General Discussion

Dear Black Mountain Family,

First I wanted to thank each of you for the well wishes, prayers and concerns regarding my back surgery. If you remember last premier ride I was wearing a back brace on and off the bike. I’ve been struggling with multiple bulging and herniated disk for almost 2 years now. I’ve been seeing both a non-surgical neurologist and a neurosurgeon trying to avoid surgery for a very long time. Had to make the difficult decision to forgo this years premier ride at my docs recommendation and tried to do a little work and a little summer vacation in the airstream which was beyond difficult as both Milina and I were so looking forward to spending time with our Black Mountain family in Colorado.

On July 1st I had another MRI and when the non-surgical neurologist says… “bro… it’s time, you’re going to do perminate damage, we decided to plan for surgery mid to end of August, so I would have a chance to complete my work stuff and see a couple of national parks. I set sail for Salt Lake in the RV as I had two events there. My condition continued to worsen and walking was very difficult. Milina joined me in Salt Lake and we headed to my next event in Jackson-Hole … where things continued to deteriorate and I had zero pain control, and hard time walking and standing. At any rate, we turned the truck around and headed back to Phoenix where my back continued to go sideways and I was scheduled for back surgery.

The procedure went well yesterday, and one of the hurniated disks was removed. I was able to discharge yesterday afternoon and the pain and numbness in my legs and feet have seen dramatic improvement … however this AM I woke up feeling like a was hit by a garbage truck … which I understand is pretty normal…. The road to recovery I hope is fast and I can’t wait to see each of you at a next event. We’ll see if I can make the breakfast this coming weekend, but it’s probabily going to be a no-go until September until I’m able and cleared by the doc. Getting back on the bike is most likely 2-3 months, but I can promise each of you I’ll be pushing everyday to return sooner than later. 15-20% of these procedures relapse b/c guys do dumb shit…. So hopefully Milina will keep me in check so I’m not that guy.

I’ve learned a lot during this journey thus far and I’m sure I will continue to learn more. What I do know for sure is the friendship with each of you I know will last a lifetime. Please feel free to call or text me anytime, I’m pretty bored and starting to drive Milina a little crazy already… the good news is she’s a hot nurse and I’m told I’m going to get a sponge bath tonight. For those that are connected with me on Facebook and Instagram … probably going to up my game, between the pain meds and extreme boredom should fuel an even higher level of “creativity” in posts.

With gratitude and love to my Black Mountain Family

David