I officiated my first games today for the FOR Candy League, 4th and 5th grade girls. I had been assigned 3 games at Gardena Municipal gym with my son Jared. It has been a long day due to a basketball clinic where I had to preside over two meetings explaining to new parents the ins and outs of starting a new team and navigating the waters of Asian Basketball. And to be honest, I didn't think 3 games would be a problem, no major running up and down the court, just a nice low key 3 games.
When I first walked in the gym over to the score table the first
question I heard from a friend was, "Are you OK to run? I'm not calling
the para medics if you fall down....." Of course I assured her I was OK
and that all she had to do was to drag me out of the gym and across the
street to the fire station.
The first time running down the court I could feel the chest pull. It was at that moment I knew I would not last the full 3 games. What I felt was the area on my left side of my incision in my chest. I just saw my Cardiac Surgeon last week and asked about the numbness on that side. He explained that that is where they took the mammary vein for two of the grafts and that it should take longer to get feeling back in that area. When I run down the court, I feel the area of numbness pull on the area that has feeling. Yuck.
That sensation and being winded after four times down the court made me realize I could easily be in trouble by the third game. Apparently all these months of Cardiac Rehab have been more maintenance than building up my stamina. The first thing I did during half time, was to call the young referee that had the shift after mine to come a game early. He came into the gym just after the start of the third game. Now if time flies when you are having fun, time crawls when you are waiting for your replacement. My youthful replacement took his *%#& time getting dressed and ready to go as those girls started to fast break more. How long does it take to put on a referee shirt and change your shoes and flirt with the girls, and...... I finally got to sit down after 5 minutes into the game (did I mention time crawls?).
My next mistake was sitting down next to Gayle. The inquisition started. How do you feel? What do you mean your chest hurts? I noticed you breathing hard running up and down the court, Haven't you been going to Cardiac Rehab? You need to pull your shoulders back, stand straighter so you can breath easier. Did you stretch before you ran on the court? OK, she was making direct hits on cause and affect. Damn.........
As I survived the questions with the acknowledgement of humility one of my nurses from Cardiac Rehab walked in the gym. The one who threatened me in the hospital that she better not see me in the gym last year. At least I dodged that bullet. That is all I needed was another grilling.
If you are ever curious as to what the "zipper" looks like, there is currently a stop smoking commercial airing. I shows an African American with his shirt off talking about the after affects of CABG surgery and the daily reminder of looking in the mirror. I show two additional 1" horizontal slits at the bottom of the scar on both sides that were for the drainage tubes.
There are some mornings where you just don't want to swallow all those pills. They don't seem to get smaller. And its the supplements that are the ones that give me the most difficulty. I can recite to you by memory my medications and their dosage, but I have difficulty remembering the everyday things like packing my Ipod and running shoes for the cardiac rehab days.
If there is any comfort in the world, it has been for me knowing that
Vin Scully is back in the Dodger broadcast booth for another year.
Somehow his voice echoing through the stadium or through the TV on a
summer night just seems right.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Edit
I just spent some time reading over my previous postings. I am appalled at the grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. I'm not sure why, but I always figured as an engineer, I didn't need to pay attention to those trivial things. When I see something published with those type of errors, I question the validity of what I am reading because I assume the author didn't take the time to do a spell check. I hope to go back and at least correct the obvious errors.
If I really want to do it right, I would have Gayle edit it like she did with the boy's homework assignments. There is nothing like a teacher and her red pencil marking up the paper. The only problem would be her editing more than punctuation. She still has not read this blog because I won't tell her how to access it. If she did, it would be like a government censor deleting the "sensitive" information. Large sections of text would be blacked out. She still has to hear about my writings from her friends. I know when I'm in trouble when she comes home and yells "you wrote what?!!!"
If I really want to do it right, I would have Gayle edit it like she did with the boy's homework assignments. There is nothing like a teacher and her red pencil marking up the paper. The only problem would be her editing more than punctuation. She still has not read this blog because I won't tell her how to access it. If she did, it would be like a government censor deleting the "sensitive" information. Large sections of text would be blacked out. She still has to hear about my writings from her friends. I know when I'm in trouble when she comes home and yells "you wrote what?!!!"
Friday, May 11, 2012
Logic Statement
I was watching a video on the famous physicist, Richard Feinman. I only became familiar with him when I met someone who is married to his biographer. There are numerous references to Dr. Feinman by Sheldon Cooper in the Big Bang Theory, particularly in the bongo episode. What struck me was this quote from the show: “Brilliant people are odd, but not all odd people are brilliant”.
When I first started working at Hughes Aircraft I sat in a cubicle next to the wall of Sr. Scientists. Now these were some of the most brilliant minds in the company, they were also some of the strangest behaving people. What made these people strange was their quirkiness. That also comes from the Big Bang Theory when Leonard tells people to use the term “quirky” when describing Sheldon. These days whenever I meet someone somewhat quirky, I start looking for glimpses of brilliancy. Sometimes I find them, sometimes not.
Now we all know that I do not fit the “brilliant” category, but I do find myself fitting the “odd” description. I don’t believe I look odd, or act overtly odd, I just think odd. The implication is that I usually find myself thinking differently than others and coming to different conclusions. And I'm not sure why. If you ask Gayle, she readily points to my heredity.
Feinman knew he saw things differently. he knew it was a part of him and he accepted it. He used it not only to satisfy his own curiosities, but to further impart his knowledge to others. He was great at explaining complex theories in a simple manner. Gayle’s frustration is that I have not found a use for it other than irritating her. She and a few others wait to see if I snap out of this current mode and break out for some usefulness. Most thought the bypass would have accomplished that feat. It has not. Apparently bypassing the clogged arteries does nothing to affect the clogging of my motivation.
When I first started working at Hughes Aircraft I sat in a cubicle next to the wall of Sr. Scientists. Now these were some of the most brilliant minds in the company, they were also some of the strangest behaving people. What made these people strange was their quirkiness. That also comes from the Big Bang Theory when Leonard tells people to use the term “quirky” when describing Sheldon. These days whenever I meet someone somewhat quirky, I start looking for glimpses of brilliancy. Sometimes I find them, sometimes not.
Now we all know that I do not fit the “brilliant” category, but I do find myself fitting the “odd” description. I don’t believe I look odd, or act overtly odd, I just think odd. The implication is that I usually find myself thinking differently than others and coming to different conclusions. And I'm not sure why. If you ask Gayle, she readily points to my heredity.
Feinman knew he saw things differently. he knew it was a part of him and he accepted it. He used it not only to satisfy his own curiosities, but to further impart his knowledge to others. He was great at explaining complex theories in a simple manner. Gayle’s frustration is that I have not found a use for it other than irritating her. She and a few others wait to see if I snap out of this current mode and break out for some usefulness. Most thought the bypass would have accomplished that feat. It has not. Apparently bypassing the clogged arteries does nothing to affect the clogging of my motivation.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Annual Reminder
This past weekend marks three years since Jeff’s back surgery. The yearly reminder is the FOR basketball tournament. We took him in the following Monday. It remains a constant reminder that basketball is not everything in life. Maybe that is why I dread the tournament every year. I hate being automatically forced to recognize the event annually. Sometimes it just takes the breath out of you and puts you in a deep state of hurt. Not pain, but a deep depressive ache.
As written in previous posts, he is about 85 % recovered from the surgery. He still has some loss of function on his left foot, but it does not affect his ability to walk. He says he just can’t wear the slip on flip flops. He doesn’t jump too well or have great lateral movement, but it does not keep him from playing half court basketball or playing touch football. Gayle and I prefer not to know about those activities
Jeff seems to have adjusted to his limitations… I on the other hand have not. As a parent, I still have pains of guilt of we should have done something different, responded faster, paid more attention to the symptoms, etc. I know I haven’t fully recovered. I still find difficult to accept.
As written in previous posts, he is about 85 % recovered from the surgery. He still has some loss of function on his left foot, but it does not affect his ability to walk. He says he just can’t wear the slip on flip flops. He doesn’t jump too well or have great lateral movement, but it does not keep him from playing half court basketball or playing touch football. Gayle and I prefer not to know about those activities
Jeff seems to have adjusted to his limitations… I on the other hand have not. As a parent, I still have pains of guilt of we should have done something different, responded faster, paid more attention to the symptoms, etc. I know I haven’t fully recovered. I still find difficult to accept.
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