Battling my fears

Everyone has a fear of something. Here are my top 10 fears in life.

10. Not being good enough. I have a fear of waking up one day and thinking I could have done more. I learned how to fight this. Every day before I do something that I know is significant, I picture myself at 80 years old and how that 80 year old would look back and would want to take chances in life and not regret anything. Fortunately I feel like I can go back in time and make changes.

9. I fear not giving my family the life and love that they deserve. I want to treat Andrea, Avery and Ethan the way they should be treated. I want to be a great husband and father. I've had my moments where I feel that I have failed. But I have learned from those failures and will continue to work hard.

8. I have a fear of getting old and sick and dying from CF. I have this fear of a tube in my nose and an oxygen tank by my side. I fear that there may never be a cure. I try to remain positive but I'd be lying if I said that these thoughts don't populate my head from time to time.

7. Having social encounters - While I am not afraid to speak in public, I still get very nervous before any 1-on-1 encounter. I always have this fear of not knowing what to say or a level of discomfort. It reminds me of my college days and being afraid to leave my room.

6. Dealing with babysitters - since I was a kid and was beaten up by a babysitter and messed around with by a family friend, I've had a lot of insecurities about people and now having 2 kids of my own, I'm very worried with any new person we hire to watch them. I struggle with this quite a bit.

5. I'm scared of fire. I'm afraid to light candles but I've learned to do so with my kids wanting to light the menorah on Hanukkah. I burned my finger lighting a candle when I was a kid and it made it very difficult to light anything again. I've since worked on getting past it but I still have trouble even lighting matches. Good thing I don't smoke. Well, also a good thing I don't smoke since I have CF. Ha Ha!

4. Traveling. I'm not afraid to fly but I'm afraid that I will forget medicine or won't have the right adapter for my machine when I go overseas. I'm finally learning to get over the fear and am planning many out of the country trips this year.

3. Pulmonary Function Tests. While every person with CF has to give a PFT at least once a year, it's very scary for me. I know that the doctor can determine from that one test how my health is. It doesn't matter how much I'm running or working out, this is how I am judged.

2. Losing my fire. I'm afraid to lose my competitive fire because I know how much it has meant towards my fight against CF. When I lose at the smallest thing, I still want to win so badly the next time. I'm ok with that. I'm more than ok with it. I love it!

1. My sobriety. It's so important that I keep on the path of taking care of my depression and my addiction to social networking. I am more than two years sober but I have to continue to fight my issues.

Thanks for listening. I hope everyone is doing well.

Andy

It's been a quarter of a century

25 years ago today, I had my Bar Mitzvah. Why is that significant? Back then I was thirteen years old and little did I know then that I'd reached a milestone that day and not the milestone many might think. Yes, in the Jewish religion, I'd officially become a man. But in reality, I'd exceeded the life expectancy many doctors had given me. I had no idea at the time how lucky I was to be alive.

Today I am 38 years old and once again I exceeded expectations this year by beating the median life expectancy that CF patients now have. It's strange how much not only I have changed in those twenty-five years but also how much expectations for patients like me have changed.

I hope everyone is well. Stay strong.

Andy

Winter

Well, the winter has officially begun and the new year is here. As most of you know who follow my blog or have read my book, I can't stand the winter. It brings back tough memories and it also reminds me that these are the times when my pulmonary function numbers are their lowest. I see my doctor at the end of January to see how I'm doing. I'm not doing many triathlons at the gym right now basically because it's so cold outside and it's tough to come out of the gym after swimming and dealing with the cold.

I have been working out twice a day. I run in place for 17 minutes, do my strength (anaerobic) workouts for 20 minutes in the morning and do a 1+ mile run and 3+ mile bike ride at the gym. A lot of the 1+ mile run is sprinting and I do the 3 mile bike ride in 10 minutes on the stationary bike. Every now and then, I shoot hoops at the gym just to eliminate the monotony of running and biking.

I just finished my TOBI the other night. I did a lot of traveling this time around while doing it. We went to Knoxville to visit Andrea's dad, we went to visit my grandmother in Jacksonville, on our Disney cruise and visited Andrea's mom in Orlando. I managed not to skip one dose which I'm proud of.

I'm still devastated over the Falcons loss yesterday. I'm frustrated with my sports teams. I'm sick of getting to the playoffs. I want more. Is that too much to ask? Should I be happy my teams are good enough to get to the playoffs? I just am sick of coming up short time and again.

Happy New Year everyone.

Andy

Wish for Wendy Final Numbers!

Thanks to all of you for supporting us in 2011. This year we set lofty expectations.

In 2011, A Wish for Wendy was blessed to have some amazing sponsors, volunteers, donors, players, captains and umpires. All of you played a part in our final number. Our highest gross figure was in 2009 when we raised $174,091.00. Our goal was to beat that in a tough economic year. We didn't beat it. What I meant to say is "Thanks to The Jerry and Anita Zucker Family Foundation, we didn't JUST beat it, we annihilated it!"

Our final gross number for 2011 is $252,710.00 which in 12 years puts us over $1.25 million raised. Thank you to all of you who have given up your time and energy to make this event a success. As a cure moves closer for patients like me, I thank you for not only giving me a longer time to live but also for giving my family a dad, husband, son and brother to spend many more holidays with God willing.

I wish all of you happy holidays and a safe New Year!

Andy

The Blogmaster returns...

Well, I'm back to blogging today. Sorry about the long break. Andrea and I took the kids on a cruise with my cousins and their kids. We had a great time as it was a Disney Cruise. The kids absolutely loved the characters especially Mickey and Minnie. I had a terrific time with Andrea and seeing the kids interact with their cousins. I can however say that I have my Mickey fix for quite a long time.

The Drive at 35 is selling very well but that doesn't mean I'm going to slow down the publicity. I have a PR team that will start up in January but I'm doing all I can prior to that to move the book across the country and around the world. We've had orders from Taiwan, Ireland, England, France and Canada. It's really exciting. The feedback has been wonderful as well. Thanks to all of you who have bought a copy. Please continue to spread the word.

I'm waiting to find out when I am throwing out the first pitch at a Braves game. I can't wait. I have submitted the paperwork and am just waiting for a response from the Braves.

The final numbers for Wish for Wendy should be available at week's end. I will forward them on. Next year's Wish for Wendy will be Saturday November 10th so please mark it down on your calendars.

I hope that everyone had a Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas and a Happy Kwanza. I also wish all of you a Happy New Year!

Here is my quick sports update: The Falcons look like the 3rd best team in the NFC. The problem is that they are far below the top 2 teams: GB and NO.

The Braves apparently have no money to spend this offseason. I'm looking forward to someone buying the team and spending money to make this team a true title contender.

The Hawks are...well, does anyone watch the NBA anymore? Here's an update. They are 1-0. Joe Johnson is still a Hawk. We still can't spend money.

The Thrashers are...the Winnipeg Jets and are in 2nd place in their division. Go Jets!

Why is it that whenever I go to the gym and grab a locker, someone always removes their stuff from the locker next to mine? It almost always happens. There could be 5 people in a locker room with 200 lockers but someone is always next to me. Deep thoughts.

Live your dreams and love your life!

Andy

My new book

I am so excited about my new book being published. Even though the “official release” isn’t until after the first of the year, early release copies of The Drive at 35 are available now through my web site www.andylipman.com. The direct link is www.andylipman.com/books.cfm. Some people are ordering them for holiday gifts. If you order a gift copy and would like me to include a personalized autograph, just send an email to andy@andylipman.com when you place your order and I’ll be happy to inscribe it to whomever you name.

A lot of people have asked what The Drive at 35 is about. It is about looking back from the perspective of a 35 year old. It’s my story of what kept me going, having lived with the knowledge for my entire life, that I was just shy of the age I was expected to die of cystic fibrosis. It is about the journey I’ve taken to beat CF, but more importantly about applying what I’ve learned coping with CF to coping with all the things that have happened to me, many of which would seem to have nothing to do with the disease. It’s about where I am as an individual, and how I got here.
A significant portion of The Drive at 35 focuses on battles and triumphs that could be part of anyone’s experiences. The after-effects of childhood trauma, achieving athletic goals, getting married, the trials of In Vitro fertilization, the joys and terrors of becoming a parent, and suffering from clinical depression are a few examples. I also wrote about losing a sister to the same disease I have and deciding to start a foundation in her memory, then about all the wonderful friends who have helped and inspired me to do even more. Finally, I tell about what it was like to lose my dear friend, Rusty Sneiderman, and the ups and downs my wife and I have had dealing with his terrible murder.

I hope everyone who reads this blog will buy a copy of my new book; I’m donating $5 from every purchase to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Plus, it would be so cool if your purchase help put this book on the New York Times best seller list! Once you finish reading it, let me know your thoughts and questions at andy@andylipman.com.
Thank you so much for all your support.

Live your dreams and love your life.

Andy

Please buy my book and forward it and retweet it to everyone you know. The book is "The Drive at 35" and the link is www.andylipman.com/books.cfm

$5 from every purchase will go to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Thank you for the support.

Andy