Finding info

Last post for 2009!  Well, it's been a wild year, from start to finish... especially the finish. That's not to say it's been bad...just a different ride than I could imagine.  And it continues to be that way.

I was thinking about riding my bike because I'm not feeling so sore from the seed implants, but neither of my doctors had said anything specific about the subject (and I probably forgot to ask).  So the other day I started doing some searches on the topics of brachytherapy and bicycling, or seed implants and bicycling, and was having some difficulty finding relevant information.  Then I came across a pdf document that said something to the effect that I should stay away from motorcycle riding and bicycle riding for 4 to 6 months after having seed implants.  Short story: that info is incorrect.

It would have made me nuts... nevermind the people who live with me...to wait that long.  So I called both of my doctors. The urologist asked if I was having any bleeding still going on (no) and if not, they thought I could go ride. The radiation oncologist's office said, essentially, listen to your body...if it hurts, don't do it... but they didn't have any problem with me trying.  There's a catch with this last one, of course...
And that is, how do you define pain? A certain amount of pain is an expected part of a lot of athletic endeavors, and you just get used to it.  I guess it's more listening, then, that has to happen.  And then some judgment (and that spelling of the word just looks wrong to me but the spell checker here says it's correct).  I usually fail at the judgment part of the picture.  So, if cycling ends up hurting too much, I guess I'll have to see if my shoulder has healed enough to get back in the pool.


This touches on all sorts of things, but an obvious one is that if you're doing searches on the web for information it's hard to tell what level of trust to place in what you read.  I couldn't tell, for example, how old that document was because there was no date on it (gee, thanks, mystery writer!).  And there was no way to tell what said Mystery Writer had used as a source.  So... I either have to learn the inner workings of search engines so I can filter better (not a bad idea), call my doctor, or what... guess?

Something about this situation makes me shy away from guessing.  Think it's the potential life threatening bit?  Hmm???

Well, whatever it is, both of my doctors (or their offices) came through for me.  Now to see what gives.
And head into the new year.  Woot!