Holy crap it's been a long time! Some of my absence may be explained by hyperscheduling and general busyness, but I've had times where I've thought about writing and just haven't managed to get it done.
A brief recap of the month: I have been working a lot, am fully recovered from my late August appendectomy, have ridden the bike a little and have decided to work a little harder at getting in a little better shape. For starters, work has been a bit crazy. Not only have I been working to keep up with my youth coldweather shop where stuff just seems to keep coming in, but I had to take some time to put together my 2008 bike program which meant a lot of extra time put in over the last few weeks. I wrapped up the bike program last Monday (on my day off) and left the next day for "Fitness University" for the store (aka "Exercise University") at our corporate headquarters in Fargo. Overall, it was a good three days in Fargo where I learned more about the exercise products we'll be carrying but also learned more about selling fitness as a consultant rather than just selling as a salesman. It's probably not interesting to most, so if you are interested, let me know and I'll explain fuller.
It was a good follow up to a commitment I made a few weeks ago to get in a little better shape as I had the chance to demo some products to see what I could be doing to supplement my bike riding and lose a few more pounds. The idea was birthed on a bike ride where I realized that Rachel Vetor's wedding in January in Indiana was the perfect motivator for me to stave off my usual end of the year slide into hibernation when cycling season ends. My hope is that I'll go back to Indiana looking better than I ever did while we lived there. I'm not far off it now, but am hoping that a little strength training with a healthy dose of cardio will make it even better. My larger reason for wanting to do this (beyond vanity) is that I'm hoping to stay in relatively good health through the off season so that I don't waste the first two months of my season just trying to get some kind of conditioning like I did this year.
Amy decided that if I was going to try to look better, that meant she needed to. Of course, she never has as far to go as I do and has been doing yoga, step aerobics and other things and looks fantastic already. I only have a handful of bike rides, the workout sessions at fitness university and a mild workout this morning in my favor. I'm going to have to pick it up if I want to keep pace.
On the plus side, I was given a heart rate monitor at university and used it for the first time on my ride today. It's really going to change the way I train. I used it today to go fairly hard and had a target zone of 148-165 beats per minute (bpm). If I went above or below that rate, the watch beeped at me to let me know to pick it up, or take it easier. It was a great ride and I was in my target zone most of the ride. It told me several times to work harder and several times to slow down (usually on hills where there was no way I was easing up). I will be looking at new computers for the bike next season with heart rate though as the watch is not the most convenient way to track the info. It was nice at the end of the ride to be able to look at my max heart rate (183), calories burned (approximately 1300), percentage of calories that were fat calories (30%) and the amount of time that I spent in my target zone (about 80% of the ride). As I learn more about using heart rate to achieve goals, I hope to be burning more fat calories and using the monitor to chip away at the goal.
Before university, I took the single speed mountain bike and went riding at Union Grove State Park about 45 minutes south of Sioux Falls. It was the day before I left for Fargo and I had a pretty tight window of opportunity, but I'd heard good things about the prospects of riding single speed there and decided I needed to check it out. When I arrived at the park entrance, I saw a sign that more or less said, "Attention park visitors: there is an active hunting season taking place in this park." My heart kind of sank because I didn't know if I'd be able to ride. For those not from this area, hunting in South Dakota is sort of a big deal. People travel from all over the country to slay the wildlife of South Dakota and South Dakotans are more than willing to kill all the animals as well. Okay, I don't really have an issue with hunting, but I also fail to see the appeal. I am more of a gatherer by nature and have other people kill my animals for me.
So, anyway, since it was early afternoon (after most hunters have already gone home, showered and had a six pack) and I didn't want to miss out on a ride, I decided to see how many people were in the park. I only saw a couple of cars at the main building and decided I'd take my chances. The riding was great, but hard. There were no water bars, steps or other obstacles to overcome like I had encountered at Beaver Creek. Instead, I found winding horse trails that work well as single track for a mountain bike with a good deal of uphill and downhill sections. Several of the uphills are very long and difficult to gut out on a single speed, but I managed to make the first lap without having to get off the bike.
Each lap is about 4.1 miles if you take the outermost sections and do a full lap of the park, so I stopped to eat an energy bar and grab some water before heading out for another lap. Because of the time crunch, I only had time for one more lap which proved really difficult. I was wheezing pretty hard on a couple of the climbs, but was able to stay upright and on the bike until the final, extended climb. I finally had a mental moment where the lights went out and I had to get off about 75% of the way up the climb. On that kind of hill, on a single speed, there was no option but to walk the bike up. I wouldn't have been able to start again even if I'd wanted to. I finished the lap well and headed for home. I'm hoping to do more with the mountain bike next season as the effort and recovery that it requires is much different than on a road bike. I think both disciplines aid each other well and provides some variety throughout the season.
I have had other, deeper thoughts in the last month or so and wouldn't mind fleshing some of these out, but probably not tonight. Hopefully they will add up to a few more super-sized posts in the next few weeks.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Saturday, October 06, 2007
I am not a real mountain biker
I have had a hard time getting miles on the bike the last few months. When school starts, our schedules kick into overdrive and even commuting to work becomes difficult at best. Add an apendecomy to the mix and I have been slowed down greatly since mid-August.
I have had a few road rides to test the waters including a 40 mile jaunt on Thursday that was very good. I felt sluggish out of the gate and didn't have a lot of power in the last few miles, but I did 40 miles with an 18.3 mph average (not far off of where my peak in season speed is) where I was able to hit a rhythm and stay in it even though I didn't feel the strongest.
Today, I figured I would grab a ride in the afternoon after doing church stuff all morning. The only problem was that I wasn't all that interested in riding with temps in the upper 80's with winds in the upper 20's. On the way home from church it dawned on me that this might be the perfect scenerio for hitting one of the local state parks where I might finally be able to get the Rig (the Gary Fisher single-speed mountain bike that I bought in April) some off road action.
I looked up the info online to see about fees, trail set up, hours and such for a few of the parks and opted for Beaver Creek which is only about 10 miles east of town. I probably would have hit Newton Hills which is a hotter destination for my friends that ride, but they were having an event there this afternoon that would have made riding an impossibility. So I packed up the bike, hit the road and made my way to Beaver Creek.
Having never been to Beaver Creek, I knew that this would be nothing much more than a scouting expedition where I would get to know the lay of the land and would have to be fairly conservative. The only problem with being conservative on a single-speed is that any momentum you lose by taking it slow means you will not have the speed to go uphill or over obstacles and will probably either walk or crash. Add to that the fact that we had a lot of rain last night and there were leaves all over the trail thanks to recent rain and wind and the conditions were not ideal for my first off roading venture.
I would not have impressed anybody with my skills as I did a fair amount of walking, took a couple of spills and generally rode like a novice. In my defense, I did get better as the day went on and I got to know the loop better. I began to anticipate the terrain much better and made better decisions earlier than in previous laps. I did draw some blood early and know that I'll feel the effort tomorrow in different ways than I would with a road ride.
While I hope to spend a lot more time off road next season, I have a long way to go before anyone will acuse me of being a mountain biker. I did have fun (bumps and bruises not withstanding) and hope to even get out a few more times before it snows.
I have had a few road rides to test the waters including a 40 mile jaunt on Thursday that was very good. I felt sluggish out of the gate and didn't have a lot of power in the last few miles, but I did 40 miles with an 18.3 mph average (not far off of where my peak in season speed is) where I was able to hit a rhythm and stay in it even though I didn't feel the strongest.
Today, I figured I would grab a ride in the afternoon after doing church stuff all morning. The only problem was that I wasn't all that interested in riding with temps in the upper 80's with winds in the upper 20's. On the way home from church it dawned on me that this might be the perfect scenerio for hitting one of the local state parks where I might finally be able to get the Rig (the Gary Fisher single-speed mountain bike that I bought in April) some off road action.
I looked up the info online to see about fees, trail set up, hours and such for a few of the parks and opted for Beaver Creek which is only about 10 miles east of town. I probably would have hit Newton Hills which is a hotter destination for my friends that ride, but they were having an event there this afternoon that would have made riding an impossibility. So I packed up the bike, hit the road and made my way to Beaver Creek.
Having never been to Beaver Creek, I knew that this would be nothing much more than a scouting expedition where I would get to know the lay of the land and would have to be fairly conservative. The only problem with being conservative on a single-speed is that any momentum you lose by taking it slow means you will not have the speed to go uphill or over obstacles and will probably either walk or crash. Add to that the fact that we had a lot of rain last night and there were leaves all over the trail thanks to recent rain and wind and the conditions were not ideal for my first off roading venture.
I would not have impressed anybody with my skills as I did a fair amount of walking, took a couple of spills and generally rode like a novice. In my defense, I did get better as the day went on and I got to know the loop better. I began to anticipate the terrain much better and made better decisions earlier than in previous laps. I did draw some blood early and know that I'll feel the effort tomorrow in different ways than I would with a road ride.
While I hope to spend a lot more time off road next season, I have a long way to go before anyone will acuse me of being a mountain biker. I did have fun (bumps and bruises not withstanding) and hope to even get out a few more times before it snows.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Late Response to the Landis Ruling
I know that the decision in the Floyd Landis doping case was handed down at the end of last week (14 months after he tested positive at the Tour de France), but I figure posting my reaction four days later is just sort of par for the course the way things have gone. Was I surprised? No. Do I believe he doped? Yes, although I don't want to believe it. His team did a pretty good job of discrediting the lab that handled the samples and the way this whole thing was carried out bordered on the ridiculous, but when the arbitration panel roundly criticized the lab and still found him guilty it became pretty hard for me to believe that Floyd was totally clean.
That may be more of a response to the general state of pro cycling which has done a lot to clean up, but has so much farther to go, which makes it hard to believe that anyone that has a positive A and B sample in a doping investigation has any credibility no matter how hard they protest their innocence. I've had several favorite riders over the last few years test positive and say they were clean. It's becoming harder to believe any of them.
So where does that leave the 2006 Tour de France? With Oscar Pereiro as the official winner, a winner who is one of the least deserving Tour champs in the history of the event. Had he not been given a half hour gift as a part of a breakaway in the middle of the race he wouldn't have finished in the top 10. His lackluster showing this year is more on par with his quality as a Tour contender. No offense to Pereiro as he is an excellent pro cyclist, but he didn't deserve the '06 Tour win and will never finish near the podium again.
As to the historical significance, it has widely been reported that Landis is the first Tour champ to have his title stripped. This is not entirely true. At the beginning of the summer, 1996 champ Bjarne Riis confessed to doping during the '96 Tour and was voluntarily stripped of his title. I had also read on cyclingnews.com at some point in the last year about one of the early Tours where the champ was stripped of the race win due to cheating, although I'm going to have to hunt for awhile to find the article. I'll try to do some follow up if I find time.
Regardless, American cycling is at a crossroads with the general sporting public cynical about the sport, the biggest and most successful team disbanding and now a fallen Tour champ. There's still a lot to love about the sport, but it's going to take something special to put cycling back on a positive track in the US.
That may be more of a response to the general state of pro cycling which has done a lot to clean up, but has so much farther to go, which makes it hard to believe that anyone that has a positive A and B sample in a doping investigation has any credibility no matter how hard they protest their innocence. I've had several favorite riders over the last few years test positive and say they were clean. It's becoming harder to believe any of them.
So where does that leave the 2006 Tour de France? With Oscar Pereiro as the official winner, a winner who is one of the least deserving Tour champs in the history of the event. Had he not been given a half hour gift as a part of a breakaway in the middle of the race he wouldn't have finished in the top 10. His lackluster showing this year is more on par with his quality as a Tour contender. No offense to Pereiro as he is an excellent pro cyclist, but he didn't deserve the '06 Tour win and will never finish near the podium again.
As to the historical significance, it has widely been reported that Landis is the first Tour champ to have his title stripped. This is not entirely true. At the beginning of the summer, 1996 champ Bjarne Riis confessed to doping during the '96 Tour and was voluntarily stripped of his title. I had also read on cyclingnews.com at some point in the last year about one of the early Tours where the champ was stripped of the race win due to cheating, although I'm going to have to hunt for awhile to find the article. I'll try to do some follow up if I find time.
Regardless, American cycling is at a crossroads with the general sporting public cynical about the sport, the biggest and most successful team disbanding and now a fallen Tour champ. There's still a lot to love about the sport, but it's going to take something special to put cycling back on a positive track in the US.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Weariness and new beginnings
The last month has been all about changing gears and trying to settle into a new rhythm at home, at church, at work, at school and with health. Weariness has run rampant as I've tried to adapt and recover from surgery a couple of weeks ago. Finding a groove that isn't accompanied by fatigue has proven difficult and the increase in commitments at church and new commitments at work have only fueled weariness. I did have a good day yesterday where I felt I was better able to pace my efforts and stay engaged in what I was doing, but today I feel tired and lethargic and haven't even really begun to dig into the things that I need to take care of for this weekend.
On a more positive note, I'm excited about restarting ministry stuff this fall. I've been looking forward to the end of summer (from a ministry standpoint) since it will give us a chance to revamp, restart and reinvest in a way that you just can't do in the summer due to scheduling and consistency issues that always seem to come up from June through August.
I'm taking part in Mercy's Alpha course this fall which is an introductory level look at Christianity and a foundational part of Mercy's discipleship efforts. We had our first meeting last night and I'm looking forward to spending the next few months with this group. After this session of Alpha is over, I'm planning on starting a small group exploring issues of art and faith. Hopefully, there will be much more on that topic to come.
I also got an email earlier from a worship team member about a desire to do more spiritual and musical development as a team, complete with some possible ideas to implement. Bobbi has been talking with Nich and Corey about this topic and all three seem to be desiring to see this happen. I've been sort of waiting for something like this to happen for awhile now but wanted to see a desire for it from within the team before pushing it. It will be interesting to see what shape this takes and how it is embraced once we begin down that road.
On a more positive note, I'm excited about restarting ministry stuff this fall. I've been looking forward to the end of summer (from a ministry standpoint) since it will give us a chance to revamp, restart and reinvest in a way that you just can't do in the summer due to scheduling and consistency issues that always seem to come up from June through August.
I'm taking part in Mercy's Alpha course this fall which is an introductory level look at Christianity and a foundational part of Mercy's discipleship efforts. We had our first meeting last night and I'm looking forward to spending the next few months with this group. After this session of Alpha is over, I'm planning on starting a small group exploring issues of art and faith. Hopefully, there will be much more on that topic to come.
I also got an email earlier from a worship team member about a desire to do more spiritual and musical development as a team, complete with some possible ideas to implement. Bobbi has been talking with Nich and Corey about this topic and all three seem to be desiring to see this happen. I've been sort of waiting for something like this to happen for awhile now but wanted to see a desire for it from within the team before pushing it. It will be interesting to see what shape this takes and how it is embraced once we begin down that road.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Back to the Fray
I'm recovering pretty well from last week's trip to the hospital. I spent most of last week on the couch or asleep and have still been feeling a bit sluggish the last few days. I go see the doc for a follow up in the morning and will hopefully receive a clean bill of health.
Saturday we hit LifeLight for a bit. LifeLight is a huge Christian music festival in Sioux Falls that reportedly had over 300,000 in attendance over the weekend. I admit coming into it with a bias. My only other large, outdoor Christian event was Passion's OneDay event in 2000 which was a life altering, intense, dedicated time of worship, prayer and word. This was Christian entertainment and I found myself wishing that there was more depth to what I witnessed.
Granted, I only went for about five hours on Saturday afternoon and had to miss several of the artists that I would have probably resonated with and where the crowds were certainly larger and more engaged. I also was dragging like crazy and probably wasn't in the right frame of mind. We saw Desperation Band (which was okay), Angel Dean (who one of our guitar players plays for), Derek Webb (who was his usual prophetic, fabulous self) and heard from Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com (which was excellent). Each set was only about 25-30 minutes in length, which made the five hours seem even longer. We'll see how compelling next year looks before determining whether we'll venture back or not.
The last two days have been spent at cold weather university for the store where we get to listen to industry reps from companies like The North Face, Mountain Hardware and Columbia talk about their products and technologies for hours on end. It's been good info and I've picked up a few cool things (swag) and great deals on some coats (which I desperately need). My last day is tomorrow before I finally get to go back to work at the store on Friday. It will be good to get back to a routine that resembles normal.
Saturday we hit LifeLight for a bit. LifeLight is a huge Christian music festival in Sioux Falls that reportedly had over 300,000 in attendance over the weekend. I admit coming into it with a bias. My only other large, outdoor Christian event was Passion's OneDay event in 2000 which was a life altering, intense, dedicated time of worship, prayer and word. This was Christian entertainment and I found myself wishing that there was more depth to what I witnessed.
Granted, I only went for about five hours on Saturday afternoon and had to miss several of the artists that I would have probably resonated with and where the crowds were certainly larger and more engaged. I also was dragging like crazy and probably wasn't in the right frame of mind. We saw Desperation Band (which was okay), Angel Dean (who one of our guitar players plays for), Derek Webb (who was his usual prophetic, fabulous self) and heard from Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com (which was excellent). Each set was only about 25-30 minutes in length, which made the five hours seem even longer. We'll see how compelling next year looks before determining whether we'll venture back or not.
The last two days have been spent at cold weather university for the store where we get to listen to industry reps from companies like The North Face, Mountain Hardware and Columbia talk about their products and technologies for hours on end. It's been good info and I've picked up a few cool things (swag) and great deals on some coats (which I desperately need). My last day is tomorrow before I finally get to go back to work at the store on Friday. It will be good to get back to a routine that resembles normal.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
What a way to start the week
The good news: I get the week off from work.
The bad news: it required uninsured surgery to get the week off from work.
I got to make a trip to the hospital yesterday morning with severe abdominal pain which turned out to be appendicitis. Things started out with just a bloated, gassy feeling on Sunday morning which I treated with Pepto, Alka Seltzer, Gas-X and tried to coax along with coffee and carbonated drinks all to no avail. The day went on without getting more uncomfortable until about 6:00 that night when the lower right side of my abdomen started feeling tender. By the time Amy got home from Bible study, I was feeling quite a bit more discomfort but decided to try to wait it out.
I tried going to sleep, but could find very few positions that offered any comfort. I wound up sleeping on the floor of the family room so Amy wouldn't have to deal with me tossing and turning. By about midnight, the pain was getting fairly intense, but I still wasn't running a fever so I would alternate between five or ten minute increments of sleep, tossing and turning and tryin to use the bathroom hoping that a good b.m. would bring some relief. Finally, about 3:30 a.m. I threw up which helped ease the pain for about 20 minutes before I was back into the same state I was in before. I may have gotten an hour and a half of sleep, but probably not quite that much.
I got up around 7:00 and went to lay in bed once Amy was up and getting Xander ready for school. Shortly after she left the house, the pain intensified quite a bit. I rolled myself out of bed, called work and then called Amy to let her know that we were going to need to take a trip to the emergency room. I then got Maia up so she'd be ready to leave the house when Amy got back.
Maia was not the least bit sympathetic. She sprang up the stairs, climbed into her chair and yelled, "Daddy, I'm hungry." She told me this probably three times as I crawled up the stairs and said, "I know baby. I'm coming." I told her she needed to eat fast because Daddy wasn't feeling very good and we were going to have to go to the hospital. After she ate, I told her to use the bathroom. She wanted to use the bathroom upstairs, but I figured she would need help and didn't treasure the thought of crawling more stairs, so I told her to use the one off of the piano room. Of course, she still needed help turning the light on. I started to crawl across the room. Maia watched and said, "Get up!" as though I was crawling as a stall tactic.
Amy got home and I hauled myself out to the car while she got a bag put together for Maia to keep her entertained for the day. By this point, every breath was an exercise in pain and I was fairly convinced that we were dealing with appendicitis. Every bump in the road between the house and the hospital was a challenge for Amy to negotiate between keeping the ride smooth yet fast. We finally arrived at the hospital at about 8:30 a.m. and I hauled myself into the ER, wincing with every breath and slumped over step.
By now you may be wondering why we waited so long to get to the hospital. A lot of it came down to money. We've been uninsured since I left Citibank almost a year and a half ago simply because we couldn't afford insurance. When I started in the bike shop, the insurance plan through the store would have cost us over one third of my monthly income, and as that was our only income at the time, I didn't have much choice but to go without coverage. Rent, house payments on the Indiana house (which we still own) and deferred student loans meant that we couldn't take on any more at the time. When the end of the year rolled around last year and I had the chance to sign up for the program again, we were doing a little better, but I was still working in the shop and our income wasn't enough to take on the insurance. Two months later I was starting in sales with better income and could actually take on the insurance premiums, but I have to wait until the end of the year to get on the program. So, needless to say, we wanted to be certain that a trip to the hospital was necessary before throwing our money away.
I don't know how many doctors, nurses and other hospital staff we met over the next few hours, but all were very gracious, helpful, professional and understanding when it came to keeping costs down and helping us get the best care without unnecessary expense. Early on, the ER nurses were thinking either appendicitis or kidney stones. The docs narrowed it down to appendicitis pretty quick but because it is more common before age 30, they wanted to do a cat scan to be certain. We played the uninsured card again and after consulting, they let us skip the scan and proceeded to set me up with a lap-appy (laparoscopic appendectomy).
The pain had subsided a bit as I waited in a prep room in a prone position over the next few hours and I even managed a little more sleep. By about 11:00 they finally gave me something for the pain. They continued giving me meds as they moved me to a pre-op room and went over medical history for what seemed like the fifth or sixth time that morning. They then wheeled me out and the girls went to the waiting room while I went in for surgery.
The appendix didn't burst but did finally perforate when the doc went to retrieve it, so they did have to irrigate a little bit and I'm on a pretty healthy dose of antibiotics. Apparently, the appendix is usually about three and a half inches long and not very wide. Mine was over five inches long and huge by the time they took it out. I've got a picture of it after the surgery and it looks like a the front half of a bald rat. Pretty gross. I thought about posting the pic, but probably won't.
I don't remember much after going into the operating room, but woke up some time later in a large recovery room, still pretty well out of it. About the only thing I do remember from recovery is getting some ice chips which I appreciated a great deal.
They then wheeled me to a private recovery room where I met up with the girls again, had some toast and water and generally felt a whole lot better. They wanted me to eat something without incident and go for a walk without dizziness before they would let me go. As it turned out, I was able to leave at about 4:30 p.m. which was a bit surprising to me. I thought they'd keep me until later in the evening with the goal of getting me out before they would have to charge us for another day's stay.
The girls were great. Amy was on top of handling the paper work, making sure to keep costs down and providing prayer and comfort. Maia played very well, colored and covered herself in stickers which she then insisted on sharing with Amy. I hated to make them waste a day at the hospital, but was glad they were there. Xander went home from school with Isaac and got to hang out at his place until about 8:00, so I think he had a pretty good day too.
When we got home, I put in a DVD of the 2005 Tour and fell asleep for a few hours. Marilyn came to help out with the kids while Amy went to a meeting and I finally got myself up at about 7:30 to have something to eat and to be sociable.
After a good night's sleep and a restful day, I'm feeling pretty good. A little sore and sluggish, but nothing really to complain about. I'm taking a week off from work (thanks to vacation and sick days that were sitting there) and am hoping to get a good deal of rest, have a birthday and maybe take in some of LifeLight this weekend.
The bad news: it required uninsured surgery to get the week off from work.
I got to make a trip to the hospital yesterday morning with severe abdominal pain which turned out to be appendicitis. Things started out with just a bloated, gassy feeling on Sunday morning which I treated with Pepto, Alka Seltzer, Gas-X and tried to coax along with coffee and carbonated drinks all to no avail. The day went on without getting more uncomfortable until about 6:00 that night when the lower right side of my abdomen started feeling tender. By the time Amy got home from Bible study, I was feeling quite a bit more discomfort but decided to try to wait it out.
I tried going to sleep, but could find very few positions that offered any comfort. I wound up sleeping on the floor of the family room so Amy wouldn't have to deal with me tossing and turning. By about midnight, the pain was getting fairly intense, but I still wasn't running a fever so I would alternate between five or ten minute increments of sleep, tossing and turning and tryin to use the bathroom hoping that a good b.m. would bring some relief. Finally, about 3:30 a.m. I threw up which helped ease the pain for about 20 minutes before I was back into the same state I was in before. I may have gotten an hour and a half of sleep, but probably not quite that much.
I got up around 7:00 and went to lay in bed once Amy was up and getting Xander ready for school. Shortly after she left the house, the pain intensified quite a bit. I rolled myself out of bed, called work and then called Amy to let her know that we were going to need to take a trip to the emergency room. I then got Maia up so she'd be ready to leave the house when Amy got back.
Maia was not the least bit sympathetic. She sprang up the stairs, climbed into her chair and yelled, "Daddy, I'm hungry." She told me this probably three times as I crawled up the stairs and said, "I know baby. I'm coming." I told her she needed to eat fast because Daddy wasn't feeling very good and we were going to have to go to the hospital. After she ate, I told her to use the bathroom. She wanted to use the bathroom upstairs, but I figured she would need help and didn't treasure the thought of crawling more stairs, so I told her to use the one off of the piano room. Of course, she still needed help turning the light on. I started to crawl across the room. Maia watched and said, "Get up!" as though I was crawling as a stall tactic.
Amy got home and I hauled myself out to the car while she got a bag put together for Maia to keep her entertained for the day. By this point, every breath was an exercise in pain and I was fairly convinced that we were dealing with appendicitis. Every bump in the road between the house and the hospital was a challenge for Amy to negotiate between keeping the ride smooth yet fast. We finally arrived at the hospital at about 8:30 a.m. and I hauled myself into the ER, wincing with every breath and slumped over step.
By now you may be wondering why we waited so long to get to the hospital. A lot of it came down to money. We've been uninsured since I left Citibank almost a year and a half ago simply because we couldn't afford insurance. When I started in the bike shop, the insurance plan through the store would have cost us over one third of my monthly income, and as that was our only income at the time, I didn't have much choice but to go without coverage. Rent, house payments on the Indiana house (which we still own) and deferred student loans meant that we couldn't take on any more at the time. When the end of the year rolled around last year and I had the chance to sign up for the program again, we were doing a little better, but I was still working in the shop and our income wasn't enough to take on the insurance. Two months later I was starting in sales with better income and could actually take on the insurance premiums, but I have to wait until the end of the year to get on the program. So, needless to say, we wanted to be certain that a trip to the hospital was necessary before throwing our money away.
I don't know how many doctors, nurses and other hospital staff we met over the next few hours, but all were very gracious, helpful, professional and understanding when it came to keeping costs down and helping us get the best care without unnecessary expense. Early on, the ER nurses were thinking either appendicitis or kidney stones. The docs narrowed it down to appendicitis pretty quick but because it is more common before age 30, they wanted to do a cat scan to be certain. We played the uninsured card again and after consulting, they let us skip the scan and proceeded to set me up with a lap-appy (laparoscopic appendectomy).
The pain had subsided a bit as I waited in a prep room in a prone position over the next few hours and I even managed a little more sleep. By about 11:00 they finally gave me something for the pain. They continued giving me meds as they moved me to a pre-op room and went over medical history for what seemed like the fifth or sixth time that morning. They then wheeled me out and the girls went to the waiting room while I went in for surgery.
The appendix didn't burst but did finally perforate when the doc went to retrieve it, so they did have to irrigate a little bit and I'm on a pretty healthy dose of antibiotics. Apparently, the appendix is usually about three and a half inches long and not very wide. Mine was over five inches long and huge by the time they took it out. I've got a picture of it after the surgery and it looks like a the front half of a bald rat. Pretty gross. I thought about posting the pic, but probably won't.
I don't remember much after going into the operating room, but woke up some time later in a large recovery room, still pretty well out of it. About the only thing I do remember from recovery is getting some ice chips which I appreciated a great deal.
They then wheeled me to a private recovery room where I met up with the girls again, had some toast and water and generally felt a whole lot better. They wanted me to eat something without incident and go for a walk without dizziness before they would let me go. As it turned out, I was able to leave at about 4:30 p.m. which was a bit surprising to me. I thought they'd keep me until later in the evening with the goal of getting me out before they would have to charge us for another day's stay.
The girls were great. Amy was on top of handling the paper work, making sure to keep costs down and providing prayer and comfort. Maia played very well, colored and covered herself in stickers which she then insisted on sharing with Amy. I hated to make them waste a day at the hospital, but was glad they were there. Xander went home from school with Isaac and got to hang out at his place until about 8:00, so I think he had a pretty good day too.
When we got home, I put in a DVD of the 2005 Tour and fell asleep for a few hours. Marilyn came to help out with the kids while Amy went to a meeting and I finally got myself up at about 7:30 to have something to eat and to be sociable.
After a good night's sleep and a restful day, I'm feeling pretty good. A little sore and sluggish, but nothing really to complain about. I'm taking a week off from work (thanks to vacation and sick days that were sitting there) and am hoping to get a good deal of rest, have a birthday and maybe take in some of LifeLight this weekend.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Prayer request
I always find it hard to ask for prayer for myself. Whether it's the male ego or what, I don't know, but I recognize that I need prayer now. Amy and I have been leading worship at Mercy Church here in town since November. We've talked with Shel (our Lead Pastor) about needing to press more into charismatic expressions of corporate worship for several months now as a growth area for us personally. I have tried to be open to it and have looked at it as an opportunity to grow in the calling that God gave me as a worship leader, but it doesn't seem as though anything is happening.
Shel has been supportive and has even arranged for us to have some Sundays off to visit other congregations with more charismatic worship being done well in order for us to better understand what he's asking of us. This weekend will be the first time we visit somewhere else in order to take advantage of the opportunity, but ultimately I know that only one thing is going to help us get past this barrier and that is the power of the Holy Spirit.
I had the opportunity to worship by myself at the house tonight and found myself asking what happened to the guy that I was just two or three years ago that seemed so in tune with what God was doing and had no trouble pushing into those freer spaces in worship. I don't have any answers, but I know that without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, any attempts I make are going to fall flat. I also recognize that if I can't grow into this area, Mercy will need someone else to lead worship who can.
I feel myself battling fear, self consciousness and depression and ask for prayer that these voices would be silenced and that God would grow me in whatever ways He wants to so that I can do whatever it is He calls me to.
There's a lot bubbling under the surface for me, personally, and I haven't quite got a grip on everything that is going on in my spirit, but I do ask that you pray that the Spirit work in me in ways that are indisputably His own and that I would glorify God regardless of where this all goes.
Shel has been supportive and has even arranged for us to have some Sundays off to visit other congregations with more charismatic worship being done well in order for us to better understand what he's asking of us. This weekend will be the first time we visit somewhere else in order to take advantage of the opportunity, but ultimately I know that only one thing is going to help us get past this barrier and that is the power of the Holy Spirit.
I had the opportunity to worship by myself at the house tonight and found myself asking what happened to the guy that I was just two or three years ago that seemed so in tune with what God was doing and had no trouble pushing into those freer spaces in worship. I don't have any answers, but I know that without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, any attempts I make are going to fall flat. I also recognize that if I can't grow into this area, Mercy will need someone else to lead worship who can.
I feel myself battling fear, self consciousness and depression and ask for prayer that these voices would be silenced and that God would grow me in whatever ways He wants to so that I can do whatever it is He calls me to.
There's a lot bubbling under the surface for me, personally, and I haven't quite got a grip on everything that is going on in my spirit, but I do ask that you pray that the Spirit work in me in ways that are indisputably His own and that I would glorify God regardless of where this all goes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)