Archive for 2017

NCAA Football Top 10

By Steve | Published Wednesday, November 1, 2017

College Football and MLB are quickly becoming my favorite sports to watch.  They both have their issues but... I like the product. Not sure I'll do this every week but I've crafted a spreadsheet/calculations/brilliance Jeff Sagarin that will give you my top 10 for the College Playoff's each week. I won't go into the details of how my saber metrics work (TRADEMARK) but... here you go!

#1 Bama: Georgia and Bama are close. You stay number one until you get knocked off or my calculations change things!
#2 Georgia: You beat Bama... you get to be #1
#3 Clemson: They've got a tough schedule
#4 OSU: That's where I have them now... but the road does not get any easier!
#5 Wisconsin: They control their destiny
#6 ND: Their D is just not that good. Top 20... but not top 4!
#7 PSU: They can climb back in it but will need help
#8 Washington: The Pac always get the short end. But who have they played?
#9 OK: You can't depend on Mayfield every week. Defense needs to step it up.
#10 Miami: The dark horse! They could move up in rankings quickly!

There you have it... Not perfect. Go ahead and sound off!

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There is some good worth writing for!

By Steve | Published Thursday, October 5, 2017

After the last month of negativity toward others and then praise and helping of each other and back again I decided on Tuesday to write a letter to a woman that had been years in the making. I'm not really sure what took me so long to thank her, because I would not be where I am today had it not been for the Holy Spirit speaking through her. 

On her blog Esther Burroughs describes herself as follows: "Esther has a holy calling as she travels, encouraging woman and families of all ages with God’s Word and lessons on life’s journey.

Her passion is calling women to an intimate walk as His beloved child. Out of the overflow of God’s love in her heart, the Word of God in her life, and the Spirit’s power, she is compelled to leave a legacy of faithfulness in His family, His community, and His world."

Here is my letter to Esther...

Dear Esther,

This email has been a LLLOOONNNGGG time coming! In the fall of 1996 I attended a Baptist (College) Student Conference at Hyde Park in Waco Texas. During that "talk", I refer to it as a talk because as you well know woman were frowned upon to preach! However, Esther you were bringing the word and that word cut through my heart. I'm so glad you had the perseverance to fight and last through all that gender bias! 

On that day I remember that you were talking about God's calling on our lives, I was in the second year of college, but my grades my first year of college were so bad that I was basically retaking all my classes.  I was like a ship without a rudder not knowing what I was called to do. During that message you talked of how some of us were called to be police officers, teachers, pastors and even youth pastors etc.. All I heard as you went through that list was "PASTOR". As you continued to talk I relived my childhood and teenage years and how I had younger people always hanging around me and the influence I had on them. I quickly realized that God had a plan for me,  a plan for me to make an impact as a pastor. 

Twenty one years ago on the first weekend of October I surrendered my life to be a pastor and it has one heck of a ride since then. I have served as a student pastor in 5 different churches in Texas, Maryland and Ohio. I am now an associate pastor at an awesome church in Springboro, OH and loving every minute of it.

This email has been way to long in the making however I wanted to say thanks after al these years for the impact your message had on my life. I'll never forget that lady that spoke truth that day. I'm forever grateful! 

Esther responded today and said she appreciated the email and how it brightened her day. She also stated that she was 80 years old and still speaking! I can only hope to strive for that! So, how about you? Who has made a huge impact on your life? Take a moment and let them know today. Let's fill up posts, facebook and email boxes with some positive, faith building vibes instead of all this negativity!

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Hunter Holt 2.0

By Steve | Published Wednesday, March 22, 2017

As many of you recall, Hunter had a spontaneous pneumothorax two years ago. On Saturday he had another episode except for this time on the right side. Surgery was on Monday and he is making steady progress toward healing and full recovery. He just had an x-ray and the lung looks good and they have turned off what we call the bubble machine or an integrated chest drainage unit. His lung is now on what is called a water seal as long as there are no bubbles in the next 6 hours he will get the chest tube taken out tonight. If everything goes well he might get to go home tonight! Many of you have asked what causes this and what is the treatment? After experiencing it ourselves, talking to several doctors and research here is what we've found.

 Spontaneous pneumothorax is an abnormal accumulation of air in the space between the lungs and the chest cavity (called the pleural space) that can result in the partial or complete collapse of a lung. Hunter has never had a full collapsed lung, but the one on his left side was almost halfway down.  Spontaneous means the pneumothorax was not caused by an injury such as a rib fracture. Spontaneous pneumothorax is likely due to the formation of small sacs of air (blebs) in lung tissue that rupture, causing air to leak into the pleural space. Air in the pleural space creates pressure on the lung and can lead to its collapse. Hunter had a cluster of them on the left side that they removed and on the left side they found three. A person with this condition may feel chest pain on the side of the collapsed lung and shortness of breath.

 Blebs may be present on an individual's lung (or lungs) for a long time before they rupture. Many things can cause a bleb to rupture, such as changes in air pressure or a very sudden deep breath. Often, people who experience a primary spontaneous pneumothorax have no prior sign of illness; the blebs themselves typically do not cause any symptoms and are visible only on medical imaging. Affected individuals may have one bleb to more than thirty blebs. Once a bleb ruptures and causes a pneumothorax, there is an estimated 13 to 60 percent chance that the condition will recur. 

 This condition is often found in tall. slim, male athletes. Researchers suggest that the rapid growth of the chest during growth spurts may increase the likelihood of forming blebs. Long-term smoking also greatly increases the risk of developing primary spontaneous pneumothorax in both men and women. We know for a fact that the later is not what caused Hunter's condition. What we have discovered is that Hunter is slim and an athlete but not necessarily tall. As they have taken x-rays of Hunter's chest they always miss a portion of his lungs. So one doctor finally told us to remind the technicians that he has very long lungs. So it made Dr. Holt deduce that possible in the growth of his lungs they may have formed because of the very small space in his chest cavity. 

 How do they fix this problem?

 In some cases, a chest tube is placed in the chest wall to relieve the collapsed lung, however as the statistics say above if it has happened once you have a 60% chance of it happening again. So we decided to go ahead have the same procedure on the right side that they did on the left side.

 The lung is collapsed and a thoracoscopy is performed. Basically three tiny incisions in the chest wall, one for the camera and the other for the tools. The blebs are found and cut out of the lung and stapled back together.  Then the surgeon irritates the pleura (chest wall) with either a rough pad, gauze or a mechanical rotary brush. This is done so the lining of the lung adheres to the chest wall. This is done in case they missed a bleb or he may form another one. Since it adheres to the chest wall there is much less risk of him ever having a collapsed lung again.

 Recovery is usually from 3 - 7 days in the hospital and a recovery time of 2 weeks before resuming normal activity.

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