Fueled by frustration, I was persistent enough to finally find a reasonable path forward with regards to a health care solution to my Left Iliac Artery Endofibrosis. The in-network was the only one the insurance company was going to ever allow me. Fortunately, I had the help of the west coast IAE specialist Dr. Jason Lee. Without him I don't know what I would have done. Chance would have it that the recommended local surgeon in Rochester is close with Dr. Lee, who gave praise and offered to advise him through the process. If I can't go to the specialist, this was the next best option, so I said yes. That was a while ago and there have been some delays and seemingly catastrophic question marks since then but, long story short, the imaging found significant irregularity in the artery and surgery was scheduled.
I came home from the hospital yesterday after Monday's operation. They found a good bit of fibrosis built up on the artery and removed it. Then the patch was sutured on. Because of excessive tightness in the area, a second incision was made to do a partial release on my inguinal ligament. This will loosen up the ligament, reducing the chances of this happening again. This was an area where Dr. Lee's consulting proved highly valuable. I was sewed back up and heavily drugged. Everything went perfectly, but that's where the smooth sailing ended. I did not have a good time with the drugs. I was nauseous and constipated for most of the week. I quit one drug and they would put me on another which bound me up the same. After stopping all the drugs yesterday, I finally feel like I am sorta normalizing today. I can tell because I am starting to feel the pain in the incisions. Prior to this I hardly noticed it cause the room was spinning and I had multiple days worth of food piled in my gut.
At this point I can hardly think about riding, but in 2-3wks from Monday I can get back on the bike and start building back up. It's likely to be a long process as I have been inactive for 3wks now due to the relatively invasive imaging and like I said, I have 2-3 more to go. I'm sure that will put more than a dent in my ability to do any activity, let alone racing a bicycle. Also it can be several months before I can actually ride hard. So I will be noodling along for a while. But even if I am severely set back, at least I know that, if I work hard, I should have the potential to do what I used to be able to do, and that alone will make riding slowly a whole different thing than before.
