Somewhere in Peru… no, not somewhere, very obviously in the Peruvian Amazon, I picked up one heck of a nasty set of bug bites or skin reaction to something there. Not sure what, but since it followed the sock line, I’m guessing it might have been something like sand fleas in the rubber boots used during the jungle hikes. Whatever, I was suffering pretty badly until I got back and did one of those new-fangled video doctor appointments with a Kaiser doc, who prescribed 50mg of Prednisone to reduce the swelling. Regular hydrocortisone cream to reduce the itching.
The Prednisone might be reducing the swelling, but the itching… yikes. I remembered that my son, when he’d had a nasty case of poison oak, had used something recommended by the “other” Kevin (Pilot). Clobetasol. This stuff’s Da Bomb. Amazing stuff. Absolutely eliminates itching.
But Prednisone? I don’t get it. How is this a banned drug for sports? It causes sleep problems, can raise blood pressure, increases irritability… the first day I took it wasn’t fun (doc told me to take both Prednisone and Benadryl, so I felt like I was being torn between feeling a little bit wired and tired; I’ve since stopped the Benadryl during the daytime and feel much better). And for the ride this morning? Maybe it was just from being off the bike last week, but I really wasn’t feeling that great dragging myself up the hill.
Adding insult to injury, Kevin, Kevin, Marcus and JR, who’d ridden away from me pretty soon up the climb, waited for me at the park entrance. Then I got dropped again halfway up. At the wide-open section, the group had stopped so Marcus could make an adjustment on his bike, so I caught up again. And got dropped, again, shortly thereafter.
Once at the top of the hill, things got better, and I was really looking forward to West Old LaHonda and getting to see the storm moving in. Only the storm never really moved in today, nor did we ever get to West Old LaHonda because we discovered we were missing JR when we got to Sky Londa. Backtracking, we found him about halfway back up Skyline, and from there it made more sense just to continue backtracking the rest of the way back to the start.
A weird morning. I’m looking forward to normal. Tomorrow would be just fine for that.
