Norm's Story so far, starting with recovery

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Just a quick update. I'm still kickin', and got out to play competitive indoor beach volleyball with the 20-somethings and 30-somethings 12 times this winter! :) That's a lot more than in the previous 2 winters, mostly because my right shoulder (injured in a bicycle fall) has largely recovered. That volleyball included some really fun 2-on-2 matches. I'm also bicycling hard and as I age and get more brittle I also seem to ski steeper and faster, mostly on Whistler Mountain. In fact, I just acquired my THIRD timeshare ski week there, as if I can keep this up a LONG time! ;-)

Maybe I shouldn't sound too proud about a week before I see my cardio for the annual followup to my annual Holter monitoring... but I think "the pig" (my valve) is doing OK.
 
Well, Norm, it is good to see you again, old friend. It is also good to see that you're still giving those young whippersnappers some competition. Your continued activity is a wonderful example for others following in your footsteps (and tire tracks).

I'm still banging around here, too, although I no longer run. My knees just won't tolerate it. If I run a mile today, I'll spend the next two days in pain. I switched to either "race-walking" (less impact on the knees) or an elliptical machine when the weather is bad (which has been often here in the Rust Belt). I still do my daily free-weight workout and floor/body-weight exercises, and I get a chuckle out of the other gym rats who ask "You're HOW old?"

Keep up the great work, and thanks for keeping us in mind. You're welcome back any time.
 
Steve sorry to read about your having to stop running .....for me the damn peripheral neuropathy is getting worse on a daily basis BUT LIFE IS GOOD ....heading to Mexico for my daughters second wedding four of my six grandchildren will be there as well making LIFE EVEN BETTER
 
Steve sorry to read about your having to stop running .....for me the damn peripheral neuropathy is getting worse on a daily basis BUT LIFE IS GOOD ....heading to Mexico for my daughters second wedding four of my six grandchildren will be there as well making LIFE EVEN BETTER:Happy::Smile:
 
Steve sorry to read about your having to stop running .....for me the damn peripheral neuropathy is getting worse on a daily basis BUT LIFE IS GOOD ....heading to Mexico for my daughters second wedding four of my six grandchildren will be there as well making LIFE EVEN BETTER:Happy::Smile:
 
. . . And he probably had a few choice words about the system and its slow response. IIRC, around the time Greg was highly active here, the system was on an older version of the board software and responded much more crisply. Those of us who have "lived" here these past few years have adjusted to the software and its apparent freeze-ups. I just hit the "post" button and go for coffee. . .
 
No, Dick. I'm on a 100 Mb internet feed, running an engineering-caliber workstation with loads of memory and fast solid-state disk drives, and this site still affords me lots of time to go refill my coffee mug. I keep hoping that the "next" version will run faster. I do remember that it took Hank many months to get this version of the software to work even this well.
 
]Steve sorry to read about your having to stop running .....for me the damn peripheral neuropathy is getting worse on a daily basis BUT LIFE IS GOOD ....heading to Mexico for my daughters second wedding four of my six grandchildren will be there as well making LIFE EVEN BETTER !
 
Really >2 years since I updated this "blog"?

I've had some ups and downs, none of them related to my 9-yr-old Hancock II pig valve AFAICS. It isn't perfect (effective area was always a bit wimpy) , but it's still fine, and I think the last few readings had better numbers than before, which my cardiologist says doesn't happen.

Last winter (at 73) my indoor beach volleyball recovered to "normal" after one year of fewer outings for various reasons. This winter started out great with two wonderful marathon sessions with young wonderful teammates.

I play late-night pickup indoor beach at North Beach, a big complex with 8 courts, often more than full on Saturday nights and silly crowded on Friday nights. I usually show up alone, and I get bored playing 6s or 5s (and I can't keep playing 2s for more than around 3 games), so I hope to find a group of 3 players who play around my speed.
On my first outing, it was slim pickins, but there was one 4s court where 3 beautiful male players were being unsuccessfully challenged by all the best 4s teams. I was hesitant to try to join the 3 because they were way better than I ever was, and it was my first outing after many months of sailing, and I always disappoint when I'm rusty. But there was no other way for me to play. So I asked and they agreed. I disappointed but they were very gracious - and good enough to turn my garbage into gold! - and we continued their undefeated record until we ran out of challengers.

Then we split into pairs and played 2s! I was paired with the biggest best player, and we won at least one game.

Great night, and I hardly ever thought my heart would explode!

A week later I joined another, lesser, group of 3 young guys. They called me "the MVP"! We won some and lost some, and had to wait in line when we lost. At 74 (for another month), I don't come off the bench playing well. It's technically called "gelling", what old joints do when they stop moving for a while. But I still got a great workout, maybe 2.5 hours of 4-on-4 including a couple of waits in line.

Then the plan was to spend a week skiing Whistler in "week 50" before Christmas. But instead, I got clobbered by a dizzying bout of BPPV vertigo which refused to respond to the standard mechanical cured. I couldn't imagine packing my suitcase, much less flying and skiing! So we canceled the trip and stayed home.

The vertigo has settled down to a level that is survivable, but it's still with me 3 months later, despite many Epley maneuvers, 2 sessions with a Vestibular PT, and one visit with an ENT specialist. The good news is that I can bicycle OK and ski Whistler OK. But I haven't dared show up at beach volleyball. :-( Most times when I try looking straight up, the world spins and I have to grab a wall or a piece of furniture, and nobody can play volleyball without lots of looking up, so I've been skipping it. Missing it terribly. And losing muscle tone and gaining weight.

And although my BPPV didn't mess up my skiing in early February, my unfit legs made my ski days shorter than usual - more like 13,000' of vertical than my usual target 20,000'. Our 3rd and last Whistler week is coming up in a little while, and I'll be pleasantly surprised if I can ski more before my legs turn to noodles. BUT, I always say, "If you have to have problems, make them enviable problems!" and I am eternally grateful for how enviable my problems are. :) But I'm also unpleasantly surprised that a stupid little problem with my inner ear has turned me into an "aging gracefully" geezer so much more than two torn Achilles tendons and my AVR OHS!
 
I, too, am familiar with leaning on walls and grabbing furniture. My wife tells me that all I have to do is keep my neck straight and head forward. I have some balance issues when I step on something that I didn't expect to encounter, sometimes when I lean too far to the left, but I'm a bit more stable than I used to be when bending down to pick things up. I'll have to see if I can find a reliable ENT who can check for vestibular issues.

I'm sorry about your BPPV, but you've given me another avenue to look into, aside from posture and medications.
 
If you think your problem might be BPPV (the most common cause of vertigo), the standard mechanical test ("Dix-Hallpike") and cure ("Epley maneuver") usually clear it up like magic. Something like 17% of all cases resist the cure, and I'm in "the lucky 17%" with this latest bout.:-(

My first bout was cured so instantly and easily I could barely believe it.
 
Thanks Norm. I'm familiar with the Eppley maneuver - I had a friend with issues who tried it and got no resolution -- but she had a lot of other problems, and the Eppley maneuver may not have worked for whatever it is that she had.

I looked it up when she was sick - but may download it again and give it a try.
 

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