Facet Impingement

Posted by Kevin.......

Wednesday afternoon, during a very rough ride at 8,000 ft. over Iowa, I was doing a very good impression of a bobble head doll, when I felt a small pull in my neck followed by a faint burning pain down my back.


The pain grew and grew. By 1130PM I was totally overcome.

Stace drove me to the emergency room at Northfield General. I was sure that a vertebra disc had just shot out of my spine and lodged itself in my skull.

"Facet Impingement" was the diagnosis.

It seems that on either side of each vertebra, there are smaller bones or "facets" that fit together with the matching "facets" of the next vertebra.

Somewhere around the C-4 or C-5 vertebra, left side, my facets went misaligned and contacted a piece of spaghetti. Actually, it was a nerve running from my spinal column across my neck, and out to the top of my shoulder blade.

I wanted a large needle full of anesthesia to be plunged into my upper back right now! But instead, a mix of Vicodin and Ativan sent me on a visit with Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

I lost Thursday forever. I have no memory of that day at all.

Friday, I apparently dug up some back yard plants and moved them to less than desirable locations in the back yard. I did this even though simply holding an object in my left hand or raising my left leg caused bright flashes of light in my skull and pain usually reserved for Civil War wounded.

When Stace came home from work Friday and asked what I did all day, I said, "I think I did yard work. Maybe I shouldn't have."

Spring has Sprung!

Despite spring snow storms and marauding packs of squirrels, some of our tulips finally came up! Photo on right shows some rabbit damage! (Stace had forbid me to harm, annoy, our otherwise impose undue stress on this rabbit.)








Apple blossoms in our back yard made a fine buffet for about twenty "Cedar Waxwings" that stopped over this weekend for a visit. We have never seen these birds before. (This one was probably skinny when it first arrived!)

Tomato plants are started.....along with various flower seedlings. As an extra bonus this year, I'm starting a Sunflower patch!

That's all for now. I'm taking Stace to go to the home and garden store. (I'm not lifting those bags of garden stones!)

Rocky Mountain High

Posted By Kevin.....
Photos of the Northfield Bicycle Club Spring Training Camp, Colorado!

Rocky Mountain National Park, we rode to 11,200 ft. Then the snow on the rode became to deep.


After the ride, I didn't want to move.

Stanley Hotel, Estes Park. (from the movie "The Shining")

Seem like all we did was ride everyday.....


Every ride was hard work. Here we are on the last day, halfway through a tough ride!

Spring Biking

Posted by Kevin

This is a photo of:

A. Kevin riding up a steep canyon in the Rocky Mountains in April.

B. Kevin reconsidering his decision to ride 4 days in Colorado.

C. A man who can't remember his own name, but thinks he just saw John Denver on a Schwinn.