The unplanned week off

I had an MRI performed this morning to try and get a better picture of what is going on in my upper back. It has been almost impossible to use my right arm at all for anything. It takes only a few seconds of typing an email before I have to stop and shake out the pain. The pain has been shooting through my right arm and my muscles around my chest and my right arm have been twitching rather violently. I'm hooked up to a Comptens unit as I type. It sends electrical pulses to intercept my pain shooting from under my right shoulder blade through my arm. All this upper back pain started in January, around the 13th. It would flare up EXACTLY every other weekend with more intense pain, simple from a yawn or morning stretch in bed. Since the beginning of February I had been goign to see a chiropractor, and even though I always felt better after leaving each of my appointments, the source of the pain was not going away. So, late Sunday night I had decided to cancel the remaining chiro visits and go see my doctor. So, hopefully this will help. I can't drive for long distances, can't work, and I certainly can't ride my bike. So, honestly, I'm not sure what to do with myself while I'm at home other than to drink coffee, watch Tour de France tapes and South Park DVD. I'd like to work more on personal projects, but that is hard to do since my right arm really can't do much right now. I have a lot of time off that I am not used to. I went on a little hike yesterday and that was nice. Maybe I'll do that again today, but need to keep driving distances down.

I was supposed to travel to Winston-Salem, NC this week to give two presentations on Change Detection and Remote Sensing Imagery at the NC GIS Conference. But, I won't be there. I have one co-worker covering for me for one of the presentations, but I guess the other one will be cancelled. Here is a web link to the Geospatial Imaging Program that I manage at NC CGIA.

Depending on the time that it will take to recovery from my back pain, I will have to reassess my bicycle racing goals for this year. I always felt like this (my late 30s) is a fading window of time to upgrade to Cat 3, and just get the most of my physical ability. Once I get the upgrade, I can focus on racing masters 35+ and hopefully get on a masters team. If I miss the window, then one of my life goals will be missed. I really don't expect that too happen though. The life goals keep me going. They are like stepping stones, which are always great to look back on. I learn a lot about myself, the fine balance of my stubborn drive to pursue my goals and when it is time to give up some focus to achieve those goals and have a "normal" life. I do know that I can accomplish what I set out to do when I am 100% focused and my distractions are limited. Picking the right distractions to keep in your life is not always so easy for me. I have to move all the variables around in my mind until I find something that works. I can usually get to that point. It just is not a fast process.

All for now....more later.

-Frank