Invasive Procedures and NFL Week 12

 

The band has been in a real lull because we have had some "Old Guy Problems" with both Hector and Sugar having to get surgeries and then needing time to recover.  In the back of my head, I thought I was going to be next in line and I was right.  I work out during the week to attempt to maintain my svelte girlish figure as best I can.  I am not the first one to notice this, but why can I kill myself for a month eating lettuce and chicken breast and then immediately gain back any lost weight after three days in France?  Look, I dive in and eat cheese and bakery shit because that's what they do there, but there is something inherently unfair about one croissant undoing two weeks of circuit training and salad.  Regardless, I had been doing my workout thing trying to keep it together and I noticed that my wind was down.  I was doing short runs or weight sled pushes and just be gassed after something that a month ago I'd hardly noticed.  Something was up.

I have this family history of heart issues.  Again, I'm not alone in this.  I'm sure your family has a history of heart issues or cancer since that's what cause 50% of deaths in the United States.  I get these stress tests done every four or five years just to see that everything is operating normally.  There's nothing like walking uphill on a treadmill with a bunch of electrodes attached to you and someone shooting radioactive shit into your arm to make you feel connected to "good health".  I told my doctor what's happening with my exercise fatigue, and then she schedules me for one of these.  I go and take it and I'm thinking "I ain't doing so good here".  Results come back as two lines of email from my doctor.  "There was an abnormality in your stress test.  I'm sending you to cardiology STAT!".  

If you are looking at sending me an email that taps into every dark fear lurking in my brain, that's the one.  I have long assumed with my strong match to my father's genes that my fate is some sort of early cardiac death.  Of all the ways you gotta go, I suppose that's better than most.  I have always leaned heavily towards "shark attack", but it's tough when you're in Ohio to strongly pursue that avenue.  I got a call from the Clinic Cardiology to set up an appt and the pleasant woman on the phone says, "I am calling to set up an office visit for you.  How is March 16th?".  Ummm.  What?  When I see "STAT!" my thought is all those TV medical dramas where Noah Wiley is yelling out shit like "Give him 200ccs of MetaTriLaCane!" not "Hey, can you swing by around St Patrick's Day?".  

I call my doctor back via video call and have a variation of "Hey, what gives?" that probably cost me a $1000.  She then calls someone and I get into see a "Cardiac Interventionist", which is decidedly not someone I normally want to meet with in other circumstances.  That meeting was better than if he had walked into the room, taken off his glasses, and then said "Have a seat.  This is never easy.  But in all my years of medicine, NEVER have I seen a test result as bad as what I have just looked at on your chart.".  Still, I am heading into the Clinic on Tuesday for a "invasive procedure".  I don't like to have my blood pressure taken, so an "invasive procedure" freaks me the fuck out.  I'll lay out the game plan in layman's terms.  They are going to shove this thing up my vein, nose around to see what's happening, and then if they think they can fix it right there, they will.  Now, if they get in there and it's really fucked up, they are going to just wheel me into an operating room and start chopping away.  This is not how I wanted to spend my Tuesday, especially since I was supposed to be in Australia.  

In my head, I don't feel any differently than I did when I was 26.  I'm curious about the world, want to have adventures, and have an ambitious drive.  This is a stark blow across the bow that tells me, "Buddy, you are going to run out of time to do all the things that you want to do."  It's a drag to go over to the Clinic and you see almost everyone coming and going in there is a complete physical disaster.  People can barely fucking walk.  It's got to be a full third of the people in the building have their mouths open the entire day like zombies.  Meanwhile I'm technically a middle aged guy that is sorta keeping it together coming over after his workout and I'm the one heading into surgery?  Fucking genetics man.  I'm standing at this crossroad where I am logically optimistic that this "invasive procedure" (whatever it turns out to be) is going to go OK but at the same time staring right at my mortality while looking at my watch. 

The great news is that I will likely be alive to see the only thing that really matters, Shedeur Sanders first NFL start.  There is this idea that the Browns want Sanders to fail, which is no only stupid but also terrifying.  The Browns are going to make you fail on your own, so thinking about them actively trying to knock your career off the tracks has to be very concerning for Sanders.  Here's what I think about Sanders.  He's not ready to start in the NFL.  He's going to make some mistakes.  That's going to lead to Raiders points.  The Raiders are terrible, but all NFL teams are good if they get the ball on your 20 yard line.  The Browns have won once on the West Coast since 2014.  I just can't see them doing it this week with a green QB that isn't prepared for the speed of NFL starters.  Vegas -2.5 AND Vegas OVER 19.5 points.  

Like myself, Aaron Rodgers looks old and rickety.  Unlike myself, he has to go play the Bears with a broken wrist.  I think the Bears sorta suck but I think the Steelers do too.  I am of the opinion that the Steelers would be better off having Mason Rudolph play QB than Rodgers anyway, much less with Rodgers doing some kind of wounded hero act.  I think he's washed.  Look, it's not like I think the Bears aren't a fraud either.  Detroit and Baltimore killed those guys.  I'm not sure what to make of either team, but if I think these two teams are roughly equal and my choice is an ascending Caleb Williams at home or an old injured Rodgers trying to conjure up old ghosts, I'm taking the Bears.  I feel so strongly on this I might go the other way if it's Rudolph and the line moves past 3.  As of now, I'm Chicago -2.5.

Atlanta is better than the Saints.  Why are they getting 2.5 because Cousins is playing?  I think the Saints went full tank mode after they sat Rattler for Shough.  Rattler was playing pretty well, and Slough is a fucking disaster.  The QBR rankings today go Nix, Jayden Daniels, Rattler, then Flacco.  Rattler is 21st in the league.  Now they're playing Shough as if he's going to be better than 21st in the league and lead them not to draft a QB with the #1 pick.  The Falcons, who have long ago traded their #1 pick, don't have that tank mindset.  I see Cousins, who at this point probably considered a good backup QB, as at the very least an equal to Shough.  Atlanta has lost 5 in a row, but losing three on the road to SF/New England/Indy isn't a smear.  The Saints beating Carolina last week on the road blew my mind.  That was their first cover, much less win, in a month.  I see Atlanta in that sea of teams where a win and a loss is razor thin each week, all those Jacksonville/Carolina/Arizona/Miami/Cincinnati teams you just don't think about too often because they don't matter.  The Saints just suck.  I think Cousins is better than the public perceives.  At least I hope so.  Atlanta +2.5             

Current record:  16-20