My best week to date

Really had a good week.  This is the first week where I’ve pretty much been able to do almost whatever I want without having any issues. I got winded on Monday scraping the snow and ice off of my car but didn’t break into a coughing fit despite the cold weather.

I spent most of the week at Tom’s house and was able to carry on conversations with him all week without them turning into a bunch of coughs – that was a first too. 

I was out shopping this afternoon wandering around stores for about three hours without an issue – usually one trip around a store will wear me out but I walked all through Target, WalMart, and Best Buy without a problem.

I’m targeting New Year’s Eve as the rebirth of my social life.  My favorite band, JR and Natalie, are playing at a local bar and I’m going to head there for the night (after my obligatory stop at the Tavern).

My skinny photos

 

My friend Tom Minsker took these shots. I  spent the last few days babysitting him. He had a hip replacement on Monday and needed to have someone stay with him until he was self sufficient. I’ve heard stories about how quickly people recover from hip replacements and always thought they were slightly exaggerated but now that I’ve witnessed it, I am truly amazed.

Tom had his surgery midday Monday. I picked him up at the hospital Tuesday afternoon about 24 hours after his surgery. He was in a little discomfort Tuesday but had no trouble sleeping through the night (which is a surprise unto itself because he often has sleep issues). Wednesday, less than 48 hours after the surgery, he was walking around his house with the aid of walker. By Thursday, he had gotten rid of the walker and was just using a crutch. Today, he was walking around without the crutch (although he did use it when we went to the grocery store this evening). Just unbelieveable.

I probably could have left him by himself after the first night because he was 99% self sufficient then. The only thing that he had problems with was bending over far enough to put his support stockings on (he has to wear supports for four weeks to prevent blood clots). This afternoon he mastered that so I left him on his own (but I will check in with him daily).

“You’re going to live for a long time.”

so said my doctor at my checkup today. He assures me that the coughing fits are normal, nothing to worry about, and should go away soon. I had a series of breathing tests today that I evidently passed with flying colors. When he listened to my breathing he said things sounded much much improved from before. However, he added that it will take the lung about six months to recover even though I’ll feel fine in another month or so (he did add that I wall always have some scaring on the lung and to be sure to tell any other doctor who x-rays my chest about my surgery so the scars don’t alarm them).

As far as my general health was concerned the results of my blood work and heart stress test that I had done previously came back even better than could be expected. He made a couple of comments about how strong my heart was (specifically saying something about my right ventricle still being able to do x,y,z which is unusually for someone my age). That’s when he tossed in the “you’re going to live for a long time” comment. And, Marilyn, to address your comment on my other post – it appears my general health is fine so I must be doing something right.

On the other hand, I also had an appointment with the dermatologist. I was overdue for a checkup on my skin cancer (my dermatoligist retired and left town, so I had to find a new one) plus my whole body itches and I’ve been scratching like crazy. I got a clean bill of health on the skin cancer checkup but not so when it came to the itch. The dermatologist handed me a checklist of things I could do to address the itching and it turns out that I’m doing them all wrong.

Here’s the complete list:

– Don’t take hot showers – use comfortably cool water (I take showers as hot as I can stand).
– Keep showers brief – no more than ten minutes (I like long hot showers)
– Use unscented soap substitute like Dove, Oil of Olay, etc. NEVER use Ivory or perfumed deodorant soaps like Irish Spring, Coast, etc (I use Irish Spring).
– Use a bath oil (I don’t take baths).
– Pat skin dry. DO NOT rub briskly with a towel (I always rub myself down with a towel).
– Lubricate your skin with a moisturizer (I never use one),
– Consider a humidifier especially during winter months (nope – don’t have one).

Looks like I have some habits I’m going to have to change.

Pulled a doubleheader today

PSU had a basketball game at 1:30 this afternoon (we beat Mount St Mary’s) and I felt pretty good so I decided to take in the women’s volleyball game at 4:00.

Penn State was hosting the regional finals against Cal for the right to head to the Final Four in Omaha to defend the national championship that they won last year. Coming into the season, PSU was a favorite to repeat as champs because they returned pretty much everyone from last year’s squad. However, I don’t think anyone imagined how good this team would become. Most volleyball aficionados have labeled the team the greatest women’s collegiate volleyball team ever assembled.

The records that the team has set so far this year are mind boggling. Coming into this afternoon’s match not only was the team 35-0 for the year but they have swept EVERY match 3-0. They are the first team in NCAA history to go through the entire regular season winning every set. They had won 61 straight matches and 106 straight sets (105 this year and the fifth game of the NCAA final last year) over the last two years. both NCAA records.

During NCAA play, the gals continued the dominance that they showed during the regular season winning their first three matches handily. This afternoon’s match figured to be a different story however. Cal was the eighth ranked team in the country (PSU has been the unanimous #1 all season) and looked like a team that wouldn’t be intimidated by PSU. Cal did not disappoint.

In the first set, Cal jumped out to a 7-1 lead over PSU (a set is played to 25) which was the first time that anyone has held a six point lead over PSU all year. The Bears stretched that to 14-7, then played PSU even up over the next few minutes to take what looked to be a commanding 19-13 lead. PSU’s record 106 set streak looked to be over.

That’s when the girls reached down deep for something extra. As the 4000+ fans went absolutely nuts, PSU won 12 of the next 14 points to win the set 25-21 to keep the streak alive. To come back from that far down against a top ten team was monumental. It was probably the best women’s volleyball game that I’ve ever seen. After that set one win, the rest of the afternoon was anticlimactic as the Nits rolled, winning the second and third sets to advance to the Final Four.

Volleyball legend Karch Kiraly was in town to broadcast today’s game on ESPNU (the Final Four is on ESPN2 with PSU’s first match next Thursday at 9PM EST). In this AP story about the PSU women, Karch had a couple of notable quotes:

“I’ve certainly never ever seen something like this in volleyball,” said Karch Kiraly

“If they run the table,” Kiraly said, “they will have to be put up there with any team in any sport as the most dominant season that we have seen.”

When makes this run even more fun is that we might get to do it all over again this spring when the PSU men take over the PSU volleyball courts to start the defense of their national title that they won last year. State College is truly “Happy Volley”.

BTW – I feel pretty good even with the “doubleheader” that I pulled. No major coughing attacks to speak of.

State College Santa Crawl

This was the night of our annual Santa Crawl. I decided to make a token appearance by heading to the Tavern around 11 PM and surprising the crew as they came through. They arrived about 11:20 and it only took about 15 minutes for me to realize I’m not ready to resume a full social slate yet. I was busy trying to catch up with people that I hadn’t see in ages and a minor coughing fit came on quickly. Fortunately I had my senses about me and didn’t leave with them when they took off for the next bar about a half hour later.

The event has grown considerably since I started it with five people back in 2004. I’d say they had about 45 people tonight. A couple of people took photos of me and as soon as they send them to me I’ll post them

At least you can see how thin my face is in this photo. I’ll post a full body shot (without the Santa suit) in a day or two.

ESPN.com Story on Classic CB West game

I was at the game. One of the best football games I’ve ever seen (also one of the coldest). The CB West kids really gutted out the victory. The guy that wrote the story did his homework. Most accounts of the game that talk about Piccotti being out don’t mention that CBW was actually down to their fourth string running back (the kid had just gotten moved up from JV a couple of weeks earlier) but the guy that wrote this piece got it.

Click on the image to read the whole article.

Making Progress

I figured I was probably overdue for giving everyone an update on my progress.  I’m fairly pleased with the way things have gone the last ten days or so.  For the longest while, I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere but things have definitely improved recently.

In a way it’s kind of funny.  I measure progress in my ability to do normal things that people take for granted. It was about ten days ago when I was first able to take a shower, shave, brush my teeth, and get dressed without having to take a break between the activities.  This past Friday was the first time that I was able to do my grocery shopping all in one pass.  Previously I couldn’t walk all the way through the grocery store without having a huge coughing fit so I’d have to do half the shopping one day, half the next.

I actually made my first pass at regaining a social life a week ago today.  I went downtown to pick out my Santa grab bag gift last Monday evening and decided to stop into the Tavern and see the folk there (had my first beer since the last week of September).  As it turns out, that was probably a little premature.  I don’t get to talk much sitting home all day and I discovered at the Tavern that trying to carry on a conversation was enough to occasionally set off a coughing attack.  Just talking also weakend me enough that when I went out to put money in my meter (about a 100 foot walk), I suffered one of my major coughing fits (I define a major fit as one that triggers a gag reflex).  

That little experiment made me retreat back to my cubby hole for the rest of the week.  By the end of the week though, I was feeling pretty good.  I was no longer having a daily major coughing fit that would end up in my throwing up (that had been going on for almost a month and I am quite pleased that it ended).  I was starting to regain my appetite.   When I would cough I would no longer cough up a bunch of sputum (I went through a dozen or so boxes of Kleenex in my first month back – I now have four boxes strategically placed around the house and they will probably last me a couple of years).  And I was generally feeling pretty good. So good, in fact, that I actually checked on airline fares for Xmas (my great rate was still available which got me thinking).

Those thoughts ended Friday night.  I made a major shopping excursion to the supermarket, one that required four trips from the car to the house to lug the groceries in.  That walk is only about 100 feet but I really could feel the exertion on each trip.  Sure enough the final haul triggered a fit.  Halfway down the walk I’m gagging and throwing up.  That gave me images of me walking through O’Hare carrying my luggage and suddenly having an attack in the terminal.  Suddenly the trip didn’t sound like a good idea (the reality is the biggest problem would probably be the exposure to all sorts of oddball germs on the plane – my resistance to any sort of infection is probably pretty low right now and the last thing I need is to catch some sort of respiratory bug).  

Still I have been starting to regain a normal life bit by bit.  The one thing that I have been doing all along is going to Penn State basketball games.   There was one Saturday night and I actually met some of my buddies for a pregame beer for the first time.  I still had a bit of a coughing problem as I tried to carry on a conversation but it was good to get out.  I also had a first in the five games that I’ve been to.  My seat is in the lower part of the arena and i have to walk up about 30 steps to leave.  At the previous games, I would have to stop and rest after hiking up the steps before continuing out to my car (I park about 100 yards from the arena).   This time I was able to make it all the way (although it did trigger a coughing attack – still getting there all in one phase was an accomplishment).

I’m suppose to meet some friends for lunch on Wednesday so I’ll get another chance at carrying on a conversation this week.  I’ll let all know how that goes.

P.S.  One further thing to report.  My weight continues to remain around 170.  While I have regained my appetite some, i.e. I no longer have to force myself to eat, it’s easily satiated so the portions that I have been eating are smaller than they used to be.  I suppose that’s good.  Since it appears that my weight isn’t going to rapidly return, I actually went out and bought a new pair of jeans.  I’m sure I could fit into a size 34 but I decided to get a 36 with the expectation that SOME of the weight is bound to come back any day.  I’ve measured the difference in the belt holes that I’m using and I’ve taken eight inches off my waist.  That’s consistent with the size 42 pants that I was wearing the summer before last.

New phone number

Hopefully none of you have tried to contact me at my cell phone recently.   My battery went dead just at the time I went into the hospital so my phone has actually been out of service since then.  I’ve finally gotten around to replacing the battery and while I was at it I decided it was finally time to act on something that I’ve telling Gary I was going to do for probably a year plus.

I really don’t use my cell all that much.  And being without it for two months really made me realize how little. My monthly charge for my cell phone service was about $60 which meant that I’ve probably been averaging about $10 a call for a while.  That’s down right silly.  So I’ve converted my phone to a pay as you go line which should probably save me $40 or so a month.  

Along with that, I got a new phone number.  It’s now 814-409-8250 so please update your phone lists.