I took Catherine’s mom out to lunch today. We went to Panera to have a sandwich and some soup. I am amazed how great of an attitude she has. She is approaching 90 years old and acts mentally like she is in her early 20’s. I can only wish that I have as great a mindset as I get old.

Anyway, I started thinking about all this because I was looking in the mirror this morning and thought I saw some of my dad’s face in mine. It was the first time in my life that a thought like that had even crossed my mind. It got me thinking about my father and kind of just kept going.

I just asked my brother and it turns out just last night he figured out that I am older now than my father was when he died. The actual out living day was March 25th, 2014. You can go to the Julian Calculator and figure out the number of actually days you’ve been alive. It takes into account leap days, etc. I’ve been alive for 19825 days today. I’m not sure if that seems like a lot or not. But, I don’t want to die now.

I don’t have a whole lot of regrets in my life, but one is that I wish I didn’t treat my parents as they were old when I was younger. I don’t really feel that old. Not close to as old as I perceived my father to be when he was alive.

Time seems to move differently as I age. To me, a day goes so quickly now. Today was the last day of public school here in Topeka. After Catherine’s mom and I went to lunch, I took her by Dairy Queen to have a Hawaiian Blizzard. There were two kids getting sundaes there. Their father told us it was the first day of summer vacation.

When I was in elementary school, summer break was sooooo long. I remember it being forever and then I’d ask my mom how much longer it was and she said it was only half over. I could cram so much stuff into each and everyday and then do it over and over again. Now the days fly by. I can blow a week in no time at all. I’m not sure why I perceive time so much differently, but it is a fact that I do.

My grandmother lived to 99. If things keep going the way there are, with time accelerating, days are going to be blinks of my eye.

Catherine’s mom, Berta, in my van.

I caught her here at DQ, off guard.

Yesterday went pretty well, considering. I still haven’t spoken to the doctor, but he told Trudi that everything went perfect and I should heal up fine. It turns out that the break was one of the “better” hip fractures you can get, and that with just 5 screws and a metal plate, it is all back together.

I can’t believe how much less painful it is now. Like 10% compared to before. Something like just normal road rash. I think my main problem right now is that my left leg muscles seem to be all seized up and it is really kind of impossible to move my leg. I’m not so good with anesthesia, so am pleasantly surprised I’m not all jacked up from that. No one has really said much about the pelvic facture, so I guess that just takes care of itself. Kind of strange. It is probably just all the pain medication? I just only realized that I have a catheter to urinate. You’d think I would have noticed that before?

I guess I’m supposed to spend a few more days in the hospital. I’m not sure why. To me, I think I’m pretty good to go and wouldn’t mind just heading home. I guess I’ll find out more later this morning, when everyone else is awake.

My few observations from this whole ordeal, medical-wise –

#1 Hospitals are really loud places. Like super loud. Don’t expect to get any sleep or rest. There is always someone coming in to check vitals, change IV bags, turn off alarms, give pills, something.

#2 Teaching hospitals, such as the University of Iowa, has more traffic going through your room. Like tons. Residences, nursing assistants, medical students, ect. It is mind boggling how many different people have introduced themselves to me.

#3 The food here is really bland. You have to “order” salt and pepper, or anything else, like butter for an English muffin, etc. I’ve only had one meal so far. I thought I ordered a ton, but was starving when I was done. For breakfast, I’m ordering the whole menu.

#4 Ambulances have terrible suspensions. The two ambulance rides I took to get from the race to the hospital and from the hospital to Iowa City were horrible. I know that having a broken hip exacerbated the bumpiness, but come on, most people in a ambulance are in some sort of pain I’d think. It is like riding in the back of a one ton pickup truck. Horrible. You’d think that they would have that figured out by now. For the amount of money it costs to get into one of those things, you would think it would be the most luxurious ride you could imagine. Exactly the opposite.

#5 Out of all the people at the hospital, the nurses are the ones that are the most important for the patients. I have two really great nurses. They are working 12 hours on, 12 off. I don’t’ know how they do it, but they seem to stay cheerful and busy the whole time here. It is the most important part of the stay so far.

I’m pretty optimistic about the next bit. Like I said above, I haven’t spoken to the doctor, but from just word of mouth, I might be back riding way sooner than I could have imagined. I believe that I got really lucky, considering, and that the whole season isn’t going to be a write off. Not that it is the most important thing, but I do like riding my bike.

Trudi drove straight here from Pro Road Championships in Chattanooga, just in time for me to head down to surgery, so she is here. She went back down to Davenport to hang with Bromont and stay with Jeff and Deb. It would be a waste having her up here. It is such a perfect set-up down there for them. If I would have known, I should have brought her bike with me and she could go out riding on the bike path system they have down in the Quad Cities. It is pretty good.

I don’t have a photo of the post operation hip, just the broken one. In the photo below, the break is the dark area at the top of my leg bone, where it angles to the left. They put in two long screws through the femur, into the head of the hip, to pull the whole thing back together, then a plate and three more screws below it to strengthen the whole area, I guess. I wonder what would happen if/or more accurately, will happen, when I fall on that stainless steel plate. Maybe there will be enough soft tissue around the area, the plate is deep enough, so it just doesn’t come poking through the skin? I wonder if I’m going to set off metal detectors at the airports now? That would be weird.

Little gory looking. I didn’t think the incision would be so huge.