A Cancelled Bikepacking Trip: When Health Issues Keep You from Riding Your Bike

By Chris Blinzinger

I awoke at 3 a.m. and realized I couldn’t swallow and had severe Vertigo. My head was spinning and causing nausea. During the next few hours, as the vertigo worsened, I pulled my phone out on camera mode to check my smile for uniformity. As a three-decade veteran of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) I checked myself for signs of stroke. All my checks were negative. I finally called 911 as symptoms were not improving and I was concerned.

So, what do you do when health issues impact your bike riding/touring/commuting? Here is my story.

My friend Lou Melini and I had planned a version of the Idaho Hot Springs loop for a couple of weeks at the end of July 2022 and into August. The preplanning had been done, maps purchased, GPX files downloaded and arrangements for parking a car during our ride. This has been on my “want to do list” for several years.

In mid-June I was deployed to Flagstaff, Arizona for the Pipeline Fire. I work with a regional Incident Management Team for large wildfires. I also work for a local fire department in Utah, so I can represent and contribute to the response for large wildfires outside our response area. After 8 days on the fire, I tested positive for COVID as it had found its way onto our

Command Post.

I was directed to isolate myself in a hotel room when 2 days later at 3 a.m. I had the stroke.

I was transported to Northern Arizona Medical Center where they diagnosed me with a Cerebellum Stroke. I could not swallow for several days, and my eyes were so blurry I couldn’t make out anything. As the news sunk in, I was numb.

Interestingly, my biggest concern was the inability to swallow. How would I give my body nutrition to support my lifestyle that includes bike touring/ bikepacking and commuting and being active?

One of my fellow Incident Team members arrived at the hospital and began making notifications to my family, boss in Provo and the Incident Commander on the Pipeline Fire whose direction I was working under while in Flagstaff.

I thought I was speaking clearly but asked the dispatcher on 911 if they could understand me. They advised that they understood everything I was describing from symptoms to location.

EMS did a few more assessments and discovered an “Arm Drift” which is a sign of stroke. I neglected to test this on myself. EMS transported me to the hospital. I couldn’t use my phone at all while in the hospital because of vision problems, so I handed it off to my team member then my wife who kept family and co-workers informed of my status. Many tests were completed to confirm it was a stroke.

I couldn’t swallow for days and had a mild headache. I was suctioning saliva to keep from choking on my own spit. I was given tongue exercises and ice to suck on. The tongue exercises were hard.

After several days, the speech therapist came in with a small container of applesauce and crackers. I verbalized that there was no way I would swallow that. I took a spoonful of applesauce, and I was able to swallow it. It tasted delightful. It was delicious and I don’t normally eat it. I was put on a minced and mashed diet so everything from beans to pork loin was ground up.

After 6 days in the hospital in

Flagstaff with speech and limited physical therapy, I was transferred to a Neuro Hospital Unit in Provo, Utah. Still on a minced and mashed diet. I spent 8 days there re-learning to walk, swallow and participate in cognitive testing.

While there I managed a message to Lou who is a retired PA and advised that I couldn’t do the trip in Idaho. I was so bummed and wondered how bike riding would be for me moving forward. Without missing a beat, he responded that we would plan it for 2023.

During physical therapy I was asked to do things that were scary.

Walk across a short piece of grass on uneven ground. I made it across, walking like Frankenstein. The Frankenwalking continued to creep into my gait. Also, I had to walk up a therapy sized stair prop and on a treadmill with assistance. Those were all hard, but I could feel incremental improvement and my visitors could see much more improvement than I could.

During outpatient physical therapy my therapist and I talked bikes. He rides a lefty and we found ourselves continually talking about bikes. I had considered my ability to get back on a bike but was afraid to jump right back on. So many things I’d done in the past were now required to do again for the first time. Driving, cooking, showering, climbing stairs and riding a bike.

I am 53 and fairly active. I have a blood clotting disorder which I knew about before I had the stroke. I set up my Disc Trucker on a trainer downstairs and got on. It felt so good to be pedaling, I felt balanced, and it was a good first back on a bike. I wanted more. I asked my doctors and therapists about riding again. They were supportive due to my progress in therapy but cautioned me to be careful as I was no on blood thinners.

My wife has been my rock through this whole recovery process, so she supported me trying to ride on the grass field at the school nearby. I unloaded my bike and rolled it over to the grass field. I was scared to get on. I threw a leg over, looked at my wife and pushed off to pedal forward. I immediately fell over onto the

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