So, if I had been bike riding every day of this year, I would have had to ride 366 days instead of 365. That extra day is an advantage working on the novel as it then gives a wee bit extra time. However, I plan to be done with the novel long before December 30th.
The above paragraph was written yesterday sometime, but I know not when. The past few days have been going by quickly as there has been quite a bit of activity. I have managed to get in the 1,000 word quota per day since I last posted. One day, I thought it wasn't going to happen and I was going to have to let the research that I had been doing on the book that day account for something. But, with time closing in as bedtime approached and I was about to turn into a pumpkin, I pumped out 750 more words to meet the quote.
A fun part as well as extremely helpful activity of the writing has been to meet with people and have discussions regarding the plot. When I visit Joe on Wednesdays, I always go over where I am in the story line. Anne Marie added a very helpful tidbit when I mentioned a scene situation between Ron (the main character) and his lawyer.
Yesterday, I met with Jack, Joe's caregiver and we talked for a little over an hour as he filled me in of some of his family background. And, today, I met with Emily, whom I know from Community Meals and who is an avid mystery reader, to chew the fat over the plot as it now stands. All these interactions keep the juices flowing and make the writing much more interesting for me; it's as if I working on an actual mystery case that needs to be solved!
The big news from these past few days which spells out the other MAJOR project for me this year has to do with Joe. Some history...
In 2008, Joe had a spill on his bike and broke his neck. Or so everyone originally thought. As it turned out, he had a bone spur in a neck vertebra that pricked his spinal cord while he was on his bike, causing him to black out and take a spill. The abrasions on his arms and face seemed to back this theory. In June of 2009, I was planning to take my AR-GA bike ride. I had sciatica problems going many years back but I was noticing some new tingling sensations and I thought that prudence was in order and that I should get an MRI to rule out the presence of a bone spur in my neck vertebra. Lo and behold, I actually had one. The neurosurgeon did say that, yes, a bad crash, on a bike or in a car, could cause the spur to pierce the spinal cord but, no, he didn't think I should not do the bike ride. So, ride I did and had a wonderful adventure.
Move forward to this past year when I did the year-long journey. The spur was very much in my mind and I was always keeping track of any tingling. After the 24 hour ride, I did indeed have tingling in my hands but, hey, 24 hours of pressing on a handlebar, what else would one expect? The tingling continued the rest of the year with tingling popping up in other areas of the body as well. A follow up was in order.
An MRI was done Tuesday and I met with the neurologist on Wednesday. I could tell as he entered the room after reading the MRI that things were not good. The bone spur wasn't the issue but rather bulging discs in vertebrae 2 and 3. In a healthy image, two white lines, the spinal cord, can be seen running down the length of the spine. In my image, at 2 and 3, the white line practically disappears. Given mild, moderate, advanced or severe as the categories of seriousness, mine is advanced; without immediate intervention I got the impression that I wasn't too far away from severe.
I met with the PT yesterday and he gave me some exercises to do. He seemed to be shaking his head as well after he came back from seeing the MRI images. The good news is that the bulging can be reduced with exercises and there is a head traction unit that I used when I was there yesterday that felt wonderful. It's very compact and I believe I will be able to take one home.
This, of course, will involve A LOT of time to do the exercises. But, just as one of my mantras during the past year was, "Failure is not an option," the same mantra is true for being diligent with doing the exercises; not doing them would, eventually, lead to enormous negative consequences.
This, of course, means that biking has now changed dramatically for me. I am now looking into getting a recumbent bike as that does not put the stress on my spine as a traditional bike.
Also, I do have Joe to thank. I'm sure it's very little consolation but his accident probably has prevented me from a similar fate.
This means my time has now become even more squeezed. I had hoped to increase adding photographs to this blog but I'm having trouble finding the time to just update with text. And, the more I see the PT the more exercises I believe he will throw into the mix.
So, life goes on and after all my meetings this week with folks I'm excited about moving forward with the novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment