I’m a veteran of the US Air Force (Staff Sergeant, Medic) and the US Army Reserves (1st Lieutenant, Army Nurse Corps). I work as a nurse at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital here in Minneapolis on the Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder Unit.  For me, Memorial Day isn’t just a free day to sleep in, or go shopping, which it has become in my country. I think it’s OK to have a good time, but I think that somewhere along the line, the true meaning of Memorial Day has been lost to my compatriots.

One of the sad things about American History, is that as ignorant as my compatriots have become about our own history, it is very vexing to me that Americans seem to think that they fought and won the first and second world wars on our own, without the help of anybody else. They don’t appreciate how many young men Britain and France lost in the fields of Flanders or the Ardennes during the first World War.  They don’t realize how many ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) troops died in the first World War (Particularly in a nasty blood bath in Turkey called Galipoli-if you have not seen the movie, it’s worth the rental) and in the Vietnam War. American don’t realize that Austrialian and Kiwi solidiers lost their lives there as well. During the Second World War, Australian troops showed unbelievable courage fighting the Japanese in the dense jungles of Papua New Guinea on the Kokoda Trail. If the Australians had failed to stop the Japanese , the next step for Tojo’s troops would have been invading Australia. Again, these are things that don’t get mentioned during history courses on the World Wars and Viet Nam.

I should add, that contrary to popular belief in this country, we did not “bail England’s chestnuts out of the fire”-The British military and population had to face down Hitler’s Blitzkrieg without any direct contribution of American troops-remember, US troops did not offically enter the war untill December 8th, 1941(We did supply some war time materials, but the British, Canadians, and a small handfull of American volunteers who flew with the RAF did all of the fighting). The Battle of Britain had already been fought and won on British guts and resilience by the time American troops were in the European theater.

With that in mind, along with a heartfelt salute to American Airmen, Marines, Sailors and Soldiers, I wanted to also salute our brethren in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada-Thank you, for YOUR sacrifice. It really comes from the heart.

A lot of rugby this weekend on TV-my TIVO is going to busy recording several matches. I got invited to join my friend Jacques to go catch the Super 14 Semi-final between the Blue Bulls and the Crusaders. I am in the process of watching the Chiefs host the Hurricanes that was recorded in the middle of the night. At this point, the Chiefs are dominating the game, but have nothing to show for it. As for tomorrows semi final, the Bulls have been able to earn the number one seed, which means if they keep winning, they can host matches at Loftus Road in Pretoria. The Crusaders looked to be dead and buried a few weeks back, but after winning several must win games, and the Sharks losing two in a row to the Waratahs and the Bulls, the Crusaders find themselves making the long trek from New Zealand to the altitude of Pretoria. The Crusaders are the personification of excellence in the Super 14 competition the last several years, but I am picking the Bulls to win tomorrow, and host the final to decide Super 14 supremecy.

As far as the Heineken Cup, the Leicester Tigers are making their 5th appearance in a final, which ties Toulouse’s record. They will be the favorites against the men in blue from Dublin in this match to be played at Murrayfield, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Tigers have shown that they can win pretty, with style points like their semi final win against Cardiff. They  have also shown that they can keep their nerve and win the tight matches like they have done against Bath in the Quarterfinals, and against London Irish in the English final last weekend at Twickenham.Leinster, I think has the X-factor of having scored a huge upset win over Munster in the Semi-finals. Can the men in blue win without their Argentine fly half, Felipe Comtepomi? I am going to go out on a limb and predict a win for the Brian O’Driscoll and his men will hoist the Heineken Cup for the first time for Leinster.

In the French Top 14 Semi-finals, they are a study in contrasts in the last 4 teams. Stade Français will travel to #1 seed Perpignan, who got the top seed in spite of losing their big money signing, All Black Dan Carter to a leg injury that knocked him out for the year. It looked like the Catalans had pissed away a lot of Euros for nothing. They have been playing some really good rugby in the last month and a half. The men in pink from Paris have had a lot of success in the Top 14, wheras Perpignan is looking to win Brennus’ shield for the first time in over 50 years. I just don’t think Stade is going to be able to beat Perpignan this time. Look for Perpignan to be able to make the trip to Le Stade de France for the final.

The other semi-final will have Clermont Auvergne, the ultimate bridesmaid of French Rugby, who have been to the final, but have never won it all. The men in gold will have to go to the Lions den in Toulouse  to earn their ticket. I just don’t see the Michelen Men being able to beat Toulouse in a big match. A final with Toulouse and Perpignan would certainly be a great spectacle. Even as a Toulouse fan, a part of me would not be overly sad if Clermont can get the monkey off their back and beat the men in red and black…I just don’t see it happening.

Well, since I was able to tolerate lifting weights yesterday, and mowing my grandmother’s yard and doing some raking today, I did not see any reason to stay away from work-I felt that if I could do those things, I could do floor nursing.

They started me off with a light load at work, I am working charge, which I admit can be a little intimidating, but I don’t have a patient assignment- Tonight, I’m kind of a “free floater” to help staff out if they need a hand lifting or boosting a patient, or giving medicines if a particular nurse is tied up.

So far, the shift has been going pretty good.

Here is a link to the Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder unit where I work at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center:
http://www1.va.gov/minneapolis/scidc/scidc_welcome.html

It’s good to be back at work.

I had a chance to watch England’s final on Saturday, which Setanta Sports was kind enough to show live here in the USA. The Leicester Tigers  were going for an 8th English title, and London Irish  was going for it’s first ever title.

The 81,601 at England’s grand temple of rugby at Twickenham were to see a very tight game. No champagne rugby on this day, but it was a very nervy contest. Australian Peter Hewat’s 45 meter drop goal early in the game showed that the Exiles were willing to take the fight to the team from the Midlands.

In spite of the Exiles early lead and ball posession, they could not translate it into points. Delon Armitage missed a couple of long range attempts (He has a cannon for a leg), but his gun sites were off and Hewatt missed what looked to be a sure a penalty that he clanged off the post. Late in the first half, hard running by Steffon Armitage and Chris Hala’ufia put the exiles in a position to score a try. The Tigers, in their desperate defending, gave up 3 penalties close to half time-the third one would send semi final hero Jordan Crane to the sin-bin. The Exiles elected to go for the juglar, and opted for 3 scrums inside the Tigers’ 22, hoping to punch over a try. You have to wonder that if the Exiles had a better kicking game, if they would have opted for the “sure” three points. In spite of all of that, the Tigers withstood the onslaught, and gave up no points before half time.

Somehow, you just knew that London Irish pissed away a great opportunity to gain the upper hand, and with a team like Leicester, not unlike Munster or Toulouse, just seems to find a way to win, even when they did not bring their A game on the day.

When Crane got back from the sin bin in the second half, he was able to get the ball deep in Exiles territory, and bull and stretch his way for a try…

Leicester’s French scrum half, Julien Dupuy, converted the try in what will be his next-to-last game with the Tigers, before he goes back to France to play with Stade Français next season. A 10-6 game meant it was still not out of reach for Irish, who added a LONG penalty from Delon Armitage to make the game 10-9, but Leicester was able to get possession of the ball in the last few minutes, and they made no mistakes in holding on for the win, and the trophy. The Tigers can close out the season with a possible double when they take on Leinster in the Heineken Cup final in Edinburgh this coming weekend. They have shown that they can win in style, like they did against Bath in the Quarterfinals, with heart, like they showed in that epic semi-final win against Cardiff, and they showed that they can win ugly, like they did at Twickenham. Love or hate them, the team from the Midlands just seems to know how to come up big and hold their nerve in the big game.

Well, I got discharged from the hospital today. I’m going to be on oral blood thinners the next 5-6 months, which means that I will not be playing any more rugby this year-no regrets, I am thrilled to still be alive in spite of these blood clots in my right lung. Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass-well, more my right side, but it’s a momentary set-back.

I had a couple of days to think about a picture that I had taken during this past Saturday’s Blue-Grey game with Alex (he’s on the right, wearing the dark blue jersey), one of my fellow props with Metropolis. We are each wearing the new lycra Metropolis Jersey’s with two of our sponsors on them…

The people who design these lycra shirts, which look like the demonic combination of a Tour de France Jersey and a sports bra, they really did not think this through on how the jersey would look squeezed over the typical physique of the prop forward in rugby. They’re great if you look like USA Eagle Todd Cleaver-but very few people can look that good. 

As scary as I looked in this abomination of a jersey, the more sobering thought is that this could have been the last picture of me of any kind, had I not sought and received medical care this past Sunday.

Well, here I am finishing my Monday at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. As good as I felt on Saturday, having a chance to get a run in and play some rugby, there is no way that I imagined that I would be sitting here in the hospital being treated for a pulmonary embolism less than 48 hours after playing.

It was strange. I woke up yesterday with some chest wall discomfort on my right side of my chest.
As the day progressed, I noticed that the chest wall pain was not only not going away-it was getting worse. I also noticed that it was becoming harder and harder to take a deep breath. It reached a point where I told myself that if I was doing a phone triage on me, I would be sending me to the emergency room. At the time, I was concerned about the possibility of pleuresy or a collapsed lung. The CT scan ended up confirming that I had some blood clots that had made their way to the base of my right lung.The pain was becoming more and more intense, to the point where I was getting Morphine and Dilaudid.(the latter, by the way, is a REALLY good pain medication)

I got admitted and brought up to the floor around 330AM. During the day today, I had a lot of visitors here at North Memorial: My wife, my kids, our Armenian exchange student Narek and his wife, Ana;my dad and brother, and my pastor from our church.

 My doctor told me that it looks like I am going to be on blood thinners for the next few months while I try to shrink these blood clots in my right lung. That means that rugby is out for the rest of 2009. I’m glad I had a chance to play even a little bit this spring-as it turned out,  I’m done for the year.

That’s a drag, but of more immediate concern to me and my family is going to be when I will be able to be back at work. I cannot imagine taking care of heavy spinal cord injury patients feeling like this. I hope I will be feeling up to it soon.

On the bright side, I’m still vertical. Everthing else can be worked on.

Happy Mother’s Day one and all! Hopefully you have half as much fun with your eating today as my Metropolis Rugby Football Club mates did yesterday, care of a porcine Minnesota product who gave himself up for the greater benefit of the team….

For today’s Metropolis Rugby Football Club’ Blue-Grey game, we did not have enough old boys to do an old boys came, per se, so me and “Super Joe” got drafted in with the players who chose to do the hour drive west of Minneapolis to near Cokato, Minnesota.You may, or may not be, familiar with the Kevin Costner movie “Field of Dreams”, where a farmer hearing voices defies logic and plows under some prime Iowa farmland to make a gem of a baseball field. One of the phrases that Costner’s befuddled farmer hears is “If you build it, he will come.” 

There is an old boy with Metropolis named Mike Clements who has a hobby farm with a Clydesdale and a couple of Belgian horses . He also has built on his hobby farm an international sized rugby pitch with regulation posts. 

Ok, it has not been a great spring to be able to play much rugby. Working mostly evening will do that. I was able to make it to the last practice last night, and it was fun playing 1.5 hours of touch rugby. Great fun. It was great to get a run in. My training must be helping in some way, because I did something that I had never done in one of these touch games: I scored a try. Ok, it’s not the same as scoring in a full blown game, but being 12 pounds lighter than a year ago at this time at least allowed me to find something beyond first gear to be able to make a run, and leave some surprised younger guys in my dust. I have to admit, I was probably the most shocked person out there, too. Hey, when you’re a 48 year old prop, you take small victories wherever and whenever you can.

There were many, many positives from Leinster’s stunning 25-6 upset win over holders Munster this past weekend in front of a record 82,000+ fans at Croke Park in Dublin (A record for a club match). For starters, Leinster’s victory knocked a gorilla-sized monkey off their back. This is a team that has had a rap over the years of not being able to win the big one, and particularly suffering an inferiority complex against the men wearing the red for Munster. The team from Dublin has a chance to win their first ever Heineken Cup win they play May 23rd at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. They will have to do it without their Argentine fly half, Felipe Contepomi, who tore his cruciate knee ligament, and will miss the final.

It’s a sad thing for Contepomi, who is leaving Leinster in the off-season for the sunnier climate and bigger Euros in Toulon, France. The Argentine Fly half, who along with Brian O’Driscoll has been the face of Leinster for the last few years, opened the scoring for the Dubliners with a cooly slotted drop goal, before going down in the first half with his knee injury. 

Contepomi, like Moses, won’t be able make it to the Promised Land. He also will miss Argentina’s two internationals against England, but is hoping to be able to play club matches with Toulon in October. Still, his last match wearing the blue Leinster jersey will be one that he will never forget, that will probably rate right up there with the fly half’s great play for the Pumas in the Rugby World Cup in France two years ago. 

For Leinster, they will have to hope that Jonathan Sexton will be able to fill the considerable shoes of their Argentine star…who will have to content himself with watching the match from the sidelines at Murrayfield.