Jihan called me at work yesterday about mid-day to tell me that she had a surgery date. Someone had cancelled at the last minute and the surgeon had thought about her. So here she was, just over a year and a month after the bicycle accident that resulted in multiple ligament damage in her left knee, getting a surgery date at a day's notice. While her knee had gotten much better with all the physiotherapy, and she was indeed able to not only walk at a decent pace and carefully ride her bike, she wasn't going to pass up this opportunity to get scoping done on her knee to clean up the scar tissue built up in there.
So I told my employer that I needed today off to take Jihan to the hospital for her surgery. What I didn't know was that I'd need to take tomorrow off as well as the surgeon's instructions were for her to not be left alone for 24 hours after the surgery. Oh well, this is important and I wanted to be the one to stay at home with her, rather than calling another relative over. She's doing okay, except for some nausea and vomiting and the pain, subdued by powerful pain medication, that naturally follows surgery. But she does have to be in bed much of the time for a day or two with her leg elevated and iced. That, as well as cooking and other errands around the house, is where I mainly come in. Every 40 minutes or so I switch out her ice pack, bringing her a cold one and putting the other back in the freezer.
I spent pretty much all day around McMaster hospital in West Hamilton. Around 0930 Jihan had her pre-op appointment which, with all the waiting, kept us there 'til she got wheeled in to the surgery room about 1230. I was told her surgery and post-op recovery should take 'til 1500 or so. Once she was in the operating room, there was nothing for me to do any more but wait.
While waiting, McMaster University being my alma mater, I decided to grab a bite to eat and check out a new development on campus related to bicycles. I found out fairly recently that McMaster had set up, perhaps a year or two after I graduated, a bicycle repair co-op called MACycle. It is only the second co-op in Hamilton, the first, recycle cycles, having been started as an OPIRG-McMaster working group. Since MACycle is only open during business hours, Monday to Friday, I decided to check them out.
I liked what I saw there--a shop with all the tools necessary to work on one's bike and learn about bicycle repair essentially for free, provided one is a member ($5/year). One room was the shop, while another room, in the back, was full of bike frames and parts. The young man on duty there at the time said he could get me a frame for as low as $20 which I could then use to build my own bike. An interesting proposition, though useless to me. I am normally at work during their open hours. I do intend to check recycle cycles out soon. Turns out the have some Saturday hours and are only a few blocks from my house.
When Jihan got out of the recovery room, she was wheeled to another room where I could be with her as she was prepared, slowly, to get ready to get out of the hospital clothing and into her own to go home. The first thing she told me, when I met her there, was that she had dreamt about bicycle touring as she came out of her general anaesthesia. This just goes to show how eager and determined she is to get riding again as soon as possible. In fact, we've been talking seriously about doing longer, fully loaded, self-supported bicycle tours for vacation. We don't care about lounging around at some resort. We want to be active, and cycling is a wonderful way to be both active and take in the scenery and flavour of new places. Last year and the one before that we took a week in April to go on cycling vacations, though both, in Lake Placid, NY and Minden, ON, we stayed in paid lodging. We're hoping, beginning next year, to outfit our bikes for self-supported touring complete with tent and camping gear.
Jihan was finally released from the hospital around 1600. I brought her home and tended to her for a while. Knowing I'd really like to get some cycling in today, she came up with the idea of putting some ice and the ice packs in a cooler next to her bed so she could switch them out herself. She thus released me for a couple hours in the evening to cycle.
I got into my cycling gear, picked my bike off the balcony and headed out. I decided to head towards the Escarpment Cycling Trail, really a multi-use trail built along an abandoned CN rail line. I had decided that I'd be out for a maximum of two hours. I left around 1930 and made really good headway on the way up, despite the incline (don't know what the grade is). I was up at the Albion Falls parking lot, at the end of the trail, at 2000. It basically took me only half an hour to cycle the 10 km, of which 8.1 km are up the escarpment. Not too shabby, I think.
At the top, I went a little further, exploring a bit, then returned home the same way, keeping a steady, brisk pace in my highest gear. Along the way I passed mulleted guy riding his mountain bike, hands-free, down the trail. Since I was going at a pretty good clip, I passed him rather quickly and didn't think anything further about him. A little while later I heard someone approaching on my left and saw him pedaling rapidly to pass me, then resumed his hands-free riding. Keeping at my steady pace, I soon re-passed him and didn't see him again. I just found it somewhat humorous that he felt the need to alter his pace to pass me when he obviously wasn't up to maintaining that speed. Reminds me of a roadie's rant I read recently... Though I don't consider myself a roadie, when I'm out for my fitness ride, not unlike him, I like to keep a steady, focused, brisk pace and do not care to race anyone.
I made it back home, about 20 km all in, in exactly an hour. I felt good and was quite happy about that. I intend to do the same route again in the morning, before Jihan gets up, since I'm home from work another day.
After I got home I made miso soup for dinner. Yum, though unfortunately Jihan couldn't it down. Poor girl threw it up, then went to bed. I should go too...
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