Tag: carpal-tunnel-syndrome

Update on the hand and the tour

Carpal Tunnel Update

I have been testing my surgically repaired hand and all seems to be going well. A couple of days ago I managed to do my bird dog stretches with my hand flat on the floor. The incision on my wrist is healed and there is very little in the way of numbness in my fingers. I don’t know if it is related but the persistent nerve pain in my cervical spine seems to be gone as well.

The Mule Is Back

After weeks of below-average temperatures and riding in the basement, I’ve managed to get outside for some riding. The Mule has returned from its winter physical and all is well with the bike. Switching bikes always involves a couple of days of aches and pains but I am adjusting. After my first ride two days ago, my upper back was unhappy but that seems to have resolved. Somehow my left butt cheek is very sore probably because I am not used to the big Catalyst pedals on the bike. I have been having all kinds of leg cramps which are responding to an extra post-ride banana. Life is good.

I was so eager to get back on the bike that I overdid it a bit. My first ride was a 40-miler including a decent hill across the river in Maryland. Yesterday I did a 35-mile loop that included a roller coaster trail along I-66 in Arlington. I was feeling quite fat and sucking wind, especially on the last one steep hill. Oof. So despite temperatures (finally!) cresting 60 degrees, I took it easy today, riding a flat 30 miles. I felt fresh at the end. It didn’t hurt that I was wearing shorts. (Something about long pants just seems to make riding harder.) In any case, I need to up my longest ride distance quite a bit, because the Natchez Trace tour just through me a couple of curveballs.

Tour Changes

As I posted recently, the tour itinerary began in Nashville where participants would meet up and be shuttled to Natchez, nine-hours by van to the south. My plan was to drive to Nashville on April 5 and drive home on April 15 after the tour.

Today, I received the official tour package from Adventure Cycling. It included several surprises. First, the tour participants are gathering in Jackson, Mississippi. Instead of a ten-hour drive to the start in Nashville, I face a 15-hour trek to Jackson. So I’ll be leaving on the 4th and stopping halfway. After the tour, a shuttle back to Jackson is offered for an additional $75. Under the old itinerary, the shuttle was included in the tour fee. (I’m not happy. ) The new itinerary includes a whopper of a day, 91 miles. Mercifully, there is only 2,800 feet of climbing on that day. The first day is a shuttle from Jackson to Natchez and 12 miles of riding to a hotel (included in the tour price). On Day 3 there’s a hotel in Jackson, the same one where we will meet on Day 0. Somehow the overall mileage increased by 30 miles. No rest for the weary.

Whenever I start worrying about my ability to handle these miles, my wife reminds me that I’m going to be carrying about 25 or 30 fewer pounds of gear on this trip compared to my usual self-contained tours. (I will need to carry rain gear and basic tools and repair stuff but no camping gear, off-bike clothing, and such.)

DateStartFinishMiles
Day 0Jackson0
Day 1April 7JacksonNatchez12
Day 2April 8NatchezHermanville60
Day 3April 9HermanvilleJackson49
Day 4April 10JacksonFrench Camp83
Day 5April 11French CampShannon72
Day 6April 12ShannonTishomongo55
Day 7April 13TishomongoHohenwald91
Day 8April 14HohenwaldNashville67
Day 9April 15NashvilleJackson0
Total489

I looked into alternatives to driving but I hate boxing the bike and schlepping it to and from airports. And then there’s the fun possibility of losing or breaking the bike in transit. Flights from DC to Jackson are all one-stops out of BWI which is an hour from my house. So with boxing the bike, driving to BWI, waiting an hour or so to board and five plus hours on the plane, I’d be eating up a day of my time anyway. I checked Amtrak; it doesn’t go from DC to Jackson. So car it is.

I am actually looking forward to the riding part of this tour. The before and after not so much.

Prepping for Spring and Beyond

Carpal Tunnel Recovery Update

The recovery from carpal tunnel surgery is going splendidly. Immediately after the surgery my hand was so weak that I was restricted to lifting anything heavier than a paperback book. Yesterday, 23 days from the surgery, I easily lifted The Tank and, later, The Mule onto my bike rack. The next milestone will be when I can comfortably do a bird dog pose during my daily stretching routine. My guess is that will happen next week.

I no longer have any stitches or steri strips on my incision site. I keep it covered with an oversized band-aid to be on the safe side.

Bike Physicals

As I alluded to above, I took The Tank to Beth at Bikes at Vienna for its annual physical and picked up The Mule. Beth spec’ed Wolf Tooth cushy handlebar tape for The Mule. It seems a bit like overkill but I suspect that I won’t feel that way once I get the bike out on the road. Once I try this tape out, I’ll decide what kind of tape to put on The Tank.

I had Beth install a Paul Mini-moto v-brake on the front wheel of the Mule. I had installed one on the back a couple of years ago and love it. Mini-motos brake better (I can even skid) and are much easier to adjust. Moreover, they disengage much more easily when changing tires. No more knocking the brake pads out of alignment for me.

Natchez Trace

Having signed up for a one-week, van-supported tour of the Natchez Trace Parkway I did a little research on what I am up against.

Adventure Cycling rates this as Level 4 out of 5 for difficulty. I think the rating reflects the fact that there are three days between 72 and 82 miles. They will certainly be a challenge but most of the route isn’t very hilly. Judging from some Strava metrics I have seen, the rides around my neighborhood have about 30 feet of elevation gain per mile. That’s less than all but two days on the tour.

I also checked how this compares to my ride up the Maine coast in 2022. Google Maps says that from Wells to Bar Harbor is 220 miles and 8,200 feet of elevation gain, 37 feet per mile. I handled this without much trouble. And it’s much less than the 45 feet per mile between Lexington and Damascus Virginia that I did last summer. I did both those rides unsupported. It’ll be nice not to have 35 pounds of stuff on my bike for this tour.

StartFinishMilesElevation Gain in FeetFeet Per Day
Day 1NatchezRock Springs611,33222
Day 2Rock SpringsRidgeland4891219
Day 3RidgelandFrench Camp821,45018
Day 4French CampShannon701,60023
Day 5ShannonTishomingo541,20022
Day 6TishomingoHohenwald792,90037
Day 7HohenwaldNashville622,18535
Total45611,57925

I have several friends who have ridden or driven the Trace and they all say it’s pretty and pretty easy.

I also will be taking one or two days off before the tour to drive to Nashville so I’ll have fresh legs. The tour starts April 7 which gives me a little over six weeks of time to prepare my aging carcass for the effort.

Hurry Spring!

Temporary Southpaw – Day 3

Last night was a bit of a set back. I took Tramadol at 11 and it seemed not to work very well. About 2 a. m. I popped some ibuprofen and, a couple of hours later, strapped an ice bag to my hand and wrist. That did the trick. I woke up with barely any discomfort in my hand. Somehow I was still groggy so after breakfast I hit the couch for an hour-long nap, with the ice bag once again strapped to my hand and wrist.

Next up, I tried to do my neck and back exercise routine. I omitted a couple of poses (bird dog and a psoas stretch) because they would have put weight on my right hand. The stretching went well.

I headed to the basement for a two-hour session aboard Big Nellie. The gears are changed using something called Grip Shifters which require a twist of the wrist. My right hand could shift up without pain but shifting down was uncomfortable. The bike is set up on a resistance trainer so it’s entirely safe to reach over with my left had for downshifts.

After the ride I took a sink bath (not wanting to risk getting the bandage wet in the shower), took some extra strength Tylenol, and hit the couch for another session with the ice bag.

When I woke up my hand felt very good. It still won’t bear much weight and there is pain in the fleshy part of my palm on either side of the ligament that was cut, but the numbness is all but gone in my fingers. Of course, how good I feel may be a product of the medications so I still need to be careful. The doctor did say, however, that the mobility in my fingers should improve after a couple of days so I am right on track.

Tomorrow I get to take the bandage off. If the wound looks okay, I’ll switch to a band-aid. I am looking forward to taking a shower.

Onward!

Updates on the Pedal Off, Phantom Bike Problems, and Nerve Pain

Pedals

I put the MKS lambda pedals on my CrossCheck. After some fiddling with my saddle position, I rode them for a week and liked them a lot. I especially like not having to deal with toe clips while wearing my winter footwear. The only downside is that my feet can slide off of them on bumpy surfaces.

My Pedaling Innovation Catalyst pedals went on my Specialized Sequoia. To start, I did saddle adjustments similar to the ones I did on the CrossCheck. I liked the pedals but they seemed to be underwhelming relative to the rave reviews I’d been seeing online. I re-read the instructions from the manufacturer and started over. I returned my saddle to the pre-Catalyst position and lowered it about one centimeter. On my first test ride, after 15 miles the magic started to happen. After 30 I was very, very pleased but thought that maybe the improvement was all in my head. My second ride was in cold (34 degree) weather. I normally ride slower to conserve body heat but I was riding noticeably faster. I kept checking the wind, thinking I had a tailwind. No. There was no pressure on the undersides of my feet and my feet felt like they were locked to the pedals. I had only intended to ride 20 miles but I ended up riding 33 and could have gone much farther. They performed exactly as advertised.

Conclusion: I am in like with the Lambdas but in love with the Catalysts. I think sometime this spring I’ll move the Lambdas to my Bike Friday. Then I’ll decide whether to buy Lambdas with pins (called Gammas or Kings or Monarchs depending on who is selling them) or another pair of Catalysts.

Phantom Bike Problems

About a month ago I had a flat on my CrossCheck. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the tube or tire so I assumed it was a valve issue. I changed the tube and all is well.

A week ago I had a flat on my Sequoia. (I’m not loving this trend!) Once again I meticulously searched for a cause and found nothing. I put the tube back in the tire and all is well. Go figure.

A few days ago the bike computer on the Sequoia started to fail. The computer itself was sound but it was not receiving a signal from the sensor on the fork. I fiddled with the sensor and it started working again. The next day the same thing happened. No signal. It being a discontinued model, I decided to buy a new computer. Like the old computer this one allows me to input my mileage and will record up to 99,999 miles. Of course, between the time I ordered the new computer and the time it arrived my old computer started working fine again.

Nerve Pain

Last month I went to a hand surgeon for relief of trigger finger on the middle finger of my right hand. He gave me a cortisone shot that, after about three weeks, seems to have solved the problem. A further examination led him to conclude that I have carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and likely a pinched nerve in my neck. He sent me to a neurologist for an electromyography (EMG) test. I had the test today.

I had an EMG once before for leg and back pain. It was extremely painful and its results were inconclusive. As you might imagine I was dreading today’s test but it turned out to be about as painful as a series of static electricity shocks. No big deal. The results were that I have mild CTS in my left hand and moderate CTS in my right. The neurologist said she didn’t have any findings about my neck. (Since it is obvious to me that I have a nerve impingement in my cervical spine, I find this conclusion to be dubious.) In any case, I go back to the hand surgeon in three weeks to discuss next steps. Since I can (obviously) type and do just about anything else without pain, I am not opting for surgery. Moreover, I found that the saddle adjustments to my CrossCheck and Sequoia, along with the deep tissue massage I had last month, have coincided with reduced neck pain. I have come to the profound medical conclusion that I am old.