And that sums me up.
I’m Tom, aka 2busy. And with this being my 54th birthday I have decided it’s time to move on from my training log of solitude to a new training log. Five years has been long enough.
When I was 15, I lost control of a motorcycle in a wet corner and struck a bridge pillar. I sustained major internal injuries (liver damaged, collapsed lung) broken arm, jaw, and ribs 6 weeks later, I was able to go back to school. Needless to say, no sports for my sophomore year it actually set the tone for no sports in high school.
I had another motorcycle wreck when I was 22 (you’d think I would learn…) where a car cut me off and I ended up landing on my helmet about 60 feet down the street. So now add a compressed vertebrae onto the list of injuries.
I started playing ice hockey for my mid-life crisis… It’s a challenging sport involving strength and technical skill. And also can provide it’s own dangers. Attached is the x-ray of my left leg after the doc’s gave me a titanium upgrade in 2006. In case you were wondering, the boards on the rink do not give or flex at the ice level…
That was a defining moment for me. The doctors said I would have to use a cane for the rest of my life. Along with a vacation picture that made me realize I was not who I wanted to be.
I was able to jog through a 10K just over a year after the accident.
I started weight lifting when my oldest daughter entered a figure competition and I saw her compete in the Natural Nebraska 2007 event.
I was able to trim myself from 235 to 170, and I have put 20 lbs back on, but it’s muscle instead of fat.
My main goals for lifting are to continue improving my strength, and to cut my body fat down to 10%.
Since then, in July of 2012 and the end of June 2016, I have suffered two strokes.
The first one, July 1, 2012, was labeled a Transient Ischemic Attack or baby stroke. I lost the ability for form coherent words for about one minute. Speech was slurred for a couple of hours after that.
After a bunch of tests, no cause was found and I was to to continue on by the doctors.
The second stroke was almost exactly four years to the day from the first, June 26, 2016.
This one was more severe. Massive vertigo and eye nystagmus/twitching. More advanced tests found I had a 1 cm mass on the mitral valve in my heart. Open heart surgery was scheduled immediately.
The day of the surgery, with me under anesthesia for the operation, they did another echocardiogram for the surgeon to visualize the mass. It was gone. Surgery was called off. They determined that it must of have been a blood clot and it dissolved without incident.
I recovered from the stroke symptoms within a couple of weeks and here I am today.
Back to hockey and weight lifting
You can find my previous training log at the links below.