Today's Roundabout GPS Journey
My neuropathic feet seem to be ever so slowly recovering from the last several months of almost constant pain. Until a couple weeks ago the only relief I could get was by soaking my feet in cool water, numbing them and retarding the pain. When the feet warmed again, the pain would return with a vengeance. Prescription meds don't seem to help, but my podiatrist keeps warning me NOT to soak them in cool water. I've tried to convince him that if HIS feet hurt as bad as mine he too would soak his feet in water.
I recently read that inflammation is the body's response to infection and injury, and wondered if my continual efforts to reduce my pain of inflammation by cool soakings might be working against me.
Now, instead of soaking feet in cool water, I use Absorbine Veterinary Liniment on them, which soothes the pain somewhat and allows me to rest my feet by elevating them a while. The pain still takes almost half an hour or more to fade, but the cool water treatment wasn't much faster and cool water relief didn't last as long. With the current regime of pain management I am able to get more sleep in bed now, compared to spending all night dozing intermittently in a recliner with my feet soaking in water.
With that lengthy intro, I have not been riding quite as much recently, do to soggy weather and work requirements with home remodeling.
Yesterday an unintended diversion occurred. Going down into the basement to retrieve something I don't remember, I was shocked, SHOCKED, to find the basement 6 inches deep in water covering the floor. Yes, we live in Missouri, where wet basements are not uncommon, and our automatic sump pump usually cycles on and off enough to keep the floor relatively dry. This time we had had a couple of nights of downpour and tornado warnings, but the sump pump had died and only emitted a faint groaning when plugged and unplugged. So our day was set for us: Fix the PUMP and dry out the basement!
Our local Ace Hardware had the basics of what we lacked: Tall Rubber Boot Waders, a hand-drill-operated pump, and a choice of 2 sizes of replacement Sump Pumps. 1/3 or 1/2 horsepower.
Having not yet seen the size of our current pump, submerged under a foot of murky water in the lowest basement corner, I chose the cheaper 1/3 HP pump. We hooked up the little drill operated pump with a garden hose to pump out enough water to be able to wrestle with the defunct sump pump. That process was slow, with hundreds of gallons of water being sucked out slowly through a narrow garden hose. My cheap drill worked great and ran continuously for several hours without stopping, but the brushes inside were sparking and the poor underpowered motor was screaming loudly when the water finally got down to about 2 inches deep, allowing access via rubber boots and all. I got the cord and pipe disconnected and was surprised how heavy it all was when I lifted it out and carried it up the stairs.
without even opening the box containing the new pump, the weight difference foretold that the old pump was much larger and heavier-duty than the 1/3 HP pump.... so we made a return trip to the hardware store and exchanged the smaller unit for the 1/2 HP version, the largest one they had. It still was much smaller physically and lighter than the old pump I worried it might not do the job.
However, after some mucking around matching the new pump to the old vertical pipes leading topside to the lower part of the back yard, it did work, and after about another 20 minutes of powerful pumping, the water was largely gone and the pump slowed down and began its cycling on and off as the basement walls and floor continued to slowly seep surrounding ground water inside.
This morning a more pleasant sight greeted us as we peeked into the basement.... a few widening dry spots on the floor and no standing water. Having not ridden the trike in several days, I drug it out of the garage to take a bill - pay envelope over to the Post Office. I told Jacque I was going to see if my feet would allow more riding after that, and Hallelujah, they did indeed.
Don't get me wrong. the feet still got tired and sore and I had to stop about 3 times in the 6-mile round trip to rest and massage them, but I made it all the way across town from the P.O. to Walmart and back home again with noticeably less pain and agony. Almost 6 miles today. Maybe by my birthday at the end of the month I can again do my yearly birthday ride of 1 mile for each year I've survived. That number gets bigger as I get older and uglier but again I have trouble complaining too much: Jacque's Uncle Max got me into this questionable habit by riding 85 miles(!) on his 85th birthday. He's turning into a hard act to follow.
Ride Started: 12:17 PM Ride Ended: 2:21 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.8 Ending Battery Voltage: 12.9 Lowest Voltage: 12.9
Beginning Blood Glucose: 145 Ending BG: 111
Lowest Temp: 64 F Highest Temp: 71 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.93
Distance Walked: 1/4 mile
Overall Average Speed Moving Avg Max Speed
3.0 MPH 5.2 MPH 14.8 MPH
Total Trip Time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 58 mins 1 hour 8 mins 49 minutes
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