truespode

Moderator / Wheelie King
Jun 30, 1999
7,978
249
I'd say for the past two years I've been ambivilent about riding. I've had some REALLY good times and some OK times. I never lost the love of the sport but for a while I started to feel like something was missing. I had several periods where I wanted to just give it all up.

I then went about 3 months without riding which was the longest I've gone without riding since 1999. I still didn't seem to want to ride as much as I used to. It was odd. I missed my riding buddies more than I missed the actual riding and it was them that kept me from just calling it quits.

Well, at the beginning of this month I got sick. I had a reaction to some meds and was really out of it for 4 days and still sick for another week (missed almost 2 weeks of work). I am just now getting my strength back. It was the worst I've ever gone through in my life. Fortunately, it did not appear to be life threatening and I never needed to be admitted (even though my family doc almost did) but still it was a horrible time.

Sunday I tried to meet up with the guys just to keep busy even though I really shouldn't have been riding b/c I was (and am) weak. I was only going to ride the wife's CRF150 but did take Gomer's son's YZ250 for a small spin. Of course I ended up pulling off my patented wheelie (which is bad when I'm on a 2-stroke) and the bike came down on my left foot and ankle.

I thought it was broke but fortunately it is just a bad sprain.

Now where am I going with this... well, I really do miss riding. The fall was probably THE BEST thing that has happened to me in riding in a long time. Especially after being sick and not feeling normal for almost 4 weeks.

I remember 2 hours after the pain started to stabilize instead of intensify I started to feel good. Really good. Even though I could barely walk I felt good like I haven't felt in a LONG time, a really long time (and no pain relievers were involved, I swear). I can still remember as I felt the blood leave my face and I started to go into a little bit of shock that I stuck my hand out to Gomer's youngest son for a high five and getting it. I did not go into complete shock but as I faded towards it a few times I actually was more comfortable with all that than I was when I got sick... being hurt and almost passing out from the heat, pain and swelling made me feel normal. I'm not saying I was all tough and cool about it. I was in pain and did get a lot of support b/c I was scared I had broke my foot but it certainly was better than when I was sick.

It is odd but I feel like I first did when I joined DRN a long time ago. I am enjoying talking about bikes and being a goof again. I am happy to have the friends I have and am really looking forward to riding with them again.

Mostly, I'm just enjoying the sport now more than I have in a long time. Not just the talk, not just the mechanics, not just the questions about this or that and not just about the bikes. I'm enjoying all of it and looking forward to riding again like I have not looked forward to it in a really LONG time.

It's odd that a busted ankle/foot can be the catalyst to all this but it seems to be.

Also, when I was sick I had so many good riding buddies show how true of friends they were. From the Gomer clan providing UNBELIEVABLE moral support and insight into what was going on to James driving down over an hour to take off my trash and help me out (and then he went 90 minutes out of his way when I hurt my foot just to help me get things unloaded and make sure I got home safe). Also, the rest of the Team Turtle crew who kept e-mails going with the Vince font and talk about bikes (especially Trout and his reports about his family getting in the sport... their enjoyment of the sport is infectious). My wife of course has been great. When I was sick she helped me and when I hurt my ankle she ridiculed me for my stupidity (trust me... that is a good thing :) ).

I can honestly say that me busting my ankle was a good thing! Not something I really want to do again but it was something that really made me feel normal again and made me enjoy bikes like I have not enjoyed them in a long time. And to top it all off I was only on a bike for less than 5 minutes the whole time before busting my arse!

Not sure if any of you have felt this way or understand what I'm saying but getting sick and busting my butt has rejuvinated my desire to ride and made me more aware of what I enjoy in life!

Ivan
 

MrLuckey

Fire Marshall Ed
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Feb 9, 2000
3,718
0
Originally posted by Truespode
I thought it was broke but fortunately it is just a bad sprain.

Hehehe - you wouldn't be saying that if it was a real nice 3'rd class sprain :)

Thanks for the help on the phone the other night Ivan, good to have you back in the groove again. Now quit with the wheelie stuff already would ya. That is unless you're gonna post the pics of the wheelie contest from way back... oldies but goodies :confused:
 

rfs mike

Sponsoring Member
Dec 30, 2002
47
0
Ahhh, the philosophies of a dirt biker. :eek:

That will be $80.00 for this section. Sounds like you have been cured.  :laugh:

You can go on with your life now.  ;)

Go break another bone and have some more fun. NOT, just have fun.  :think:

Seriously, isn’t it funny what it takes to bring us out of our funk?

Welcome back.  :thumb:

Mike

 
 

Michelle

Sponsoring Member
Oct 26, 1999
1,245
0
Wow, this brings back memories ;) (nah, haven't looked at the pic, that's imbedded into my brain anyway lol) It's just the Ivan of old speaking.

Ivan, I hate to say this, but I've been there, done that - the sick of dirtbikes thing. It's hard to explain and overcoming it is something different for everyone. It's also a phase that can either be long-winded or short. For me, it happened back in 00, but comes & goes. Someone just has to say something to me & I'm ready to sell the bike. I'm lucky my husband won't let me and I've got friends who put up with me.

Personally, I think the people are the best & I guess that's the one thing that holds me back giving up totally. I remember going on my first long ride. I was riding along thinking "all the hard work learning how to ride is worth it, all the picking the bike up etc etc". It's a feeling I'll never forget, nor experience again - but I've come close to it (especially meeting all the women & riding with them this year & what everyone did to make me feel part of the group).

I guess the one thing we all have to realise, is the fact that we're not alone. There's the smack talk, for sure, but it definitely goes deeper than that. I know DRN gets slagged off and it's changed from when it first started, but us oldies have a bond & memories that are there, whether we want them or not ;) It seems cliquey & can be, but all others need to do is make a bit of an effort & the clique can expand.

Now, we have to find some way of getting OldGuy to figure it out & get interested again (hard to do when he keeps injuring himself lol).

(yeah, I'm drinking again, so might regret this post in the morning, but do consider DRN/dirtriding folk special even when totally sober).

About time you wrote a decent long post, I'd even forgotten how much I used to enjoy reading them hehehehe
 

Gary B.

~SPONSOR~
Apr 17, 2000
684
0
Welcome back! :thumb:
 

d.u.g.

Member
May 23, 2003
58
0
That was a really cool letter.I don't know if it's a part of getting older or what.I've had a couple time periods like that,where I wouldn't even have a bike for up to I guess about a year.Then I really start to miss it.There is to me nothing prettier than a new dirt bike.
I've found that when depressed.bummed out,whatever you want to call it that forcing myself to engage in some sort of activity,like riding,helps a lot.It might take some kind of monumental effort,but I'm gald I did it once I started,and feel just super when done.
I remember recently I hadn't ridden in e few weeks,and when I went out it wasn't five minutes and I had a simple low side get off.I jumped up,thought "well,that wasn't so bad",and had a complete blast the rest of the day.I don't know if that removed the anxiety of crashing or what.
The friendship and zen like pleasure I get from working on the bikes are equally important reasons that I love this sport. Doug
 

placelast

Member
Apr 11, 2001
1,298
1
Glad to have you back, my friend; let's hear more from ya.

I went thru something similar; had a great spring - riding every two weeks, got to meet many NoCa DRNers, helped at two enduros and one DS event, but then all of it caught up to me. It started to sink in on the first and only loop of the Extreme Clear Creek ride. I became content with sweep, and as the ride progressed was thinking "there's something funny about today's ride - is something monumental going to happen?"; turns out we spent the night on the trail, and the rest was history.

From then on I continued to go thru the motions, and at the end of the season wasn't all that troubled returning the fully-reconditioned loaner to it's owner in late April. In the months after I gradually put my own horse back together, taking all the time in the world; no big deal as I normally do not ride when it gets dry and warm and I am very detail-oriented/picky about bike setup and assembly anyways.

However, the July Kennedy Meadows trip turned out to be a good thing in that my enjoyment and enthusiasm for riding was rekindled by being around others who do, let alone being at a fantastic place to ride. And even though I fell and hurt my knee (still a little pain today but everything's slow to heal at my age), it was all worth it.

Was that too long of a response?
 

High Lord Gomer

Poked with Sticks
Sep 26, 1999
11,790
34
OH NO, it backfired! :(

See, Ivan has been nice enough to loan me his bike while mine is messed up (still haven't figured it out, yet).  Then he gets almost healed and comes out to ride, so I put springs on both sides of the slide in the carb on Danny's bike and ask Ivan to "warm it up" for me.

It worked out better than I could have hoped...he had the complete lack of neural activity necessary to get him to try to wheelie a strange bike, a 2 stroke at that, when he hadn't been riding in over a month!

Only problem is that it had the opposite effect than what I thought...guess he did hit his head after all!
 

bsmith

Wise master of the mistic
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jun 28, 2001
1,782
0
:cool:
 

truespode

Moderator / Wheelie King
Jun 30, 1999
7,978
249
Originally posted by High Lord Gomer
OH NO, it backfired! :(

See, Ivan has been nice enough to loan me his bike while mine is messed up (still haven't figured it out, yet

We still have a few more weeks to figure it out so you will have plenty more time to wear out my piston so we can put the 12:5 to 1 in :)

Ivan
 

d.u.g.

Member
May 23, 2003
58
0
Winston Churchill called it "The Black Dog".He was talking about depression,and a major sign/symptom of it is losing interest in something you love,like riding,sex,etc.
I'm not kidding,and the older we get the more likely it is to happen.
There is pharmaceutical help available,and it really does work ! Doug
 

truespode

Moderator / Wheelie King
Jun 30, 1999
7,978
249
Originally posted by d.u.g.

There is pharmaceutical help available,and it really does work ! Doug

It probably is a lot safer than dropping a YZ250 on my ankle too :)

BTW, I am very cautious with pharmaceuticals right now. The reason I got really sick at the beginning of the month was a severe reaction to some meds. It messed me up pretty bad but I tried to tough it out over the 4th of July weekend after being mis-diagnosed at the ER twice. The first two weeks of the month were not good. I'd rather have 20 YZ250's drop on my ankle than go through that again :)

Ivan
 

dobent56

Member
Jul 26, 2003
26
0
Being misdiagnosed TWICE ar the ER is a real bummer.
If it's personal,no problem,but if you want to share it what the heck was the med you had this awful reaction to?
If you or any other dir bikers have a question on a med,or on interactions between meds,let me know.If I don't know I know where to look. Doug
 

truespode

Moderator / Wheelie King
Jun 30, 1999
7,978
249
Well, part of it is kinda emberassing. This will be long. I am only sharing b/c I hope that what I went through will help someone else think twice or at least ask more questions! If you don't want to read all of it then just read this part...

FIND A FAMILY DOCTOR YOU TRUST! GO TO THEM FIRST FOR ANYTHING UNLESS IT IS A TRUE EMERGENCY!!

Now the long version...

Ever since I was a kid I was hyper and had trouble concentrating. However, I've always compensated well (I have a good job, a company I just left wants me back, I have earned my MA in Mgmt and am only 4 classes away from an MBA).

Well, unfortunately my new job has been less work than I envisioned so I got bored and started reading my spam mail. Honestly, I was that bored. I also saw a couple of Newsweek mag covers about Adult ADD. Well, it turns out the magazine covers were advertisements and not real covers.

Now I've always had a grudge against Psychiatry and Chiropractors. A year ago I saw a chiropractor and he changed the way I see them. My migraines are very infrequent and I really do notice a difference. He changed my mind about Chiropractors.

Well, when reading this stuff on ADD I figured I may need to be more open minded about psychiatry.

Either way I took some of those anxiety and ADD tests. Of course I scored in a percentile that said to see a doc. Since I had PPO I decided to see a specialist (psychiatrist). I went for 1 hour and talked to one counselor and then 15 minutes with the doc and left with a prescription for Wellbutrin SR (this is also given out at times for depression and used to help people stop smoking - under the name Zyban).

Now I've always been a worry wart and I still am. I guess b/c of that they thought meds would help. I told myself to be open minded!

I was on the Wellbutrin for 2 weeks and then went to see my family doc about some back tightness. He gave me some Skelaxin (muscle relaxer) and Bextra (anti-inflammatory). I took them the next morning and felt fine when I went to work.

2 hours later my back stopped hurting as if a rubber band had been let go. Then less than a minute later my throat felt funny, my hands tingled and my heart rate dropped. I started shaking and got up to walk around.

I looked like a nervous wreck but I would check my heart rate and it was not getting above 60bpm. I went to the ER thinking the Skelaxin was the issue. They gave me a shot of benedryl and other than the shaking and not being able to breath through my nose I felt fine to drive home.

I took my second dose of Wellbutrin for the day and decided not to take any of the Skelaxin or Bextra again. Later that night I started shaking and having waves of weirdness in my head. I got diarhea and was vomitting. I went to the ER again but this was a different one since the one earlier was near work and I live 30 miles from there.

They thought that since I was treated for a reaction that I must not be still having one so they gave me Ativan for an anxiety attack. Even though my vitals were good at this point. I just felt odd physically in my head and couldn't stop shaking, plus by this time my nose was completely closed up.

Friday the 4th I was still feeling bad but still took my Wellbutrin and started to feel worse. By this time I couldn't eat or drink. It would go right through me and it was hard to chew, swallow and even have a partial appetite. I tried as hard as I could to force food down but couldn't. Not even applesauce.

On Saturday I thought I better just stop taking the Ativan and Wellbturin b/c I was not getting any better. By Sunday night I felt better but had developed severe heartburn and problems with my gastro. Anything I ate caused me pain and discomfort but at least I started to get an appetite. I could not breath through my nose so my mouth was raw and I felt like I was breathing fumes from my stomach.

Then on Monday the Nurse Practitioner blamed the Wellbutrin but the specialist scoffed and said I had a panic disorder.

Now let me get off tangent real quick. I have had about 30 times in my life where acid has popped up my throat and went down my airway. When this happens it swells the airway and I cannot breath. It takes about 60 seconds before I can wheeze and 5 minutes for it all to subside. I have learned to deal with stuff like that calmly despite the physical reactions I had during it.

Now if I had a panic disorder I would have a lot of problems in those situations. Plus, my symptons were more physical than emotional, the feelings in my head were not to hurt myself or others but waves of weirdness, not even pain but it made me unsteady and unable to think or speak clearly. I had also lost 11lbs in 4 days. By weeks end I went from 224 down to 206 (I'm at a steady 210 now).

I then went to my family doc and by this time I was out of it and could barely handle things. He treated me for anxiety and gastro trouble b/c he said at that point the root cause was buried under all the other things going one. The specialist still insisted I had panic disorder.

Finally, after a week of healing and not taking anything but XANAX (a bad drug that I'm getting off of but it was the specialists recommendation) I could eat again and piece things together. To make things easier to see my Cousin had just been prescribed Wellbutrin as well and she had a similar reaction but her doctor caught it and put her on something else.

Well, basically what happened IMO (and my family doc concurs that this is definately a possibility) was that it took the 2 weeks on Wellbutrin for it to build into my system up to a toxic state (may not be the proper term). I had my reaction less than a week after going to 2 doses a day.

The Skelaxin and Bextra being put in at the same time may have served as a catalyst and my body just couldn't handle it anymore. Wellbutrin is a cumulative drug so you do not notice its results immediately.

Also, while on Wellbutrin I was very agitated and quick tempered. Plus, for an anxious person like myself Wellbutrin can intensify the anxiety and make it seem like more of a problem than it is. When I stopped taking the Wellbutrin the waves in my head stopped about 20 hours later and I was left with the aftermath of the heartburn. The day after that though I was having withdrawal symptons from the Wellbutrin combined with the Anxiety that nobody could tell me 100% what happened. Even the specialist admitted it was possibly something else since my vitals stayed normal and I lost so much weight but he wanted to treat me anyway for panic.

I have done a lot of research and the Wellbutrin can cause exactly the symptons I've had, even though it is rare. My issue was that the first ER thought it was the Skelaxin and the second thought it was a panic attack. The specialist just went with the panic attack idea and put me on XANAX and for a week I took it before I could think straight. I was REALLY out of it. I'm talking one word sentences and taking 30 seconds to a minute to respond to the question "do you want me to bring you some water?"

Now I have to slowly taper off b/c that stuff can be dangerous if I just stop cold turkey.

The bottom line was that I was too open-minded about the new "drug age" of things and did not ask the questions I normally would or should have. I also fell for the marketing of go to a specialist and not your family doc. It turns out my family doc (who I have seen for 7 years now) was the only one to start to see what was going on even though he had to treat symptons in reverse b/c by the time I got to him I had a lot going on with the gastro, acid reflux, withdrawal from Wellbutrin, etc.

If ANY of you think that drugs will make you feel better talk to your FAMILY doc first and make sure your family doc is one you can TRUST. If I would have went to him first he would have put me on an exercise regimen first (that is what he told me) b/c he knew how much I travelled with my previous job and how little I was getting out at the time. The specialist was just a pill pusher and not someone who was caring for my wellbeing.

Also, do some research. Don't just trust what you are being told. I am lucky that my family doc will let me ask a lot of questions and I'll argue with him about a particular drug and what I've learned about it and he will explain why I'm wrong or why that doesn't apply to me.

He was a resident of the specialist so he is aware of the guys treatment program. Fortunately, my family doc has agreed to take over all RX management from here on out and get me back to where I was and that is drug free. He just wants me exercising more b/c he knows that when I'm active things are better. He once told me 6 months after I started riding that the difference in my bp and cholesterol was noticeable and that I should keep riding if that is what motivates me to get out and exercise b/c the health benefit I get is worth the possibility of injury... he did lecture me on safety gear though :)

Today I have gastro issues and have to take Prevasid to balance it out and XANAX until I can taper off correctly (a few more weeks). B/C Wellbutrin works on your Central Nervous System there are some things that will be difficult and odd for a month or two more. However, at least I believe we know what happened and can move forward.

Again, always find a Family Doc you trust and go through him/her FIRST. Talk to him/her and listen. I should have done so.

I'll be glad to answer any specific questions. Like I said, it is emberassing b/c I thought I had a problem but really didn't and the fix for the problem I don't have caused a lot of issues.

Like my family doc said, if I really did have Adult ADD, how did I get an MA? Obviously I was able to compensate without meds before, why go to them now? He actually joked that he would have rather seen me bust my ankle before going to the specialist b/c he has seen an incredible difference in my attitude (not just from when I was sick, like I said he's knowne me 7 years) and feels that whatever happened when I hurt my ankle has done me more good than anything else he can think of.

Ok, I hope you guys don't think I'm a nutcase after reading all this. It is emberassing but only b/c of the stupid way I went about it.

An idle mind will do some really dumb things.

Ivan
 

crash_42

Member
Jul 2, 2003
18
0
WOW that is incredible...

You don't know me as I am a relativley new member,
but you are definetly not crazy and do not feel embarassed.. I also suffer from migrans and other things and often see adds that I think I should look into... but allways "chiken out" and convince myself I will get over it...
What I am trying to say is that trying to make your situation better was not the problem but ,, maybe and you did say it your self that it was the way that you went about it I.E not going to your family DOC as a second opinion before actualy taking the meds.

I personaly think that altho this was a REALY bad situation that there is a silver lining and that you now know your self better than before. You allways have to look at the bright side of things. :)

hope you fell better soon
 
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