“A Month Ago I Thought I Was Invincible … but now??”

Surgeon General Warning: Do not read any further if you would be offended by a discussion of middle aged male plumbing issues!!

As I have related in prior blogs, the CanMexPac ride is one of my big Bucket List items, something that I have thought about for years.  I have dedicated year 2011 to preparing for this epic 1900 mile ride.  I have been riding 150-200 miles a week.  I have been making sure I got a lot of climbing in.  I have done a few event centuries and I have just gone out on my own and rode a century (a century is a 100 mile ride for those new to biking).  In July I was invited to join 9 other guys and I put in nearly 400 miles in a week doing rides and climbs in Colorado, and I rode very strong and felt good.  I was on a mission and I was working a plan.  I felt incredibly healthy, and as I said, I was thinking I was invincible.

And then it happened, I remember the date.  It was July 20^th and it was a Wednesday ride.  The ride was starting at the top of Tramway at County Line and then going south on Tramway, east on US 66 and then south on NM 14.  It was going to be a good long ride with some climbing, but I thought I would add 30 miles to the ride.  I would start from my house in Corrales and meet the group at County Line, that was my plan.  Unfortunately, I was ten minutes late to the starting point, after climbing Tramway, and my group had already left.  So, I decided to catch them and started pushing.  I did not catch them on Tramway, I still had not caught them on US 66 and so I started pushing up the hill, going south on NM 14. It was also very hot, in the 90’s.  Then it happened.  Please remember the Surgeon General Warning at the beginning of this blog because it might get graphic now.  About 4 or 5 miles into the climb I suddenly had to PEE! And I had to pull over immediately and find a bush, so I did.  I dropped my bibs, peed … but it was only a dribble and it was orange colored, and it burned.  This was not good.  And it continued like this for the rest of the ride.  One of my friends had cut the ride shorter by parking at Central and Tramway and waiting for the group in the morning, and she offered me a ride knowing that I would say ‘no’.  But I was not feeling good, and I surprised her and accepted her offer of a ride and I got off my bike.  Whatever was going on with my system was not good and I had no idea what it might be.  I thought perhaps it was supplements, so I laid off my supplements and took two days off from riding.  That Saturday I rode 70 miles with my BORB’s from church (Brothers On Road Bikes) and the same thing happened again.  When it happened the prior Wednesday, the pain and discomfort carried on into Thursday.  When it happened on Saturday, the pain and discomfort cleared up in the middle of the night Friday.  I rested Sunday, and rode a shorter, easier ride on Monday and it happened again … and the pain and discomfort cleared up Monday evening.  Some people are slower than others, and when it comes to health issues and possible problems, I often find myself in the slow group. 

On Tuesday I finally went to urgent care.  I gave them some background and I was triaged.  The nurse said, “When you said you rode a bike a lot, you must mean you really ride a lot.” I said, “Yes, why?” She said, “Well normally when I see a heart rate this low, I stop what I am doing and send the patient immediately over to emergency.” “Oh,” I said, “what is my heart rate?”  She said, “47.” I replied, “Oh, that is because I had a cup of coffee before I came in. It is usually lower.” Yeah, I know, I’m bragging, but I thought it was funny. After my examination, and a urinalysis, we found out that I had blood in my urine but no infection in my bladder.  It could be an injury to the perineum or the prostate, or it could be something else.  I was given medication for infection and inflammation and advised to see a urologist.  I now knew I was not invincible and I had a problem that needed to be addressed and controlled before we started the CanMexPac ride. 

The Copper Triangle was also coming up in less than two weeks (almost 80 miles and over 6000 feet of climbing) and I had planned on riding that with a number of friends.  We were all having the pre-Copper Triangle potluck at my place in Corrales.  After giving it some thought, I decided as much as I would like to ride the Copper Triangle, it would be smarter to give my system a rest and figure out what was going on if I wanted to ride the higher priority CanMexPac ride.  So at the pre Copper Triangle potluck at my place, I let the group know that I had some health issues and was going to be a team photographer for the  ride but I would not actually do the ride.  When some of the guys got an idea of what the issue was, one by one they started discreetly taking me aside. “Marvin, I had the same issue once, is your saddle an issue.” “Marvin, who is your urologist?” “Marvin, I remember one ride that I had to stop and have my wife pick me up, the pain was so bad” “Marvin, I had the same issue for 20 months and the doctors were never able to determine the source. A homeopathic physician finally cured me.”  “Marvin, what tests have they done? Have they done a cystoscopy?”

More on the cystoscopy later, that one was the most interesting.  I ended up having an ultrasound, a CT scan, blood sampling,  six urine analysis’s, and finally, the cystoscopy (but more on that later).  I also started trying to figure out if anything on the bike needed to be changed up.  I had changed to a new type of tire a month earlier and I was running 120 psi whereas I used to run 105 psi.  I had also hit some bumps riding and came down on the back of my saddle and pushed the nose up and continued to ride a couple of times and it was uncomfortable.  So I bought a new saddle for my bike that was a bit softer, and had a drop nose and had seat removed down the center so there was less pressure on sensitive areas while riding.  The drop nose makes my saddle look like it needs Viagra. Dennie said that is so I won’t need Viagra later, pretty funny.  This week I had my cystoscopy.  That is where they stick a camera inside of you and check out the inside of your bladder.  Yes, you probably guessed where the camera has to enter.  I will spare us all the details, but as the camera was proceeding towards the bladder, it had to pass by the prostate gland – that was not comfortable.  In summary, the bladder looked good and all tests are conclusive that I do not have to worry about cancer.  My prostate is somewhat enlarged but normal for someone my age.  I also learned that the prostate starts getting blood veins as men age and the urologist requested that I look at the screen as the camera passed through the prostate.  I was able to see the small veins and I saw a few that looked more red and irritated than the others and we are pretty sure that is the source of the blood in the urine.  The urologist had no issue with my plan to proceed on the CanMexPac ride, so all systems remain go. 

If anyone actually read through this blog, my hope is the men know what to look for if they develop issues; and the wives might know what their hubbies could be experiencing.

So Jim, Bill and I remain on schedule to start our ride from the Canadian border on September 22, and head south to Mexico on the Pacific coast.