Course Split Ahead!

As a hard enduro racer, when you see this warning sign ahead, you know you are in for something. What exactly, is yet to be determined. Big uphill, gnarly down.... we will see. Only one thing is for certain, it is going to be challenge.

This is exactly where I was at on the night on March 6th, 2024. After a normal day at work, followed by my typical 3 mile run, I ate dinner with my wife and daughter, and headed to the basement for a typical early spring night, tinkering on race bikes, having a few beers, and watching the latest dirt bike enduro vids on YouTube. Around 9:30 P.M. my stomach was rumbling, feeling like dinner was not agreeing with me, which is very unusual. A quick trip to the bathroom seemed to clear the issue, however, the unusual red color of the toilet bowl and toilet paper screamed "course split ahead".

My mind was spinning, but it was late. Off to bed after a quick google search, hoping this would be a bad case of hemorrhoids. Waking up the following morning these symptoms persisted. I reached out to my primary care doctor and was quickly directed to go the ER where I was admitted to Froedert ER after a miserable 4 hour wait in the waiting room.

I spent the next 24 hours under observation in some sort of ER overflow, while being casually monitored. The medical staff seemed to write my symptoms off as a hemorrhoid, but deep down inside it seemed like more was at play. Finally around 4 p.m. on Friday March, 7th I was able to show sufficient reason for the GI team to be contacted for further evaluation. By 4:30 P.M. I had been scheduled for an endoscopy and colonoscopy the following morning. Course Split Ahead.....