4luvandlife

 

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Yesterday was 3 weeks since my fusion surgery! The surgeon had said it would take 4 weeks for me to stop wishing I hadn't done it. And he has been right so far! I am focused on Thursday the 24th when I will hit that 4 week mark. I am hoping for the pain to be down and mobility to start going up around then. Mobility. The basic ability to move around. This is one thing that 8 years of back pain has made me appreciate. In the first week of recovery the pain was so high I would plan trips around the bedroom. If I wanted to put a movie in I would think about anything that I would need to bring with me or if there was something else that needed to be done in that area of the room. For example, there may be a load of laundry that needs to be folded and it is by the DVD player. Well, take 2 birds out during the trip to put a movie in. Plan on folding clothes when I put in the movie. No trip out of bed and across the room wasted, right? To improve my mobility I have been walking 5 to...

Thursday the 10th was two weeks post-op. I am surprised at how much pain there still is. The surgeon had warned me it will take 4 weeks to stop wishing I hadn't done the fusion. I should have taken his warning more seriously. I am getting a little stir crazy being couped up in the house for this amount of time. But we did get out last night to celebrate Mother's Day. We typically go out for a Saturday night dinner instead of a Sunday brunch. Below is a picture of us at Buca's celebrating Beth. This was my first time out of the house other than a walk since the surgery on April 26th. Happy Mother's Day to all you Mums!! I am grateful for Beth. She is an awesome Mom and she has been helping me through this surgery and the recovery. 

Welcome! Welcome! It has been almost 3 years since I posted on this blog. The last time was to document our move to Phoenix from Minneapolis. I am reviving this to update friends and family on my recovery from spinal fusion. Today is the 9th day after my fusion surgery. It is going well so far. For the most part, the pain has been what I was expecting. Tuesday and Wednesday both gave me a run for my money. But other than those it has been fairly good. The two images below show the condition I have. It is bi-lateral pars defects. In the first image you see a small crack in the vertebrae a little to the right of center. In the second image you see the cross-section of the spine looking down. That isn't an image of my personal x-ray but it gives you a good idea. The image below here shows the procedure I had done. It is a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion. It took the surgeon about 3 hours to do after we spent about 1 hour in pre-op. 9 days out and I...

On Friday the 14th we celebrated our first month in the desert.  Below is a picture of us arriving to the Grand Canyon state on July 14th. Our first stop after crossing the border was Petrified Forest National Park. Leading us the whole way was Sparky.  Turns out he gets along great with Hawkeyes! We went out to eat on our first night and learned how to lawn bowl in Phoenix in July. We bought a new couch for the new house in our new state.  Our new dog, Luna, found her favorite spot on that couch. Our first excursion out of our neighborhood was Sedona. Things are good in the desert so far.  More news to come!

Halloween 2013

Henry did his first mountain bike race at Elk River a couple of weeks ago. It was 3 miles. He has done a lot more than that at Theo plenty of times. The 3 miles at Hillside in Elk River was different though. It was a lot more climbing and roots than I expected. Henry had to walk quite a bit. When we walked the mosquitos would feast. It was rough on the little guy. He was tempted to quit (he even had some tears) but he kept at it and finished. It was another good reason to be proud of him on a pretty long list. Henry said some funny stuff during the race. A couple of my favorites were, "I'm getting pretty dirty, maybe I should take a bath." and "I hope I get a scratch, that would be cool." After the race he scored a digital camera from the drawing. He was very stoked. It was a good thing too it may have convinced him to give bike racing another try.

It's the 1 that comes after the :00:00. The first salty sting to the eye. The angle of the July sun high above you but feeling like it's right on top of you. It takes 59:59 to get here but it is so sweet when you do. It's the beginning.

How is your summer so far? I got Henry and Wyatt out for some of the Decorah activities over the weekend of the 4th. One of my favorites was Biking the Trout Run path to the fish hatchery. There we were welcomed by a celebrity. The juvenile Bald Eagle that was born on camera before much of the world. He was circling his nest in big circles and screeching loudly. Very cool. Beautiful actually. He doesn't have his bald white head yet but he still seems proud. Another good session was a Dunning Spring hike with just Henry. Dunning was raging and it filled the heart to see it with little H. He then proceeded to hike up the bluff like a pro. We went well into the mountain bike trails after a brief sit down to enjoy the view of town. I then heard the call of Whippy Dip and headed over for a Whopper Tornado with chocolate ice cream. H chose a small vanilla cone. We hung out at the Whippy Dip for a while and then proceeded to the dike. After finishing the treats we walked dow...

On father's day edy said "da da" for the first time. I don't need to write any more. It doesn't get any better than that. It is, however, further proof that she has a heart for the dramatic. We began to suspect this sometime about halfway through her week long labor and it seems to be getting stronger as her personality begins to surface. Whatever dramatic production she is putting on I am getting tickets to because she puts on a great show.

The boys went up a size in bikes. Henry went from 16 to 20 inches and Wyatt went from 12 to 16. They can both go like the wind now. Wyatt about blew my doors off the first time coming out of the driveway with his "16er". Henry put about 25 miles on in the first 3 days with his "20er". Last week we rode down to st. Anthony falls to celebrate the bike path being extended to the river. He rode 14 miles! And he could have done more. Henry has fallen in love with the trails at Theo worth. Been on them 3 times and it's hard to get him off them when it's time to go. Wyatt rides in the baby seat but we call it the Woogie seat I asked Henry if he wants to try a race. He says he will try it in three years.

H and i saw this. got some LEDs and a soldering iron and played around a bit ourselves. maybe get to a variation of this someday.

winter riding is fun. but skiing is more fun. living as close as i do to what sounds like some great cross country skiing at Theodore Wirth Park i figured i better get out there. found a pair of Atomic skate ski boots today at closeout prices. i can rent the skis and poles at Three Rivers Parks all over. Theo Wirth, Baker, Hyland and more. let it snow and let the racing go year around.

haven't been biking much. a baby will do that. when it comes down to time with baby E or riding baby E wins out. every day she is new and different. i did finally try my first cyclocross. you know you are livin when you think you may be dying.

Been a long time since this blog has rock and rolled. work has been crazy and baby E arrived on Saturday Aug 14th. had to drop in and record the impressive ride by H yesterday. when we left the driveway he looked at me and said, "We're going to go on our longest ride ever today". i loved it. the conviction made it sound like we were about to ride across the state. he did do his longest ride ever. 9.6 miles! rode to Cedar Lake, stopped at a playground, around Cedar Lake, and back home. my little man. you are a great big brother H.

added to the ipod for a boost to the 2nd half of the season: a double order of cheese as Woo would say, "let's do this"

fit a race into painting a kids room last weekend. got to Mankato at 12:30 and switched things up by warming up. strange sensation to spin a bit before the race. this was the first race with signs marking the waves so i had to find something else to be confused about. after call ups i rolled up to the start line while Wyatt was sticking his head into the starting chute, pumping his fist, and yelling "Daaaaaaddyyyyy!!!" again and again. gave him and Henry high fives and waited for the countdown. very small wave took off up the climb. i thought i would be feeling good right off because of a short warm-up. i was wrong. i felt pretty bad, unusually bad. i'm still curious why. i think it was painting all day the day before and the morning right up to when we left. that and a lot of pepsi all week before are the only thing i can think of to create the sluggishness. i kept at it hoping to break out of it. at the end of lap 1 my seat broke. i'm thinking, "ok...

77 minutes. 18.0 Av. 23 miles this morning. Looks like 30% chance of precip in Mankato on weather.com. Scattered T-Storms.

94 minutes. 18.1 Av. 28 miles. looking forward to Mt. Kato this weekend.