Tag: cats

Snaps, Flaps, and Cats

Snaps and Flaps

I was finishing up 50,000 miles on Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent. I was four miles from home when my rear cable snapped. I still had three usable gears so I made it home without too much aggro. I took the bike to Bikes at Vienna and left it in the care of Beth.

When I picked up my bike a few days later, I had a new cable and a new chain. Actually, I had three new chains because that’s how many chains the transmission on this long bike takes. Beth did a light tune up, replacing some seriously noisy brake pads. As I went to take my bike for a test ride, Beth pointed out her aesthetic enhancement to the bike. I had long ago broken off the small, cheap plastic fender flaps and replaced them with black duct tape. Beth noticed the tape had become ratty. She took it off and replaced it with these enormous mud flaps. I think they look awesome. Thanks Beth.

Left to right: Busted cable. Rear fender flap. Front fender flap.

Cats

My friend Rachel lives in Oregon, the high desert part. She has lots of critters. Chickens, a couple of dogs, and a cat. She posted a picture online of how she screened in her porch to create a catitat, or his it habicat? I told her about my friends Mike and Lisa who have built elaborate habicats or cat houses onto the front of their home. It was a lovely day so I rode Big Nellie 23 or 24 miles north to check take some pictures for her. One section is connected to their porch. Another is stands next to the front door. Cats can pass back and forth between the house and cat structure through a basement window.

Clockwise from top left: The porch cat house from the side. The view from the porch. The house next to the front door. The porch house from the street. The front door house from above. The front door house from the side.

After talking with Mike and Lisa and their house guests, Mike showed me an easy way to get to Rock Creek Park for the ride home. Just a couple of blocks through an alley and down a side street, we came to the old Walter Reed Army Hospital grounds which is being converted into a mini-city. Mike is especially happy that they included a Whole Foods store. Most of the development is new but many of the old brick buildings that were once the hospital complex still stand and are being renovated into housing. Mike pointed out one building which was where Dwight Eisenhower died. Imagine living in a condo where an ex-president died.

Mike’s tour ended with the two of us directly opposite Sherill Road and the entrance to the park. The trees are just starting to turn. It will be a riot of colors in a week or so.

Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park. You can almost feel the crisp autumn air.

Two Weeks. One Lung. One Expensive Cat.

Happy anniversary to my blood clots

Well, tonight is the two week anniversary of my pulmonary embolism(s). I think we should throw them a party then show them the door. They’ve stayed too long.

My energy levels continue to incrementally improve. I can actually feel the blockage in my right lung. Deep breaths are rewarded with a stabbing pain.

Today was a normal retiree day filled with car-based errands. I went to the drug store to drop off a prescription (for blood thinner). Then I went to a DMV to get a sticker for my son’s car. The DMV was closed yesterday so the wait was well over an hour. I bailed and went to my doctor’s office. The poor man! I hit him with so many questions. He answered them all with ease.

I am not in danger of throwing another blood clot as long as I am on my medication. If I hit my head, I am to stop taking my medication and go to the nearest ER for a CT scan of my brain. A head injury could turn into an epidural hematoma, runaway bleeding inside my skull. It is the injury that killed Natasha Richardson after she hit her head while skiing.

We’re having fun now!

Any other significant hits to my body below my head require a trip to the doctor just in case.

The doctor said that the team at the hospital speculated that my pulmonary embolism may have occurred on my bike trip. Now that I think about it, the only time I have had a significant fall was when I tumbled off the porch at a motel near the end of the ride. Did I whack my left calf during the fall? This would be good news because it would indicate that my embolism was a freak accident not something systematically wrong with my body.

At the doctor, a nurse took my pulse. It was 68. I told her it was very high and she said it’s perfectly normal. Normal for me is in the 40s. So just the act of walking from my car to the elevator and from the elevator to the doctor’s office caused my pulse to increase. This will give you some idea of how my body is coping. The doctor said it’s okay to exercise but that I should take it easy and listen to my body. At the moment my body is saying “watch a movie.”

Speaking of my body, I’ve gained 6 pounds in a month. Fritters and cookies and candies, oh my. Mario Mendoza phone home.

The spirometer and I are still not getting along. I am thinking about switching to a bong. (If only!)

My doctor had some samples of my blood thinning medication so I am good to go after losing a week’s supply somehow last week. They go great with corn flakes.

I am to follow up with a hematologist and a pulmonary specialist. No hurry though. This whole recover will take a few months.

I am scheduled for an ultrasound of my abdomen to check out the nodules on my kidney and adrenal gland that the CT scan discovered. On a scale of one to ten, my doctor’s concern level is barely a two.

After the doctor, I went back to the DMV without any luck. The wait was two hours! I gave up and drove home. After all this running around, I felt fine with no exhaustion like last week.

And now for something completely different

My favorite blogger these days is Blissful Britt. Britt hikes and travels and takes terrific photos and lip syncs (hilariously) on Instagram. While hiking in Arizona her cat fell ill. She okayed the cat’s medical care, because you wouldn’t want to come home to a dead cat now, would you?

The bill came to $5,000! Alas, Brittany doesn’t have that kind of, forgive the expression, scratch. So she launched a gofundme page. If you are in a giving mood or like cats or like crazy bloggers with cats, she could use a little help.