...and a weekend made for riding
I guess I knew there would be ups and downs to this recovery exercise...
It was an interesting week. Weatherwise it was very wet, which may have been a good thing because it forced me to take a break. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself.
Monday and Tuesday were pretty good days. My days were spent working, splitting the time between the office and working at home. My exercise for both days - walking. While I don't mind walking in the rain, I'm still not too excited about riding in the rain, and since I have an option because I'm not traveling, I opted for foot travel as my exercise.
Wednesday was a bad day overall. I woke up feeling extremely dizzy, and because of that feeling I didn't feel capable of driving anywhere. I did very little work, all of it from home. At one point I thought I should take a walk, so I headed outside. I didn't get too far from my front door when I realized that there was probably a fairly good chance that I was going to fall and hit the ground. Not a good idea, so I headed back inside. No walk today...
Thursday was the day of the doctor's appointment from hell. OK, OK, I know that's probably not totally fair. It was my long-awaited followup appointment with the neurosurgeon - the one that was delayed for two weeks. Mass General is a teaching hospital, and I expected the visit to be with a resident. But it turned out to be with a more junior doc than I expected. I believe that the appointment was just a means of closing out the hospital visit, but of course I was also trying to get a clue to my continued dizziness. I'd like to figure out how not to have more days like Wednesday. When I mentioned my dizziness, the doc suggested that I make an appointment with my primary care physician to have my blood pressure checked. Hmmm... Couldn't he have checked it for me? He pointed out to me that they wouldn't do surgery for light-headedness. Silly me, I thought that a neurosurgeon could help me understand a condition left by my brain injury. Of course I found it interesting that when he came back from consulting with the doc whose name was on my appointment, he told me that the condition was probably a "concussive effect" from the accident. I already knew it was related to my injuries! Needless to say, I wasn't happy with his non-answers. And I'm well aware that there might not be any answers and that this may be something I have to live with for a while. But in the meantime I did make an appointment for next week to see my own doctor, who is an absolute gem. Maybe she can give me some tips on how to deal with (improve?) my continued dizziness.
On Friday I was pretty much back to my current version of normal. I headed into the office for a part of the day, then came home and finished my work day here. It was another walking day...
Wait, isn't biking the point of this journal? Of course it is!
The weekend finally rolled around with a wonderful, sunny Saturday morning. But it's a mountain stage in the Tour de France, and somehow I've managed to get hooked on watching the race. If I was at my normal energy level - before accident, that is - I would have headed out for a long ride early this morning and I would have watched the race replay at night. Since I'm not up to a long ride at this point I chose to watch the race as it unfolded. Then it was time for some food - got to keep those calories coming in - and time to head out on my bike. I ran out of energy after only 12 miles - a first for me - so I stopped to pick up another bottle of Gatorade and an ice cream sandwich. I have a habit of taking 2 water bottles with me when I ride around home - one filled with water and one filled with Gatorade. On short rides, it seems like water should be sufficient, but that's not working for me right now. And on Saturday it appeared that I needed two bottles of Gatorade, not one! The total mileage for my Saturday ride was 24 miles - a short ride in the overall scheme of things, but a long ride at this stage of my recovery.
I had a very strange wildlife encounter on my Saturday ride. There was a groundhog sitting in the middle of the driving lane on one of the quiet back roads. I didn't even realize what it was until I was pretty close, and I was close to the right edge of the road. The groundhog was definitely in the middle of the driving lane. As I rode by it started making what I assume were groundhog noises, and also started moving towards me. I was glad I was on the bike and above the level of its teeth! The bike probably scared him, but I definitely wasn't ready for an animal encounter!
Ah, Sunday, another biking day... I managed a 22 mile ride, not spectacular from a distance standpoint - but I did say that I would work up to distance slowly. And my body seems to be forcing that issue. 22 miles was more than enough today. Bummer.
On the one hand I got two good rides in over the weekend. On the other, I really wanted to do more. I know I have to accept what I'm managing as progress, but my impatience is definitely bubbling over!
