Hello,

We at the NorCal League are hoping to help relieve some of the financial burdens that our long-time Chief Course Marshal, Paul Chourre, is facing these days. He has not missed a single race until this season in I don't know how many years. He has given so much of his life to the League, and we cannot be more appreciative. If you can at all chip in anything to help him, we would forever be grateful. To learn more about the issues he is facing, read further.

Having inherited Osteoarthritis from my mother's side of the family, I am no stranger to joint replacement surgery as a remedy for bone on bone conditions of acute arthritis. I have been lucky enough to have gone through five such procedures over the years with little or no complications. Replacements take planning, especially when one is self-employed, and the preparation I have always taken has seen me through each procedure. My last one, my second hip, was a bit of a pre-emptive strike to avoid getting stuck as I did with my first hip, depilating and unable to get corrected due to COVID-related waiting lists. The plan was set for getting this last joint done over Xmas, had saved up, was not going anywhere for the Holiday and most important, would be ready to go for the NorCal 2022 MTB Season.

Everything went pretty much as planned, and I was feeling really great ten weeks post-surgery. Ready to get back to much-needed work and ride my bike. Then, from out of nowhere, I went from feeling great in the afternoon to uncontrollable shakes and fever by that evening. COVID tests kept coming back negative, but my fever continued to rise, as did my right knee's soreness and swelling, which had been replaced four years ago. I went to Orthopedics to have it checked out, thinking I would be back home in an hour with some medication, only to be told to go to the ER and check myself into the hospital while they scrambled to schedule surgery for the following day. Basically, knee replacement surgery less the bone work to irrigate and replace liners in the joint and three days in the hospital while they grew cultures to figure out which of the thousands of bugs had somehow found its way to my knee. “Luckily,” said the Infectious Disease Doctor, “it is Streptococcus,” the lucky part pertaining to the fact that it is effectively treated with Penicillin. Great, only it involves six weeks of IV followed up by another six weeks of oral antibiotic and oh yeah, you’ll have to rehab that knee again as well, not what I was looking forward to, having just gotten through the hip rehab.

It has been a long journey that I hope one day I will look back on as one of those things in life that happen while you make plans.

Godfather aka Paul Chourre