Busy, Busy, Busy

Busy, Busy, Busy
02/22/2009

Only 37 days till we leave for Australia and only 56 days till we begin our crossing of the Indian Ocean. I have begun what I now refer to as my, I am going to row 3,100 nautical miles in under 50 days ortho visits and medical care at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in preparation. Getting prescriptions to take care of the specific problems I could have out there which don’t include Sea Sickness TG. I have to worry more about UTI and pressure sores and stuff like that. Because I can’t feel my feet I can do some real damage. During the Atlantic I took off my brace and Franck said to me I was going to become one of his people, meaning, Amputee. My feet were mess. I did not have to cut off any of my toes rather I cut the shoe open so it could get air and dry out and take the antibiotics and it healed nicely. We have a med kit onboard but I always bring my own additions specific to my needs. I had to taper down the training as I was beginning to have some overuse issues. Since my double mastectomy for breast cancer in 2000 I hadn’t had any problems but started having problems when I was in Beijing so My doctor ordered some tests and they found some masses, so they ordered some more tests and a mammogram which I have not had to have in years because I had no breast tissue left. Turns out I regenerated breast tissue and now have to have mammos every 6months. I had to go to my cancer doc who looked at all the test results, examined me and told me the pain problems and masses are from scar tissue and over use issues. Sweet! Cancer free and good to go! I just had to knock off the inclined bench press and a few other exercises.

There have been many changes to the crew. Lost a couple of people to injuries and picked up a couple of new ones. Deb has updated all the information on PirateRow.com
The website is currently being updated on a regular basis with new information.

Time is going by so quickly and I am feeling a bit uneasy. That is not something I felt before the Atlantic crossing. Perhaps it is because of all of the changes so close to go time. Perhaps it is because I have had so much to do with the medical appointments, board meetings with the Paralyzed Veterans of America, special events and speaking engagements, organizing ocean rowing safety seminars, and trying to prepare the Rowoflife boat for the seminar and the fact that my calendar is so packed up until go day that I don’t know how I will manage it all. I always seem to manage everything well enough but I also tend to push it to the limits as well in everything I do. So far I don’t know where the limits are and have been successful at going from event to event. My life is like a marathon at times. I asked Deb what we were going to do when I stop rowing and we don’t have anything to do, like that will ever happen. Not the rowing because I may not always be rowing. It’s all the other things. Filling every minute of time during the day with something has become a life style for us. Neither one of us would know what to do if we had FREE TIME. I always say “If I sit still Rigermortise will set in”
So it is always full speed ahead.

Yesterday we entertained out of town guests Michelle Mc Candless and her friend Connie They are from Philadelphia. When I went to Philly to train for the Paralympics and had to live in my van (a sad but true story) after two weeks in my van I met Michelle and she offered me a place to stay. She is out here vacationing. Excited to be so close to Hollywood and the possibility of meeting a television personality I called my Friend Izetta Karp and invited her to breakfast. Izzeta’s Character is Will Smiths Grandma on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. We spent all day chatting it up. We wore Izzetta out and she was unable to go to the Laugh Factory with us.

The Laugh Factory on Pine Avenue in Long Beach did about 5 minutes live onstage acknowledging Rowoflife and Piraterow. I may do some events there in the future. It was a blast.

We will also have an upcoming fundraising event at the Chili’s Restaurant on March 18.

The count down has begun. The blogs will come more frequently from this point forward.

Angela Madsen
PirateRow.com