A Wookies return.....

JDurk said:
Glad to hear that riding is making you feel better. I fully credit (blame) you for influencing my decision to go for 31 days vs accepting that I'll just do the 20 days of July Challenge, even though I had to use a Mulligan. Happy anniversary.
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Thank you!
Truth be told, I verbally pushed a bit in the beginning to make sure that I would stay the course. Did not want to bail and let myself down. I hope others say, well if that old a-hole does it, I guess I can. If that’s the case at all, I accept full responsibility. 😉
 
Frank said:
I’ve been feeling good lately!!! Doing tm sessions (even though most won’t let me actually do much) but still getting my hour ride in. I love that the Halters Challenge came up and I committed to it as I feel I’m getting stronger as we go on. Last night I noticed something unusual when I dismounted from the bike, I wasn’t hunched over and feeling like I was 100 years old. I was able to stand right up and load my bike rather easily….it’s funny about the little things in life!!

Today I went to the Social Security Office to try and get my disability set up. Now I know you can do it on line but to complete the process they need to send an access code by mail which I never got 🤦‍♂️ Go figure. But to my surprise I was treated nicely and they helped me and I was out in 30 minutes. I went home and finished the process on my computer so now I wait. I feel real funny about applying as I’ve worked my whole life and would rather continue, but the chemo messes me up for a few days and doc says I shouldn’t go back to work soooo.

Friday will be the wife and my 32nd anniversary! I’m very happy to be able to make it and I will try to make it special for her, she’s been through so much. I will look at every holiday differently from here forward as each is like a milestone for me now. I think I will have a nice big steak!!!
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Glad to hear all that! Turns out riding is therapeutic and so is TM, just a lot more!
I silently dropped from the challenge as Donna fell and sprained her ankle really bad. Not gonna lie, I could have probably pulled a few night rides to stay in the challenge but she really worries about that and also having to pull 12+ hours work days…well it did not work out. I think you mentioned trying to be at JORBAJam ? That would really be great for you to pull it off, looking forward to it! Keep on keeping going! You got this!
 
serviceguy said:
Glad to hear all that! Turns out riding is therapeutic and so is TM, just a lot more!
I silently dropped from the challenge as Donna fell and sprained her ankle really bad. Not gonna lie, I could have probably pulled a few night rides to stay in the challenge but she really worries about that and also having to pull 12+ hours work days…well it did not work out. I think you mentioned trying to be at JORBAJam ? That would really be great for you to pull it off, looking forward to it! Keep on keeping going! You got this!
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Thank you brother!

So sorry to hear about Donna, that really sucks. Tell her she needs to rest up for our beach/ice cream ride.

Yeah, I’m hoping to be strong enough to ride a the fest, but will attend regardless if I’m able…….I WILL be able if I keep at this!
 
Today was an interesting day. I started earlier than normal to meet an old friend @FFT to get my wife some food for our anniversary tomorrow, it was great to see John and i tried to talk him into joining me on some rides in the future. Well I got home and realized I had some time before my phone appointment with the Social Security office at 1:30......so I threw my legs over the road bike and did my laps around the hood. I actually got pretty excited because I was able to do 7 laps today and it was 99 degrees according to my Garmin watch. BTW, I would like to publicly thank @mike_243 for the watch.....it's really given me a new toy to entertain myself as I focus on recovery. So I was happy when I got home but was thrown off a bit as I was followed home by a turkey vulture who landed in my back yard....I yelled "not yet fucker!" and it flew off.

Meanwhile, I went inside to cool down, rehydrate, and try to mentally prepare myself for the upcoming phone call. Now I've been talking with many folk about applying for Permanent Disability and was told how hard it is to get, and how horrible they are to deal with. Yesterday< I went to the local office and was treated very nicely and I got in and out faster than trying to get food from Bubbakoos. Well the lady who called was amazing and noticed that I had filled out the entire application on-line and we just went over a few details. She asked me some questions regarding my diagnosis and treatment and soon said "I'm going to flag this so it gets handled immediately and I can't see any reason as to why you should get denied." My shoulders sank a bit with relief!!! I gave her a contact person at the Oncologists office and I said you can get all my medical records from the hospital and the Oncologist. She did, however, use a word that sat be back into my chair a bit "since you are TERMINAL we should get you set up soon.....I've not heard that word used in my regard before. I'm sure that was only an assumption on her part as she doesn't know how much fight is in this Wookiee. The only terminal I want to hear is an airport terminal if I should fly out west to go skiing. But all in all the conversation was awesome and she is also going to see if they can get me onto Medicare to help my situation. She was unaware if that option was available to me, but she was willing to dig for me. So for now, I look forward to riding again tomorrow and eating a big fucking Tomahawk steak......yeah baby!!!
 
Frank said:
Today was an interesting day. I started earlier than normal to meet an old friend @FFT to get my wife some food for our anniversary tomorrow, it was great to see John and i tried to talk him into joining me on some rides in the future. Well I got home and realized I had some time before my phone appointment with the Social Security office at 1:30......so I threw my legs over the road bike and did my laps around the hood. I actually got pretty excited because I was able to do 7 laps today and it was 99 degrees according to my Garmin watch. BTW, I would like to publicly thank @mike_243 for the watch.....it's really given me a new toy to entertain myself as I focus on recovery. So I was happy when I got home but was thrown off a bit as I was followed home by a turkey vulture who landed in my back yard....I yelled "not yet fucker!" and it flew off.

Meanwhile, I went inside to cool down, rehydrate, and try to mentally prepare myself for the upcoming phone call. Now I've been talking with many folk about applying for Permanent Disability and was told how hard it is to get, and how horrible they are to deal with. Yesterday< I went to the local office and was treated very nicely and I got in and out faster than trying to get food from Bubbakoos. Well the lady who called was amazing and noticed that I had filled out the entire application on-line and we just went over a few details. She asked me some questions regarding my diagnosis and treatment and soon said "I'm going to flag this so it gets handled immediately and I can't see any reason as to why you should get denied." My shoulders sank a bit with relief!!! I gave her a contact person at the Oncologists office and I said you can get all my medical records from the hospital and the Oncologist. She did, however, use a word that sat be back into my chair a bit "since you are TERMINAL we should get you set up soon.....I've not heard that word used in my regard before. I'm sure that was only an assumption on her part as she doesn't know how much fight is in this Wookiee. The only terminal I want to hear is an airport terminal if I should fly out west to go skiing. But all in all the conversation was awesome and she is also going to see if they can get me onto Medicare to help my situation. She was unaware if that option was available to me, but she was willing to dig for me. So for now, I look forward to riding again tomorrow and eating a big fucking Tomahawk steak......yeah baby!!!
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Hey Frank my wife just went thru a multi-year saga with SS disability. The bad news is it takes awhile to get approved. In her case it was exacerbated by our dual state residence status - they kept bouncing it back and forth between FL and NJ. But now for the good news - once it is approved it will be retroactive to when you became disabled. And you will also get put on Medicare - but they don't do a good job of communicating that. Wifey got a Medicare card last year and thought it was a mistake. Caused a bunch of headaches because if you have good insurance, when they put you on Medicare, that becomes primary and your regular insurance becomes supplemental. Kind of a hassle.

In any event, best of luck and hang in there.
 
rick81721 said:
Hey Frank my wife just went thru a multi-year saga with SS disability. The bad news is it takes awhile to get approved. In her case it was exacerbated by our dual state residence status - they kept bouncing it back and forth between FL and NJ. But now for the good news - once it is approved it will be retroactive to when you became disabled. And you will also get put on Medicare - but they don't do a good job of communicating that. Wifey got a Medicare card last year and thought it was a mistake. Caused a bunch of headaches because if you have good insurance, when they put you on Medicare, that becomes primary and your regular insurance becomes supplemental. Kind of a hassle.

In any event, best of luck and hang in there.
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Thanks for the info! I hope they put me on Medicare as I’m paying $1,100.00/month for my mediocre insurance.
 
Frank said:
Today was an interesting day. I started earlier than normal to meet an old friend @FFT to get my wife some food for our anniversary tomorrow, it was great to see John and i tried to talk him into joining me on some rides in the future. Well I got home and realized I had some time before my phone appointment with the Social Security office at 1:30......so I threw my legs over the road bike and did my laps around the hood. I actually got pretty excited because I was able to do 7 laps today and it was 99 degrees according to my Garmin watch. BTW, I would like to publicly thank @mike_243 for the watch.....it's really given me a new toy to entertain myself as I focus on recovery. So I was happy when I got home but was thrown off a bit as I was followed home by a turkey vulture who landed in my back yard....I yelled "not yet fucker!" and it flew off.

Meanwhile, I went inside to cool down, rehydrate, and try to mentally prepare myself for the upcoming phone call. Now I've been talking with many folk about applying for Permanent Disability and was told how hard it is to get, and how horrible they are to deal with. Yesterday< I went to the local office and was treated very nicely and I got in and out faster than trying to get food from Bubbakoos. Well the lady who called was amazing and noticed that I had filled out the entire application on-line and we just went over a few details. She asked me some questions regarding my diagnosis and treatment and soon said "I'm going to flag this so it gets handled immediately and I can't see any reason as to why you should get denied." My shoulders sank a bit with relief!!! I gave her a contact person at the Oncologists office and I said you can get all my medical records from the hospital and the Oncologist. She did, however, use a word that sat be back into my chair a bit "since you are TERMINAL we should get you set up soon.....I've not heard that word used in my regard before. I'm sure that was only an assumption on her part as she doesn't know how much fight is in this Wookiee. The only terminal I want to hear is an airport terminal if I should fly out west to go skiing. But all in all the conversation was awesome and she is also going to see if they can get me onto Medicare to help my situation. She was unaware if that option was available to me, but she was willing to dig for me. So for now, I look forward to riding again tomorrow and eating a big fucking Tomahawk steak......yeah baby!!!
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Aren’t we all terminal since the moment we’re born?
 
I really wish I had taken a snapshot of this screen when I started the 31 day challenge. Basically I went from riding less than 1 hour a day to a tad over, an average speed of 6.2 ( be kind, don’t laugh) to todays 7.7, and having a resting heart rate of 60 and 54 today. I’m pleased with the improvements considering I’m still on chemo. I will try to continue my daily rides and see how far this takes me!
AF064A9D-DBC0-4B91-A195-AE6D6054E6FD.png
 
Frank said:
I really wish I had taken a snapshot of this screen when I started the 31 day challenge. Basically I went from riding less than 1 hour a day to a tad over, an average speed of 6.2 ( be kind, don’t laugh) to todays 7.7, and having a resting heart rate of 60 and 54 today. I’m pleased with the improvements considering I’m still on chemo. I will try to continue my daily rides and see how far this takes me!
View attachment 192402
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Looking forward to riding with you tomorrow.
 
Frank said:
I really wish I had taken a snapshot of this screen when I started the 31 day challenge. Basically I went from riding less than 1 hour a day to a tad over, an average speed of 6.2 ( be kind, don’t laugh) to todays 7.7, and having a resting heart rate of 60 and 54 today. I’m pleased with the improvements considering I’m still on chemo. I will try to continue my daily rides and see how far this takes me!
View attachment 192402
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It's not how fast you are, it's that you're out there!
Hope it makes you feel better to see my times over the last week.
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@JDurk I am also looking forward to tomorrow!

Considering my condition, I am very excited by any good news that falls my way….personal improvement, being able to do SOME tm, riding with my friends, and bringing back the Tuesday rides. These all help my mental health and keep me positive. Tomorrow’s ride will have me feeling great so I may not be awake all night considering I have a oncologist appointment on Monday. I love the man because he saved me, but honestly I would like to never have to see him again.
So tomorrow will end one challenge but I will start a new one!
 
Norm said:
So explain Frank’s August Challenge. What’s it going to be?
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My challenge is to continue at least an hour a day. My goal is to ride longer than just an hour, it’s hard though….anyone with neuropathy can attest to this. So longer rides, adding more parks. I was inspired by @Hair Face and his century today so I would like to get bigger mileage out of my infrequent road rides. Oh, and be there when @mike_243 is ready to ride again and help him recover. Other than that, not much.
 
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