How High's The Water Mama ?

We headed down the camp ground Sunday to do a little clean-up and check things out after a long winter. Our camper fared well, and as a '07 model, it should have. No rodent or bug remnants or anything. Several folks have custom covers over theirs, and a lot of those got torn up in the winds and heavy, wet snow we had this winter. I like it down there in the summer, good people, kids have a lot of fun, and it makes a good base to ride from. Good, quiet roads, I can ride the state trail from home, and lots of nice MTB riding. Hopefully, the weather improves so it's worth spending some time there soon. The Moosehorn River is way up, so the trails are probably still pretty muddy. We shall wait and see.

On the diabetes front, my high, erratic numbers all of a sudden came back down. I'm sure this is due to my careful monitoring of food intake. I use Fitday.com to track food and exercise, but that is only good if you are honest with yourself. I found that I was eating more than I thought, so I really practise portion control, and it shows. My morning numbers are lower now than they ever have been. It dropped too low last night, but some Cherrios and milk took care of that, so this AM was a bit high, but still ok. My knee flared up again, so no riding, but a little walking yesterday for exercise. May 22nd is set for the scope job, so hopefully just a clean out will do the trick. I just hope they don't find anything major.

What A Pain

Had an MRI on the ailing knee, but haven't gotten the results back yet. So, no riding for me for a while. I tell ya', it's not getting any better. But the cortisone in the shoulder did help a bunch, I can move pretty much pain free. Not so with the knee. It pops when getting up out of my chair, which I do several times an hour, making work really suck. I'm getting crabby, I want to get this thing fixed so I can get on with riding, but it looks like the MRI results won't be ready until Tuesday. It's raining, so at least working today isn't to bad. We're heading for Rochester tomorrow for the daughter's appointment at the Mayo Clinic (routine checkup) on Monday morning. Oh well, I'll just have to play the waiting game for a while....

On a brighter note, I had the Body Mass Index test done on Thursday. 26.5, much lower than I expected. According to the nurse, it should have been 37 for an average guy my height and weight. So instead of trying to get down to 170, my new target is 195. I should be able to get there by summer's end. My blood sugar is still all over the place, especially after the cortisone shot. This effect is only supposed to last a few days. Let's hope so.

I joined the Fitday.com site in order to track food intake and exercise in a consistent manner. I sure does remind you how much just a little of this and a little of that add up to. It should help to maintain the discipline needed to lose more weight and control the blood sugar.

Shouldering The Burden

Sunday was beautiful. Spring is here. It's temps in the high 50's for a while. Great riding weather. But for me, no. You see, last Thursday, I rolled out of bed in the morning, and something in my left knee popped a couple of times. No big deal, happens once in a while, just a little twinge of pain, and then goes away. My left knee always seems a little weaker than my right, has for a few years, but not noticeable on the bike. It didn't go away, but has gotten progressively worse, to the point of pain all the time.

Yesterday, I met with an ortho surgeon about my shoulder, which at this point seemed a minor annoyance compared to this stupid knee. So, he had the knee x-rayed, poked around the shoulders, and showed my wife how to press on my knee to inflict maximum pain. Nice, but all in fun as she works in the operating room with him from time to time. When the x-rays came back, he said it looks like cartilage and ligament damage. A scope job is in order. This afternoon I get to have an MRI, then plot out the surgery.

Next up was a big needle injecting cortisone into my right shoulder. That's just a fun procedure, I recommend it if you want some cheap thrills. Not!! So, it looks like I won't be riding much for the next couple of week. Why don't you all ride a few extra miles and put it in my base mileage bank, so I won't have as much work to do when I'm back.