Today's trip to the Y found an unexpected gain in my efforts to delay hip replacement surgery and probably the greatest step I've taken since starting the program.

I went through the whole routine--riding the machine for 12 minutes, the hot tub, and the full water workout. I felt good after finishing rather than the wimped out feeling I'd been experiencing. Even though it wasn't in my program as proscribed by the therapist and surgeon, I got in the big pool and swam a couple of laps. While I'm clearly not ready for Michael Phelps or Amanda Beard, this was a major step for me and barring any problems from today, one I hope to start building on. I finished up in the hot tub, and then the sauna.

Swimming 2 laps doesn't sound like much but when you had gotten to the point of not being able to walk 20 yds, it's a big deal.

The only discouraging thing from today was my lack of weight loss. I'm holding steady at 268. I am fully aware that as I continue to change fat into muscle, and I have a lot of fat and very little muscle, the weight will come off. I just wish it would speed up a little.

Last Friday was the second session with my therapist. I was expecting a rehash of my first visit, possibly testing the hip to see if there was any improvement after a week of work.

Wrong.

After the 20 minutes of electrocuting my unmentionable areas, I had to go through a full excercise workout under scrutiny of staff. Then they added several things including 2 exercises that are killers, and adding a session on one of the peices of equipment that is available at the Y. I left there exhausted, so much that my therapist suggested I cancel my water workout later that day.

 was pretty sore on Saturday and struggled through my routine at home. I also maxed out the number of pain meds I'm alotted. the first day I've done that.

Then came my surprise. I woke up Sunday feeling good. No pain. I was even able to walk around the house some without my cane. During the afternoon, I got some much needed work done on my equipment getting ready for this weekend. (Actually the first work I've done all week). I went through a full workout. And still felt good when I went to bed Sunday night. It was a very encouraging day.

Sometime during the night, I was hit with a sharp pain, strong enough to get up and take a pill. No, foks, Peggy wasn't there. I wasn't sleeping with the dogs. Nor was I visited by a 250 lb. hooker. I must have turned over wrong, or didn't have a pillow between my knees, or something. By morning, I felt OK again and my water session today went without a hitch. I'm tired, but not overly sore.

Back to work this weekend with both JMU and Liberty football games. I'm bringing Justin and Nigel down to Liberty to add hawking lemonade. So I'm looking for a really good outcome. JMU also has their homecoming against Richmond so it, too, should be a good game.

A report will follow.

As  I related in my last endeavor on these pages, this is the first post totally covering my therapy and efforts to avoid or at least delay hip replacement surgery. Day 4 includes my second day of water therapy and my 4th day of excercise at home.

Day 2 in the water went much better than day 1. A bit discouraged as I didn't feel I had done much good, I decided to increase my efforts to two sets of each exercise. My therapist instructed me to take it right up to the edge of pain and today I could feel the resistance of each exercise. Some were still easy, but several were definetly working my muscles. As a result, I felt much more encouraged with the effort.

I also increased the post workout whirlpool to 15 minutes and 12 minutes in the sauna.

My weight at the end of the session was 268 so I have now lost 8 pounds since my first visit to Dr. David last month. (276)

Later today, after I relax a bit from this morning, I'll do Day 4's exercises at home. By tomorrow, I plan to increase the home workout to 2 sessions per day. Those workouts still are a strain and each hurt like hell. I'm also still feeling soreness after each session which should decrease soon.

I am also realizing the importance of maintaining a positive mental outlook to this whole program. My getting discouraged Monday didn't help my efforts yesterday and today. When I started feeling I was doing something good, everything worked better. So, I need to work on the positive outlook.

On Friday, I want to ask the therapist about use of some of the equipment at the Y and trying actual swimming.

After the weekend that I considered a loser, the Big Red crew was ready to go at Liberty University on Saturday for its game with JMU. And no, folks, I didn't lose money the weekend before but after both LU and JMU games being substandard, and my sales at RIR being at best, average, the weekend was so far from my expectations it felt like a loser.

I was a bit gunshy this weekend. This should have been a huge crowd between the two intrastate rivals and since we've handled both schools for several years, our reputation should translate into a great sales day. I almost decided I'd overstaffed the event as I had Chuck, Ryan and Peggy come down from Harrisonburg, Tank and Laura from here, and me--bad hip and all. With the much cooler weather causing a drop in lemonade sales and with the opening weekend disappointment, I was scared.

The only thing I figured wrong this week was the overstaffed bit. Huge crowd, long lines most of the night and a fabulous result. The staff was awesome and it put Big Red back on top.

I'm off this weekend and start a tough month Oct 1 with games again at both LU and JMU at the same time. If we can get another warm-hot Saturday, I want to bring Justin or Nigel down and try hawking lemonade. We probably would have done OK with that on Saturday despite the cold weather, but I was afraid to try. It was really a great crowd and a great day.

October also features two race weekends at Martinsville and another Saturday with both LU and JMU playing. So it will be a very busy month.

On a more personal note, I've mentioned my hip problems and over the next few weeks or months, I plan to chronicle my efforts up to and including surgery whenever that happens.

Between my personal physician and the surgeon he referred me to, I've been told I have a severe arthritic condition, so bad, in fact, that I am not a candidate for the laproscopic surgery that is much easier than a replacement. Because of my schedule, I can't afford the four months or so to recover until I get through the fall season. I also have no health insurance so this is coming out of my pocket unless I can somehow put it off a couple of years until I qualify for Medicaid.

So, Dr. Caprise sent me to start a therapy program. The goals of this are to maintain some semblance of normalcy until Thanksgiving, and/or it I improve, the outside chance of delaying replacement until I reach 65.

The therapy has three parts: office visits where they manipulate the hip, measure any improvements and hook me up to some electrodes and electrocute my hip for 20 minutes. Actually after the first session on Friday, I felt better than I have for months. Unfortunately that didn't last as I was back to hurting on Saturday but it helped improve my overall outlook at this program.

The second part is a series of 8 daily excercises I do one or two times each eay at home. I started that yesterday, and quite frankly, it hurt like hell.

This morning, I rejoined the YMCA and to start a water therapy session that I'll do every other day. It features 10 minutes in the whirlpool, 10 excercises that I work up to three sets each session, followed by 20 more minutes in the hot tub. Today's went pretty well, and although I'm tired, I'm not hurting any more than before I started. I also snuck in 15 minutes in the sauna.

Hopefully, in time, this will help to lose a little weight as well. I tipped the scales at 269 today and hope to target 200 before I undergo the surgery.

Any information, advice or suggestions will always be welcome.

Looking at last week's schedule, 3 events including the Richmond Races, JMU football and Liberty football, the largest sales day of the year seemed within reason and the outside possibility of a new one day sales record clearly a possibility. I was excited and spent all week driving around the state getting everything set up.

The last home stand of the PNats ended on Monday (Labor Day). While not a huge weekend, it was another solid effort. For the year, my PNat sales were up 20% mostly attributed to our addition of Justin and Nigel hawking lemonade at many of the games. Hawkers will definetly be on the agenda for next year.

After the last game, Big Red was packed up and moved to Harrisonburg for JMU's football season. On Tuesday, I got her set up and ready for Saturday's opener. Chuck, Ryan and Peggy were slated to handle that game.

Wednesday, I hauled equipment to Richmond for the races and tried to keep from drowning as the second hurrucane--actually a tropical storm by then--dumped about another foot of rain on the Raceway. Due to the weather, I didn't get set up until Thursday and drove back to Lynchburg to set up Liberty on Friday morning, returning to Richmond in time to open at noon.

Friday night was the Nationwide Race. Most of my Woodbridge Crew worked at RIR. Everythng was crammed into two days rather than the normal 3. But, the results Friday were very disappointing. Saturday for the Cup race, things were much better and we were busy. Probably our biggest mistake was underestimating footlong corn dog sales as we ran out about a third of the way through the race.

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The bottom line, we were down about 50% both from the Spring Race, which was 3 nights of racing, and about 25% from last fall. Still, a good weekend, just not what I expected. Thankfully, as I was having hip problems, I rented a golf cart which eliminated the usual miles of walking at a race.

Simulateously, the football games were going and both featured record setting crowd, especially at JMU which had over 25,000 in attendance. We should have rocked.

Wrong. Both games were down almost 30% from last years openers.And I have no idea why. Perfect weather, great crowds, in the same locations as in the past, just didn't get the business we should have.

The weekend fell far short of expectations.

While I was in Lynchburg on Thursday evening, sis, and Gene took my out for my birthday dinner. The result is pictured below.

In the meantime, I got some personal bad news as it appears I have to have a hip repacement. I met with my surgeon earlier today and we are going to try a therapy and pain management program through November so I can take care of already scheduled events including 2 races at Martinsville, both football seasons, and several shows. Only, now, I'm going to need more help as I'm walking on a cane and something tells me moving fryers and hauling batter and oil isn't going to help my already destroyed hip. A decision on scheduling surgery will be made on November 9.

This week, JMU travels to Liberty and it should be a huge game.  Hopefully, my projections will be a little more accurate.