Snow Ride, take it easy.

I road over to Chris aka Dingo aka CBro's house on Sunday afternoon, wanted to see how I felt after all the pee in the blood episodes, et al. Pedaled through the frozen and slightly slushy (mean)backstreets of SW Boise, arriving at the House of Dingo unscathed - hurray! He offered me a nice Alaskan (half glass) as an award, and parted ways quickly as he had some parties to attend to.

It's not MTB but man it felt good to be back on the bike. I ended up passing a bb-sized stone, jagged and rough, without any pain. Amen, thank you Jesus! And no more blood in the urine.

Hope you had a meaningful and wonderful Christmas as well,
cp

Winter Wonderland

OK OK I am getting to posting some mtb content, take it easy on me over here.

Rode the pumptrack yesterday in the fresh snow, about 8 laps. I felt fine, didn't go all out, just concentrated on being smooth. Took a leak after that and it was blood city. Dangit. I wanted to ride the foothills on Sat morning too. Looks like that's not going to happen.

Either way, it's looking like a great weekend and Christmas Monday. Merry Xmas to all who celebrate C-Day (Invasion Day).

Crimson Tide in my bathroom

So I passed a few fragments of the kidney stone yesterday, some while at work and some at home. My left side has been pretty tender, especially when it's time for me to drain the main vein. The thing I am a little concerned about is the color of the flow the past few trips - it's been very pink/reddish, obviously blood in my urine. Hope that's a good sign??

Blasted Kidney Stone, day 2

So yesterday was a kick. Got to St. Luke's Regional Medical Center in downtown Boise at 8:30am (thanks for the ride Dave and Ellyn!) and went into surgery prep pretty quickly after that. Got naked, gowned up, IV stuck in the left arm, it's all good so far. Then the Blaster Man comes in and talks ESWL (blasting) with me, really cool guy. Tells me he's the only one in the State of ID that does this - talk about a monopoly! For a fragment of a second I thought about asking him how one gets licensed to blast stones.. So they get the drugs flowing a little, the urologist comes by 30m mins late, and off we go. Bare-butt on the machine that's going to do the work, I take a deep breath and the next thing I know I've got a hella bad headache in the recovery room. Left flank was a little sore fromt the procedure. Later Rachel tells me the urologist claims victory over the 5mm stone previously residing in my left kidney. Hurray I say. Mosey home and drink lots of water, had chicken noodle soup for lunch, followed up with a bro's movie night with Dingo who brought over chips, guac, Alaskans (could only drink 1) and Die Hard III. Today I am a sore soldier, sitting at work wondering when I will pass these fragments and will they hurt?! The company is bringing in some BBQ lunch for the "holiday" party - maybe my last high-sodium encounter for a while since changes in the diet are necessary.

I never said this post would be interesting.

Kidney Stone Blasting

I'm off to undergo a procedure this morning to combat my 5mm kidney stone (forget about the 4 other little guys up in those kidneys for the moment). "Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy" is on the menu at 10:30 am, MST.

What is extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy?
Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is a technique for treating stones in the kidney and ureter that does not require surgery. Instead, high energy shock waves are passed through the body and used to break stones into pieces as small as grains of sand. Because of their small size, these pieces can pass from the body along with the urine.

Here's the fun part: the doctor says he may have to snake a tube up the unit to find the stone. All I am saying is I better be totally out of it (anesthetically speaking) before anyone tries that. This is my second trip to the operating room in a month (last one was for the inguinal hernia repair). I am much more concerned about this one to be candid...

209 - Do Not Step On the Scale every morning

I had read that it's not wise to weigh yourself every morning - variables such as water weight and other factors can alter reality by a few pounds. For example, after taking care of my morning ritual, I stepped on to see my weight at 209 this morning - yikes. I did pig out yesterday while watching football, not helping my cause at all.

205.5 - 12/17/06

That's 205.5 (.5 for the camera...)

207 - Let The Fat be Flushed!

207 is the correct weight, the .5 is for the camera. The first thing I am going to do this morning is eat some oatmeal, an apple, already had my fiber shake, and then take my flaxseed oil tablet (1 tab, 3X/day), and then going to scramble a few eggs (with Rachel's magic salsa on top). Man I can already tell this challenge could be one the hardest things I've ever done...

The Biggest Loser - BOMB style

OK so tomorrow begins Keith Donaldson's (Colorado Springs BOMB) and my own little version of "The Biggest Loser" competition. As you'd expect, the person with the bigest loss of % body girth wins a dinner and beers at the BOMB International G4 in Moab Aprl 2007. We officially start tomorrow morning and will email each other a snapshot of the weigh-in figure. And then the games begin. I personally think I've got more resolve than Keith does. I am younger, smarter, better looking, and definitely more sexy (just ask Rachel, my wife). Also, I have a lot more hair than he does. I wish him well and bring the wallet for that dinner big guy....

May the Biggest Loser Lose!

1st post

OK I'm the last person in America to have their own blog apparently. I've never been an early-adopter at anything. CD & DVD players, webcam, full suspension mountain bikes - all were acquired years after they went mainstream. I wanted to make sure this "blogging" thing didn't dry up and blow away first....

Stay tuned for some wacky, humorous material...

cp