Joey Votto is the offensive firepower of the Cincinnati Reds. He's only 25 years old and he's having an exceptional season ... maybe one of the best in the league. He's hitting .357 and has an unbelieveable OPS of 1.091. Everything you read about the guy is that he is a gamer ... the first to arrive for a game ... takes the most infield practice ... works hard to get better everyday.
OK ... quick question ... what does he have in common w/ Dolberry?
(Yep, we share the same birthday ... September 10th.)
May has been a tough month for Votto. Not hitting, but health-wise. He's had to come out of the game three times this past month because of dizziness.
The first time he was diagnosed w/ the flu. When he'd ostensibly recovered from the flu, it happened again and nobody knew what was wrong. The team doctor checked him into a clinic in San Diego and put him through a battery of tests. Eventually, they concluded he had an inner ear infection and cleared him to play. In his first game back, he mashed two homers, but then was in and out of the lineup over the rest of the week. Finally, on Friday he came out of another game in the 2nd inning.
After the game, the Reds put him on the 15-day DL w/ stress-related issues and noted that Votto asked for privacy as he worked through returning to help. Here was a quote from Votto last week:
"After all the tests I went through, it's been pretty scary the past few days,"
I really have no way of knowing, but I think Dolberry and Joey Votto have one more thing in common ... not sure what the medical term would be ... or if there's even a real medical condition like this ... but I think we both came down w/ EAFA (early-adult finiteness awareness). Simply put, it's when you go through the first 20 years of your life pretty much w/o any significant hardship and then one day ... all of a sudden ... you don't feel very good and you realize that one unknown day in the near or far future ... you are going to die.
It was the day of the OKC bombing that I had to go home from work early and see a doctor. I had been feeling progressively worse over the previous month ... basically having no energy. The tests showed high counts of mycoplasma and a case of pneumonia. I got antibiotics and you'd figure that was that. But it wasn't. I didn't really feel any better over the next two weeks, eventually getting to the point where I couldn't walk around our appartment building complex w/o becoming exhausted (& this was when I was in shape). Over time, my fingers and toes started to go numb from time to time. The doctors did more tests (EKG type stuff), but didn't really see anything wrong. I went to the ER one night w/ absolutely nothing wrong w/ me ... aside from a certainty that I was dying of something. One doctor prescribed some Xanax to reduce my anxiety and while that helped temporarily ... I started really getting worried about getting addicted to them ... think I had 1-2 refills. Many a time during that stretch I felt like I couldn't go out of the house w/o a Xanax. In the end, I never took the last 5-6 pills I had ... very strange ... but I couldn't bring myself to throw them out in case I ever needed them again. I finally pitched them one day down here a few years ago ... figuring they were probably expired anyway. The whole episode probably lasted 3-4 months before I broke out from the spiral down.
Four things helped me get out of the undertow:
1) tbKMD (& my family) were unfailingly w/ me every step which had to be hard, because I went from carefree Dolberry to neurotic Dolberry pretty much w/o any warning.
2) I eventually got routed to a great doctor in Naperville who just let me talk one time for about 45 minutes. Not a psych doc, but an internal medicine guy. He somehow made me feel better about myself in one appointment ... saying 'hey, stuff like this happens'.
3) Mary B (tbKMD's mom) gave me a prayer card that said "Lord, help me remember that nothing will happen today that You and I can't get through together." While I did throw the Xanax out eventually, I've kept that card on my desk ever since.
4) Softball. Eventually, when the weather in Chicago got nice (you know that one week every year), I remember thinking finally, I don't care if I am dying, I'm going to play some ball today.
So, I don't know if this is what's bothering Joey Votto or not. Either way, I just hope that people come alongside of him that care for him, let him talk it out w/o pressure, remind him that his life is part of something way bigger, and let him get back on the field doing what he loves. Hang in there Joey.
2 comments:
I like that particular prayer too. Each time I get in the car or get up in the morning for that matter, I say, "Don't let anything happen to me today, God, that you and I can't handle" Sometimes I feel compelled to remind Him that I can't handle much so it'll probably be pretty much up to Him Worked so far. On the days I'm unable to pray, I hope the prayers other people are saying FOR me, kick in. BF
I went through this same thing when I came down with lyme disease. I went through about the first 20-something years of my life a healthy athlete, and then WHAM! My body began to break down like a piece of old farm equipment. The anxiety it brought on made me feel like I was definitely dying, and some days I feel that way still.
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