Last Fall, my cardiologist said to me that he was afraid that I was going to die last spring before I was given the go ahead to have my defibrillator pacemaker put in in June. It was a long time simply because there is a procedure through Medicare that you have to go through before they will cover it which is to go on Entresto for at least 3 months first for example to see how you do. But, then, when Everything shut down for months around this time last year he was worried I might die before everything was okay to proceed. Then when I went in for this procedure I asked if it could be just in and out over a few hours and they said no because they want to make sure you are recovering okay. I wasn't happy about being kept in a hospital for 24 hours by the way either. Then when I went there the worst time actually was waiting for them to operate on me. It was difficult because they made me wait on a gurney in a room alone for 4 hours and all I wanted to do was to leave. But, finally a nurse who is a good talker tried to calm me down a little because I wasn't happy being kept waiting this long. it turned out the guy before me had some problems or something. Then they took me to this room with lots of computers and technology that looked like the inside of a UFO or something and also reminded me of the burst appendix operation I had which was a laparoscopic one that also had this sort of UFO high Tech room too I was in then. They had the doctor and several nurses who had various functions and some techs who might have been doctors on computers because this sort of thing is very very high tech by the way.
Then they gave me something that they called "Joy Juice" which for me likely was the best meditation I ever had. Then they put oxygen tubes up my nose and covered up my face with a blanket but I didn't care because I had entered Satori or full enlightenment through the "Joy Juice". So, I didn't care at all what they were doing at this point because I as in another happy universe from whatever they had given me.
Then within a few hours of this they took me to my private hospital room where I recovered but I was released within 24 hours after talking to my doctor who had installed my Defibrillator pacemaker. I had to cover my wound with plastic and tape as it couldn't get water on it because they were afraid of infection. So, I had to shower very carefully not to get water on it until the stitches healed. After a week or two I could again get into the hot tub outside with my wife as it had all healed up. I suppose theoretically one could even Scuba Dive (if they wanted to take that risk and I personally have skied with this pacemaker in place. However, I'm much more careful than I would have been before for many different reasons, partly because I also have a hernia around my belly button caused by the burst appendix operation which is difficult too. So, I'm sort of like an old War Horse at this point because I just keep moving forward no matter what happens. I still have my KLR 650 but it isn't running right now and I can no longer pick it up because of my hernica (at least by myself) which is sort of a bummer. I'm thinking about getting a Honda 125 Trail bike this spring but I haven't tried riding one in a motorcycle shop yet so not fully completely sure yet.
My father had a Honda Trail 90 in the 1970s that I really loved but this one doesn't have a clutch and doesn't have 10 or 15 gears like that one did for riding slower than 5 miles per hour straight up trails into the sky. That thing (the 1970s 90) was really really amazing at what it could actually do).
I wear a hernia belt that has a velcro in place when lifting anything heavy but it isn't good enough to lift a bike as big as a KLR 650 with a hernia even with a reinforcing belt. So, I have velcro belts and stationary weight belts for Skiing and lifting things over 30 to 40 pounds but I haven't returned to lifting 70 pounds over my head like I did before my defibrillator pacemaker because I don't want to mess it up. However, I can still use 8 pound dumb bells to strengthen my upper body still.
Here is the weight of a KLR 650 dualsport motorcycle:
176 kg (388 lb) (dry) 196 kg (432 lb) (wet) When I say lift it I mean if it falls down on the ground I have to lift it back up off the ground to ride it again. Since it is a dualsport it is more likely that you are going to drop something like this in the dirt sometimes because dirt and rocks are very unstable unlike asphalt or pavement. If you just bought a dualsport just remember you cannot use your front brake in the dirt and any time in the dirt you have to be very gingerly even with your back brake because of the problems of your bike becoming unstable and falling otherwise. in the dirt it's always a balancing act at best, especially if you are in deep sand like in dry washes in a desert which I did a lot in the 1970s and 1980s in Southern California and Arizona with my 1974 Honda 250 XL motorcycle. I also had a World war II BSA 500 which was sort of like a tank to drive which was used in North Africa during World war II. It had no rear suspension other than the springs in the seat and it had no battery just a magneto which ran the motorcycle and lights which weren't very bright. So, if you hit a bad bump you had to grab the handlebars and rise up on the pegs so you didn't break your back from the bad bump or bumps you were going over so you could take the shock with your knee muscles instead of breaking your back. It was a kick starter or bump starter only. Bump starting means that if you can't kick start it I would run with it in neutral and slam it into 2nd gear and pop the clutch to get it running which worked if I couldn't start it any other way. Amazing design for any time of situation then but very heavy and no rear suspension at all except for the seat springs. Also, something this old might backfire and throw you over the handlebars when it backfires from the kick starter. Luckily, I was young enough to survive all this at the time. |
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