Phillies Game Made Me Remember My Thyroid Surgery

I was relaxing and vegging out a bit this afternoon and watching the Phillies spring training game. Not many of them are on TV, so I watch them when I can. I miss John Kruk. Ruben rambles too much.

Basically all my life I have watched games on TV when I could or listened to them on the radio. I would listen to a game many a summer afternoon or when I was at the mountains in the evenings.

When I moved here, I wasn’t able to watch a lot of the games. We didn’t get the channel they were on. I couldn’t really find them on the radio either.

Back in 2012, when I was waiting for my thyroid operation, I would watch a spring training game or two to settle my mind. The thought that I had medullary thyroid cancer because of a genetic flaw got in my head a bit. Waiting for the pheo tests and that stuff was very stressful. The fact that I knew no one local had any experience with that particular surgery was pretty scary to me.

I remember watching a game in the hospital when I stayed overnight. I did not sleep that night at all. It seems I can. I also watched a hockey game. Maybe it was a Craptiols game?

When I came home, I watched quite a few Phillies games on TV. Out of boredom, I managed to turn on the TV at the right time, and while channel surfing, I found a game. During that recovery phase that spring, I watched a lot of the games.

Watching those games brought my mind some peace. It gave me something to do rather than let the negative thoughts be too intrusive and overrun my thoughts. I didn’t know yet what the long-term consequences of my cancer were going to be.

It was a shame the Phils were not good back then, but it was something I enjoyed watching. I should be used to them not being good after all. They were bad for a lot of my childhood. I will always have 1993, though!

For a good while after that time, I had zero ways to be able to watch the games. We dropped back to the very basic cable, and the games were not on those channels. Shortly after that, we dropped all cable TV. A few years back I picked up YouTube TV to watch sports.

It’s funny how little things remind you of certain periods or completely unrelated things.

Thanks to the Phillies for keeping my mind occupied when it needed to be. That helped keep the depression and other mind clutter that is just not healthy.