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Bad Tunafish
Hey Dave, you sure are right about the heat! We had about ten days of major heat on here, like mid nineties every day. Even getting out early was marginally effective because you couldn't get very far before it heated up. I did one ride with the MS team on a day the heat hit 95. Ended up cutting the ride short and still was getting worried about making it back to the start even though it was downhill!
Veronica, well of course you've figured out a way to stay in the saddle and get faster! I constantly marvel at your resourcefulness and your persistence! I wish we lived closer together, I'd have gone in on that e-wheel with you, if I could borrow it once in a while, like for this coming weekend.
Father's day last Sunday reminded me of something the father of a good friend of mine used to say. The man was a respected brain surgeon who, when asked about his philosophy of life, was fond of responding: "Life is like a can of tunafish, sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not so good."
I can relate to that as I seem to have gotten into some bad tunafish lately. I had scheduled my Rituxan infusion for the beginning of June but about a month before that I started feeling pretty MSy. In hind sight I think I was experiencing a small flair or at least a little progression. It was my own damn fault, I tried to stretch the time between infusions out too long. At any rate, I got the infusion a little over two weeks ago, felt like crap the day of but went for a ride the day after.
The ride the day after the infusion went about as expected, I was off my game by 10% to 15% but happy that it wasn't any worse than that. I knew there would be a period of "Rituxan Hangover", a small price to pay for controlling the MS progression, and this one lasted about two weeks. It was also about two weeks before the Rituxan noticeably impacted the MS progression I'd been experiencing. I am happy to report now though, both the progression and the hangover are nearly gone.
However, one caveat to the tuna fish philosophy of life might be that cans of bad tuna fish come in packs of three. During the two recovery weeks my wife found a leak in our sprinkler system. There are a lot of things I don't do myself anymore because of age and MS but repairing the sprinkler system isn't one of them. So I found the leak, about two feet of split pipe, dug it up and repaired it. It took me three days because there were only a couple of hours in the morning which were cool enough to work in. Remember, we were in the middle of a significant heat wave and I was still feeling a little MSy as well as suffering from a Rituxan hangover.
I'd been having some minor back issues before the sprinkler pipe repair but after the sprinkler pipe, the back issues became major, making their presence known after the climbing ride on the particularly hot day that I mentioned to Dave above. And one more thing, the Colorado MS 150 is this coming weekend and there are a number of people planning to ride with me!
So, there you have it, quite a bit of bad tuna fish. I find I am able to ride the bike, I just can't push too hard. Starts and stops are a little dicey but doable if managed carefully. But, I can't stand on the pedals at all and riding in the drops is questionable.
Plans are made, hotels are paid for so I'm going to try to do the ride. If worse comes to worse, I'll sag, I'll even get a phone number to call if I get stuck somewhere. I think I can do it but, maybe just this one time, it sure would be nice to have an e-wheel!
Keep the rubber side down,
Larry
Hey Dave, you sure are right about the heat! We had about ten days of major heat on here, like mid nineties every day. Even getting out early was marginally effective because you couldn't get very far before it heated up. I did one ride with the MS team on a day the heat hit 95. Ended up cutting the ride short and still was getting worried about making it back to the start even though it was downhill!
Veronica, well of course you've figured out a way to stay in the saddle and get faster! I constantly marvel at your resourcefulness and your persistence! I wish we lived closer together, I'd have gone in on that e-wheel with you, if I could borrow it once in a while, like for this coming weekend.
Father's day last Sunday reminded me of something the father of a good friend of mine used to say. The man was a respected brain surgeon who, when asked about his philosophy of life, was fond of responding: "Life is like a can of tunafish, sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not so good."
I can relate to that as I seem to have gotten into some bad tunafish lately. I had scheduled my Rituxan infusion for the beginning of June but about a month before that I started feeling pretty MSy. In hind sight I think I was experiencing a small flair or at least a little progression. It was my own damn fault, I tried to stretch the time between infusions out too long. At any rate, I got the infusion a little over two weeks ago, felt like crap the day of but went for a ride the day after.
The ride the day after the infusion went about as expected, I was off my game by 10% to 15% but happy that it wasn't any worse than that. I knew there would be a period of "Rituxan Hangover", a small price to pay for controlling the MS progression, and this one lasted about two weeks. It was also about two weeks before the Rituxan noticeably impacted the MS progression I'd been experiencing. I am happy to report now though, both the progression and the hangover are nearly gone.
However, one caveat to the tuna fish philosophy of life might be that cans of bad tuna fish come in packs of three. During the two recovery weeks my wife found a leak in our sprinkler system. There are a lot of things I don't do myself anymore because of age and MS but repairing the sprinkler system isn't one of them. So I found the leak, about two feet of split pipe, dug it up and repaired it. It took me three days because there were only a couple of hours in the morning which were cool enough to work in. Remember, we were in the middle of a significant heat wave and I was still feeling a little MSy as well as suffering from a Rituxan hangover.
I'd been having some minor back issues before the sprinkler pipe repair but after the sprinkler pipe, the back issues became major, making their presence known after the climbing ride on the particularly hot day that I mentioned to Dave above. And one more thing, the Colorado MS 150 is this coming weekend and there are a number of people planning to ride with me!
So, there you have it, quite a bit of bad tuna fish. I find I am able to ride the bike, I just can't push too hard. Starts and stops are a little dicey but doable if managed carefully. But, I can't stand on the pedals at all and riding in the drops is questionable.
Plans are made, hotels are paid for so I'm going to try to do the ride. If worse comes to worse, I'll sag, I'll even get a phone number to call if I get stuck somewhere. I think I can do it but, maybe just this one time, it sure would be nice to have an e-wheel!
Keep the rubber side down,
Larry
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