can do it is in late April. Both our schedules are overbooked earlier in the year. Ah me.
In any case the tiredness is because it’s really hard to be in pain a lot. Really. I don’t recommend you try it, but if you’ve been there you know what I mean.
Oddly I’m still riding my bicycles. Thankfully, even though walking is a real chore, riding continues to be a great blessing. Good stuff.
My friend Erich was in town over the holidays with friends and we spent a good deal of it on our bikes or playing lawn bowls. More on that later if I get a chance.
Then I rode out to Malaekahana (55+ miles one way) for another camping trip, just a quick overnighter, but it sure was fun. I didn’t do much photography, but I did get a shot of a horse waiting for bus…yep:

My plan at the moment is to train hard as if I were getting ready for RAGBRAI (which I’m not going to do this year) so that when I do get the new hip my recovery should be a bit easier.
Aloha!

I rode in our monthly hohoholo ride yesterday. The ride’s mission, from their Facebook page, is:
Our mission is to conscientiously, safely and motivationally promote awareness for the absolute necessity of safe cycling space on the streets of Hawaii, Oahu and Honolulu. We promote these ideals through our monthly ride on the last Friday of every month.
It was a lot of fun and to good purpose to boot. You just can’t beat that.

[Saturday July 20, 2013]
Saturday was the day of the “big move.” That is to say we checked out of our Omaha hotel, the Candlewood Suites Omaha Airport. I stayed here last time I was in Omaha for RAGBRAI and it’s a great place. The staff is friendly and helpful, the rooms are clean, laundry is free, and it’s near enough (by bike) to the good stuff in Omaha (and the airport) that you’d have to look hard to do better for this style of hotel.
[I don’t have stock, I just want them to stay in business for my next RAGBRAI.]
Erich and I had scoped out the Pork Belly campsite the day before so after eating breakfast, packing up, and checking out we headed out. Our mission today was pretty simple:

• Drop off my stuff at the campsite
• Meet Mary Ann and visit the bike expo
• Check into our hotel
• Take Mary Ann out for dinner
• Get a good night’s rest

Getting to the campsite was pretty convoluted as their seemed to be a lot of highway construction going on. Erich remarked that all the topsoil they seemed to be removing should really be shipped to Colorado which has a deficit of the stuff.
In any case we made it to the camp, found my tent, found Mary Ann and began our RAGBRAI 2013 adventure.
The bike expo is a big part of the RAGBRAI on the first day. There are a lot of vendors who come out to sell products as well as agencies promoting causes, health agencies, charities, and one of my favorites, Team Archaeology, a partnership of Iowa archaeology and geological resources.
Most of these folks have give-aways and it is generally possible to get more swag than you can actually carry. I tried to stick to things you could eat; beef jerky, Clif Bar products, and whatnot. I also stocked up on lip balm, something I was immensely grateful for later in the ride.
I also ran into the Ergon folks and purchased a new set of Ergon grips for my Friday. The fellow manning the booth was truly helpful, giving me a great discount, installing the grips in place of my old ones, and even pointing out where I’d gone wrong in installing my original set (backwards of course – and they still worked!).
After lunch, pork tenderloin grilled on a stick – an Iowa favorite, Erich and I decamped for the hotel and rest out of the heat of the day.
Mary Ann wanted to attend Mass that afternoon before dinner so we picked her up in Erich’s rental and dropped her off at church and we went to check out restaurants. At first we’d thought about an Italian place, but they were overbooked and could only offer us outside seating, which would have been fine on a cooler day, but as they weren’t taking reservations we’d have to hurry back after getting Mary Ann.
Instead Erich, with me in tow, went exploring with his car and…lo and behold, we found the Italian section of Omaha. It’s really just a town where Italian immigrants had settled many years ago and were it not for the Italian names on some businesses you’d never know it from any other part of town, but we struck gold…Cascio’s Steakhouse.
This 65 year our Omaha institution is something, as Erich says, out of the Godfather. Assuming of course that the Corleone family had moved to Omaha instead of New York and had taken up restraurants instead of crime. It’s huge place with seating for hundreds no doubt, if you consider the banquet rooms and multiple dining rooms.
They serve steak.
I’m sure they have other things as well, but steak is what they do best. I had the owners favorite sirloin if I recall, Erich and Mary Ann went for filets. None of us left hungry or unhappy. Check the place out of you are in Omaha. I now have two favorite Omaha restaurants.
It was then time to rest up. We dropped Mary Ann off at the camp and departed for our hotel. We decided we’d go to a movie to pass the evening away and conveniently there was a theatre complex right next to our hotel, didn’t even have to cross a street. This was a great theatre. Each of the screening rooms had limited seating and all of those seats were recliners. Seriously. You could really get comfortable and we did.
After the movie we made it back to the hotel properly tired out and ready to catch some Zs. Soon enough we’d be on the road in what we expected would be the summer heat so we enjoyed our last hours of air conditioning.
The alarm rang and it was time to ride…

[Friday July 19, 2013]
rich had arrived the previous night, and given that the day was likely to be on the warmish side, if not really hot, we decided to bike to breakfast early. The place I’d decided on was a place called Wheatfield’s in Omaha’s Old Market District.
The food was excellent and plentiful. That’s really something you don’t see in Hawaii that often. I had a Kielbasa sausage with eggs. I miss sausage from the midwest. I used to get great ones in Milwaukee and that’s probably what inspired this breakfast for me.
We biked around the Old Market a bit and figured out what to do with ourselves for the rest of the day. This included another trip to the bike shop, a smoothie at a great coffee shop, Blueline Coffee. I would end up at this coffee shop more than once. It’s a keeper – they even have watermelon Italian soda (really just syrup with soda but who has watermelon? – very refreshing).
We also bike around near the river and saw great things like Ameritrade Park where the College World Series is held:

The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge – that’s me dipping my tire in the Missouri River:

There are a lot of trails around the river in this area and it’s really quite lovely. The tire dipping above actually happened on the Council Bluffs side of the river and not the Omaha side but is more or less part of the same system.
Omaha has a long history of organized labor and has a whole park that seems to be dedicated to it with much statuary:

Then it was time for a nap.
Our next mission was to scout out the camping site for Pork Belly Ventures where we’d going the next day. It was in Council Bluffs at the site of the one of the big casinos there…pretty urban really, but that’s okay, we weren’t actually going to be camping. Just switching motels.
This trip to Council Bluffs was done in Erich’s rental car as we really just wanted it over with.
We also hit up the local Walmart for a few odds and ends and my gosh, it was more or less the biggest I’ve seen (not, mind you, that I make a big habit of Walmarts).
After all the errands we had dinner at one of my two favorite Omaha restaurants: Ahmad’s Persian. I ate here the first time I was in Omaha and the owner came out and chatted and, best of the all, the food was excellent. Erich has never had Persian food before (and was willing to try as long as it didn’t contain curry – it doesn’t).

After that we had an ice cream and called it quits for the day. We wanted to get an early start on the fun the next day and had to pack up and move, attend the expo, meet up with our buddy Mary Ann and generally cause havoc. It would be a mission accomplished but that’s a story for another post.

http://veloahu.tumblr.com/post/56241990908/71-degrees-on-ragbrai-amazing-thank-you-van
Totally okay with me!