Thanks, Trisk. I am trying to keep busy, but the semester is coming to an end, my papers are done and I am thinking mostly that if I have to have surgery, will I be OK to start school again on Jan. 26. From the reading I have done, the recovery is fairly quick, despite the fact this is invasive, but I tend to heal quickly. I hope my age isn't a factor in deciding what to do; most of the other people who have had this are young, although a few in their 40s and early 50s. It emphasizes that cyclists who ride thousands of hours a week get this, but I think you could have a certain susceptibility to it, by virtue of how you are built, the geometry of your bike, and the length of your veins. It clearly started when I started riding over 2,000 miles a year. And I hear you with the fact that most medical professionals don't know what to do with athletes. I don't feel like one, either, but as my husband pointed out, we actually have more in common with Contador than the regular couch potato who can't fathom what we do on a regular ride. I even got a lot of cr*p from the doctors I've been going to, despite the fact that every single one of them (except my family doctor) is a cyclist who I see at the LBS fairly often. My rheumo. had the nerve to tell me he worried that " grad school would be too stressful for me!" What am I, a Victorian lady who is going to faint from hard work?
I haven't stopped exercising, because it's at the point where it doesn't matter if I am at rest or working out, it's hurting.
My appointment isn't until a week from Thursday, so I am just trying to get through until then.