HomoSir

Yesterday, Jeremy, the Minotaurs' Coach, and I attended the level I rugby officiating course held in Madison. There were 24 attendees and the course covered the whole day. Lots of videos were shown that illustrated the basic points necessary to officiate rugby matches. We went through a variety of case studies that presented situations where a referee would have to make a decision, many of which were not cut and dried so there was lots of lively discussion. It was a great day and I learned a lot. I am, however, extremely nervous about having to officiate my first match in the spring. Anyone have advice for a new official?

The Finger and Neck Situation

I went to the UW Spine Center today and saw the spine surgeon. During my physical examination, they uncovered a couple of new situations for concern. I no longer have a triceps reflex in my right arm and am exhibiting a positive Hoffmann's sign, a reflex illicited by flipping the end of the middle or ring fingers and watching for contraction in the pointer finger and/or thumb. The triceps reflex was less concerning than the Hoffmann's sign, which is often indicative of damage to the spinal cord. Fortunately, the MRI didn't show any cord damage.

The MRI did show that I have a broad bulge across the back of the disc between C6 and C7, which encroaches on the right C7 nerve root and decreases the space on the left although I'm asymptomatic on the left. There is considerable disc material left which increases the risk of worsening the situation if it decides to come squirting out to crush my spinal cord. I'm not real excited about that possibility!

The surgeon gave me the following options: 1. Do nothing and live with the lack of sensation in my finger/arm as well as the intermittent pain. 2. Remove the disc and fuse the vertebrae. 3. Remove the disc and replace with an artificial disc. Nothing about this situation and these options is good news for someone who wants to play rugby.

So there's the situation as it currently stands for the HomoRugger.

Late news and congratulations to Gotham Knights

The Gotham Knights defeated Old Maroon 41-5 on Saturday, Oct. 20, to reach the Met New York RFU Division 3 Championship Final for the first time in club history. Gotham's Jerry Reilly capped off an opening drive to put the Knights up 7-0, and Gotham held back Old Maroon's late first half assault at goal to take a 26-0 lead at half. The day saw great efforts from the entire Gotham side, and featured the first tries of the season for Reily, Jose Rogel and Paul Bockwoldt.

The win also qualified Gotham for next spring's Northeast Rugby Union tournament, the first stage of the USA Rugby National Playoffs, another milestone for the club. Gotham is the first team predominantly composed of gay and bisexual men to play for a Met New York Union championship and advance to the USA Rugby playoffs.

The Knights traveled to Montclair, New Jersey, on Saturday Oct. 27 for a 1:00 PM rematch with Montclair RFC for the union championship. According to the GKRFC website, "game time conditions were perfectly miserable and the field, aside from not being correctly marked, was pretty much a disaster with puddles, ponds and lakes scattered about the pitch." Montclair put the first points on the board with a converted try to go ahead 7-0. More Montclair tries and a GKRFC penalty kick before halftime for a score of 24-3. The second half saw a lot of back and forth between the 22's before Montclair eventually wore Gotham down and pulled the game out going away. Final 41-3 to Montclair.

Congratulations to the Gotham Knights for making it to the finals!! Homorugger wishes you all the best in the spring!

UW Concessions

The Minotaurs are part of a great organization called WI United (don't look for it, the web page isn't up and running yet). Member organizations include us, the men's and women's rugby teams as well as several of the local high school rugby teams. WI United arranged to work the concession stands at the UW Women's volleyball matches for this season.

Tonight was the home opener and was our first time working. I've never volunteered for something like this before, so I thought it was really fun this time. I'm not sure that I would think it was fun if I had to do it every weekend. Fortunately, all of the rugby teams and soccer teams that are part of WI United will be splitting up the responsibility. In the mean time, I got to learn how to count everything; cups, buns, candy, hairs on the back of a snake...everything. And then: the meat arrived. This stand serves hotdogs and brats. They don't smell so good when it's 30 pounds of them and they're sitting inside a giant plastic (trash) bag inside a styrofoam box. Pee-You!!! May I never eat another hotdog again! but they were pretty fun to wrap for my first time. All said and done, the night was a great success! We sold a lot of (not so healthy) food and lots of COLD drinks and frozen malt cups. It was a billion degrees inside the fieldhouse, which doesn't have AC. We're working again Saturday night, so I'll let you know if anything extraordinary happens.

Homorugger is down, but not out and other fun stuff

So I've been still terrible about blogging and keeping the world up to date on what's going on with the Minotaurs and with my life.

The Minotaurs are doing well. There are many of us licking wounds from our NashVegas trip and it looks like our season may be over for this fall. Despite our losing streak, I think we're all proud that we played as much as we did and that we improved more than we expected. We definitely appreciate all the support that our opponents and supporters have given us. We'll be back on the pitch in the spring, so start reserving your Saturday's now!

Personally, I've been a bit down since returning from Nashville. In addition to my usual aching upper back, I noticed that my R index finger was numb on Sunday night after the match and when I woke up on Monday I went to the doctor's office to get it checked out. Dr. A (not my usual guy) decided that my upper back pain and finger numbness were unrelated to each other and sent me home with instructions to return if my symptoms got any worse. I was pretty unconvinced that the two were unrelated and was somewhat concerned that he didn't Xray my neck since I didn't have any recollection of a finger injury.

On Monday evening, I went to bed but my arm had a different idea...HELLO, PAIN. As I was laying down, I felt the most terrible pain I can ever remember. It felt as if someone was injecting acid into the veins of my arm. I finally managed to get a bit of sleep, but woke up frequently with more daggers and acid in my arm. On Tuesday, I woke up and the numbness had spread to include portions of my thumb, middle finger and a very nice strip up my arm that Google told me was the C6 dermatome. Needless to say, I wasn't going to go back to the same quack (I mean Dr) to have him tell me that nothing was wrong with me. I made an appointment for Wed with my regular Dr. (Dr. B) Sleeping Tuesday night wasn't much better.

On Wed, Dr. B examined me and put me through great pain before sending me to get an Xray. Fortunately, the Xray revealed "no bony abnormalities," so nothing was broken. Dr. B decides it's cervical radiculopathy (aka a pinched nerve). Gives me pills (Etodolac=worthless for pain) and tells me to go to PT. He also says I should come back in two weeks if it's not better and he'll decide if I need an MRI at that point.

I take the pills as ordered (with some tylenol thrown on top) and go to the PT guy who's very good at illiciting PAIN. What is it with these guys? They're supposed to help people get better. He gives me a few exercises after making me sweat, cry and whimper like a little girl then tells me to come see him in a week. Is he CRAZY? Does he really think I want to go back so he can hurt me more? Don't get me wrong, I love pain on the pitch as much as the next guy but at least it's a fair playing field. In the PT office, I'd probably get arrested for hurting him as bad as he hurt me. Anyway, Mr. PT decided that I have a combination of thoracic outlet syndrome and a stinger (a special kind of contact sport pinched nerve).

Today, I'm still taking pills, doing PT exercises and stretches and waiting for next Tuesday when I have another fun PT session and my return visit to Dr. B for the MRI decision. Hopefully, my finger will decide that it wants to feel again before then and I can tell them that I've been healed.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

This is not a rugby post, but is just some of the randomness that ends up in my head:

I've been hearing a random radio commercial for quite a while and can't ever remember what the product is, but I've finally tracked it enough on the interweb to figure out that it's a diet mountain dew commercial that references Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a very long-named hill in New Zealand. Roughly translated, it means "the hill where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his flute to his loved one." I've been desperately trying to find the audio on the interweb, but have failed miserably so far. If anyone out there can point me in the right direction for this ad, I'd love to hear from you. (Yes, my OCD is acting up!)

No Win For You!!

The Minotaurs were a sad lot yesterday as the Grizzlies powered to a many points to none win in Nashville. I could make lots of excuses for us, but the simple fact of the matter is we didn't play our best and the Grizzlies played very well.

We did, however, manage to make some really good plays. Our Man of the Match was Ryan, who made several excellent plays. In one of my favorites, Ryan bolted up the pitch at a kickoff to crush the catcher just as he caught the ball. It was beautiful and the whole team was proud of him for his excellent play.

For my own play, I was very proud to charge down my first kick in match play. Unfortunately, the Grizzly fullback was right there and beat me to the ball. I did manage to tackle him right on the spot, but it sure would have been nicer to take possession within 10 meters of the try line.

Our scrums were very nice throughout the match despite being severely outmassed. This Grizzly advantage carried over into their mauls, which was their preferred tactic at every lineout. They were not very good at getting the ball out of reach from us though and several times we were able to bust the ball loose from their maul. The Grizzlies also have an excellent fan base who cheered them on to their very first victory. Quite a cheer erupted as the Sir whistled full time.

The third half was hosted at Tribe/Red, the Grizzlies home bar. Despite some early problems with the keg, the third half was a great success. The food was very good and the company was excellent. After the third half, we went back to our hosts' place to shower and hang out for a while before being escorted back to Nashville's gay district. Our host/driver for the evening was Jon, one of the sweetest of the Grizzlies. Thanks, Jon!!

It's almost time to head to brunch and then hit the road, so I'm out.