Monday, December 29, 2008

Fantany Football

Here is how I faired in fantasy football this year.

1. JDPA 2008 – This was the largest league I was in, 14 teams. We had a draft day so you pick your own players. I was lucky enough to get the second pick. You play against one team every week and the team with the most points gets the win. Even though I ended the year with the most points; 102 points more than the second place point team I spent most of the year between 6th and 4th place. Every time a team played me they ended up having their best week ever and so while I was consistently scoring high points, I kept loosing. I just barely made the playoffs. I got the last seed. However, the playoffs were good for me and I ended up winning – I’m #1! I really rode San Diego in this league. I had Philip Rivers and LaDanian Tomlinson. Tomlinson was killing me the first half of the year, but he was what won me the playoffs so I can’t complain. My other running back was DeAngelo Williams – very strong player. My stand out WR were Derrick Manson and Steve Smith.

2. JDPA 2008-2009 – 8 teams. I also ended the year with the most points in this league – 60 more than second, but it seemed everyone had their best week whenever they played me. Most of the people in this league work under me so they all loved that I had the most points but still couldn't win. I barely made the play offs and the play offs went like the rest of the year; I ended in 4th place. Kurt Warner (QB from AR), Jason Witten.(TE from Dallas), Gore (RB from FS), and Calvin Johnson (WR from Detroit) got me consistent points and carried me most of the year. All solid scorers and all people I picked up in later in the rounds. I was the first person to pick up a TE, I wanted to make sure I got Witten on at least one of my teams. What really helped him in this league is that picked up a lot of running backs throughout the year – Moore (Pit), Morris (NE), Thomas (NE).

3. The League (another work league – it was put together at the last minute and they were begging for people to join) – it 6 teams. I was at the bottom – very last place - the entire first half of the year, but I started coming alive late in the year and made the play offs and ended in 4th place. I picked Tom Brady with my first pick and that killed me. Especially since someone else beat me to the bunch in picking up Cassle. I also had too many Indy players – Peyton Manning, Joseph Addai. Manning was so up and down the first half of the year, he was killing me. I also had Randy Moss and after Brady went down, it took a while for Cassel to figure out he should throw him ball. He eventually ended up with 11 TD’s so I can’t complain touch, he is the one who helped me make the push to the play offs the last half of the year.

4. The last league I was in wss the Witteh Family, however, I was the only Witten in this league. This is the one Aaron and Rachel tried to get everyone to join in but in the usual Witten style everyone tried to join too late. In this league there is a salary cap so you can change your players every week, you just have to stay under the cap. You don’t play teams head to head, it is purely based on points and of course this is the team that I did the worst one in terms of points. This was by far my worse performance. Rachel kicked my but. I kept zigging when I should have zagged. I figured Cassel was going to be a good replacement for Brady; after all, NE is a great team and you could pick Cassel up for very little money. So I played him and he really sucked his first few games so I dropped him right when he started kicking some serious butt. Three games in a row. So I picked him back up again, only to have him throw more interceptions than TD’s. I dropped him again when he started playing good again. Since I had LaDanian Tomlinson in one of my other leagues I thought I would go with him here also. For you football fans, you all know Tomlinson had a very bad performance the first half of the year. So I spent a lot of money for someone not scoring very many points. So of course about the same time I gave up on him is when he finally started playing good.

One thing I learned – four fantasy teams is too many. It was way to hard to remember who was one my team and worst of all every single week I would be playing a few players on my team in one league but also be playing against those same exact players in another league because they were on my opponents team. Without any local team to root for, fantasy football makes football fun to watch again, but it is hard to root for and against the same players.

Next year, we got to get the Witten league organized early to get more teams. I think there are a few more football fans than just Aaron, Rachel and I.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Wacht for Side Effects

After my set back on the back surgery, my doctor prescribed me a muscle relaxer called Flexeril. I was supposed to take it every six hours. My stomach was a little upset before I started the new medication so I was hoping it wasn't going to give me a stomach ache. Little did I know that a sore stomach was the least of my worries. My pain level was off the charts. I was taking this Flexeral along with 6 - 10 Norco a day (Norco is a stronger version of Vicodine).

I wasn't sure if it was the pain or the stomach ache, but I completely lost my appetite. I had absolutely no interest in food. If Crystal and Tania didn't keep bugging me to eat I don't think I would have eaten anything. After about three or four bites of anything I felt bloated. I thought maybe a had a mild flu or something because my stomach hurt a little and I was also running a mild tempurture. I also had a VERY dry mouth. No matter how much water I drank, a few minutes more I dry mouth again. Another thing I started noticing was that my urine was very dark. You know how it turn bright yellow when you take a lot of vitamins? It was like that, but even darker.

All of this happen kind of slowly over a three day period. I also was getting bad head aches. But weirdest of all was that my skin was getting very sensitive. Kind of like pins and needles. If some one grabbed me, it would be no problem, but if they stroked very softly it would hurt. It was very bothersome to take my clothes off and on. Then I started noticing that my skin look kind of yellow. I began thinking that maybe I was taking too many pills - working the liver over time or something.

I decided to look up Flexeril on the Internet and this is what I found:
(NOTE cyclobenzprine is the active ingredient of Flexeril)

What are the possible side effects of cyclobenzaprine?
Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.

Stop using cyclobenzaprine and call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:

fast, pounding, or uneven heartbeats; chest pain or heavy feeling, pain spreading to the arm or shoulder, nausea, sweating, general ill feeling; sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body; sudden headache, confusion, problems with vision, speech, or balance; feeling light-headed, fainting; confusion,weakness, lack of coordination; nausea, stomach pain, low fever, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes); seizure (convulsions); unusual thoughts or behavior, hallucinations (seeing things); or
easy bruising or bleeding, unusual weakness.

Less serious side effects may include:

dry mouth or throat; blurred vision; drowsiness, dizziness, tired feeling;
loss of appetite, stomach pain, nausea; diarrhea, constipation, gas; or
muscle weakness.

This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Tell your doctor about any unusual or bothersome side effect.


Looking back, I also recall that my vision was pretty blurry when ready (I'm getting old so this is not unusaul, but it was worse than normal). Also when I drifted in and out of naps I had was vidid dreams. Putting it all together, I had quite a few of the symptoms on the "stop taking this drug and call your doctor at once". Of course, being the idiot that I am I just stop taking the Flexeril to see what would happen. And most of the symptoms demished. Then I started taking it again (pain is a big motivator) and sure enough the symptoms came back.

Well that was enough proof for me. I called the doctor, but he was in surgery. He called later that day and said to STOP TAKING THE DRUG. He faxed in a prescription for Valium. NOTE: One of my criteria for cool doctors is that they will renew prescriptions over the phone or call the pharamacy themsleves when ordering new ones for you - every conveinent.

Valium is tyipically subsribed for pain, but I have my Vicodine and Norco for that, the Valium is to help the muscles relax (as oppsed to just blocking pain). However, when Tanai picked up the Valium the pharmacist wasn't going to fill it. She said, the directions said "take every six hours has needed for pain" and Valium isn't a pain medication. Good thing Tania is a nurse. She told the pharmasist that maybe the doctor wanted something to help me relax. This seemed to pacify her because she decided to a head and fill the prescription without talking to the doctor.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Read the side effects of the drugs you take!

I thought I had the flu and I didn't put all these different symptoms together. User beware.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas Cards

While I enjoy receiving Christmas cards from everybody, I am terrible at sending them out. I don't we have sent out cards for nearly ten years. I think part of the reason is that Tania has never been into the Christmas card thing. Both her parents were only children, so I don't think they were the Christmas card type - just too few for the effort.

So for those who sent me a card and are waiting for reciprocation, here you go:


Merry Christmas to all!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Will the Pain Ever End

I haven't blogged in while because, basically, I have been in too much pain to do it.

One of the down sides of a disc fusion is that when you fuse one disk you put more pressure on the disks directly above the fused one. Your backbone holds all your weight and each disk acts as a little shock absorber. When you fuse a disc, you remove all the absorption. What weight the fused disk used to soak up is now put on the other discs.

Going into my surgery, I knew I had three discs that were messed up: the bottom three (L5, L4, L3). The L5 disc was 90% gone, the L4 has some bone spurs and small bulging, while the L3 has a tear in the disc. With three discs messed, it is hard to know excatly where the pain is coming from. But based on my symptoms (right leg pain) and the fact that I only had 10% of the disc left, it seemed that the culprit was most likely my L5.

I got opinions from three surgeons. The first wanted to fuse all three disc. The second said I should only fuse one and see how it goes. If the pain still continued then I could always go back in and fuse the other two. The last was pretty confident that the majority of my pain was coming from the L5 and that was the only one that needed to be fused. So of course, I went with the least aggressive option.

Things were improving slow and steady (and I mean SLOW)until a week from last Thursday. Thursday morning I woke up in level 10 pain (the scale is 0 to 10). I thought maybe the screws came loose or something. The pain dropped to level 8 by Sunday (still very painful). I saw the doctor on Monday. He took some xrays which showed that all the metal parts were in place.

However, when he felt my back he noticed that the pain was coming from the L3 not the L5 (which was fused). I get an MRI today so we can look at the soft tissue to see what is going on. I might have to go back in for another surgery but things are slowly improving so hopefully it was just an anomaly.

The worst part - my doctor is going on vacation over the holidays so I won't know the results of the MRI until Jan 6th.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Third Shoe Dropped

In an earlier blog I told you all about my big screen TV breaking, only to have it followed up by the television in my bedroom stop working a few days later. I also mentioned that these things always happen in threes.

Well today the third shoe dropped. My computer completely died on me today. (I am writing this post on my Tania's computer) In terms of $$ it's not a big deal because the computer is owned by JDPA. Because I travel so much, my work computer is a lap top. Because of this, my work computer is also my personal computer (don't tell Dave Power).

So now I am delegated to watching TV only in bedroom on a small crappy television whose color goes hay wire 2-3 times a day and can only use a computer to distract myself when Tania is out of the house. I had some one from work pick up the computer tonight. Hopefully the IT guys can fix it quickly or find me a loaner computer use.

The silver lining is at least the third thing that broke was something that I don't have to pay money to fix.

Stop the Blogger Snobbery

I know many of you "non-bloggers" read the blogs of those in the Witten clan regularly and have tried to make comments on some of the postings only to find out that you can't. It seems only those who have "joined the club" can make comments. Well, while this is true for some of those other bloggers, I believe in a no blogger snobbery zone. Obama winning the election really got me to thinking. Barriers are breaking down all around us, yet bloggers still don't want to let the non-bloggers on the party bus. They don't even give the modest discrimination of assigning them to the back seats. NO! They don't let them on the bus at all.

Well, I am proud to say this is not the case on my blog. I have adjusted my settings to allow all, bloggers and non-bloggers a like to sit side by side and comment to my postings to your hearts content. So please support the campaign to stop the discrimination by commenting frequently and consistantly. The time for change is now.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Thanksgiving Day is Alway Extra Special

Everyone who knows me knows that I love to cook. I think Thanksgiving is extra special for those of us who love food. Being that I am still on best rest from my back surgery, we had Thanksgiving at our house. I was able to stay on my back most of day but still visit with everyone. Alex (my brother in law) came over early to help with the turkey. I can neither bend nor pick up anything heavy and the turkey was an 18-pounder.

In attendance were: my sister in law, Jenna, her husband Alex and two sons, Alec and Brenan; my father in law, Dan, his wife Barbara, her son Tommy his spouse Anthony and Tania’s Cousin Carla. The best part of the holidays is getting together with family.

Tania did an outstanding job decorating the table, as you can see in the pictures.


She could be an interior decorator if she wanted. She bought a bunch of peacock tail feathers and incorporated them into the center place and put one on each napkin. She also spent the time to make napkin rings with freshwater pearls. This all really made the meal extra special and likely helped improve the flavor of the food – you eat with our eyes first.


My new house has an awesome kitchen, however, the oven is rather small and for such a nice kitchen you would expect two ovens not one. Or least one big one. I must say, this was one of the few disappointments I have with the house. Well, the oven redeemed itself this Thanksgiving. The oven has a built in temperature probe. We put the turkey in the oven, inserted the probe and just set the oven to turn off when the turkey hit the right temperature. You all know that I am a pretty good cook, and this year’s turkey was by far the best I ever cooked. However, all I really did was give direction. Alex did all the work.

In fact, the whole day gave me the opportunity to play executive chef. I pulled out some new recipes, Tania bought the food, then while I gave directions from the couch, Tania, Jenna, and Barbara were the sue chiefs. I felt like chief Ramsey barking out directions left and right (well, at least a nicer more well behaved version of chief Ramsey). Everyone said they had a great time. Conversation comes naturally while you are working and nobody was bored. I think all the extra hands and love could also be tasted in the food. I tried a new recipe of gravy that used base of white wine, chicken stock, giblets, parsley and thyme that simmered for about three hours. The last step is adding the drippings from the bottom of the turkey pan. Tasters said it was well worth the effort. (bonus points were that it was that is hada less fat than typical gravy)

Tania is on a kick of adding pomegranate seeds to her fruit salads. TASTEE! Dan loved it. Especially since he has never ever eaten a pomegranate seed in his entire life. He couldn’t believe how good they were.

The only bad thing about the day was that Amber couldn’t be there. She had to work so she couldn’t come down from Santa Cruz. Our first Thanksgiving without her. :( I don’t know what we’ll do when both Crystal and Amber are away at college.

I hope all of you had a Thanksgiving just as good.





Sunday, November 23, 2008

Things Aways Break When You Need Them Most


I have spent the last three weeks in bed and have three more to go. It's a good thing we have a comfortable couch so I don't have to live in the bedroom. That old blue couch is falling apart, but comfort wins out on looks every time.

A 62 inch HD TV with TiVo is also a mind saver. I bought a bunch of books and Dan & Barbara sent me a bunch of magazine (thanks guys), but you can only read for so long. The pain and pain pills makes it hard to concentrate, so despite my promises to myself I am becoming a real TV addict. At least I was, until the TV broke. And as things always go the day after the 62-incher went out, the TV in my bedroom broke. These things always come in threes, I'm wondering what's next.

The TV in the bedroom is older than the hills and is done, but the 62-incher is a different story. Tania got out the warranty information and low and behold the warranty expired two days ago. That's right TWO FREAK'N DAYS AGO. We called them anyways hoping someone would be nice. The good news was that we were in a grace period and could extend the warranty for $400. It will take three days for the new warranty to process then we can call to set up a date for them to fix it.

Okay, knowing that it will likely take a few weeks to get that set fixed it was now time to think of what to do about the old 32-inch GE in the bedroom. I found out that today, if you want a TV bigger than 27-inches you have to go with HD or plasma - no cheepies. So I got the coin out and flipped it to see if we were getting a new TV for the bedroom or Christmas presents for the kids. Christmas won.

We have 25-inch Sony in the office that Crystal uses for video games and a 20-incher in the extra bedroom. So after a little shuffling around (thanks to my brother in-law, Alex), I now have the Sony in my room and Crystal's gaming is down gradeda to a 20-incher and Drew won't have TV the next time visits.

So I have a small screen, no HD and have to suffer through commercials and watch whatever happens to be on at time, at least I have something to watch.

Man Gives Birth


I am sure you have all heard about this one. Man gets pregnant. Man gives birth. Man gets pregnant again because he wants his daughter to be a big sister.

If you missed the 20/20 show on this you should go to their web site and watch it.


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6244878&page=1

I don’t know if this really qualifies as a man getting pregnant as Thomas Beatie (the pregnant man) was born female and had a sex change but kept her internal female organs. When Thomas discovered his female life partner could not get pregnant, they decided that Thomas would carry the baby. So while I don’t think this really qualifies as “man gets pregnant” I do think the pictures catch your attention and make you think WOW.

Whatever you think about this, from the interview, they seem like a nice caring couple who will be good parents. The fact that his wife started lactating after the baby was born may be a sign that god feels the same way.

If you are freaked about people who desire sex changes, just remember that about 1 in 1,500 babies are born with visibly noticeable atypical genitals to the degree that a specialist in sex differentiation is called in. This is the numbers for visible at birth, there are a lot more people born with subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, some of which don’t show up until later in life. What you see on the outside does not always define the gender of a person.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I now know what's like to be stabbed in the gut with a kitchen knife


After spending the last three weeks flat on my back and more of the same for the next three, I decided to join bloggers. Unfortunately for you the readers, I won’t have much to blog about. I big event of each day is that I get to go for a five minute walk once a day. Whoopee! I don’t know how I’ll contain my excitement.



I had an anterior interbody lumbar fusion. This involves:



1. A four-inch incision below the belly button on the left side.


2. While one doctor holds things out of the way the second doctor removed what was left of the disc between by L5 and S1 backbones. (that is where the backbone connects to the tailbone). Actually, for me this step involved removing scare tissue instead of disc tissue because the doc said that was all that was left.
SIDE NOTE: I wonder what makes a great hold-the-guts-outta-the-way doctor stand out from the merely good ones.


3. Two titanium screws are drilled into each vertebrae.


4. The vertebrae are pushed a part. They were about 1/8 of an inch a part; they are now about an inch. Some fibrous material in inserted between the discs. Bone will grow over this material thus creating one big vertebrae.


5. A plate is screwed on between the two vertebrae to keep everything in place.



While the bone is growing between the two vertebrae, I need a lot of bed rest. I can’t even sit up for very long periods of time and every time I get up I have to wear a brace. People who have become active too soon have actual caused the screws to pop out or break. It will take at least three months for the bone to full fuse the two vertebrae.


Some days the pain is better than others, but I have noticed that if I sit up and/or walk around too much on the good days, I pay for it later. My worst pain is in my left leg. It only occurs occasionally, but I get real bad nerve pain and muscle cramps.


This type of procedure has about a 70% chance of providing some improvement in pain. The big question is how much improvement will I get? Only time will tell. Oh, and I forgot to mention, my disc was so far gone that I may even be measurable taller now. :)