#2 Spring Training: Cactus League mini tour, March 2018

Every year for the last 10 years plus one time before that my parents and I have been traveling to Phoenix and before that Tucson for Spring Training baseball.  And this year was no exception. We do this Mostly to see the Rockies but some other teams as well. I also enjoy going Spring Training in Phoenix because of the weather and a lot of good food but the main reason is to see baseball and get ready for the season to start. This year we went to three different games at three different stadiums and got to see five teams including 21 all-star players and also 4 former Rockies players including Brandan Barnes from the Indians who hit a three run homer. 

Game #1

 

The First game we went to was on March 10 at Maryvale Baseball Park in Phoenix which is the home of the Milwaukee Brewers. We didn't get up real early that morning and not as early as we planned, but we still made it with plenty of time to spare.  This game was supposed to be a Zach Davies bobble head giveaway day, but they weren’t handing them out so I don't know what that meant. So anyways when we got into the stadium I found a hotdog added mustard and of course I had to get sauerkraut. 

After I was done eating my mom came back with a barbecue sandwich and cheese curds in a mini Brewers helmet. I tried one and almost burnt my mouth on it but after that they were absolutely delicious and I immediately wished I would've had gotten my own instead of the hotdog but luckily my mom shared quite a few with me.  

 Our seats were just to the third base side of the stadium and at the top of that section. So they were easy for someone in a wheelchair to get to, and they were great for somebody in a wheelchair as the bar in front was lowered unlike most ball parks, so I could easily see over it.  Also the companion seats were movable seats are not bolted down and unmovable like most stadiums, so my parents and I could all sit where was best for us. 

Once I had eaten I checked out posted lineup and noticed the Rockies lineup was Nolan Arenado and the Albuquerque Isotopes.  You might remember the Simpsons episode where Homer is on a hunger strike until the Springfield isotopes admitted they were moving the team to Albuquerque. Well that team is the Rockies AAA minor-league team. The Brewers who had more of a normal lineup. The day was cloudy the whole time and a bit into the game it started lightly raining and did most of the game and was a bit chilly. I even needed to get my hoodie out.   

The game didn't have much going on besides the Brewers scoring some runs, 

but in the middle of the sixth inning they have the Brewers famous sausage race which the Brewers have for every home game and this time the chorizo won the race. About this time the lower level minor-league players came in to finish the game that the Rockies lost 9 to 2.  This wasn’t too good of a game unless you’re a Brewers fan, but I still enjoyed our day at the ballpark especially those cheese curds.

Game #2

 

 

Game two was a few days later on March 13 it was a game between the Seattle Mariners and the Rockies at Salt River Fields at talking stick in Scottsdale Arizona. We arrived pretty early and had good parking and basically could pick wherever we wanted and were there before the gates even opened.  So we waited for a few minutes until they opened.  my first order of business was find the bathroom which at this stadium as well as the other two we went to they have really good family/handicap accessible restrooms which makes it a lot easier for someone like me to use the bathroom because I need extra space and these had quite a bit more space than a regular stall in regular bathrooms. After this we walked around the stadium and I got a slice of pizza which was quite large, but so was the price at nine dollars. I got this along with a Coke but needed quite a bit of help and basically needed to be fed since it's difficult to eat at ball parks and things are just getting harder to do. After I ate this I just sat and took a rest for a while and waited for the game. 

And a very nice guy came up and asked if I wanted a signed baseball so I said sure. He pulled a baseball out of his backpack and asked if I could tell who it was.  I could kind of pick out a DJ plus the number 9 so I knew it was DJ LeMahieu.   

 

 

For this game the Rockies had more of a regular lineup including all Stars Charlie Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu and Nolan Arenado again and the Mariners had Robinson Canó and Nelson Cruz. This was a pretty good game that included some interesting things.  One happened just after the game started when in the first inning Nelson Cruz got injured running to first base and left the game. But in spring training teams are extra cautious with their players so who knows how bad it really was. Then the Mariners starting pitcher Rob Whalen struck out 9 Rockies.  The game got to the bottom of the 8^th inning with the Rockies down 7-2 but the minor leaguers had a rally and scored 4 runs.  Then in the ninth-inning they tied the game up then had a walk off hit from Derrik Gibson! This was a great day at the ballpark with good weather and was very comfortable especially since we were in the shade and it ended up in an exciting Rockies win. 

Game #3

The next day on a Wednesday March 14 we went to Goodyear ballpark and Goodyear, AZ which is just south and west of Phoenix by just a few miles.  This is the home of the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians.  We have visited this stadium in the past and there usually aren't too many people there, but I think because it was a good matchup of two good teams and included the Angels so the stadium was mostly filled today. This was also nice day not too hot not too cold almost perfect weather. 

 

 

We arrived pretty early and I found myself a hotdog and I made sure I got the Bertman's Original Ball Park Mustard which they have at the stadium in Cleveland and apparently is a big thing. I thought it was like a spicy brown mustard almost but was better. 

For this game we got to see many all-stars and future Hall of Fame including Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Justin Upton and Ian Kinsler from the Angels and Jose Ramirez, Corey Kluber, Jason Kipnis, Francisco Lindor and Edwin Encarnacion from the Indians. And one Shohei Ohtani the highly touted pitcher/hitter from Japan.  For most of this game it was mostly Corey Kluber dominating the good Angels lineup for five innings but was still a good game until the Indians blew the game open in the 8th inning with their minor-league players and older players just trying to make the team.  We even saw former Rockies Brandon Barnes hit a three run homerun and Ryan Hanigan had an RBI hit and Eric Young Jr from the Angels had a couple of hits. The Indians won this game 7-0. This game might not been quite as exciting for me without the Rockies in it, but I do like seeing some of the other teams play and got a treat at this one as I got to see so many great players.

This year we had a great trip to spring training and got to see three of the 10 cactus league stadiums and five of the 15 teams and got to see 21 different all stars and 4 former Rockies and had good weather for two of the games and not horrible weather for the third so all in all it was a rather good trip. 

#1 Colorado Model Railroad Museum in Greeley, Colorado

January 19, 2018 

I have for a long time thought model trains were pretty neat and I have thought about building my own, but I haven't ever done it because it seems like too much work for me.  However I enjoy looking at the trains and so letting someone else do all the hard work seems like a good idea to me. 

 

 

I've heard about this place record a while now and I saw Facebook Post about an event for extreme trains so we planned a day trip to Greeley. Starting with a Good Times for lunch and then on to the museum.  The admission price was normally $10 a person, but when we arrived they said the upper part where you can look down at the trains was not wheelchair accessible so my admission was free. In the lower area I could get up closer, but most of it was too high and hard for me to see.  

 What I could see of the scenery was excellent including an area with a forest fire with actual smoke, mountains, rivers and cities and I enjoyed watching the trains go by and in a few areas I found that I could see them fairly well. 

The extreme trains part turned out to just be really long model trains which is still kind a neat, but almost a bit of a letdown as was not being able to see everything.

The Colorado Model Railroad Museum was a fun place to visit to see all the long trains and smaller ones and the wonderful well done scenery,  but also quite a bit disappointing at the same time because I couldn't see all of it

An unexpected adventure

My 30 adventures for 30 years could have easily ended before it even started but luckily it didn't. On a Tuesday night I was sitting at the table sorting some Legos (which hopefully you'll find out why later in the year) when all of a sudden I felt dizzy so I tilted my wheelchair back and there went my heart beating extremely fast with chest pain all the way across my chest. So my mom who just came over to the table to help me with my Legos called 911 and barely after she got off the phone a fire truck arrived with an ambulance right behind. They asked some questions, one of them I recognized from the fill the boot and playing softball with my brother and another mentioned his brother has DMD.  They hooked a heart monitor up and saw that my heart rate was at 148 so they lifted me onto the stretcher.  While they were doing this I worried about them hurting my back, but this lift hurt my shoulders pretty good, so after a couple of profanities, out we went through the front door and into an ambulance.  The EMT told me to stay calm then yelled out to the driver that we're going urgent. And somewhere along the line my heart rate apparently got up to 246 and I don't know why that didn't just kill me right there, but I guess it wasn't my time. While lying there in the ambulance I started thinking about a lot of things like how I just recently posted on my blog about many people with Duchenne's not making it to 30 and knowing how most likely my heart or breathing problems will be the end. I started to wonder if I would make it to 30 or even another day. The EMT tried twice and couldn't get an IV in and said they would do that in the ER. Then all of a sudden she looked up and saw something and asked if I was feeling any better. I hadn't really been thinking about that, but I thought for a moment and I actually did feel quite a bit better.  My heart had slowed back down on its own.

Soon after we arrived at the ER and it was crazy and chaotic.  With nurses frantically getting everything hooked up, trying to get my shirt off and three of them trying to put an IV in, which they had trouble with.  They basically were racing to get one in first, but I ended up with two. After everything was hooked up they then x-rayed my chest.  Then a doctor talked to the EMT, then me and my parents about what happened and he seemed surprised that it stopped on its own.  After this a cardiologist came in and talked to us for a bit saying that what was going on was ventricular tachycardia. He said they would keep me at least overnight and an electrophysiologist would talk to me in the morning. After all of the craziness and they got an IV hooked up with some sort of drug to slow my heart down there was a bit of calm for a while.  

Then soon after I was off to the cardiac ICU.  When I got there multiple nurses and aides got me cleaned up and got a nice hospital gown for me.  After everything slowed down kind of I tried to sleep, but was rather uncomfortable and they had to keep waking me up to give me pills, shots and draw blood and whatnot. Now I was worrying about a lot of things again but eventually the morning came. Dr. Heath the electrophysiologist came in and talked to me and said they would probably put a defibrillator in. I told them to talk to my regular cardiologist at Children's Hospital that I've seen for more than 10 years. He also came back and talked to my parents. After this he left to call Dr. Miyamoto at Children's Hospital. When he came back he said she usually didn't recommend defibrillators for someone with Duchenne's but did it case-by-case. We agreed to keep on the pills and meet with Dr. Miyamoto within a week.

This was on a Wednesday and I was exhausted and had more tests to do like an echocardiogram and a bunch more people came in and out.  They gave me the pill version of the drug in the IV along with a bunch of other pills. Then after a while they took me off the IV version of the drug. I then napped quite a bit the rest of the day. Also I checked my phone and had a Facebook alert about a friend’s birthday which was a friend that had Duchenne’s and passed away a few years ago which made me sad.  They then kept me another night.  

In the morning Dr. Heath came in and said we should be able to get me out of here about midday and finally midday came.  The nurse took out my IVs although almost missed taking one of them out and the heart monitor stickers off my chest which didn't feel too good.   I was dressed and it's definitely nice to wear a shirt and pants.  Then the checkout nurse came in and told me all the things I need to do like things I can't do including walk for so many minutes a day and weigh myself daily so I guess she didn't know I was in a wheelchair and eat a low-sodium diet.   Anyways I signed the papers and was ready to leave, I got put back in my wheelchair and actually felt a bit dizzy. I think from being in bed for two days, but it still worried me. After a while I felt good enough to leave and we were out of the hospital thankfully because I was tired of eating hospital food and being stuck in the bed with a gown for so long.

When I got home I took a nap then tried to eat but couldn't eat too much, then went to bed. For a few days I was exhausted and cold and didn't feel like doing anything. At night I kept thinking about things like if it's going to happen again, how much longer I'll be around, why me, why do I have so many problems and about if I would see my friends and family again and especially if I would get to see my nephew grow up. Sometimes I would just cry for a while and I don't typically cry too often. But I would eventually fall asleep and wake up in the morning look around and realize I made it to another day. 

Six days later I had to get up quite early for my appointment with Dr. Miyamoto at Children's Hospital which I still go to because Duchenne's is a childhood disease so they gave me the choice of continuing with my same doctors or going to University of Colorado Hospital across the street.  I slept most of the more than an hour drive and when we got there I was quite worried that there would be some sort of bad news, but when Dr. Miyamoto came in she was very positive. She told us about the situation and gave me my treatment options with pros and cons for each one and she wanted to make sure she could help me keep my quality-of-life up.  My options were put a defibrillator in, take all my new pills and aspirin or go back to before without the new pills.  I decided to go the route of the new pills, but the drawback is the side effects which can be liver and thyroid problems, so it was more bloodwork and another test every year to monitor it. I also asked about salt and she said to not worry too much about it but I don’t want to eat ramen every day. She also encouraged me to keep doing what I enjoy doing and definitely go on our planned vacation and said that I was 29 with Duchenne's so I was doing quite well and I seemed to have a high quality of life. After this appointment I felt so much better about the situation, but was really tired and needed to rest and then get used to my new pills. Now about a month later I’m feeling a whole lot better.

This whole situation was hard to deal with but I know God has a plan for me, I don't exactly know what it is and I might never find out.   So all I can do is pray and trust that everything will be okay. And with that I'm ready to continue my 30 adventures for 30 years which now has even more meaning and I want to try to have as much fun as I can.