Gnarly Burn

Over the weekend, the situation with my radiation burn got worse. Getting drainage through the dressing. Called the Advanced Wound Cernter and ended up with an afternoon appointment.

When opened up, the nurse said with was getting "gnarly". Much of the area is 2nd or 3rd degree burn. They were happy I came in, instead of waiting until my Thursday appointment.

Cleaned the area, broke a blister, and re-dressed the wound. THAT was not fun! Hurt damned bad.

Now daily cleaning and change dressing. Can't start any other treatment (like hyperbaric) until chemo is done. My chemo drug does not like hyperbaric oxygen.

Dropped the hardtail at the bike shop to get a rack installed. Full Moon Ride Wednesday night, hope I am healthy enough to ride.

Radiation Burn

Been off the bikes for a few days, not because of the weather. I have a nasty radiation burn from the treatments. Treating the burn at the Jenny Edmundson Advanced Wound Center.

They covered the burn with dressings. At this time they are "kind-of" staying put. Taking some pain killers. That was originally to help sleep, but also need it once in a while during the day.

No photo for this post. Difficult to take a photo of the burn, and you don't want to see it, anyway!

Looks like I will have to ditch the hydration pack for a while - too irritating for the burn on my back. To carry emergency tool kit, will have to ride the hybrid (which has a rack) or perhaps put a rack on the hardtail.

Oh, my doctor at the wound center is a cyclist. We're everywhere!

Shortened Ride

Yesterday was another beautiful day for riding. Went back to bed after morning chat. So was well rested and anxious to ride. Since I left a message for a possible riding friend, I could not change my plans.

Getting at the bike shop, killed some time, and finally time to ride. Heading towards Lake Manawa, but my heart monitor was not working right. Back to the bike shop. Just not getting good reading. Blaine grabbed one off the shelf to check. That worked great, so took it.

Construction along the Lake Manawa Trail - at Mosquito Creek. Pouring concrete over the area that was dug up for installing the culverts. Gonna be much nicer when that's done.

When I got on Indian Creek, I was just too tired and sore (legs from riding, back on treatments) to make a full loop, which was my intention. Shortened my ride by riding up to S. 16th, over to Harry Langdon, through the Mall, and back to the bike shop.

Today is a day off the bike.

Sunday Afternoon Ride

WOW, it was a great day to be on the bike. Think it was about 66-67 degrees, filtered sunshine, light breeze.

Stopped at Xtreme Wheels. Bill and Zack were busy selling bikes. So, after a quick "Hi" I was on the trail toward the Trails Center. My ride of choice for the ride - the Trek 7200FX.

At the West end of E. S. Omaha Bridge Road there is construction along Mosquito Creek. The paved trail was "clear" on a Sunday. Looks like on weekends we would need to use the rock bypass.

I took a couple photos of that project, and just got back on the bike when I noticed the pavement was gone under the I-29 bridges. Stopping, I saw draining culverts had been inserted. This will be GREAT since the rain from the bridge and embankment runs down across the trail, brings mud. (The white rock left-center of the photo).

When I got to the Highway 92 bridge over Indian Creek, I saw the same drainage work. Thanks, Council Bluffs!

Stopped in at the Western Historic Trails Center and visited. A quick ride on over to I-80 and then back to the bike shop.

Nice, leisurely ride. Ended up logging 21.35 miles at 11.34 mph.

Radiation Treatments are DONE!

Took off a couple days from bike riding during the week. Needed some time off, and weather was threatening.

Friday, however, was another thing. This was the day of my last radiation treatment. Ending the over 7 weeks of trips to the Med Center - 37 treatments. After my treatment, ointment applied, nurse checked the biopsy area, signing "release" papers - it was time to ring the bell as I headed out of the clinic.

On the way home, I stopped by the bike shot for a quick visit. Then home. Rested and out to Lake Manawa for a bike ride. Taking a bike ride in the dirt sounded like a GREAT way to celebrate.

While there is no "loop" that can be ridden (other than the western side short loop), I was able to get all the way back to Long's Landing and clocked just over 5 miles.

Felt good to be back!

Manawa Trail Work

Tuesday afternoon was trail work at Lake Manawa. There was an additional trail evening Sunday, but i was just too tired from the weekend.

Most of the trails are rideable. Just, can't ride a nice loop. There's always a ditch that is mud or still filled with water. The goal of the trail work was to clean up debris from the flood and look at rerouting some problem areas.

Here, Troy and Cody check out a reroute after the log crossing along the river.

There is a reroute in Fast Track - bypasses the eternal wet area. On the same trail there is an optional trail. That has also been done in Tony's Playground. All of these have been raked. The Fast Track reroute has taken hold.

Steve pushed me to sit down for a break. He took a photo of me sitting on a log, but is out of focus.

Here's the trails we cleared (River Front Real Estate, Fast Track, and Tony's Playground.

Trail workers were Steve, Troy, Dale, and myself. Cody was busy checking out the trail and having some fun.

When work is done

Sunday was time for fun and relaxation.

I started at Panera to post the photos I took during the trail class and workshop. (Oh yeah, and the BBQ). Then it was meet up for the bike ride with IMBA Trail Care Crew.

This is the FUN part of trail work - the BBQ and bike ride. We had a pretty good turn-out for a Sunday morning ride at Swanson Park. It was the most climbing I have done this year. With in my condition, I was only able to ride about 2.5 miles in the woods.

After a couple laps at Swanson, some went to Jewell. It was enough for me, so headed to Iowa. Stopped at Xtreme Wheels to drop off Psycowpath race posters. Most of the afternoon was spend napping or chatting on the computer.