Here it is. The ridges had been eroded away by his stomach acids and the doc thinks it had been in him for about 10 days. (click on image for a larger version)

The way I figure it, Bentley’s got seven of his nine lives left if he’s lucky. He used his first one up in March of 2004 when he spent most of the day down by the Sammamish River in Redmond and his most recent one by swallowing a dime. I love him, but he sure does give me the gray hairs. He woke us up this morning in his usual way of aggressive head butts for pets and seems to be back to his old self. Here are some pics:

The Scar. (click on image for a larger version)

Since he went in for surgery, we figured it was time for him to get serious about his health and start a smoking cessation program. He was prescribed “the patch.” (actually it’s a patch for time release of Duragesic to help relieve any pain)(click on image for a larger version)

The surgery rebate :) (click on image for a larger version)

Bentley came home tonight, less than 36 hours after his major surgery which is completely amazing. They’ll be pictures tomorrow but for the most part, he’s recovery is remarkable. This made me incredibly happy but I’m ending the day on a sad note.

On my ride home tonight I saw a little kitty lying on her side just off the side of route 202. Her eyes were open but she seemed too weak to move herself away from the dangerous road (the speed limit is 55 and people often exceed that). I was going to stop but I thought it would be better for me to race home and come back with some food and cold water to hopefully give her some strength to move. I floored it for the five remaining miles, grabbed some canned kitty food, a cold bottle of water and raced back in my car.

It was too late though, she was dead. No visible trauma, but looked emaciated from lack of food and water during this recent heat wave. It was too much for me after what happened to Bentley and I couldn’t handle it. I believe things happen for a reason but I can’t imagine why I needed to see that. My worst fear is that she was alive when I first passed her but died on my way back. I can’t remember if she blinked when I rode by. I moved her over to the side of a driveway and pulled her eyelids shut. I hope she didn’t suffer too long.

Give me rain, give me hills, give me bad terrain, give me sore muscles. Just don’t give me heat. I’ve never ridden that well when it’s hot out and that hasn’t improved with age.

Maybe last week was a fluke. During last night’s ride with the same guys, I went to parts of myself that I hadn’t been to in over a decade. I dug deep, real deep to maintain the pace and maybe now I’ll be motivated to get off my ass and start riding more.

The ride called for a climb up Duthie Hill Rd. (1.4 miles at 12%) to meet the guys at Cascade Ridge Elementary on the Sammamish Plateau. From there we descended back down into the Snoqualmie Valley where we did about 36 flat miles and we finished the ride off with a climb of the East face of Ames Lake Rd. hill (3.11 miles at 6%) with the obligatory jaunt back up the bastard that is Duthie Hill Rd. A little over 57 miles total.

The pace was brutal from the very first pedal stroke. I was nearly dropped on the descent down Duthie Hill Rd. and we were doing high 20s to low 30s all the way into Carnation. I kept up for this segment and even took some strong pulls. Shortly after we arrived in Carnation, we took a right (East) and the guys decided to try and find out who was the best among us. I felt (or thought I felt strong) so I immediately upped the tempo to get rid of the weaker riders as quickly as possible. With the group decimated and only 8 left, I relinquished control of the group and drifted back. While the group was accelerating on my right, my mind started wandering for a sec and the next thing I knew, a 10 foot gap had opened between myself and Rob’s wheel in front of me. At 32 mph, a 10 mile gap can be lethal. And it was. For a little over 4 miles, I dug as deep as I possibly good (not redlining but blacklining!) but didn’t get within the initial gap’s distance. That four mile unsuccessful bridge attempt would haunt me the rest of the evening. I ended up being dropped three times.

I was climbing well on Ames Lake Rd. until the kidney cramps (felt like someone stabbing me in my right kidney) nearly made my legs stop turning. I finished the ride alone, in “no man’s land”, 2 minutes back of the leaders and almost 8 minutes ahead of the laggards and it was incredibly humiliating. I did however redeem myself by being first down the west face of Ames Lake (descending is brutal folks) but then I was dropped again 5 miles later when we climbed Duthie Hill for the second time. Miserable.

I think my dismal performance was caused by the heat, lack of water (doh!) and not riding or sleeping the day before (because of what happened to Bentley) but I’m not making any excuses here. I just need to start riding more and eating better. This isn’t any revelation but now I’ll have the memory of getting dropped like a hot potato three times in the same ride to serve as some serious motivation.

(We sometimes call him “The Beebs” which is short for Beavis I guess). I got a call from the surgeon at 2:48 am this morning saying it was indeed a dime in his intestine but from the looks of the severely corroded dime, it had been in there longer than Sunday. She found no necrosis (tissue death) in either his intestine or stomach, but the dime was positioned in a dangerous enough way to have possibly ruptured the smallest part of the intestine in a day or two.

He’s resting now but still a bit groggy from the anesthesia and won’t be allowed to eat for 12-15 hours. He’s expected to make a full recovery within a few weeks.

Whew…

The cost doesn’t seem so bad now that I’ve learned I will get a 10 cent surgery rebate. I’m pretty sure I won’t even have to mail in a ridiculously complex form to redeem it :)

Sometime on Sunday evening, Bentley threw up and we blew it off as just a hairball or something that just didn’t sit well with him. One Monday night, Amy found a few places where he’d thrown up again but she was convinced it was actually Grace since she’s the one with all the digestive trouble. Then last night (Wednesday), I was sleeping at the house alone (Amy helping Carolyn and Tony out with baby Kate) and Bentley was puking every couple of hours. I called Amy on the way into work and said we definitely needed to take him to the doctor’s today. Big Guy was acting otherwise normally though maybe not as vocal as he usually is. This, coupled with our busy schedules made us miss the signs that he was in big trouble.

Amy took him in earlier today and the diagnosis was that his stomach wasn’t tolerating the high protein content of the premium kitty food we had him on (actually it was to help Grace lose some pounds) and Amy was given and prescription med that would help coat his stomach and some prescription food that would be easier for him to digest. By the time I’d come home, Amy had left again to go to Carolyn’s and I was given instructions on how to feed him. Amy also said Bentley shouldn’t get sick any more. I prepared his food and got ready to go for a short ride.

Just as I was getting my water bottle out of the fridge, I noticed Gracie was jumping up and down the patio door trying to get some kind of insect that was outside. I’d never know Beavis to not be with her when bugs are at stake. So instead of going out to the garage, I went to look for him even in my cycling cleats (A BIG NO NO). I found him hunched over in the living room dry heaving. I immediately called the vet and asked if I could bring him because he was getting sicker by the minute.
One hour, a million nervous heartbeats and a sweaty forehead later, the doc rushed out of the back room saying I needed to come back quickly. I’m not so tough- I immediately started to cry. She grabbed my arm and said it was ok but we had to get him to surgery right away to remove (she pointed to the x-ray on the wall) a dime in his intestines. I don’t know if I felt better or worse but while she was trying to decide if it was a dime or a penny, I yelled that I just wanted it out. She called over to Alpine Veterinary Hospital and I was out the door within three minutes. Amy met me there and we reluctantly gave him to the doctor for surgery.

Dr. Rogers said we were lucky, that if we had waited another day, it would probably have killed him. He was probably in terrible pain since Sunday afternoon and most likely hadn’t been able to digest any food since then as well. I feel absolutely terrible thinking that I left a shiny coin on the ground that he accidentally swallowed while playing with it.

They’ll sedate him, open him up and pull the dime out of his intestines via a small incision. He’ll probably be in their care for at least three days but I should know in a few hours how the surgery went. I’m a nervous wreck and it’ll be a freakin’ miracle if I’m actually able to finish this post. It will cost us around $3,700 but I don’t care, I’ll sell my damn bikes if I have to. He’s more than worth that.