Silver Surfer Single Speed

OK, so this bike rocks.

Last night I rode with two of my TNR buddies. They rode slow with me, and even let me ride in front. I rode this bike for the first time. It does creak. I tried greasing the zerk on the main pivot at the bottom bracket, but there's still a creak somewhere. Who cares. It was an epiphany, riding down Cinderella; a full-suspension single speed! I am running a low gear, 32x22R29, which is good for a guy recovering from being broken. Running wide bars and short stem feels good on this bike.

We stopped twice on the ride and enjoyed the view, and solved the world's problems, and talked about dumb stuff too like Eightball and our new invention, the single-speed shifter.

I don't have any pictures from the ride, because it was dark, and because all I was carrying was a multi-tool and some keys. But picture great views and t-shirt weather and three friends on a bike ride. 

I've really missed my weekly night ride. So glad I can do it again. Went slow, but did ride some dumb stuff. You would, too, if you were me.

I have one more part to put on the Milk Money, a silver chainring. Then it will be just about as silver as I can get it. Well, I guess I could get a silver headset spacer, silver cassette spacers and a silver cog... 

I've now realized another goal, owning and riding one of Devin Lenz' bikes.

First bike ride back

Monday I saw my orthopedist for my three-month visit. It had been six weeks since I last saw him, and at that time he said he'd probably clear me to ride, after my next visit, 9/22. He had cleared me to sit on a trainer and spin with no resistance, but I never did it. Why? Honestly, probably because I hate indoor trainers. I don't know why, really.

Fear and Redwoods and Big Butt

I tried to go into the Jedediah Smith campground off 101, but it was full, and almost midnight. Then I drove through Crescent City and it was all neon and bright lights and I thought "Where am I going to sleep?" I am not used to sleeping in a van. I pulled off the highway and started driving through a little neighborhood, just following my nose and next thing I see a sign "unmaintained road 15mph" and another sign pointing toward "Stout Grove". And then I was in this magical land of giant redwoods, on a narrow dirt road. It was kismet.

Driving up the forest road, looking for a place to sleep

It was a little spooky bedding down for the night. I had no idea where the road went, but the little van with its lights and its microwave and some leftovers from lunch for a midnight dinner made me feel better. I did lock the doors before I went to bed. Earlier in the drive, I stopped for gas in Cave Junction, OR. That is right near the East Fork of the Illinois River. You can't pump your own gas in Oregon, and to put gas in the Sprinter you have to open the driver door, then open the little gas door that shares the opening on an opposite hinge with the driver door. I had to pay inside, so I left the attendant pumping gas to go pay. Only when I was in the station did I realize that all the people walking around and going in and out of the station looked like meth zombies. I mean, there was one kid sitting out front, playing with a skateboard that might not have been a meth zombie yet, but I'm serious; they all had that look; stringy, greasy hair, sores all over their faces and hands, big, staring eyes, corrugated skin with no subcutaneous fat. This was about 10:30PM or 11:00PM. I'm imagining some meth lady in my van, rummaging through my backpack. I'm thinking that the whole town is probably in the grip of a massive meth kick, and there's no real people left. That was the last town before Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. So after cruising up this dark, back road in the Redwoods, I'm not thinking about nature and squirrels and redwoods and peace and starry skies, I'm thinking about backwoods meth zombies and pot farmers and predators. And I'm still on the DL, recovering from a broken hip. I have a *bad* limp, and I couldn't run if my life depended on it. I've always felt confident in sketchy situations because I'm big and tough and I know that not being afraid is the best way to not be afraid, and that being, or appearing fearless is effective. But if it came down to it, I'm not tough or capable of defending myself right now. All these thoughts were going through my head as I winked on the LED lights in the back of the van, and microwaved my leftovers. In the end it was a peaceful night. 

First time sleeping in the van

About 7AM, with the weak light filtering through the tree cover still looking like dawn, three cars full of young people went by, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The last one had a corpulent young guy sitting on the passenger window opening, his upper body entirely out of the vehicle, his blonde, curly head blinking and smiling into the wind at 15mph like some dog. His butt was half out of his pants. It wasn't Bigfoot, but Big Butt I had to fear.

View out my door, the next morning

I ate some more leftovers, wished I had coffee, and headed out. I will add a grinder, aeropress, some coffee beans and cups to the Sprinter before the next trip! The redwoods were beautiful in the morning.

Nine weeks

My family has put up with a grumpy, depressed, non-bike-riding father and husband this summer. Thank you, family.

The summer has come and gone with me, sitting it out on the sidelines, broken. Social media has only made me feel more sorry for myself and depressed; all those sunny pictures of people smiling on bike vacations and bike rides made me feel bad. There were glimmers of good times tho; a day on the beach in Bolinas, a long weekend in Downieville, co-workers visiting and working at my house when I couldn't go to work.

As of yesterday, I am officially back to full weight-bearing on my left leg, and can walk without crutches if I want to. It hurts, and I limp, but I can do it.

Rover and Lola have been with me every step of the way. Maybe next time I'll dance for you. Donna told me that I should be learning the Soulja Boy for our trip to Baja in November. I'm on it.

For my next trick, I'm going to try riding a bike on a stationary trainer. (It's on the OK list also, just no bike riding outside yet.)

Week six, good news!

I got some good news today! I went to visit my orthopedist this morning, six weeks and two days after I broke my hip. Today's x-rays look good. I'm healing well, and there's no sign of AVN yet. He has cleared me to immediately begin putting 25% of my weight on it, then 50% next week, then 75% the week after that, then 100% and no more crutches. (Assuming I can.) I'm also clear to go back to work immediately. I can start riding a bike with light resistance on a stationary trainer in three weeks, and I can ride a bike outside in six weeks! Yes. I can also start sleeping on the broken side in six weeks. Right now I can't imagine that, it's too painful.

I put my left foot on a scale to see what 25% feels like, and it feels right. It is right at the discomfort threshold. Any more pressure on that foot is noticeably uncomfortable.

He said that, again, AVN can show up in a year, or two years. I am not out of the woods. Groin pain, and the kind of hip pain that requires narcotics are the warning signs. Pain on the outside of the hip is probably due to the hardware. He said he'd take the upper screw out in a year, if it's bothering me, but he would not likely take the lower dynamic hip screw (DHS) out, unless it's really bothering me. I am still hurting in a general way, so it's too soon to guess whether I'm feeling the screw head or not.

I'm so stoked to have a plan now!

     August 2014
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                1  2
 3  4  5  6  7  8  9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16  <- Today is 8/11.
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

   September 2014
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
    1  2  3  4  5  6
 7  8  9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20  <- Do you know what 9/15 is? It's ride a bike outside day.
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30

I sure think 9/15 means "week six". I'm going with it. Maybe he meant 9/22.  Nah. My daughter Lulu is getting a new bike, a Juliana Furtado. We've pretty much agreed that we need to do a father/daughter Downieville weekend in Late September with our friends Devin & Emily. Radness! Yes, in fact, riding the Downieville trails with a recently-healed broken hip is just fine. Totally fine.

Lulu and Emily, gettin' crazy

I know some people, right here in my little rider community who are going through the same thing; Adam and Steve. They're both a little earlier in the healing process. I hope I can be an inspiration for them. #gimpstrong

While I'm posting, these helped me, although sometimes the comments can get discouraging.

Recovering from the Big Break: A Femur Fracture
broken hip recovery advice needed...............

When I first broke my hip, the Tour de France was just beginning. Watching it in the mornings with my coffee really helped me get through each day, and look forward to the next. I'm not a tv guy, but my brain generally turns to mush after a day of sitting in one spot on my sofa and staring at a laptop. Lately what is getting me through the dead brain part of the evening is Trailer Park Boys. Oh yes, best thing on tv.

Downieville in chairs

This weekend I was up in the mountains with six kids, three grownups and two puppies. Some of those people were my family. I sat in various chairs and read books, watched a bike race, hung out in town and also by the river. I had a good time and got outside and wore the tips off my crutches. It was a nice break.

Sprinter, "The Dollhouse"

I have wanted a Sprinter van for a long time. They are cargo vans, but just happen to make great road trip, camping, bike transport mobiles. They aren't too pricey, used or new, but with the added customizations they can be very expensive in both time, and money. Finding used, upfitted ones that are nicely finished is hard, as they are expensive, and rare, and finding one that meets your needs is even harder. Most people build their own. I have been trying to convince my wife for years that we should get / build one. She was somewhat amenable to the idea, but she wanted a Eurovan Camper with the pop top. Those are nice, but for four people (two adults, two teenagers) and two dogs, and four bikes, plus gear, the Eurovan is just too small. Also, with the newest year available in the USA being 2003, and with their known mechanical flaws and very high resale value, I did not want to spend money on one. Next we moved onto the idea of a pop-top camper sprinter. I looked at several. A friend of a friend named KC gave me a tour of his:

KC's pop-top Sportsmobile Sprinter

But I didn't like not being able to stand up in a low-roof Sprinter, which is the only version for which you can get a pop top (Sportsmobile calls it a "Penthouse".)  and I didn't like some of the other downsides to the pop-top; cost, water leakage, wind noise, gotchas with the mechanism, exposure to the elements whether you like it or not, etc. We really reached an impasse here, with Lauren conceding that the Eurovan Camper wasn't right for us, but holding firm on a short-wheelbase, low-roof Sprinter with the pop-top. I just didn't think it would be right for us.

Recently an ad came up on our local craigslist for a short-wheelbase (144") 2007 high-roof Dodge Sprinter upfitted by Outside Van (really by Van Specialties, when the work was done in 2010 that was how it worked) at a price we could afford. It was white, with 59,000 miles on it. We went to look at it and Lauren was smitten. I thought that the conversion was nice, but a bit too minimal for the price being asked, not quite what we'd want - we'd probably end up undoing quite a bit of it to re-do it in the way we'd want - and maybe not long enough. I also had been considering getting the new Ford Transit commercial van (not Transit Connect) because I thought it might provide better / less expensive long-term service, and wasn't sure I wanted the headaches, cost and occasional immobility of a Mercedes Sprinter van in the great expanses of the western USA.

The funny thing is we went from me trying to convince Lauren that we needed a Sprinter, to her trying to convince me that we should get this van, specifically. We did.  The purchase experience was somewhat maddening. The seller and I worked out a price we could both live with, that wasn't so bad. I was approved for an auto loan amount by my credit union that was greater than the cost of this vehicle. I knew that the bluebook value for the van would be far below its asking price, because of the upfitting job. I called the credit union, and also the branch office where I planned to do the transaction, making sure that the transaction would go smoothly. I was assured on the phone that there was no problem, and made sure I had all the paperwork in hand, including an inspection report done at the local DMV office the morning of the transaction, because this van was registered in Oregon and not California. When we arrived at the branch office, we withstood a three-hour odyssey where we were told "Bad news", "problem", "no" and "it isn't going to happen" by someone who was obviously not capable of processing this transaction. The basic problem was that the bluebook value wasn't near the price I negotiated with the seller, and somehow all the previous communications I'd had were immaterial. We spent hours going back and forth on it, until I was able to produce an email reply from someone at Outside Van that mentioned the cost of doing upfitting work. The amount quoted was actually for work we were interested in doing, not for the amount that was done. (Seller did not have the receipt for the work done.) But producing that email saved the day, as they then had a number from a vendor that they could use to bump the value up to meet the price. The seller had run out of time and left by the time we had checks, but we returned to his home later that evening, handed him a check and drove the van home.

Lauren driving the new Sprinter

It was originally a crew van, but the second-row two-person bench and associated hardware were removed. The previous owner bought it from the original owner, an architect that worked at Nike in Oregon, then had Van Specialties / OV convert it. His wife called it "The Dollhouse", because it's a little house that you can fill with little house-like furnishings. It was a fairly minimal conversion that I could afford. My wife and I plan to make it more suitable for us, as budget allows. We are four people, four bikes, two golden retrievers. We go to bike rides and bike races and go camping and on road trips in the western US. There's a chance a paddle board or two would go in/on the van.

Sprinter in our driveway, oil stain from the old tripmobile

Pictures are here

What it has:

• Interweave interior panels, and I believe insulation underneath, rubber floor.
• Mercedes Benz re-badging (was Dodge)
• Outside Van soft goods; rear door pouches, fancy windshield sun protection (not pictured). Also the owner created a cool, hanging storage thing out of fabric, with lots of pockets, which mounts on the mac track. Also included are some simple window sun shades made of Reflectix which velcro into place.
• LED lights in ceiling. They are on the same circuit as the dome lights.
• A single cabinet on the inside left behind driver, above rollover sofa
• mac track on the floors (parallel to centerline, two) and on the walls (two each, vertical on the rear insides
• D-rings in the roof, walls and floor
• rollover sofa on the driver side behind driver seat, not sure dimensions
• CR Laurence (?) tip-out windows middle side left and right
• two hanging bunks made of tubular steel (?) and plywood, which attach to wall mac track and suspend from D-rings in the roof
• blacked aluminum wheels, taller BFG AT tires
• nudge bar (no receiver hitch) with Hella lamps
• fancy Kenwood stereo / nav / backup camera, camera itself in rear plastic above license plate
• two fork-mounts for bicycles on aluminum plate with mac track connectors
• heated, leather, Mercedes front seats
• 12V outlets in the rear of the van
• factory towing package

Here is what we want to change, in rough order:

• Remove sofa.
• Install factory three-person bench seat.
• Add three-panel bed that clears bikes and rear factory bench, without headrests. (Roughly 40" of inside height is needed to clear bikes and bench, with raised floor.)
• Reconfigure floor mac track, add bike mounts for four bikes parallel to centerline, under panel bed in rear, with bike seats dropped if needed.
• roof-top fan, maybe also roof-top vent, maybe cold-air vent on floor
• awning
• solar
• house batteries
• fridge
• microwave
• inverter
• front 2" receiver added to nudge bar
• minimal galley
• rear heater

Week four; good news but no changes

I went to see my orthopedist today for my four-week appointment. It's been four weeks and two days since I broke my hip. This is the second time I've seen him. (First was Friday 6/11 & Monday 6/14.) They shot x-rays, and the ortho told me the films look good. I've got some compaction, where the bone is kind of smashed into each other at the break site, shortening the neck by about .5cm, which is good I think he said. ("Imagine an ice cream cone where the ice cream fell off. You pick it up and smash it back onto the cone, so that it won't fall off again. That's compaction.") The upper screw has not backed out, nor has the dynamic hip screw (DHS) below it. However the compaction has the upper screw hanging out a little bit, with its washer loose. He showed me the two week and four week x-rays side by side, and pointed out that some gaps are filling in. He told me there's no sign of avascular necrosis (AVN) yet, which is very good news. I am still in some danger of experiencing AVN in the future. He recommended two more weeks with no weight bearing, and also to continue working from home. The concern is that BART and its steps, escalators and urine-soaked elevators are not safe for a person with a healing broken hip, on crutches. I'd agree. At six weeks I'll see him again, and he'll probably allow me to go into the office, and also to begin putting a little weight on my left leg, and progressively more each week thereafter. He also said that he'd recommend taking the hardware out of my leg at some point in the future. I was happy to hear that! I'm not sure when it would happen, and it would also mean another six weeks off the bike, but I know I'll prefer it. He said he didn't think I'd need a bone graft for the removal, that it would probably fill in fine by itself. We talked about some of the 'funny feelings' I've had, and he said that all of them sound benign. (A click in my left hip, once, removing my wallet while driving, a feeling of movement once, while sleeping, and some new pains that I didn't have before.) We also talked about how I stopped taking the calcium supplements, as well as vitamin D and magnesium, because the calcium supplements did seem to trigger afib, and he agreed to stay off them and eat healthily, with lots of dark greens in my diet. I'm doing that as much as I can. I talked about how, although I try to not place any weight on my left foot, sometimes getting up, carrying things while on crutches, getting in and out of cars, et cetera I do place some weight on my left leg, but that I try really hard not to. He said that's OK, to continue to try to keep my weight off of it for now.

I feel better, emotionally. Whew! I can see a happier future.

Week three, I'm still blue

I am three weeks and two days into my recovery from a broken left hip. My recovery is supervised by an orthopedist, (see update at week one and week two) and he's recommended no weight bearing for the hurt leg, just "toe touch" walking with crutches, and maybe some time walking in a pool. I haven't been in a pool yet, but I've been hobbling around. I can and have driven, although the twenty one steps from our angled driveway to our front door make me avoid it as much as I can, and climbing into my tall Toyota Land Cruiser isn't easy. I am probably putting more weight on the left leg than I should, but I don't have anyone waiting on me, either. My family is already pretty tired of me asking for help.

I've been really depressed, stuck in the house, working from home. I've had lots of visitors, and they have greatly cheered me up. Sunday Lauren brought me to Wente Vineyards, where her friend Katy works, for some wine tasting. Joining us were Austin and Celeste, and we also sat with Katy's fiancee Tim, and his friends Sue and Chip.

Tasting wine with Austin and Celeste

Week two, I'm blue

I went to see an orthopedist last Friday, 7/11, and again for x-rays last Monday 7/14. He's a cyclist, local, referred by another friend who's a rider. Nice guy. I gave him the CD with x-ray and fluoroscope images from before and after my femur surgery, and contact info for the surgeon who did the work in UT.

One week later

It's been a week and a day since I had my left femur screwed, bolted and plated back together. I've been home for five days. I'm more alert, more mobile, and in a little less pain each day. Still just doing "toe-touch" on the bad leg, no weight bearing yet, using crutches to get around. One thing I've discovered with crutches; you cannot carry anything. Haven't yet come up with a good strategy for this, except to ask my family for help. I can use one hand to carry stuff, pinch the crutch with my armpit on that hand's side, and swing it with my armpit, but that's dangerous - using only one hand to control the crutches - and I think it's not good for your armpit to put so much weight on it.

A shower stool makes taking showers safe and possible. It's important to keep clean, with all the sitting and lying down that follows a broken hip. BTW this has confused people; I broke my femur, which is my upper leg bone. I broke it near the ball that fits into the pelvis' socket. That joint is called the hip joint. So I broke my femur, and I broke my hip. If I had broken my femur down towards my knee, I might have gotten a cast. But because of where I broke it, they had to operate to put it in the right place. I'm lucky, too, in that way. The surgeon talked about possibly having to make two incisions to align the bones, but he found the bones in alignment I guess using the fluoroscope, so only one incision was needed.

One of the odd coincidences for me was that I had Kaiser Permanente health insurance on the day of my accident, through my employer, but that changed on the Tuesday after my accident, as did my employer. Now I have BlueCross / BlueShield of Texas coverage, as my previous employer (from Texas) terminated Kaiser Permanente coverage on 7/1, replacing it with BCBS. This is a continuation of my previous employer's healthcare. On 8/1 I get BlueCross / BlueShield of Illinois coverage from my new employer.

I don't have a new job, but in a way my company has a new job. We were bought by a competitor, the Department of Justice cried foul, sued on anti-trust grounds and won. The competitor had to divest itself of our company's assets, and restore us to a pre-acquisition state of competitiveness. A group from Chicago that was already doing some similar work raised some capital and bought us. I've basically worked at the same company for 2.5 years, but its just changed ownership for the second time, and the new entity still has the same name as it did when I joined. Anyway, that's the employer changing bit.

So I have to select a new GP and an orthopedist who will accept both BCBSTX and BCBSIL coverage. Hope to have that sorted, and see someone soon. I don't yet have a recovery plan. I'll give the new orthopedist contact info for the surgeon in UT who worked on me, and a CD-ROM with x-ray and fluoroscope images from before and after the accident. They'll help me recover and rehabilitate.

I want to walk and ride my bike and be able to leave the house! My family has been very helpful, and my work has been very understanding. I'm looking forward to getting better.

Milk Money

I bought a new/used project bike frame, placed the winning bid for an XL Lenz Milk Money on ebay before I got hurt, and paid for it the morning after my surgery, in my hospital bed. I've always wanted one of these. It's a single-speed, full-suspension mountain bike frame. I'll use it for night rides, especially in winter when it's wet and muddy. It'll also make me strong again. A single speed needs a chain that's constantly in perfect tension. The front and rear sprocket are ideally always in the same relationship to each other, so that the chain can never slip. And of course they must be in the same plane. This is basically impossible on any normal full-suspension frame, where the rear wheel moves in a variable path through its travel, at variable distances from the bottom bracket. Hardtail single speeds are fun, but a FS single speed would make a lot of the riding I do even funner. The Milk Money frame uses a unique suspension where the front pivot is concentric on the bottom bracket shell. It is not the most optimal suspension design, but it is the most optimal suspension design for a single speed. This version doesn't offer a lot of travel, just 3", and it ramps up pretty hard at the end of that travel, which is fine. Even a little rear suspension, paired with a similar amount up front (100mm fork, or almost 4") would work pretty well. 

I certainly don't need another bike! But this will give me something to do, and to look forward to, and help get me strong again, while I recover from a broken hip. My friend Chris Bondus just built one of these, and his build will inspire mine. I can't wait!

Broken femur, or how I went from rebooting a company, to 8200' in the aspens, to the hospital bed in two days

The week of June 23-27, 2014 was a crazy one for me. We were preparing to reboot our software company, doing a lot of work to re-route networks, update vendor relationships, extract code and documentation from another company, and be ready to go live and make our customers happy on "zero-day". I was working hard, not sleeping much. Riding bikes was out the window. Coincidentally, on the Friday of that week I was to fly out to the NICA 2014 Conference. Vanessa Hauswald had asked me to come to Utah, take skills training from Lee McCormack of Lee Likes Bikes, using his NICA curriculum, so that I could come back to my home League, NorCal, and train other coaches and kids. I was excited about this, because it meant a trip to Park City, UT, a chance to learn some cool skills, a chance to meet and hang out with a lot of coaches from around the USA, and also League Directors from all the state leagues.

Bikepacking the Colorado Trail, Summer 2013, segments 23, 22, 23

In 2013, four friends decided to bikepack the Colorado Trail; Mark, Chris, Barry and Morgan. I'm not sure whose idea it initially was, but I think we were inspired by Lynda Wallenfels' (friend's) trip report from 2012. I'd met Lynda, bought a training plan from her in 2008 for TransRockies, followed her blog. We came up with a plan where two of us, Mark and Morgan would ride up from Silverton to Stony Pass, and start riding east toward the other two friends, Chris and Barry, who would be riding from Spring Creek Pass. Once we met, we'd all point our bikes west and ride to Durango together. I don't remember how we intended to get from Durango back to our cars, but Chris' wife Kristen could help, and Mark and I had left a car in Silverton, to which we could return via the historic train.

Things didn't quite work out as planned. That's how adventures work, right? Chris got altitude sickness, and couldn't join us. I had atrial fibrillation, starting around 2009, which affected me during this trip, and the monsoon season in Colorado in August 2013 was significant, leading to some of the worst floods the state had ever seen, later in September. We also didn't know what we were doing; the afternoon storms definitely need to be avoided, and we rode right into them. We ended up bailing from the CT in Silverado, drying out at Chris' in-laws in Grand Junction, and riding the sunny trails there. But we had unfinished business, and Mark and I planned our return to ride the Silverton - Durango CT segments in the future...

Good article about endurance athletes and atrial fibrillation

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/lifelong-endurance-sports-prove-risky-for-some-athletes-hearts/article_4150873f-4d5a-5fcd-a0ba-695445d91faf.html

TransRockies 2008 report

This is a post I wrote on September 4th, 2008 about racing the TransRockies with Matthias Behrends. I lost the blog I kept to a disk problem, but I've rescued this post thanks to archive.org. Here it is.

TransRockies 2008 report

September 4th, 2008

Singletrack through a meadow, stage 2

Normal people, hearing the shower drip, schedule time and money on a bathroom remodel. I went to Canada and raced my bike instead.

2010 Tahoe-Sierra 100

This is a post I wrote on the http://www.sheilamoonracing.com web site on September 13, 2010. That site is now gone, so I rescued it using http://archive.org, and I'm reposting it here.

This is how the Tahoe-Sierra 100 web site describes it:

The Tahoe Sierra 100 is one of the most challenging ultra mountain bike races in North America, a true 100 mile course, not a lap course. Due to the remoteness, this race differs substantially from other ultra mountain bike races. Racing on the rugged roads and trails used by the gold and silver miners of the 1850’s, now accessible only to hikers, bikers, horses and 4Wheel drive vehicles. Adequate mental and physical preparation are of the utmost importance, for the mountains, although beautiful are relentless in their challenge and unforgiving to the ill-prepared.

I was not well-prepared.

A little over a month later

I feel fine. No atrial fibrillation since the 11/25 ablation, and I've been off warfarin since 12/25. This makes me really happy. I do sometimes feel the 'lumpy heartbeat' at night, I guess that's PACs. They no longer lead to afib. It's been 38 days since the ablation. So happy!