Not closed, Back on one wheel, Down 5
When I took a shower last night I did my best to really clean the incision area, hoping doing so would perhaps clear out the wound and let me better assess the situation. After I was done there was still some puss in the area and the skin around that looks like bad too. To my non-medical professional eye it appears that the wound never fully closed. I never heard back from the doctors office yesterday so I called this morning.
The nurse I spoke to said the culture was sent out to see if it was infected but it can take up to three days. WTF. I told her that if there is an infection it doesn’t seem wise to wait days to address it. She said I should just keep covering it with vaseline until I hear back from the doctor. I then told her that I have had a ton of these types of surgeries and I never had one that looked like this after the stitches were removed. She offered the same advice to wait and see what the doctor says. I’m not going to wait and see very long as I can feel my frustration building with the prospect of requiring more surgery to correctly close the wound. I loaded up the area with neosporin this morning and placed a bandage over it to avoid grossing co-workers out.
Since I was fasting last night I tried to stay busy to avoid dwelling on hunger. I took the time to install a modification to my big V13, a pedal drop kit. The CNC part allows you to install the pedals two inches lower than normal. The main advantage is lower pedals equate to more stability at higher speed even though I haven’t ridden close to 40MPH since my crash last October. The other benefit I was more interested in was lower pedals making it easier for me to ride in the seated position.
Installation of the new hardware was pretty straightforward. When I went out on a test ride I felt very shaky at first, I had not ridden the 100+ pound wheel in months so I needed to re-acclimate to it, at least a little bit. Once I did I got my speed up into the low 30s which felt stable as I expected. Getting down into seated riding was easier although I did not feel confident in that position as it’s been quite awhile. I had to wear my old skater helmet as a full face would irritate the cut too much. It felt good to get out and ride, at least a little bit. It also felt good to make a “real” video compared to the series of Shorts I have been making on my phone recently.
I ended my fast this morning having lost 5lbs in the roughly 36 hours I went without food/calories. You don’t realize how much time you spend planning, making, eating and cleaning up after meals until you don’t have to do it. The fast was not easy but it wasn’t awful either. My least favorite part is forcing myself to drink black coffee, I really dislike it. So from here I plan to jump back on my mindful eating bandwagon, going to bed with a little hunger in my stomach to see where that lands me.