Ha! That sure got your attention, eh?!
I'm here in Portland, and the city is so very pretty at night! On my flight to O'Hare, we passed over Lake Michigan, but I didn't see any boats. Shortly before we landed in Portland, we passed over an impressive body of water (the Columbia River, I'm guessing?!) and I saw a huge sailboat marina. I'm wondering if this is the river where my pal Greg - aka "Dr. One" -- sails. (Greg?)
My flight from Chicago to Portland was interesting. I shared the exit row with a couple from Orlando who had spent their entire 4.5-hour Chicago layover at the bar... doing shots of Finlandia. They both passed out immediately after takeoff and slept for two hours. They were feeling a little frisky when they awoke, and I was starting to worry that they might try to 'seal the deal' right there in the exit row. It was a little awkward. I turned up the volume on the satellite radio (80s on 8 !!!) and buried my nose a little deeper into my Cruising World magazine.
Let me get to the second, less-sexy part of this post's title. (I don't care what the clock radio in my hotel room says. It is 11:40 PM to me!) Okay... In the midst of packing up all of the extraneous stuff in my house to put in storage while my house is on the market, I strained my left shoulder. I figured it was a pulled muscle or something and assumed that once the heavy lifting was over it would heal right up. I consulted with Bro, a Physical Therapist who does phone consultations with his hypochondriac sister, and his diagnosis was *Bursitis.* He sounded very grim when he said it, and that took all the wind out of my sails. Bro's wife (also a PT) told me that she had it once and it didn't start feeling better for six weeks. It's official: I am old.
So here I am... six weeks later... with all the same pain that I had on day one. It's actually worse today from hauling bags around all day. During the drive to my hotel tonight, a sudden realization hit me. I'm going to need to have a pain-free, ready-to-race shoulder in just a little more than six weeks from now!! There is no way I'll be able to trim sails and grind winches like this. I guess I may need to consider getting a cortisone shot. Don't they use like a railroad spike to give those shots?! Have you ever had one? How bad is it?! I'll do just about anything to ensure that I can race and sail this season, but I'd feel better about the situation if there was a place that offered 'sedation dentistry' and cortisone shots as a combo deal.
3 comments:
The Columbia runs right next to the airport there. I'm sailing in the Willamette, mostly, which hits the Columbia here in Portland. We'll be in the Columbia more in the summer, when the winds are really good in the afternoon and the sun actually shines (that rain thing is a big fiction we made up so people wouldn't move here and find out how nice it really is).
The shots I had of Kris and me test sailing a Hunter 38 were out on the Columbia.
If you looked closely, we were up there today looking at boats again. Looked at a Horstman Tri-Star, which was launched in 1997 and supposed to be the first tri to go around the Horn.
So, you got us all heated up with the Finlandia story and left us high and dry.
You gotta come and spend a little more time and have some microbrews with us.
Christy, FWIW, my wife had one of those injections for her shoulder and said the experience wasn't too bad.
But it cleared up her pain right away. She did have to have it repeated a few years later, but has been OK ever since.
I'm a docker, not a doctor, and wouldn't even try to play one on the internet.
Greg - wow. The Columbia looks like a great place to sail. Did you sail the Tri?
OD - Thank you for relating your wife's experience. That is encouraging. And of course, I hereby release you from all liability.
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