Sunday, July 25, 2010

eat s*** and (almost) die: eee coal-eye 2 weeks before TR2010

The headache, the lightheadedness, then the chills. I knew something was up with Dennis, but I didn't know what, or how bad it was. He was ashen in the TRX workout on Monday, but as usual, I forced him on, "you'll feel better once you get the blood flowing" I coaxed.. But when his heart rate didn't drop after the first set, I felt we were in for a few rest days, nothing more. The next day, he was home at lunch from work to sleep in bed for God's sake, he must have been feeling like death. A trip to Oppendoc, some bloods drawn, a urinalysis and a reminder to lie low while the 100+ fever was working it's way through his body. We thought is was a UTI, or even a prostate infection, I joked to Dennis that he would need daily prostate massages to recover.. but when the doc informed us that it was this!, we were taken aback. Hand washing freaks, I go through tubs of Purell at work and am cautious with food preparation at home. We share 2 daily meals, and yet I wasn't sick, it didn't make sense. Had I confused the salad bowl for the toilet bowl? Did I really make him s*** on a stick for dinner? Not funny, he groaned as his insides convulsed and he lay soaked in sweat puddles. He took broad spectrum antibiotics and lay low. I filled my water bottles and rode my bike alone. We both worried that this would upset the plans for TR2010. Bummer.
Turns out, we need not have bashed our brains too much wondering where the poop in the system came from.
As I hosed down my bike, and scraped the turkey dung off the tyres and wheel rims, a little lightbulb went off in my head. Then, on this morning's ride in the North West woods, Craig stopped to wipe the turkey poo off his water bottle, smearing it all over his gloves, yummy. We swapped funny stories about getting covered in the stuff while mountain biking, almost crashing with laughter as Danny recalled a  Brian Monaghan tale about getting crap all over his bike during a ride, cleaning it off meticulously and then still complaining an hour later that he could still smell it. Little wonder, since a big glob of it was on the end of his nose! Poop problem solved, we will be digging out the Camelbacks and limiting our daily intake of trail droppings in the future.
What a difference a few days and some antibiotics make. The good news is that Dennis is riding like a demon, back to 4 hours today, albeit slower than normal..the bad news is the worry about what this junk can do to your system. It may get rid of the bacterial infection, but it just might explode some tendons in the process.
We are making the proverbial list (bike parts, how many pairs of shorts, will we pack 2 tubes of assbutt'r, where is the mandatory bear spray..) and checking it twice. I will take a bear attack over an exploding Achilles tendon anyday, and just in case, I am brushing up on my how-to-survive-a-bear-attack-videos. Honest.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

geez! glad to know Dennis is better. Thanks for the reminder. I actually recall being aware of the contamination after having the stuff on my tires in the spring and that it could transfer to my bike gloves when I took off the front wheel to mount the bike on my car. I used hand sanitizer after taking glove off until I got home to wash up. oh and the steering wheel too lol. something to keep in mind.

Anonymous said...

Tell me you did not take an antibiotic related to Levaquin or Cipro!? That stuff is poison. If it only destroys an Achilles you'll be lucky. I hope there were no side effects. As you know that class of drugs can ruin tendons, hearing, nerves and a lot more.