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Ore to Shore Update

Training had been going pretty much as planned up until this week.  Last Saturday I did a 20 mile ride and got caught out in a storm.  Just rain, no thunder or lightning.  It was a nice ride.  The day before I had worked 13 hours and my back was starting to hurt.  I felt good after the ride and took a nap.  By Monday my back was feeling pretty good and I decided to just rest one more day.

On Tuesday I was feeling good.  While at worked I coughed really hard and felt some severe pain in my back. That evening we went to Clio for hair cuts (Michelle and the boys, I do my own).  JJ and I rode home from Clio, he had not rode in a week.  He did good and I felt good on the bike.

Wednesday morning I was in a lot of pain and my back was really stiff.  I went to work and called my doctor after the office opened.  The doctor figured it was a muscle spasm and ordered x-rays to be safe.  The results came back and this is what they found.   Spondylolisthesis at L5-S1 with probable bilateral spondylolysis.  Spondylolisthesis is a condition in which one bone in your back (vertebra)
slides forward over the bone below it. It most often occurs in the lower spine.


It looks something like this except mine is in L5.  I don't have some of the more severe symptoms.  They also found a fracture in the vertebrae.  Doctor says that the fracture led to this.  Not sure when it happened.  Last x-rays of my back were done in 1997 and it was not there at that time.  Next step is physical therapy for core strength.  This will need to continue the rest of my life.  Not a bad thing.

I will try to get short ride in to test things out next week.  Still planning on riding the Soft Rock with JJ.  If anything this may slow me down a little.

We leave for Marquette next Sunday.  The race is on Saturday, August 8. 

I will post soon with other updates as we move along here.

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