Pain for Two

Ken's feeling better. He had a lot of pressure the first couple of days as things were sorting themselves out. The doctor told him to take 1-2 vicodin every 4 hours. The first day was the worst, but we found that a vicodin every three hours keeps him at a nice steady level with minimal discomfort. He's able to move around pretty well and has left the house a couple times (not driving). He gets tired sooner than usual (not surprising) and also needs to wash out his sinuses pretty often, so we're not out for very long stretches. But at least he's mobile. That's great. He has a follow-up doctor's appointment tomorrow and is working from home and taking it easy today.

To make sure Ken's not the only one in pain today, I went over the handlebars of my bike this morning on my way to work. A car ran a red light right in front of me but he was just far enough away where it didn't affect me. I did scream "you just ran a red light!" which made him slow down to apologize. He then stayed right next to me as I rode in the bike lane -- rather than speeding up or slowing down. Weird, but whatever. As I was crossing the last set of streetcar tracks in the south waterfront (about a block from the tram), I saw a guidewire hanging down. I decided to swerve to miss it, but there was that damn car on my left and curb/rocks on my right. I thought I'd just squeak by, but it wrapped around my pedals and stopped my bike, sending me flying into the asphalt. I landed on my right side and elbow. Shaken and a bit teary, but fine. Some construction guys rushed over to make sure I was OK. Turns out a crane just went through before I got there and knocked the wires down from the traffic light above. My bike is a bit tweaked. The seat was turned 90 degrees and my brakes are sticking a bit. I'm going to get that fixed after work -- annoying because I just had them fixed on Friday and my bike was riding beautifully before the accident. Oh well. I've been icing my elbow all day since I could feel a couple of bumps and see it starting to bruise. I also took some ibuprofen this morning. Like I said, I'm fine.

Just got this update from Ken via email: "I haven't had a vicodin since 9:30 this morning. mild pressure is all I feel right now. we'll see how long this lasts. i'm still fearful that the surgery did nothing but it's still too early"