Every thing is a go for our 5K “Race For Mobility”.  We have been getting more donations and sponsors for the event, and now have over $6,000 in door prizes to give away.  I’m going to give out all of the race information here again, so everyone is updated. 

The “Race For Mobility” 5K Benefit at Canyon View Park, Grand Junction, CO, on October 25, 2009 at 10:00 am  The community has been great at giving us donations to give away.  Make sure to get registered:  online, in person, or by mail: 

Online at www.active.com (search Race For Mobility);

Download a race registration form at www.monumentgraphics.com/rusty/registration-form.pdf and mail it to the included address;  

go on Facebook.com and search for “Race For Mobility”;

or pick up a registration form at Summit Canyon Mountaineering at 5th & Main, downtown Grand Junction.

Other than beating ourselves up getting this race organized, we are also working on scheduling our next trip to India.  Kathy has been scouring the Internet trying to get us a deal with the airlines and it looks like we will be leaving Grand Junction on January 20, 2010 arriving in New Delhi, India on January 21st.  Because of the restrictions the airlines put on us, we won’t be able to spend a month in India.  We are scheduled to leave there on February 16, 2009, arriving home on the 17th.  I hope that Dr.’s Shroff and Ashish can schedule all of the necessary treatments to be done in a shortened time-frame.  Plus, I’m hoping that my body will accept and deal with the rigors of getting more procedures done in a shorter period.  We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

I have had a bunch of testing done lately to see what is the source of these weird fever/shivering spells I’ve been suffering every time we go some where.  Other than my urine being contaminated once with E-coli and some other bacteria after our trip to Boulder for our daughter Kari’s wedding, that aspect of my health is ok.  All of the blood work has come back normal except 2 elevated liver enzymes.  They drew more blood last week to retest those, but no results yet.  I do know that I am a little leery of travelling to India with the recent responses my body has exhibited to the fatigue and stress brought on by the travel.  I’d much rather get sick here in the US than in India.  I’m tired of feeling like crap, so I’m hoping some thing shows up in my blood.  There is talk of seeing an infectious disease doctor if nothing turns up.  Bummer for me, more doctors!

Therapy has been brutal these last couple of weeks.  My hands, especially my right thumb joint and wrist, have just been killing me when I’m upright walking with my braces and a walker.  The amount of weight and pressure my hands must bear because of my physical body positioning, is immense.  Bruce Greenlee, my physical therapist moved to Michigan, so I am working with Tracy and Jesse now.  Jesse wrapped the walker’s handles with an additional layer of foam padding yesterday to see if increasing the surface area contact between my hands and the walker’s handles would alleviate some of the pressure.  It worked!  I doubled the the distance I was able to walk before my arms cried out, trembling with fatigue.  We walked well over a 100′ before taking a break.  I’m going to look at a self-molding foam that is used to custom fit bow handles to an individuals’ own hand signature and grip to see if that will provide the necessary relief for my hands.  I think this might be a great idea, I just have to find some the stuff on the Internet.  Pain is such a wonderful deterrent to progress and working out.

No input from the Blog Master again, she has been busy with the race and scheduling for India.  I would imagine she’ll have pictures to add after the race, just barely 10 days until the big event.  God, I hope people show up.  It would be a real drag to go through all of this and have no one come.  I understand with the economy the way it is, that people just don’t have the discretionary money to do the fun, play things they use to.  This might be the last blog until after the race.  If so, wish us luck!  Come out and support us if you can.  See you at Canyon View Park on October 25, 2009 at 10:00 am.  Bye!!