1st day back on the bike! :)

I'm happy!  I just rode my bike for the first time in 36 days!

I decided it was finally time!  The incision seems to be staying together enough and it was a gorgeous day here--perfect for riding a bike!  :) So I rode around Lake Monona (in the city on the bike path) about 12-15 miles give or take. I must have had a smile on my face the whole time because I couldn't actually believe I was riding! It has been  a long time--36 days to be exact! I just rode easy with no power tap, no computer, no measurements and no pressure (not in my tires! :) ) It felt good but I am really tired and hungry now! I stopped to talk to a guy who was doing this cool metal sculpture and tried to enjoy the scenery a bit. Lots of families out on their bikes today so I had to be alert for sketchy children riding randomly but overall I wasn't scared at all. I thought I might be but I wasn't. My legs felt really good but I could feel it when I would hit a bump. My lungs unfortunately need a lot of work! At about the half way point on the ride I saw one of those speed limit machines going up a hill. I tried to push it a little and got up to 15mph on the incline!  :)  Kind of slow but I guess I haven't lost my competitive spirit. It has been a great day so far! YAY!

My team mates are out in Tulsa in what sounds like a crash fest! OMG!  The word "crash" just makes me cringe right now. I hate to see people get hurt, especially my team mates. It sounds like most everyone in the peleton is ok but Kristin reported a few more "serious" injuries yesterday. I think she was the only Kenda girl to go down but it sounds like she got up and walked out of it with only some minor road rash. I hope that everyone else will be ok! 

Krystal, Mike, Kristin, Me and Ashley at Snake Alley

Last weekend I went to Snake Alley, Melon City and Quad Cities crits with Kristin and Ashley and Cider our little doggie mascot. Of course I just went along to spectate and take a few photos but still had a great time. We met Catherine and Krystal there along with Mike, our team mechanic and his awesome wife Mary!  We also got to cheer for Megan doing the Cat 4 women's race at Quad Cities! We all had a great time hanging out together and Team Kenda brought home some great results too! Kristin and Catherine took 5th and 6th respectively at the Snake and at both Melon City and Quad Cities Catherine was 3rd for a podium finish each day for Kenda. Ashley unfortunately had a mechanical at the Snake and got sick the day after. Krystal rode strong in both the 2/3 and Pro 1/2 women's races and Mike had a great Cobble Climb in his kilt finishing 2nd in his age group!  Kudos to all my team mates and also to Mary for all the baked goods, oreos, animal crackers and good humor! :) I had made a list of the awesome amount of gross food I ate last weekend but seem to have conveniently lost it. Hmmm.  :)  It all started out with Cheetos and a Slushie at the gas station and led to going off the (vegetarian) wagon with the Chicken on a Stick (but I will keep reminding you all that it was REAL chicken not that fake spongy stuff!) and ending somewhere with a big piece of chocolate cake. There was a lot of other nastiness in between and I will post the whole list if I find it. :)

Here are some pics of our weekend!  In the first one it shows my hair after I used Ashley's straightening iron in the morning! It was fun to lose the curls for a day but I thought I looked sort of weird.

My hair after the flat iron. Jury is still out. I think I look weird in a rock star sort of way.

Ashley buys her secret weapon food for the Snake!

Mike rocks the Cobble Climb!

Kristin tackling the Snake!

Crap! Got pipped at the line by a rider on my wheel for 10 laps!

Catherine and Kristin push the pace at Melon City

Catherine on the podium at Melon City

Mary takes time off from her "soigneur" duties :)

Krystal rocks it at Quad Cities!

Megan corners hard in the Cat 4 race at Quad!

Our mascot Cider with Mr. Beaver!

I'm Carefree!! Wheeeee!

Yesterday I realized I had run out of bandages so I strapped a Carefree pad to my leg! Very soft and absorbent enough to take care of the remaining ooze!  hahaha

Freaky Karma!

The last week or so has been a crazy series of misadventures and I'm not so sure why the Karma has been so weird! To start off--I finally had my staples taken out last Monday and was relieved. It was interesting because the resident doctor took out the staples with his little tool and then said he thought I might need some steri strips to hold one end of the wound shut as it was still a little raw. He called in the "real" doctor for his opinion which was to leave it open.  At this point I did not look at my leg and decided to trust what he was saying. It is sort of hard seeing the back of my leg without a mirror but the next day I took a look and saw that the end of the wound was gaping open!  Yeesh!  I put a piece of tape on it and then spoke to the nurse at our school later that day.  She said that I definitely needed a couple steri strips and put them on for me.  It sort of made me mad that the doctor was teaching this resident and that the resident actually had the right answer but the doctor said I didn't need the strips!  Yeah, it's the back of my leg but it is MY leg and I'd kind of like to keep the scar to a minimum! Anyway, the following day at work my leg was itching like crazy!  I initially thought it was all the healing but when I got home and looked it turned out I had a really gross poison ivy-like oozing blister rash right where the steri strips had been!  I did some research on line and sure enough found out I had some weird allergic reaction to the strips!  Crap!  It was bad enough having this open wound but I really wanted to scratch my leg right off. I found some poison ivy calamine cream in my medicine cabinet but it was tough to sleep that night! With this wound still oozing and open there went the prospect of getting to the pool last week!  :(

My leg after the staples were gone! :)

Once I got the itching under control things were a bit better but that night at 2:00 am my carbon monoxide detector went off and scared the crap out of me.  I kept thinking it was the smoke detector but couldn't really tell where it was coming from. After disabling all the smoke detectors I realized it was the carbon monoxide detector. I called a friend and she told me I needed to call the fire dept. I thought that was kind of silly but probably better than not waking up the next day so I hesitantly dialed 911. The guy on the other end was nice and said I was definitely doing the right thing by calling. I told him to tell the fire dept. not to turn on their siren.  :)  Three firefighters showed up. I asked if they had been sleeping and had to quickly slide down the pole and get to their truck in a hurry.  They laughed and said that the pole sliding was out a long time ago.  They checked out my furnace and several other things and determined that the detector was faulty and should be replaced.  Phew!  Well, at least I was going to wake up to see another day.  I was so jacked up after that I couldn't really sleep.

Firefighters checking my furnace!

As my leg was healing the days were getting warmer and I was itching to ride--or at least swim. The weekend was finally here and I still couldn't swim or ride because that stupid wound was still open. Oh well, I guess I will do the next best thing--get the DRAGON out of my garage! The DRAGON, otherwise known as the Green Dragon, is the car that I got after my poor green beetle burnt up in the Nevada dessert last summer. It is a sweet custom GTI that I got from a guy in Chicago and my friends call it the "gangbanger" or the "pimp mobile".  Ok, it is a little flashy with it's tinted windows, 19" chrome rims, racing wheels and low rider style but it is a sexy little monster with a huge supercharger and kick ass alpine stereo system complete with tv screens! When I bought this car you have to realize I was traumatized by the loss of the beetle and didn't even want to buy a car. When I saw this gorgeous, fast green baby I thought--what a perfect time for a mid-life crisis car! And I bought it. Well, of course it was too low and beautiful for the Wisconsin winter so I kept it in my garage and bought a late 80's era Volvo for $800 from a college kid for the winter.  I call it the White Beast!  It is an amazing car and is one of those old heavy cars made from real metal!  It really is a Beast of a car and is an awesome winter beater!

Beautiful DRAGON!

Friendly BEAST!

So my friend Joe, who knows all about cars, came over to help me charge up the battery in the Dragon and we decided to drive her around the block for a test. As I was backing out of the driveway I hit this funky piece of cement that sticks out of my driveway about 6 inches. This piece was put in by the previous owner of the house to prevent water from draining into the garage. Well, in backing out the Dragon I bottomed out on it and it sounded bad. Joe said "nah, it's probably just the shield on the bottom of the car."  We drove it around the block and luckily not too far because when we got back and got out of the car I noticed something dripping on the driveway. I looked under the car and oil was POURING out! OMG! I had punctured the oil pan on that stupid cement chunk!!! Ahhhhhhh! Poor Dragon but it could have been much worse. Thankfully we didn't drive it too far or the engine would have seized up and that would have been the end of the Dragon! The worst part was that it was Saturday night and I couldn't have it towed until Monday. Ok, don't things come in 3's? I think this is about it for now! :) Freaky Karma indeed!!!!

DRAGON engine!

DRAGON stereo and TV!

I was sort of afraid to leave my house but even laying in bed was apparently not safe so Sunday I went to the Willy St. crits to cheer on my Kenda teammates! This year the race took place on the capitol square since there was some sort of construction on Willy St. It was a great race--fast from the gun--and lots of great midwest riders were there. Kristin won a cash prime and also a fully paid 14 days Superweek entry!!! Kristen Meshberg, a friend of mine from Illinois and riding for BH USA, took a convincing overall win over Kenda Kristin who got 2nd. She is such an amazing sprinter and BH had a really strong team there yanking the front on that last lap from what I could see.  Jill ended up 5th and I think Shelley took 13th.  Theresa, Ashley and Imelda were also representing but I am not sure where they finished! It was so much fun to go out and see everyone and cheer and take some photos and also say hi to Meredith and the IS Corps girls as well as some of my friends from Mad City Velo.  About 30 girls showed up for the race so it was a great turnout and awesome weather to spectate. Kristin, Jill and I got to hang out afterwards and have some food and drinks at the Irish pub.  We sat at an outdoor table right on the race course where we could watch the men's pro race. It was a really fun day and nothing bad happened!  :) Here are a few photos that I took!

Shelley, Jill, Imelda and Kristin by the capitol

Imelda, Kristin, Me, Jill and Shelley

Jill and Theresa get ready to race

Ashley at the start

Shelley leads the pack on her pink BLUE!

I KILLED MRS. FRISBY!!!! Poor little creature :( :(

Mrs. Frisby---R.I.P.

Ever since I found that first little mouse poo on my kitchen counter I knew that I was living amongst uninvited creatures once again. Creatures just seem to find me. For some reason they know I don't eat them, kill them or mind them. I have lived with such creatures as raccoons in the chimney, squirrels in the attic and the house, mice in the walls and even snakes in the basement. The snake was the freakiest but my neighbor got him out in a hurry. Of course I am especially a rodent lover having raised two lovely rats a few years back. Finding mouse poo on the kitchen counter though is going a bit too far. This was going to have to stop. It all started when I found holes in my pumpkin seed and soy nut bags from the bulk section at Copps. I picked them up the next morning and they were full of holes and then I saw the poo. Eeek! Mice are cute but not where I eat!

I decided to get one of those live traps at the hardware store and set it up in the kitchen. I baited it with the soy nuts but nothing! For weeks no catch, yet I was finding mouse poo on the counter whenever I would leave bits of food out. Ok, well, I wasn't sure what to do until one night when I saw her! Right on the kitchen sink was Mrs. Frisby! She was standing there looking at me and then when I yelled she ran down the side of the counter and smooshed her fat little self flat and went right under the door to the basement! Sneaky little creature! At least I knew where she was coming from.

Mrs. Frisby was aptly named after my favorite literary heroine--Mrs. Frisby from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. In this lovely little story she actually escaped from a cage in a farmer's kitchen and saved the day! Well she did much more than that but that was part of it!

Read it! It's a great book!

So each time I came and went I decided to put tin foil under the door to block her from coming back. For some reason I didn't put the trap in the basement. Not sure why. So one night I was out after dark and forgot to block the door but immediately blocked it when I came in. Well, it wasn't five seconds later while putting the tea kettle on that out of the corner of my eye I see a little mouse! Mrs. Frisby had found her way in when I was gone and was now trapped inside. She saw me and ran under the refrigerator. I opened the door to the basement and propped up a paper bag so she would have to jump in there first to escape! I thought maybe I could grab the bag and then get her outside. I sat in silence on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes waiting for her to appear but she never came. Finally I just unblocked the door and went to bed thinking she would eventually leave and go back to the basement or wherever she was living.

Well, about this time was when I had my little accident in Iowa and did not come home for several days. The day I got home I did look in the live trap but there was nothing there. I then went to recuperate at my parent's house though did come every other day to check my email here as my parents don't have a computer. I periodically checked the trap but nothing was there. I figured Mrs. Frisby was living happily with her babies somewhere and was about to completely invade my house one of these days but I wasn't really worried.

The day I moved back home I noticed a raunchy odor and thought to myself--"I better take the trash out!" The next day it seemed to disappear but the day after that it was worse and then the day after even worse. I noticed the smell was very strong when I got near the floor to look under the fridge to see if I had some old food hiding under there and realized the smell was coming from the live trap! OH NO!!!  I didn't even want to look but as I peered through the vents I saw a motionless shadow! OMG! NOOO!!!!! After all the effort to save Mrs. Frisby she had died of starvation in the live trap!! Poor little Mrs. Frisby! Had I wanted to kill her I would have bought a regular mouse trap and snapped her to save her the suffering!  I felt awful and went running out of the house freaking out with the trap in my hand! I opened up the lid and there she was--just looking like she was sleeping (as you can see from the photo). She looked like a healthy little mouse but alas she was not meant to live!  

Poor little sweet creature

I gave her a proper burial near the flowers and weeds growing near the house. Poor Mrs. Frisby. I can only hope that her life was good while it lasted........

Healing!!!

Two days after surgery!

I haven't been in the hospital as an inpatient for almost 20 years so this was sort of a new experience for me! I can hardly believe it has been 2 weeks today that I was being wheeled back to my room after surgery!  Anyway, I was told I would have to stay in the hospital for a couple days to make sure everything was going ok before I headed home to Madison.  I have to say that the experience overall was not that bad for a hospital. Everyone from the admissions staff to the nurses, NA's, residents and Dr.'s were amazing and really helped me to remain calm throughout the experience.  I kept telling the nurses that I felt like I was at a spa!  I got my legs massaged with those anti-blood clotting machines, watched cable TV,  got to eat anything from the menu which came like room service and didn't have to go to work--so I guess it was sort of like a vacation in a way.  :)

Unfortunately I missed the race (Old Capitol Crit) on Sunday but Jess and Kristin came by before the race to check on me and I made them promise to kick ass for me!  They called after the race very excited and I found out Kristin had won, Catherine had gotten 2nd, Jill 4th and Jess 9th! What an amazing day for Team Kenda!  Kristin came back later and brought her podium flowers which consisted of a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses with a blue ribbon wrapped around! So awesome!  Kristin got some host housing with Robin that evening so she could stay and drive me home on Monday. Thanks to both of them for helping me out so much! I also got some calls from the rest of the girls before they headed for home and a great pep talk from Catherine so thanks to all for keeping me from getting too bummed out!!

When I met Dr. Kealey Sunday morning he told me that the verdict was a ruptured artery. Luckily he said that the dying tissue had pinked right up and that the artery had clotted off.  He said I should be ok as far as not needing a skin graft though could not be sure until I healed a bit further.  He also told me I must adhere to taking 30 days off the bike as it takes this long for any wound to heal and reach 30% burst strength. Wow! That is crazy! Anyway he did say if I were to push it that a cyst would most likely form in my hip causing another mandatory surgery and skin graft!  OMG!  I am definitely listening to the Dr. this time! It is going to suck but before I know it 30 days will be over but my fitness will be gone!  :(

So, Kristin drove me home and I spent most of last week at my parent's house recuperating. They were so generous and took such great care of me it was like continuing my vacation after the hospital.  I did lots of reading and sleeping, ate lots of healthy, organic food and vitamins and drank tons of water. My parents are retired so I think they sort of enjoyed having me around.  :)

Aren't they cute?

This past Monday I went to see the trauma surgeon here at UW hospital to get my surgical drain removed.  Being an athlete I think I have a pretty high tolerance for physical pain though was absolutely petrified to get this tube yanked out of my leg. It was in there about a foot or so, so I could not imagine how it would feel getting pulled out!  Thankfully the Dr. explained it all and did a pretty good job and all I felt was a burning/pinching sensation for about 5 seconds and it was over! It did make a sort of slooshing sound which was really gross but I was so relieved when it was over!  One more step in the healing process! Unfortunately he told me the staples have to stay in another week and they are now getting very irritated and I can't wait until they are gone!!

In the mean time I went back to work Wednesday just in time for our school to have the first district wide diagnosed case of Swine Flu/H1H1 virus!  I figured I have had enough bad luck for a while so just told the kids to wash their hands with soap and sterilize the tables.  I guess there is really nothing we can do except take regular precautions and try not to freak out. I think the media has really overhyped it all anyway and soon it will hopefully be over.

There is much more I could type but this has gotten really long. Time to eat my mango and get to bed!  :)  Thanks for reading! :)

MO's Blog Revival

Me, Jess, Catherine, Jill, Kristin at Hillsboro

Well, I know I have not been the best blogger since my time out west but I was interrupted mainly by the nasty car accident I had on the way home from Oregon in July.  So much has happened since then I don't know where to start but I have some pretty amazing (and depressing) photos of the poor beetle burning up in the dessert leaving me stranded with nothing and eventually being rescued by the Red Cross.  I think I will save the long version of this story for later. It is still pretty depressing to think about. I have decided to make my blog more than just about bike building and to incorporate other cycling and life adventures!

This year I had a goal to continue my road back to fitness after my hiatus in Asia and my training has been going very well.  I did a series of Indoor Time Trials this winter which really helped my fitness along. I have been racing with Team Kenda again this year and our team is amazing all around having taken several regional wins and podium finishes already!  I am very proud of our team this year and our overall team chemistry makes us a force to be reckoned with. Another rider's blog refers to us as "the Green Monster known as Kenda" which I found very cute and also fitting.  We are really tearing it up this year and that is in part due to our team commitment and unselfishness by all riders.  It has been so much fun racing with all the amazing women so far.  The women in the Midwest from other teams are really cool this year and have been very encouraging to each other.  The rivalry stays on the road and I have made many friends on other teams which I like. I think we should all make an effort to support women's racing as a whole.

A couple weeks ago I did the first local crit at Research Park in Madison.  Not many women showed up--only about 9--but I was able to get into my first break in a long time helping me gain a bit more confidence about my fitness and about racing over all.  I ended up 3rd which I felt good about though I need to kick up the training on my sprint!  Step by step it is all coming back together and I am enjoying racing more than I ever have!

Last weekend I travelled to Iowa with Kristin, Jill, Jess and Catherine to do the Iowa City Road Race and the Old Capitol Crit.  These two races are really fun and our team hoped to make a good showing.  On Saturday the 52 mile road race began with a threat of rain but the rain seemed to hold off.  The course was a rolling country route of 4 thirteen mile loops.  Kenda did a great job on the offensive and we kept attacking and stringing out the group hoping to get Kristin and Catherine in the break.  I made an attack attempt near the end of lap one and it nearly wasted me.  I remember the days of being able to keep doing it over and over but I guess once is a good start!  A little while later I was able to get back on the front and Kristin attacked with Jill on her wheel. I know the two of them are very strong but also knew no one would let them get away.  The group started to chase while I fell to the rear of the group wasted and not yet recovered from my attack.  I got gapped with a few riders yet behind me as we approached the start/finish line and took the first corner a bit too fast.  I saw the ditch approaching and realized the corner was much tighter than I had anticipated.  It was either try to be like Lance and do a cyclocross move into the ditch or go down. Unfortunately I didn't really have time to think and locked it up and layed it down.  Aaaacckk!  At first I was a bit worried about my new bike but then realized it was ok.  Just a minor scrape on the SRAM Red crank :( and a bent derailleur hanger which a mechanic fixed on the spot.  I noticed my hip felt "tingly" but aside from that only my forearm and ankle had any marks on them.  I was approached by Jeremy Sartaine, a cat 1 rider and nurse.  He suggested I get up and ride around so that I got the blood flowing again and didn't get stiff. So he and I rode down the course and back about 5 miles and I felt ok though a little sore.  I got back to the S/F area and got an ice pack which felt very good and the hip did not seem to be in too much trouble at the time. 

I went to the finish line to watch Kenda finish the race and I was happy to see Catherine pull out the sprint!  It was amazing to see her come from no where and pull that off in the end.  In any event, by that point my hip had what looked like a baseball growing on it and after that it progressively got bigger and bigger and bigger. I found Jeremy and he suggested going in to "have it drained."  I thought this meant a big needle and it made me a bit anxious but after seeing my growing hip Kristin thought it a good idea to find an emergency room. We found our friend Robin, who rides for Mercy Cycling and is a med student in Iowa and we ended up at the University of Iowa hospital emergency room.

When the nurse took me back she thought I had an ice pack in my sweats but I explained to her this was my leg and nothing was there. Once I dropped trou in the exam room she called immediately for the Dr's who still took over 30 minutes to arrive.  I was lucky to have Jess and Kristin there with me to keep me occupied and entertained. Once the Dr's arrived they exclaimed that this was the biggest hematoma they had ever seen and they called in the trauma surgeons.  The trauma surgeons, with an impressed look on their face, passed the ball to the head of trauma, Dr. Kealey, who drove in from on call. He was a very cool "more experienced" doctor and knew all about cycling, etc. He told me I needed emergency surgery because this thing had gotten so large that the blood supply was already cut off in my leg and my tissue was going necrotic (dying) and that it could result in a skin graft if not resolved asap!  ( I later found out that I had ruptured an artery in my hip which was the cause of the bleeding!)  At this point I got a little nervous as they were hooking me up to IV's, etc and bringing in the anesthesiologist to discuss knocking me out.  I was able to plead a quick call to my parents to let them know what was up and the next thing I knew I was being wheeled to the operating room and given a nice drug that made me laugh.  I didn't remember much after that except for waking up in the recovery room with a guy that had been mugged and needed surgery on 3 stab wounds to his stomach.

Here is the nice hematoma growing on my hip

It got huge!!!

Kristin and Jess were there an hour later when I came out of surgery with a nice drain and in my hip and 12 staples in my ass/back of leg. Wow!  What would probably 9 times out of 10 be just a case of road rash and a bruised ego had turned into quite an ordeal and I would spend the next two days in the hospital in Iowa.

Here is my hip after the surgery!

I think I will just post the photos and leave it at this for now and tell the rest of the story later. I has been a whirlwind of craziness but I appreciate all the support I have received from my team mates and other women racers!  Stay tuned for the next installment very soon!