Like I posted yesterday, it has been pretty much exactly 10 months since I fell in Quad Cites and broke my hip.  I have to admit that I am pretty surprised about how this last 10 months have went.

Historically, with injuries, I can usually jump the “doctor’s gun” and get back at it in about 1/2 the time that I’ve been told.  But, this has been different.

This has been a learning experience.  It’s not the bone that was/is the issue.  It is all the soft tissue they  cut through to get to the bone.  Having a 12 inch incision completely through my IT band wasn’t anything I had experienced before.  I’m not even sure what an IT band is, but whatever it is, it is an important part of leg function.  And that is the problem.

It was really slow going initially.  I have a very hard time believing that I raced the Chequamegon MTB race a little over 3 months after surgery.  That seems nearly impossible 7 months later.

I’ve only done two races since the break.  Chequamegon and then a team member of a 24 hour MTB race in February.  Looking back now, I am much better than I was in February.

The last two months, I‘ve had a lot of improvement.  I get pain when I ride, but only when I do an abrupt movement.  Something like my rear wheel slides out on sand and I have to do a quick response to stay upright.

Standing on one leg to put my jeans on has been impossible.  The last couple months, I’ve been doing one legged squats, while standing in the shower, and I think that has helped a ton.  I can now balance well enough to dress standing up, which is more important than you’d think.

And, yes, I plan to start running some.  Just for life.  I want to be able to do everything I did before breaking my hip.  Riding a bicycle is important, but it isn’t everything.  Running is something that has to be available to do when I don’t have a bike or just don’t feel like riding.  It might be a bit before I can go out and do a 5 minute mile again.

I plan to get back to racing pretty soon.  I was sick a lot the last month and missed all the early season training races around here.  This weekend is Easter, so there isn’t much racing going on.

Last night, on the evening ride, everyone seemed pretty animated.   I’ve been riding gravel the last week and it was really nice getting back on my road bike.  The lack of resistance was a pleasure.

The ride was fast.  And pretty hard.  The wind was blowing from the Southeast at about 25 mph.  That isn’t that usual for Kansas in early spring, but it still was a 25 mph cross/headwind going out.

Anyway, my brother Kris, started going hard maybe 10 miles from “the sprint”.  And it really didn’t slow down from there.  I was trying to keep a few guys on, that were getting dropped on hills, etc., so I was in the wind a lot.  I was surprised how out of shape I am for going fast.

I’m not sure why that surprised me so much.  I haven’t raced and don’t really do intervals, so what wouldn’t I be out of shape for riding over 30 mph.  Acutally, I was okay pulling, just the changing of speed when rotating to the back was hurting me.

So, I think I’m fit enough to race some.  There is a 100 mile gravel road race in Lawrence next Sunday, that I think I might do.  I might look around to see if there are any other races around that might suit me better.  I don’t need to be doing criteriums.  I need a hilly road race or circuit race.

Anyway, I think I am 80% of the way recovered from this whole broken hip thing.  I have to thank all the people that helped me.  All the doctors, plus friends.  But really all the emails and contacts from other riders that have had this same problem.  I got so much valuable information from other cyclists.  It kept me focused and gave me insight to what to expect, realistically.

I was told, many times, that it would be 12 months, or more, before it would feel natural.  That seems to be timeframe I’m on.  Wonder what I’ll be doing Memorial Day Weekend this year?

Lots of guys have had the hardward taken out. I have no idea how you make that decision. Hopefully it won’t be one I have to figure out.

The soft tissue trauma was the real issue.

My doctor from University of Iowa, Dr. Karam. He is a very good orthopedic surgeon.I was very lucky crashing near him.

That’s right.  I would have bet almost anything that I would never have a reason to actually purchase Epogen (EPO).  But I would have lost that bet.

I know the title is a little misleading. I am getting it for my dog, Bromont.

Bromont has been really slow recently.   That is to be expected with terminal HSA cancer.  But his gums are whitish and obviously he is low on red cells.  So we took him in for a blood test today and his hematocrit was 15.2%  It was 27 two week ago, and 38, 2 weeks before that.  The normal range is 37-62.  So, his is less than half of normal.  His red count is less than half of low also.

There are a couple reasons that could cause this.   His red cell production could be suppressed in the marrow due to cytokines stimulated by the tumor, microangiopathic destruction of red blood cells as they pass through the tumors.  Or, he has chronic bleeding.   Or, I guess, both.

So, I got on this kick that he isn’t comfortable and that he needs more oxygen, thus red cells.  After doing some a little research, perhaps not enough, I thought that maybe EPO would be of benefit to him.

So, I researched that a little more, along with my vet from K-State.  It is kind of crazy.  a 3000 U/ml vial of 10ml that cost $30 in the mid 90’s now costs $1500 at Walgreens.  But a 2000 U/ml vial, same size is $359.  So 1 1/2 times the dosage, which makes it 1/3 of the cost.  (FYI, a 20000 U/ml vial is $8700.  I’m not sure how much a human needs, but the stuff is pretty expensive.  At least at Walgreens.)

Anyway, when Bromont went to get the blood test, we got 1 ml to start.  I gave that to him yesterday.

It was pretty weird holding that little vial of water-like liquid in my hands.  It contained the substance of what could be the difference between a mediocre athlete and a Tour de France winner.  Just a little clear liquid, that isn’t all that hard to obtain.   It all seems so silly.  It seems so wrong.  It was creepy.

After doing all this, I spent more time and did a lot more research and I’m of the opinion that it won’t help.  I don’t think that any amount of EPO is going to enable him to make the appropriate amount of red cells to stay somewhat healthy.  I’ve already special ordered the EPO from the pharmacy, so I hope they don’t make me take it. Thus, the regret.

So, I decided on a blood transfusion route now.  This morning, we’re taking him to K-State to get a 5 hour blood transfusion.  In theory, it will double his hematocrit.  I don’t think there is any way to know how long that will last.  In kind of depends on why he doesn’t have any now.  His levels dropped from 27 to 15 in two weeks.  I guess the best we could hope for is the same again.

I didn’t have any idea if they happen to have a bunch of dog blood sitting around.  His type even.  Sounds like they do.  I wonder where they get that?

I’m not trying to play God or anything with my dog.  I’m just trying to make him as comfortable as possible through all of this.  If this makes him feel better, then I’m all for it.  I’m a little torn about having him at the vet school for 5 hours, but hopefully I can sit with him the whole time while he gets the blood.

This whole process is a learning experience.  What I’ve learned so far is that you don’t have any idea where you are in the process.  If you would have asked me two weeks ago, on any given day, whether he would still be alive two weeks later, I might have answered, 100% no, or 100% yes, just depending on what hour of the day the question was asked.

My vet, who is an avid cyclist, told me he would keep it quiet that I got EPO for my dog.  He said next thing you know, I’d be getting it for my grandmother, etc.  It is so weird that the only reason I know of this drug is because of the abuse of it in our sport.  I really thought that Hemopure would be the perfect drug for Bromont.  Wow, now that I looked that link up, I see that it was approved for canine use in 1998.  I wonder about the availability of that?  It might be better than a transfusion.

Anyway, Bromont seems happy enough.  He likes to go for car rides.  He loves sleeping with us.  Every once in a while he plays a little still.  He likes to take walks, but not very far.  He is a pretty picky about food, but he always was.   I love the dog to death and feel obligated to do everything in my power to help him feel as good as possible as long as possible.  It’s as simple as that.

Here is a vial of the drug of choice for endurance athletes the last two decades or so. It seemed so weird even holding it.

This blood test was very depressing. His blood is total shit. I hope I can do something to make him feel a little better for a short time.

Bromont on his way for some new blood.