Dynamite

Avery's U12 Academy soccer team.

Frustration

Looks like this...

Because there is not enough of this...

Another frustrating Sunday with a loss at home to the Bengals and a record of 1-4. It's sad that enjoyment on Sunday has to come from my fantasy team these days. Oh well, it can't get any worse. I know they have to start getting better. They have to...

New Hardware

Here's the x-ray I hoped to get at my one week post-surgery follow up. You can see the ICD below my left collar bone and the wire leaving it and going into my heart. The other wires are external EKG leads that were in place during the procedure. This x-ray was taken right after surgery. Fascinating stuff.

So now that I have the ICD implant, I also have a device identification card that I keep in my wallet. But I also needed some identification more readily available so I got a new slim Road ID. The shot below shows the slim ID in comparison to my old elite ID. Cool stuff.

Football- don't really wanna talk about it. I will say that college football in the state of Kentucky AND the state of Florida sucks right now, but it really sucks for the dudes with the blue UK on their helmets. Maybe the Jaguars will get something going tomorrow. Maybe, but I doubt it. This all makes the start of Kentucky basketball that much more appealing! Go Big Blue!

Friday...

It's already been one week since my surgery and besides being a little stir-crazy and a lot under the weather; I'm ready to get out of the house! Well, I did get out of the house a few hours Monday and Wednesday night to hit my classes at UNF. I also got out for several walks with Ness but you know what I'm saying. Anyhow, I really look forward to getting out to Avery's soccer game in Ponte Vedra tomorrow morning. Hopefully the weather will cooperate...

This morning Char and I went to her 27 week ultrasound and saw that our 2+ pound little lady is looking great! It's hard to believe that we are only 3 months away from her arrival. We have been steadily building up our baby stuff inventory and crossing items off of our Babies R Us registry as we get them. Man, I think I forgot how much stuff babies need!

Today I head back to Mayo for my follow up and a little ICD analysis with the pace clinic. I'm curious to see what has been recorded so far, if anything. Anyhow, here's how things are looking after one whole week-

The pain is pretty much gone but now I just feel a little tightness in the implant area. It pretty much feels like there is a hockey puck lodged in my chest. The swelling is about all gone so now you can see the outline of the device. Cool.

And while I've been home and drugged all week, I did not come close to out-sleeping my buddy...

Football this weekend looks ok, especially with the nasty weather we are supposed to be getting. So in the college world, UK visits South Carolina and I do not think that there will be another upset in the works like there was last year. I look for The Ol' Ball Coach to cruise. Florida heads to LSU and this could be an old fashioned butt-whoopin with Brantley out. But hell, Florida could keep it close after getting man-handled by Bama last week. Besides the Red River Shootout, Louisville has a match up at North Carolina that will probably be a baby-blue blowout for the home team. As for the NFL, of course there will be a lot of good games, but I will have my eyes on the Jaguars hosting the Bengals. This game should be interesting- and not just because of the rookie quarterback match up, but because the game should really dictate if the Jags are that awful or not. The Jags really need this win and with the worst offense in the NFL against one of the best defenses, it will probably be a long day for the home team and another step towards a high draft pick next year. Hopefully, somebody for Gabbert to throw to will be in the cards for next season. But as for now, the planned whiteout may not help. Wait... they are having a whiteout and it's supposed to rain? White t-shirts and water? Yikes...

joined a club

I almost did absolutely nothing today, which would be day 5 of recovery and sickness. Maybe I didn't mention it on here but did on Facebook, but I managed to get sick in the hospital and now I've lost my voice along with feeling like total crap. Awesome. Anyhow, today I contacted a group that I had started to work with when I was first on the verge of getting the ICD a few years ago. The ICD Sports Registry is a group out of Yale University that studies athletes with ICD's. They are supported by 3 of the major ICD manufacturers and their goal is to determine the risks and safety of ICD'd athletes participating in sports more rigorous than golf. Very cool stuff. As soon as I can, I plan to get back to running and riding. My running goal will top out at a marathon after running a half marathon last year. As far as the bike, I plan to get back into the endurance mountain bike events. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do at the moment, I just know that I'm going to be doing some fun stuff. Either way, I'm stoked to be able to provide such valuable data to an important study.

my girls

My 2 girls are soon to be 3! Most of you already know, but Char and I are expecting a baby girl in January. We are so excited! We have done quite a bit of work to get ready, especially with the nursery. We gutted our 3rd floor guest suite and transformed it into the nursery. All of the new furniture that was in there was moved to Avery's room, where we added a few new pieces and completed a full room make over while she was at her mom's. We donated all of her bedroom furniture to the Salvation Army. Anyhow, she was pretty damn excited when she came over to a brand new room.

In the nursery- since the room is so big we left a queen bed, added a chair rail, crown molding, new curtains, a crib, a changing table, and knocked out quite a bit of painting. We still have more wall decorations to add as well as the black leather rocker/recliner that is on order. We also had the flat screen TV mounted to the wall so it can be seen from the recliner and the bed. This room is plush!

So back to my ladies- Char is going in to her 27th week of pregnancy and so far everything has gone quite well. I have been to most of the major doctor's appointments up to this point, so it has been nice to be a big part of the whole experience. We have quite a few child birth classes on the slate in the next 2 months. We are also (I think...) close to picking our baby's name- maybe we can knock that off the list this week... Char has continued to workout (running & swimming) but just recently cut out riding. She plans to get back to serious workout stuff as soon as possible and I think she even has an XTERRRA offroad triathlon planned for the spring. I am eager for us to get back to training and racing in 2012 like the old days. At any rate, here is a shot of her and her bump at 23-1/2 weeks:

Miss Avery started middle school this year and so far so good. She had straight A's on her first progress report so hopefully that will set the tone from here out. She was extremely fortunate to get into one of the top 2 middle schools in Jacksonville, James Weldon Johnson College Preparatory Middle School. JWJ is a magnet school and has a heavy concentration on the gifted program, which Avery tested into coming out of kindergarten. The good thing about JWJ is that it feeds into 2 of the top high schools in the country, Stanton and Paxon. Aside from the academics, Avery has gotten somewhat serious about soccer. I posted earlier about the Academy soccer she has going on. She still plans to train and compete in triathlons considering it comes so natural to her. And aside from sports, Avery is just one cool kid. I absolutely love the time I spend with her and our daily interactions. She is growing into one amazing young lady!

One of my favorite soccer shots:

Rewind 3 years

I was training and racing my butt off back in 2008 until I was officially diagnosed with HCM. Rewind back to September 2008 and you can see what I was up to and how I reacted to the news. Then came October 2008 when I was advised to get an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD). Now fast forward to last Friday when I finally had the procedure done at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville. There was much thought, testing, counseling, and confusion over those 3 years to get me to this day. Now that the device is in, I am relieved, I am protected, and now I can move on with life with virtually no limitations. With my paternal bond growing deeper and stronger with Avery and with Char and I expecting a baby girl in January- the decision had to be made. I now have the ultimate life insurance policy- if anything were to ever go wrong, I am protected. With that being said, I have some pretty kick ass hardware bolted in my chest. The Boston Scientific Teligen is one slick device and I am glad to have it on our team. I now consider myself BIONIC.

Here's a shot of the hardware...

And here I am 2 days post-surgery...

Hopefully this week when I follow up at the pace clinic at Mayo I can snag a chest x-ray. That would be a cool picture to post. In the meantime, I am taking a week off of work to recover and waste time by doing things like tinkering with my blog.

Football season...

...sucks so far if you are a Kentucky and Jacksonville Jaguars fan. Both teams are supposed to be in somewhat of a transition year but this is beyond disappointing. I usually partially pull for my hometown Louisville Cardinals but they are terrible also. And since I've lived in Gator country for 15 years, been to dozens of games in the Swamp, and even married into a Gator family, pulling for Florida is just not natural. I mean, I do root for them anytime they are not playing UK, but I guess they will be my only hope this year in regards to enjoyable football. Although that blowout loss to Bama was a tough one to watch. With that being said, Coach Cal brought in his 3rd #1 recruiting class in a row. And did I mention they are preseason #2? After making the Elite 8 in his first year and then the Final 4 his second year, I think he has an excellent chance to make a strong push for Title #8 this year. I've also been following Coach Cal on Twitter/Facebook the past few years and I've genuinely become a fan of the guy- he's really a good dude. Anyhow, what I'm getting at is that I am ready for some damn UK basketball! Even though the Cats have lost 8 (yes, 8!) first rounders to the NBA in the last 2 years, their roster is stacked!

A reminder of last year's incredible run...

Academy Soccer

After a few years tooling around with recreational soccer, Avery got into quite a bit of coaching and camp at UNF and has blossomed into quite the soccer player. She is now playing for the FCSA Academy Developmental team and has been playing half of her games at goal keeper and the other half at forward. She is doing exceptionally well, scoring a goal in each of her games (all wins!) and improving each week at keeper skills. I've never gotten into soccer, but it has been quite a pleasure seeing her develop and her confidence grow. She is going through a growth spurt right now and at 11 years old and 5' 2", her athleticism is growing with her.

Look what I found...

My blog- I forgot all about it. Stumbled across it on my wall on Facebook of all places. Wow- so much has happened since I frequented this joint. Should I start blogging again? I don't know- my life may be rather boring these days. Besides, keeping up with The Book is plenty for my cyber-interaction. Anyhow, do people still blog?