It’s been another scorcher of a month here in the mid-Atlantic. The heat index has been near or above 100 F’n degrees on several days. Storms roll through nearly every night giving us a good show and occasionally knocking down a tree here or there. Thankfully, August is forecasted to begin with pleasant weather. Ahhh.
Riding
I logged 744 miles, all of it on Big Nellie my Tour Easy recumbent. I took nine days off, two for a family reunion, a couple more for rest and to avoid nasty weather, and the rest in preparation for a blood test. Near the end of the month I put Knee Savers on the bike. These little chunks of machined metal move the pedals away from the crank arms by 20 millimeters. They seemed to work okay so I tried them with my Catalyst pedals. The combination worked quite well. After a couple of days I felt like my old bent self on the bike. As these things go, 744 miles for a summer month isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, but it isn’t half bad considering all the time I took off.
For the year I’ve logged 5,955 miles, on pace for 10,253 miles for the year.
I registered for September’s 50 States Ride in DC. It will be my 17th. If you live in DC and have never done it, you should. As President Kennedy said, “We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.”
Reading
My Friends by Fredrik Backman. A splendid novel about teenagers, art, and friendship. On a par with Backman’s Anxious People and A Man Called Ove.
Medical
The medical merri-go-round decided not to take the summer off. After briefly considering physical therapy for my injured right arm, I decided to go it alone. It’s getting better incrementally. Fortunately, my local county fitness center re-opened a few weeks ago. I’ve been working out (carefully) on a set of nine weight machines and I have to say my body is pleased. My arm is still a wreck but it’s a happier one.
Since January, I have been getting monitored for prostate cancer. The level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in my blood was found to be slightly above the threshold for concern last December. As it turns out, high PSA levels can be caused by cancer but they can also be caused by a number of less serious things such as advancing age, an enlarged prostate, and (I kid you not) bike riding. To eliminate bike riding as a cause for my PSA levels, I took a week off the bike and re-tested. It made no difference. (I think the connection has to do with riding a conventional saddle which can compress the perineum and the body parts above.)
Earlier this year my urologist sent me for an MRI. It found no abnormalities other than the enlargement. My urologist is confident that I’m at very low risk for cancer. Just to be safe we’ll do PSA blood tests every six months. No worries.
The only disturbing thing about this whole prostate cancer business is the fact that old men (70 years old and up) can often skip treatment altogether for slow growing prostate cancer. The thinking is they’ll die before the cancer gets them. First do no harm; then call the undertaker.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
PSA is a weird one. My PCP convinced me to get a PSA test before my first coast-to-coast tour. It was grossly elevated. I was sent to a urologist. That test was even worse and a “more sensitive” test (free vs total PSA ratio) gave me a >60% chance of having cancer. I explained to the urologist why I wanted to do the tour first, then get a biopsy. He understood. (I’ll spare you my reasoning unless you ask.) We set a date for right after the trip. The biopsy was normal and my PSA level dropped by a lot. He said elevated PSA could be caused by inflammation as well as cancer. I asked if inflammation would be more likely before or after a 9 week bike trip. That stopped him in his tracks. After one more follow-up, he said I didn’t need to come back.
My urologist says that PSA trends are much more important than levels. That said, I find it amazing that after spending billions of dollars on cancer research PSA is the best tool we have? One improvement I benefited from was the now apparently commonplace use of MRIs in lieu of digital rectal exams.
“digital rectal exam”
That makes it sound way more scientific than it actually is 🤣
I’m younger than you at 52 but my doctor has started monitoring psa. As you say, the trend is the important factor apparently. Reminds me a bit of the statement here when Covid tests first were released for general use. “if you test positive then you have Covid, if you test negative then you might have Covid”!