Let’s ride! No wait, let’s not!

Sorry, @kingaucho. I need a week or so to get back on the bike. Conveniently, work is bustling, a nice distraction.

I had no idea how messed up I got from the couple of rock climbing falls I took over the weekend.

1) “Daisy” fall. Where you are moving from one gear placement to the next, and before you can unclip your daisy chain from the previous one, the new gear blows and you take a short fall onto said daisy. Climbers talk about rupturing internal organs this way. Maybe an exaggeration. I’ve taken a couple before, never had my back so jacked up by it. But this is more of the same injury I dealt with earlier this year, so no surprise. Don’t be cruel to your spine.

2) Fall onto rope. If there is a good amount of rope out, like over 50’, the stretch will soften the catch. But you take the unknowns that come with being completely out of control. You could hit a ledge, projection or slab. My hand had to have hit something –no way holding a MTB grip with any force. Hand and four fingers affected.

These happened halfway up the route, so I probably did half the damage just finishing up.

Time heals all. I should be RTR by the time the next wave of SoCal’ers come up.

 

Dude! Bummer on the injuries. Take care of yourself and heal up quick, but don't push it to early.

 

Hard to like that post. Heal up quick and well, my friend.

 

Kick your feet up and consider the badassness of the circumstances that led to your condition. Memories may cover you for a while and anticipation will take over once you turn the corner. Hang in there Mike!

 

Well that sucks and blows at the same time!

Heal thyself, good sir.

 

Awe Mike, sorry to hear this! Hope your injuries heal up fully and quickly!

 

I’d give advice, but you know more about injury recovery than all of us. I just hope this one goes smoothly, and with no complications or setbacks.

In a week or two we'll return to our regularly scheduled jealousy of your exploits.

 

Heal up, @mike! We'll meet for a beer instead of a ride!

 

Hope it goes well, @mike . You'll be back at it in no time.

 

Take care of your hands. They take forever to heal as we get older

 

Magic balls?

 

@mike it's but a small speed bump. You like the rest of us, will heal just enough to convince ourselves we are good to go....so we do.

 

Would you like to hold my balls?

 

This makes the booboo on my elbow seem really insignificant now.

 

WOW, you talk about these things like it's the norm. Get healed.

 

The sage wisdom I expect from this pack. Thanks, guys.

@rossage, so poignant, the hand thing. I’ve had a spate of hand and finger injuries in recent years, and they are a bitch to get fully healed. As bad as wrists, worse than ribs!

Nothing bad at all about my deal; I’m happy to climb and hike out on my own. Just bad enough to not be able to ride. I thought this post might keep me from having to explain why I’m not on the trails in perfect conditions...

The best is yet to come up here. Looking forward to riding it and sharing with some of y’all.

 

Could of been worse? Glad to hear you got back on your own. Heal up quick Mike O!

 

Damn falling in to rocks is never a good thing no matter how you manage to do it. After pile driving myself in to a rock pile in Ojai on a pile of Yeti 5.5 a wise man named @mike once told me this...

Heal strong and enjoy those little pains that remind you that only lame people stay home and never get hurt.

These are words to live by pal, hope you get to feeling better quick...

 

Haha!!!! VT nails it...again

@Grego, my worst fear was having to ask Brant to lead after talking big about charging it. Could have been worse, yes. I was right in that spot some years ago and the rock was wet with runoff, my buddy whipped off from 15’ up and when I caught the 30 footer, two fingers got jammed in the directional ‘biner at the anchor. I could not have free climbed it to save my buddy or me with those cryp fingers. We bailed off from that position way TF out right of the line on super overhanging rock. Kristoffer down aided and tensioned a wild route back to the previous anchor. We got some serious experience that day, testing the limit of our descending skills. You can bet that crossed my mind last Saturday when I was 15’ above Brant looking in my lamp beam for the gear placement.

 

I braved traffic to go to 7-11 for a Slurpee today! Almost closed my fingers in the car door.

We are kindred spirits!

 

You talking about massive, solid things whizzing about in all directions, piloted by random persons (assuming) of unknown consciousness? Damn right that sounds necky...good send!!!!!!!!

Now what we need is some full-body gesticulating at a campfire, woohoo. There I was...

 

In the spirit of this thread, I may be pulling off of the Big Bear/Skyline ride this Saturday.

Sunday morning I woke with a vaguely familiar feeling in my lower left leg - a feeling I had 20 years ago that started with a generalized ache and became excruciating pain. In 1997, that pain was caused by a blood clot in my leg. I've been on blood-thinners ever since - with no issues.

Yesterday, that same pain appeared, so in the spirit of "don't F@ck with blood clots" I went to my local ER (Mission - South Laguna). After a full day in the ER including bloodwork, ultrasound and a CT chest scan, they saw no evidence of a new clot. Just residual damage from the old ones in my leg. So what explains the excruciating pain that shot to 11 after I tried to walk to the bathroom? And the 20-30 minutes it took to recover from that pain until my leg stopped hurting again? And the fact that I can't walk? "Dunno..." What's the treatment? "Dunno..." What tests are next? "Nothing really... but we will admit you to the hospital overnight for observation." Well isn't that helpful! The doc did inform me that I am extremely healthy, according to the numbers. So I got that going for me...

View from my LB Hospital room:


Well since the leg was beginning to feel better (so I thought) and there was no plan, and no treatment, we decided to check out rather than spend the night. Oh - and I was supposed to report back to work today.

To my dismay, I didn't spontaneously recover overnight, and as I type this, I still can't walk more than ten steps without vaulting myself into severe pain. I have activated my primary care doc and the vascular surgeon with whom I work in the Hoag system in the hopes that they are better informed and equipped to help me.

Bottom line - I am unlikely to be attending this Saturday's shindig at Big Bear.

 

Wow, sorry to hear this. Getting older sucks. Do what you gotta do to make this better. Prayers sent.

 

Dang dude, sorry to hear. Sounds like quite the scare, but hopefully it's just that. Clearly you're making the right call, but you will be missed on Saturday. Please keep us updated here, and fingers crossed for quick answers and a quick turnaround.

 

That sounds poopie. The timing could not be worse (re: work) or better (re: summer fun). Like you say, don’t fuq with blood clots. Good luck!

 

That sucks. Nothing worse than “sorry, we don’t know what is wrong with you”.

There will always be more rides. Heal up.

 

Well that stinks. Hope you did not fracture a bone or the like. Hope all turns out well Chris . Keep us informed, healing vides!

 

So sorry to hear this Chris. As you know blood clots are nothing to fool around with. That's what landed me in the hospital 10 years ago. I know you'll stay on top of it and hopefully you'll find a solution. Keep us updated.

 

Thanks. There was no trauma to the leg in any way, so I can't imagine there being a fracture of any kind. I rode my bike last Sunday (1000'), surfed on Wednesday and surfed on Saturday. That's it for recent activity. No falls or dramatic moments on any of that, and certainly no unusual stress on my leg muscles. (Shrugging shoulders emoji)

 

Take an aspirin and ride... what's the worst that could happen???