Unexpected Cyclist's Femoral-Popliteal Blog Intro and Background

I'm not a medical doctor and I have no medical training. Truthfully, I haven't hardly been sick in years and I'm the last person to give anyone advise on wellness. That's not the intention of this blog, however, it's exactly why this blog might help someone who's dealing with this specific circulation problem. It's a history of what I experienced prior, during, and after my Femoral Popliteal Bypass surgery and hopefully it gives a useful timeline to measure your own recovery against mine.

Unfortunately, when I searched the web for any information about femoral-popliteal bypass surgery (which I call FemPop), I was never able to locate information that really pertained to me. I'm a cyclist and an active person. I don't have a poor health history. I've never been hospitalized. I'm hoping that fellow cyclists, and other older athletes, who find themselves in this situation will be able to use the information herein to gauge for themselves whether or not they are on schedule for a full recovery. I was never able to find any information that would guide me during the different phases of recovery and I had no barometer as to whether or not my recovery was going well. That is where I hope this information will be helpful.

Most people who need this surgery have other health issues and much of what I found on the internet was extremely depressing.  It commonly addressed issues like leg amputation and life expectancy. This was not what I wanted to hear, and ultimately I realized that much of what you find on the web pertained to people whose overall conditions were much worse than mine.  I was sick, and I needed surgery to get healed, but my death was not imminent.  The web gave me general information concerning my disease, but I wanted more. PAD (peripheral artery disease) usually affects people older than me. Or they had one of the following problems: High-blood pressure, Diabetes, cigarette smoking, or some traumatic injury to the area. I had none of these. But it was the last most likely cause that got me: Family History.

In my father's final years, he was what I'll call a "slow walker". He could only walk short distances before he needed to rest his legs. After two minutes rest, he'd continue to walk as far as he could until his legs lost power and he needed to rest again. Today, I know this is called intermittent claudication and it was exactly what I was experiencing. The muscles in the legs get their energy from the heart pumping down a fresh supply of oxygen rich blood. If something impedes this flow of blood, like an artery blockage or an aneurysm, the muscle will deplete its energy supply and weaken. This will be accompanied by a light cramping feeling, a loss of muscle power, a diminished gait, and the need to rest. After a few minutes, fresh blood will restore energy to the muscle, and you'll be able to walk again until the point where the energy has been exhausted and you will again need to rest.

Hence, my fathers slow-walking. He realized that by walking slowly, it would delay the depleting of his leg muscle energy, and although he would fall behind the pace, he was able to walk further without stopping. My mother referred to their walks in the local park as "going from park bench to park bench".Back in the '80's there may not have been many options for relief. They didn't have stents, and even if they had a bypass surgery, my father was from the generation where surgery was only performed if it were a matter of life or death. Consequently, my Dad dealt with that limiting physical condition until his death. 

So... This is the point of this blog and why I've taken the time to document my experience before, during, and after the surgery. If you are way more alive than dead, and have an expectation to regain the active life you enjoyed prior to being diagnosed with PAD, then you and I are in total agreement. Whatever has led you to these entries, I certainly hope that my experiences and observations will somehow help you. But before we move ahead, let me tell you something about myself.

I'm a 59 year old male who has been mostly active and in good health throughout my life. I'm 6'2" tall and I weight 197-202lbs.  I was athletic in my younger years.  Nothing special, just very active with sports.  There was no option to play video games or surf the web. Back then you either watched TV, studied and stayed home with your parents, or got yourself outside. And that's what I did. I got the hell outside, and anywhere I went was under my own power by walking or bicycling. That's just the way it was back in the ancient times.

After college I was driving a cab and learned to play tennis which I did as much as possible including local leagues to satisfy my competitive nature. I was again riding my bicycle a lot. In 1982, I got the idea to ride my bicycle down the California Coast. I was 24 years old with no specific direction in life. I spent 6 weeks going from Arcata to San Clemente on my fully loaded Bridgestone Kabuki. In the Summer of 1983, I flew to London and road my Miyata 610 through SW England to the south of Wales, over the Irish Sea and up the east coast of Ireland, through Dublin and all the way to Belfast. From there it was over to Scotland and all the way up to a ferry for the Orkney Islands. Many times in my adult life I've looked back on those two Summers with such appreciation, and even though my life seemed impossibly off-track, I was still able to experience some great adventures and for that I'm eternally grateful.  

I gave up regular riding in the early '90's when a wife and baby altered my priorities. I did keep playing league tennis on and off, but admittedly allowed desk-work and inactivity to take hold. More and more, as I got further into middle age, the motivation to take care of myself waned. Eventually I weighed 223 and was taking medication for both high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Age set in and I was no longer what I once was. 

In 2009, my daughter left for college. By the spring of 2010 it was time to find a hobby. So one night over dinner a friend of my wife was talking about how she was currently training for a 100 mile ride with a local bicycle club. Suddenly I was reminded of a long forgotten love from my past and the thought of just riding my bicycle again was so exciting. I had six weeks to get ready for that century ride. No problem. I bought new tires and some upgrades for my old '80's Miyata ( which I kept all those years, despite numerous threats from my wife to throw it away).

That ride was the beginning of my new life and those 100 miles were easy as pie. After that I began riding my bicycles again as often as possible and started working my way up to faster and faster club groups. I did hundreds of solo and club rides, lost 25 lbs, and was taken off the high blood pressure meds. An average ride for me before the surgery was 40-50 miles with 1500 ft of climbing at an average pace in the 18 mph range. I'm not with the fastest guys of my age, but I was doing great... until I felt what I thought was a pulled calf muscle, but know now it was something much more sinister, and my life then took a very sudden and unexpected turn.