Father of Six

What a week. I started Monday morning with a 10 mile spin around the neighborhood. Then flew to SJC. Worked Tuesday through Thursday in Sunnyvale. Got a hell of a good spin work out in Tuesday evening at the gym. Didn’t feel so hot the rest of the week, so I bagged my workouts on Wednesday and Thursday.

Denver got a “blizzard” while I was gone. Work and all other stuff was out of whack .

I flew home Friday.

Saturday, I did the grocery shopping, dropped off the laundry, went to work, and went back home. Tami and I went to a birthday party that evening.

Sunday, went to Tim’s and talked about his interview.

Then did a 50 mile bike ride. I hung half a hundred on it.

Later Eric and others came over to celebrate Eric’s 25th birthday.

So …

What it looks like out my airline window on the way to California.

And this is what my favorite recipe – fish in a bag looks like.

This is what it looks like for two hours each way on every flight. – iPod, and the puzzle page.

And this is what Boomer, me, and Eric look like on Eric’s 25th birthday eve.

I put in 112 miles on my bike this week, including 45 in a brutal, seemingly constant headwind yesterday. I think that was probably the worst day I’ve ever had on my bike. In places where I could easily do 25-27 mph, I pushed hard to to 10-12. It was a tough.

We had a good weekend. I took Boomer to the Denver March Powwow Friday morning. Frybread and a new wooden, hand-carved with the face of a wolf, slingshot were the highlights.

Tami and I went to dinner with Tim and Jeanne Friday night at the White Chocolate Grill. The food was fantastic, and as always, the company was even better.

We’re getting a new front door installed today. Tami has been asking for the old door to be replaced for about five years now, and it has finally made it to the top of the home improvement projects list.

I’ve been home for the past two weeks, but that changes tomorrow. I’m off the San Jose for the entire week, and it will be full throttle from now until Amanda graduates and we take our trip to New Orleans, May 25 – 29.

I started my training this week. This was week one of a 10 week cycling plan. I did a long 40 mile ride yesterday, and 103 miles for the week.

What’s the event? I’m still working on it. Remember that it is the 5-Year Diagnosis celebration on 5-17-09.

While out riding Saturday, I plugged in one ear-bud on my iPod and set it to shuffle. You get all kinds of oddities mixed in when you do this. I started with Dude (Looks Like a Lady ) from Aerosmith and finished with Iko Iko by the Dixie Cups. In between I had Shakespeare Sonnets 119 and 126 recited to me, two Lightnin’ Hopkins tracks, a couple of the Philadelphia Brass recordings of christmas carols, Django Reinhardt, Rush, Count Basie, Mozart, Rhonda Vincent, Montrose, Prince, The Rascals, Sly & the Family Stone, Three Dog Night, Eek-a-mouse, Dan Tyminski, Sting, Biréli Lagrène, and Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

One song that particularly resonated with me was The Sun is Shining Down, by JJ Grey and Mofro. It starts with a nice saxophone/trumpet trio, the vocals reminds me of a very soulful R&B lament, and the entire lyrical content just says something to me. I especially like the chorus where he sings, “Hallelujah – I’m alive and I’m feeling, feeling fine.”

Add this to the fact that it was a glorious Colorado Saturday afternoon and, well …

Yeah, I dig that.

Or, My Story of Cancer

I’m approaching my 5-year anniversary of being diagnosed with cancer. In recognition of this date, I wanted to jot down a few things as I remember them in the seven month ordeal, as it were.

1. On May 17, 2004, Dr. Brad Bell, Urologist, called to tell me I was diagnosed with Stage I Seminoma Cancer.

2. This was six days after he had performed a left inguinal orchiectomy.

3. On this same May 17th, Tami told me that we were expecting.

4. How do you suppose I felt, knowing that I had cancer of my reproductive system, and yet I was capable enough to fire a live round, and have it hit it’s exact and perfect target? Pretty damned stoked, that’s what I say. It was also a very good distraction.

5. On May 19th, we obtained medical confirmation that we were expecting.

6. I turned 43, and took my oldest daughter on a graduation trip to New Orleans at the end of May.

7. At the consultation of Dr. Leonard, Radiation Oncologist, we determined to have radiotherapy.

8. On June 8th I went to the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center, had my radiation field set and double checked, and received three small tattoos to align the equipment in the same location each time. These are the only three tattoos that I have, and hopefully the only ones I’ll ever have. I’m a big fan of silk-screening and t-shirts.

9. On June 14th, I began radiation therapy. This was the first day of three weeks, five days a week, at a relatively low 2500 rads.

10. I didn’t have many side-effects from the radiation, just tired and a loss of hair in the shape of a rather large block numeral “1.”

11. My last radiation dose was delivered on July 3rd. I rented a jack hammer and removed our back patio that afternoon.

12. When something like this happens to you, I think we all start looking for different anchor points, or lighthouses. As cliché as it might sound, I admired Lance Armstrong’s story, and his perseverance. I read “It’s not about the bike” during this time and was inspired to Livestrong.

13. I went to London on business July 18th through 25th. I had plans take a quick trip to see Stage 19 of the Tour de France in Besançon. I became worried about my well being, and canceled at the last minute. I regret that decision.

14. I began a testing protocol of a CT scan and a chest x-ray every three months for the first year, every six months for the next two years, and once a year after that. They’ve all been clear.

15. I have a few earned nicknames as a result of this ordeal.

16. One Ball. And I’m not crazy, I’m just Half Nuts.

17. On December 20th, I saw someone work harder than I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Nothing I’ve ever done comes remotely close to the energy Tami expended when she gave birth to our son.

18. I Livestrong for these seven specific reasons:

19. Tami Kay Feeney Worthington

20. Eric Andrew Worthington

21. Brittany Louise Worthington

22. Danielle Charlene Worthington

23. Amanda Elizabeth Worthington

24. Rebecca Catherine Worthington

25. Alexander Kenneth Feeney Worthington

I have something big, something significant in the works for May 17th, 2009 – my 5 year anniversary. It’ll probably include some kind of physical challenge, as you all know I have to suffer in order to know that I’m alive. And you can count on a party of some sorts.

Details to follow.

The past month has been extremely busy – I’ve only been in town for about 10 days. I’d like to stay home for about a month straight, but nay, I’m off to San Jose tomorrow for the week.

Meanwhile, I caught this moment with Becca running the vacuum in the basement library this morning. Pretty funny that she only had one sock on. Gotta love that kid.

What can I say? It’s been a slow weekend.

Hello. Happy February. Not much news to share.

I’ve fully recovered from the Sooners losing in the BCS Championship game, and from the assassination attempt.

I finally got back in the pool this week. I’ve been riding the indoor trainer quite a bit during the week, but I have managed to get out on my bike the past two Saturday’s.

Tami and I went with Mom and Vern on Wednesday evening to see a production of Richard III at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. It was great. I love Shakespeare.

I’ll be traveling a bit over the next two weeks. My normal trip to San Jose next week may be pre-empted by a trip to Huntsville, Al. I already have plans to be in San Jose again Feb. 16-20.

Cheers.

Boomer and I spent more than four hours at Chatfield State Park today.

We hiked through massive cottonwood stands, were serenaded by nearly 100 crows, walked out onto the frozen reservoir, and climbed over dead trees and logs to see where Plum Creek enters the man-made lake.

Here are two of my favorite pictures of our day.
(Click on image to enlarge.)

Check out Tami’s hand sign and Boomer’s Pitt State jersey.

Story time, boys and girls. Put another log on the fire, grab a cup of coffee, and pull up a chair.

This Thursday past was pretty eventful. It started with an assassination attempt, and ended with my beloved Sooners unable to achieve their goal.

As per my normal routine, I went to the local 24HR Fitness gym at 4:45am, got changed, and went into the indoor pool area.

I should have noticed something was amiss when I saw that the doors from both the men and women locker rooms were propped open with kick boards.

As I was walking to the opposite end of the pool, I noticed my eyes stinging a bit. That happens from time to time. I attributed this to maybe some high chlorine content.

So I jump in the pool, put my earplugs in (hate getting water in my ears,) put my goggles on, and started on my way to what was supposed to be a 1750 yard workout.

During the second or third 25 yard length, I started coughing. After 125 yards, it was getting ridiculous – I was coughing with every stroke. I was starting to feel bad, kind of like was getting a winter cold or something. Breathing was a chore. I stopped at the end of 175 yards, hung on the side of the pool, and coughed, spit and hacked. What in the world was going on? I swam back to the other end of the pool, pulled off my goggles and though, great, I’m not going to finish this workout, and I’m going to have a stupid cold for days.

I got out of the pool and staggered over to the bench where I’d left my towel. I got a big drink of water and noticed I was still having a real difficult time breathing. I was still coughing too. What the @!$#.

I’m not about to let this sudden onset of respiratory trauma keep me from my second favorite gym activity – sitting in the steam room. So I go in, and struggle just to sit there and wheeze for 10 minutes. I can’t stop thinking that it is a real drag to be sick, and that I just have to feel better.

I had a double-length shower, just letting the water fall over me.

When I get into the locker area, one of the guys that I’ve noticed swimming on other days takes a look at me and asks, did you swim? I told him I could only do 200 yards and couldn’t stop coughing. He said that there was a serious problem, that he could only do 25 yards, and went and told the staff that they should shut down the pool until someone could see what was going on.

Aha! It wasn’t a cold. That’s good. But even worse, it was some form of chemical poisoning – chlorine or other. What do I do about that? At that point I figured it would just go away as I drank lots of water and breathed fresh air.

I went to work and got there at about 6:00 – earlier than normal because of the shortened swim – and looked up “chlorine poisoning” on-line. The search returned this link. From this information, I determined that this was a likely case for me, and that I wasn’t in the severe category, but definitely serious.

I went to a meeting at 6:45. At 7:00 I was back in my office and I was still struggling to breath deeply, and any attempt to talk triggered another coughing fit.

I’d seen the phone number for the National Poison Control Center on the previously reference website, looked at my watch and decided to give them a call. Patrice, the RN who answered the call and listened to my story, gave me strong advice to leave work, take a 15 minute, extremely hot and steamy shower, followed by being outside to breath fresh air for at least 45 minutes. She took my number and said she’d call back in a couple of hours. I called Tami, let my boss know what was going on, and left work at about 7:30. By now, I had a wicked headache too.

I followed Patrice’s instructions. Meanwhile, I’d given the gym a call and let them know that they had a serious problem. The person on the other end of the line didn’t give me any confidence that they would take care of the problem. I told Tami this and boy, did she spring into action.

Tami called the Littleton Fire Department’s Hazmat Chief, and the Tri-County Health Department. Both agencies swooped down upon the gym with full vengeance.

In three to four hours time – about 11:00 – I started to feel better, but still shallow breathing. Patrice called back. She thought I was out of danger, and told me it would be a week to 10 days before I was back to normal. She said if I developed wheezing symptoms, or tightness in my chest, to go the the Emergency Room straight away.

I’m glad that Tami worked over Littleton Hazmat, Tri-County Health Dept., and 24Hr fitness. Due to her persistence, she discovered that a weeks worth of muriatic acid (pretty interesting history; pickling steel?) was released into the pool by a faulty monitor / regulator (Facilities Risk Management, anyone?)

The authorities made 24 HR drain the pool, and will enforce a requirement that it must be monitored by a human for about a month once it is restored to its proper pH levels.

I spend the rest of the day in and out of the backyard trying to breathe as much fresh air as possible. I was still having bouts of coughing fits, and talking was still a chore.

24Hour is very sorry that this happened and is taking the appropriate actions to correct the problem. I’m sort of worried that they might have red-flagged my membership, and all their associates are on the look out for the guy who narc’d on them and got them fined.

I told Tami that I’d like to go swimming tomorrow (Friday.) Tami said NO! She says that if anyone sees me swimming before his week of healing is up, to call her immediately. Guess I’ll have a whole new set of problems to deal with.

My Thursday really didn’t get any better. It was the BCS Championship game that evening, and Oklahoma was facing Florida. I think you all might know the outcome. I hope this day isn’t an indication of how 2009 will be for me.

Some good did occur Thursday.
I talked to Dad several times – which is always great.
We had a pre-game meal from Wingman. I love buffalo wings.
I learned to make and enjoy the James Bond Vesper Martini (for future reference, please limit intake to one.)
And we had a full house of Sooner fans – Me, Tami, Brit, Daner, Manda, Howie (he had my OU key chain in his pocket) Becca, Andrew and Boomer.

Today, Saturday the 10th, I’m still not 100% and it seems that Patrice was right – it will be a week to 10 days before I’m back to normal. I’m skipping the exercise routines for a few days – breathing and coughing would make this somewhat prohibitive anyway. Plus, I’m still a little sore from all the coughing on Thursday.

I’m alive, and that’s what’s important.

You might know that I have a particularly strong dislike for LSU football. If you didn’t know, here’s your introduction: I hate LSU football.

They recently displayed yet another example of just exactly why I don’t like them in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. LSU (8-5) was playing Georgia Tech (9-4.)

The following incidents occurred in the 4th quarter.

Leading 38-3, with 9:37 left in the game, LSU ran a fake punt.

Still leading 38-3 and less than a minute left in the game, LSU’s STARTING QB was still in the game.

You’re a real class act, LSU.

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone.