(January 29)

Day 35 - Deming NM....yes, still in Deming

Ruh Roh

 

 

 Homebrew medicine

 

Today's big trip! Lunch at the WalMart Subway and then shopping for the following essential recovery items:

Fig Newtons, Swedish Fish, Raisinettes and trail mix.

By far the cleanest, nicest $50/night hotel I've stayed in so far.

 

The moment I woke up I knew I had yet ANOTHER big decision to make. The swelling in my knee was, if anything, worse.

 

I'll admit that my initial reaction was disbelief. Could this really be happening?? A full month of riding and then, all the sudden, this?

 

Following close on this was fear. What am I going to do when I can't ride and the only way to leave Deming was to ride? It isn't like I can take Uber back home.

 

Then came the panic. I had to get someplace I could safely lick my wounds. Hole up. And that meant Phoenix. Family, friends. So I investigated trying to get a ride to Phoenix. Skip the "ride my bike to Phoenix" part of the trip and just go directly to Phoenix in a car. Like in Monopoly when you get sent to GO to collect $200 without stopping at anything in between.

 

Then, came the resolve. Damn it, there was NO WAY I'd come this far to let this stop me. What was needed here was....Google.

 

So, after extending my stay another day in order to rest up some more, I Googled my condition. Sure enough, it had a name: Prepatellar Bursitis. Comes on from exercising too much. And, interestingly, I'd already been doing exactly what the internet told me I should do: stop doing what caused the bursitis in the first place (cycling), rest my leg, get myself full of Advil and apply ice several times a day for 20 minutes at a time. Check, check and check.

 

I finally decided...just before check-out time...that my course of action would be thus:

1) One more day of rest. But only one. I can't make Deming my new residence (nor do I want to).

2) Come what may, tomorrow I ride to Lordsburg.

3) Come what may, I'll make it to Duncan Arizona as my next stop after Lordsburg.

If my knee hasn't improved by then, I'll start again, in order with: disbelief, fear and panic.

 

So I'm still hanging in there. Fighting the good fight. Icing the good ice, etc.. It is only failure if I lack effort. And, by golly, I'm going out-effort this bursitis until it is on the floor crying for me to stop out-efforting it!!

 

Bursitis: "Please don't be any more resolved Mr. David!"

 

Me: "Too bad bursitis, you don't stand a chance against me and my huge Reservoir of Resolve!"

Bursitis:"Spare me your colossal willpower to keep pedaling I beg you!"

 

Me: "It's more colossal than, well, really colossal other stuff that is colossal!"

 

A puddle of cowering jelly is what I'll turn this bursitis into. Weakened, ineffectual and irrelevant: That's what this bursitis will be by tomorrow!!

P.S.

- Pretty good pep talk huh? I was yelling at my knee as I wrote all that to help "get in character"

- I'm incredibly lucky that 1) WalMart is so close I can easily walk to it, 2) This hotel has a restaurant (something cheap hotels NEVER have) and 3) It is, for the price, a remarkably clean, nice place to stay laid up for nearly 3 days.

- I'm really grateful for 2) above