June 5, 2025 • 13 mins
In this episode, Adam opens with a personal introduction and shares an update on his current health journey. He discusses navigating sick call to disability to weird insurances pieces he was unaware of, all along highlighting daily challenges along the way. Adam delves into the delicate balance of recovery while trying to manage family responsibilities and maintaining mental health. He provides insights into staying engaged with The Pilot Network, emphasizing the importance of events and networking for professional growth. The episode concludes with closing remarks and contact information, offering listeners a chance to connect and participate in future TPN activities like Hangar Flys and Chapters.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
Network, what's up?
It's Adam again.
I am recording this about six weeks after myshoulder surgery and I figured I'd give
everybody a little update about the process ofwhat I've gone through on the sick call
disability side.
So you can have an insight into what you may ormay not need to do if you're in my position
(00:44):
ever, which I don't hope you are.
But if you are, and it may happen, who knowsthat we never know when these things are gonna
come up, right?
So as far as health progression and whatever,I'm doing great with rehab.
I've got some mobility back.
It's been really awesome to get that firstcouple feelings.
I mean, there's still a lot of soreness and thepain is real.
(01:08):
The sleeping is poor.
You do as best as you can, but you deal withwhat you you deal with it as you go.
It's something that I really I didn't thinkwould change my my mindset a ton on how I would
deal with it, but I feel like it's changed me alittle bit and made me more process focused
(01:32):
than outcome driven, which is something thatI'm actually gonna do a podcast on here in the
next couple of weeks.
I think it's something that we all shouldinternalize, something that we need to take a
close look at in our life and see if thataffects us.
And how we drive ourselves, if we're outcomedriven or if we're process driven.
Something I'm working with my kids on, sothat's coming up.
(01:54):
I'm kind of working out a rough sketch of it inmy head and then I'll put it to paper and come
out with something that hopefully will beuseful for all of you.
What going back to the process that I'm goingthrough now, the thing that I didn't expect was
how easy some of it would be and also how muchthings would come up later on that I didn't
(02:18):
didn't foresee.
For instance, the way our sick leave systemworks is you use all of your sick leave, then
you move over to what's called enhanceddisability, then that runs out and you go into
another protocol piece which I believe I don'tknow the exact title for but that's kind of
(02:38):
irrelevant for this conversation anyways.
I did get a call from my insurer and I'mcalling them back right after I finished this
podcast to have the discussion about filing aclaim because I do have a disability claim
insurance with this company.
So it's been that part I was not expecting andI really don't know what to expect that phone
(03:02):
call.
I also got a call from our company insurance ormedical group that they work with which offers
free essentially second opinions.
So you get a virtual appointment with thedoctor, they look into what you're dealing
(03:24):
with, what you're going through, and they willgive you a suggested course of action.
And it was it's completely free of charge.
Now since I've already had my surgery and I'min a PT program that I really like, things are
progressing well, I I don't necessarily see theneed for something like this at this time.
And I, you know, there's part of me, I guess, alittle the little conspiracy guy in the back of
(03:47):
my head is like, well, are they just trying toget me back to work earlier?
Or whatever the case might be.
I don't really think that's necessarily thecase.
But I could see where this would be hugelybeneficial if it's something that you're like
well you know that there was something where itwas internal, that wasn't necessarily
musculoskeletal that you wanted to take asecond look at, if it was going to affect
future medical requirements, like if you had aharder neurological issue or something like
(04:13):
that, I can see where that would be superhelpful.
What I am focused on though is really just thisprocess getting better.
I dropped the word recovery and I'm trying todo like I'm building myself back better than I
ever was beforehand.
So I can come back stronger, do the stuff Ilove doing, playing with my kids, going to the
(04:34):
gym, playing a lot of golf, that kind of stuff.
So I think in that term, there's mentalpreparation there.
It's kind of funny, I've been reallyincorporating or trying to.
And for those of us with little kids out there,you know how tough this is.
Finding moments in your day when you can go dostuff like meditate or even just the PT
(04:55):
requirements that you have throughout the day.
Like my PT wants me to do five sets of what I'mdoing.
And by five sets, should say five differenttimes throughout the day.
And sometimes that's just not feasible.
I mean, we still have kids activities in schooland all that stuff going on in the background.
And to be able to do that is sometimes a bit ofa tall task.
(05:17):
So you have to kind of find your times andthat's where that process driven discussion
really comes into play, which I'll get to, likeI said, in a different podcast, but that
process in my mindset.
But I've been trying to incorporate otherthings.
The other thing that I really had to watch outfor was weight gain.
So after I had the surgery, man, I ate like a abird and a pig all at the same time.
(05:39):
I mean, I was eating everything in sight andlike I was moving like I used to.
I think I gained like six or seven pounds theweekend after surgery.
It was probably an emotional eating moment forme.
It felt good at the time, so I did it watchingcountless hours of Netflix and TV because you
just don't feel like doing anything else.
Especially that was my first time coming out ofthe full megilla of anesthetics.
(06:03):
I mean I've been under before for a colonoscopyand stuff like that, but this was like the full
thing with the fentanyl and everything else inthere that puts you under, and it took me a
good solid week to kind of get back on sort ofa normal schedule, feeling kind of normal
again, and then that's when you're trying tomitigate and manage your pain in your shoulder,
(06:24):
and my bicep is really what really bothered mebecause I also had a biceptiandesis where they
put the screw into your bicep tendon, andthat's still probably one of the bigger pain
points that I'm going through on a regularbasis.
But with with all that said, I almost droppedsome of the stuff on the admin side of my life
(06:46):
to focus on that.
And getting back to now where I feel prettygood of holy, I mean, yeah, I can't do a lot of
what I I can't clean the gutters.
I can't help carry in a lot of grocery stuff.
You know, it's all one arm actions.
I mean, there's a little bit I can carry.
Can carry a couple small things with my armsstraight, and sometimes I can pick up, you
(07:07):
know, a a couple cups or whatever.
It's hard to bend over and put stuff in thedishwasher.
Getting back to that's a little bitchallenging, but being able to show a presence
around the house has probably benefited my wifemuch more than anybody else And just also
helped me kind of feel like a normal personagain.
Where where I guess the the idea that I didn'treally fully flesh out before I started was
(07:34):
just how much of a a mental game this would be.
And a little bit of meditation has helped ton aton.
Keeping myself, keeping like that positivemental attitude the whole time and and really
thinking like, okay, I'm doing this for areason.
I'm gonna be stronger at the end of this.
Get back to flying airplanes.
Get back to doing what I love to do.
(07:54):
That is part of the process and and just andmaking sure that I instead I have this mental
attitude that the only way I'm gonna get tothese these things at the end of the rainbow is
to kind of forget about them a little bit andjust take it day by day.
And again, I'm only going through a shouldersurgery for rotator cuff and by bicep.
(08:15):
I'm not dealing with a cancer diagnosis andgoing through chemotherapy or a neurological
disorder or something wrong with my heart orany number of other things that all of you have
dealt with or many of you have dealt with outthere, has been 10x worse.
I'm just going through my little little trialand and trying to figure it out.
(08:36):
What what I what I hope this hits is is on formany of you who have not had any of these
issues is if and when you do have them, you cankind of come back to that thought process and
be like, Yeah, heard Adam say this once and Iknow other guys have talked about it, where
it's really keeping your chin up and thatmental attitude, that positive mental attitude
of thinking that, Okay, if I just stick to thisprocess, I'm going to come back stronger and
(09:00):
better than I was beforehand and get back todoing what I love, whether that's, flying
airplanes for fun, flying airplanes for money,or a host of other things that we enjoy on our
off time.
And one of the things that I enjoy in the offtime is getting down here and recording and
doing some of that kind of stuff and then alsoworking all the other things with TPN and and
(09:21):
doing other things out there that I get to dowith the time that I have that's down because I
can't physically do the stuff that I want todo, so I have to engage myself mentally and
keep myself really active.
And even, you know, even now and again crackingthe books, why not?
Why not take a look at what I got to come backto?
So that's kind of where I'm at in this process.
(09:43):
We've got kinda looking forward a bunch of coolstuff coming up.
We've got our first set of hanger flies wherewe're doing a bunch all at one time.
I think we have four.
We've got Phoenix, Milwaukee, Corpus Christi,and San Diego all going on.
So if you're interested in any of those, youcan go to TBN Pro if you're a pro member and
(10:05):
sign up there.
We're having some issues with putting thoseinto the events section, But if you ask the
question, our fearless chapters leader, that'sright, we're doing TPN chapters, goal is to put
them in all these cities out there.
You have a group of people that you can go toto talk, whether it's industry questions or
just getting together and and not having anagenda, having a beer or whatever it is you
(10:30):
like to do, and just chatting.
Whether it's about the industry, about aviationspecific stuff, or it's just a bunch of people
that you can meet who have like minds and canunderstand your background and where you're
coming from and you understand them as well.
I think that's a lot of stuff that we can dotogether and we can build off of.
I'm really excited to see where it goes as wekeep progressing.
(10:53):
We've also started the TPN AMA on the pro side.
We had a couple members join.
It was really, really great.
I hope it was informative for them.
It was I learned a lot.
We're gonna be keeping those up.
We won't have that one next week because we'regonna have the live meetup, the analog version
of this.
(11:13):
Hopefully hits a couple people and we can meetup, have a libation at best and at at worst,
you go home smiling like, hey, it's kinda likea mini little tiny TPNx for those of you who've
been there before and those of you who will bethere in the future.
That is a lot of fun and a chance for youreally to grow your network because that's
(11:35):
cliched, but it's true.
Your network will represent your net worth andyou can move a lot further in this career by
having a large network and people that you cancount on and they can count on you back.
That's that's the plan here.
Going forward, I hope everybody out there ishaving a great week flying airplanes wherever
(11:56):
that may be.
And if you have any ideas, did put an all callout there for folks to give me their stories
for why they would stay or why they would go inthe military.
You can check out that post and respond eitherto that post or write us an email
heyguyspilotnetwork dot com or if you haveanything else, anything that you want to bring
up to Matt or I and get off your chest or youwant to hammer us for something or you want to
(12:20):
give us a kudos, not not required, hit us up athey guys, the pilot network dot com.
You can check us out on all our socials, andsign up for our biweekly brief newsletter at
thepilotnetwork.com where I've been revampingsome of that with a lot of little nuggets and
stuff that's out there to help you in yourjourney, wherever that journey might take you.
Whether it's in on the flight deck or off theflight deck, there's gonna be lots of nuggets
(12:44):
and stuff out there as as well as some newsbrief items that we found that might be
interesting to you.
So go over there, you can sign up for thenewsletter.
But the the big key here is keep flying safe,keep doing great work that you all do out
there.
I look forward to seeing people in person soon.
And as always, keep that shiny side up, thegreasy side down.
(13:05):
Fly safe, everybody.
Network, what's up?
It's Adam again.
I am recording this about six weeks after myshoulder surgery and I figured I'd give
everybody a little update about the process ofwhat I've gone through on the sick call
disability side.
So you can have an insight into what you may ormay not need to do if you're in my position
(00:44):
ever, which I don't hope you are.
But if you are, and it may happen, who knowsthat we never know when these things are gonna
come up, right?
So as far as health progression and whatever,I'm doing great with rehab.
I've got some mobility back.
It's been really awesome to get that firstcouple feelings.
I mean, there's still a lot of soreness and thepain is real.
(01:08):
The sleeping is poor.
You do as best as you can, but you deal withwhat you you deal with it as you go.
It's something that I really I didn't thinkwould change my my mindset a ton on how I would
deal with it, but I feel like it's changed me alittle bit and made me more process focused
(01:32):
than outcome driven, which is something thatI'm actually gonna do a podcast on here in the
next couple of weeks.
I think it's something that we all shouldinternalize, something that we need to take a
close look at in our life and see if thataffects us.
And how we drive ourselves, if we're outcomedriven or if we're process driven.
Something I'm working with my kids on, sothat's coming up.
(01:54):
I'm kind of working out a rough sketch of it inmy head and then I'll put it to paper and come
out with something that hopefully will beuseful for all of you.
What going back to the process that I'm goingthrough now, the thing that I didn't expect was
how easy some of it would be and also how muchthings would come up later on that I didn't
(02:18):
didn't foresee.
For instance, the way our sick leave systemworks is you use all of your sick leave, then
you move over to what's called enhanceddisability, then that runs out and you go into
another protocol piece which I believe I don'tknow the exact title for but that's kind of
(02:38):
irrelevant for this conversation anyways.
I did get a call from my insurer and I'mcalling them back right after I finished this
podcast to have the discussion about filing aclaim because I do have a disability claim
insurance with this company.
So it's been that part I was not expecting andI really don't know what to expect that phone
(03:02):
call.
I also got a call from our company insurance ormedical group that they work with which offers
free essentially second opinions.
So you get a virtual appointment with thedoctor, they look into what you're dealing
(03:24):
with, what you're going through, and they willgive you a suggested course of action.
And it was it's completely free of charge.
Now since I've already had my surgery and I'min a PT program that I really like, things are
progressing well, I I don't necessarily see theneed for something like this at this time.
And I, you know, there's part of me, I guess, alittle the little conspiracy guy in the back of
(03:47):
my head is like, well, are they just trying toget me back to work earlier?
Or whatever the case might be.
I don't really think that's necessarily thecase.
But I could see where this would be hugelybeneficial if it's something that you're like
well you know that there was something where itwas internal, that wasn't necessarily
musculoskeletal that you wanted to take asecond look at, if it was going to affect
future medical requirements, like if you had aharder neurological issue or something like
(04:13):
that, I can see where that would be superhelpful.
What I am focused on though is really just thisprocess getting better.
I dropped the word recovery and I'm trying todo like I'm building myself back better than I
ever was beforehand.
So I can come back stronger, do the stuff Ilove doing, playing with my kids, going to the
(04:34):
gym, playing a lot of golf, that kind of stuff.
So I think in that term, there's mentalpreparation there.
It's kind of funny, I've been reallyincorporating or trying to.
And for those of us with little kids out there,you know how tough this is.
Finding moments in your day when you can go dostuff like meditate or even just the PT
(04:55):
requirements that you have throughout the day.
Like my PT wants me to do five sets of what I'mdoing.
And by five sets, should say five differenttimes throughout the day.
And sometimes that's just not feasible.
I mean, we still have kids activities in schooland all that stuff going on in the background.
And to be able to do that is sometimes a bit ofa tall task.
(05:17):
So you have to kind of find your times andthat's where that process driven discussion
really comes into play, which I'll get to, likeI said, in a different podcast, but that
process in my mindset.
But I've been trying to incorporate otherthings.
The other thing that I really had to watch outfor was weight gain.
So after I had the surgery, man, I ate like a abird and a pig all at the same time.
(05:39):
I mean, I was eating everything in sight andlike I was moving like I used to.
I think I gained like six or seven pounds theweekend after surgery.
It was probably an emotional eating moment forme.
It felt good at the time, so I did it watchingcountless hours of Netflix and TV because you
just don't feel like doing anything else.
Especially that was my first time coming out ofthe full megilla of anesthetics.
(06:03):
I mean I've been under before for a colonoscopyand stuff like that, but this was like the full
thing with the fentanyl and everything else inthere that puts you under, and it took me a
good solid week to kind of get back on sort ofa normal schedule, feeling kind of normal
again, and then that's when you're trying tomitigate and manage your pain in your shoulder,
(06:24):
and my bicep is really what really bothered mebecause I also had a biceptiandesis where they
put the screw into your bicep tendon, andthat's still probably one of the bigger pain
points that I'm going through on a regularbasis.
But with with all that said, I almost droppedsome of the stuff on the admin side of my life
(06:46):
to focus on that.
And getting back to now where I feel prettygood of holy, I mean, yeah, I can't do a lot of
what I I can't clean the gutters.
I can't help carry in a lot of grocery stuff.
You know, it's all one arm actions.
I mean, there's a little bit I can carry.
Can carry a couple small things with my armsstraight, and sometimes I can pick up, you
(07:07):
know, a a couple cups or whatever.
It's hard to bend over and put stuff in thedishwasher.
Getting back to that's a little bitchallenging, but being able to show a presence
around the house has probably benefited my wifemuch more than anybody else And just also
helped me kind of feel like a normal personagain.
Where where I guess the the idea that I didn'treally fully flesh out before I started was
(07:34):
just how much of a a mental game this would be.
And a little bit of meditation has helped ton aton.
Keeping myself, keeping like that positivemental attitude the whole time and and really
thinking like, okay, I'm doing this for areason.
I'm gonna be stronger at the end of this.
Get back to flying airplanes.
Get back to doing what I love to do.
(07:54):
That is part of the process and and just andmaking sure that I instead I have this mental
attitude that the only way I'm gonna get tothese these things at the end of the rainbow is
to kind of forget about them a little bit andjust take it day by day.
And again, I'm only going through a shouldersurgery for rotator cuff and by bicep.
(08:15):
I'm not dealing with a cancer diagnosis andgoing through chemotherapy or a neurological
disorder or something wrong with my heart orany number of other things that all of you have
dealt with or many of you have dealt with outthere, has been 10x worse.
I'm just going through my little little trialand and trying to figure it out.
(08:36):
What what I what I hope this hits is is on formany of you who have not had any of these
issues is if and when you do have them, you cankind of come back to that thought process and
be like, Yeah, heard Adam say this once and Iknow other guys have talked about it, where
it's really keeping your chin up and thatmental attitude, that positive mental attitude
of thinking that, Okay, if I just stick to thisprocess, I'm going to come back stronger and
(09:00):
better than I was beforehand and get back todoing what I love, whether that's, flying
airplanes for fun, flying airplanes for money,or a host of other things that we enjoy on our
off time.
And one of the things that I enjoy in the offtime is getting down here and recording and
doing some of that kind of stuff and then alsoworking all the other things with TPN and and
(09:21):
doing other things out there that I get to dowith the time that I have that's down because I
can't physically do the stuff that I want todo, so I have to engage myself mentally and
keep myself really active.
And even, you know, even now and again crackingthe books, why not?
Why not take a look at what I got to come backto?
So that's kind of where I'm at in this process.
(09:43):
We've got kinda looking forward a bunch of coolstuff coming up.
We've got our first set of hanger flies wherewe're doing a bunch all at one time.
I think we have four.
We've got Phoenix, Milwaukee, Corpus Christi,and San Diego all going on.
So if you're interested in any of those, youcan go to TBN Pro if you're a pro member and
(10:05):
sign up there.
We're having some issues with putting thoseinto the events section, But if you ask the
question, our fearless chapters leader, that'sright, we're doing TPN chapters, goal is to put
them in all these cities out there.
You have a group of people that you can go toto talk, whether it's industry questions or
just getting together and and not having anagenda, having a beer or whatever it is you
(10:30):
like to do, and just chatting.
Whether it's about the industry, about aviationspecific stuff, or it's just a bunch of people
that you can meet who have like minds and canunderstand your background and where you're
coming from and you understand them as well.
I think that's a lot of stuff that we can dotogether and we can build off of.
I'm really excited to see where it goes as wekeep progressing.
(10:53):
We've also started the TPN AMA on the pro side.
We had a couple members join.
It was really, really great.
I hope it was informative for them.
It was I learned a lot.
We're gonna be keeping those up.
We won't have that one next week because we'regonna have the live meetup, the analog version
of this.
(11:13):
Hopefully hits a couple people and we can meetup, have a libation at best and at at worst,
you go home smiling like, hey, it's kinda likea mini little tiny TPNx for those of you who've
been there before and those of you who will bethere in the future.
That is a lot of fun and a chance for youreally to grow your network because that's
(11:35):
cliched, but it's true.
Your network will represent your net worth andyou can move a lot further in this career by
having a large network and people that you cancount on and they can count on you back.
That's that's the plan here.
Going forward, I hope everybody out there ishaving a great week flying airplanes wherever
(11:56):
that may be.
And if you have any ideas, did put an all callout there for folks to give me their stories
for why they would stay or why they would go inthe military.
You can check out that post and respond eitherto that post or write us an email
heyguyspilotnetwork dot com or if you haveanything else, anything that you want to bring
up to Matt or I and get off your chest or youwant to hammer us for something or you want to
(12:20):
give us a kudos, not not required, hit us up athey guys, the pilot network dot com.
You can check us out on all our socials, andsign up for our biweekly brief newsletter at
thepilotnetwork.com where I've been revampingsome of that with a lot of little nuggets and
stuff that's out there to help you in yourjourney, wherever that journey might take you.
Whether it's in on the flight deck or off theflight deck, there's gonna be lots of nuggets
(12:44):
and stuff out there as as well as some newsbrief items that we found that might be
interesting to you.
So go over there, you can sign up for thenewsletter.
But the the big key here is keep flying safe,keep doing great work that you all do out
there.
I look forward to seeing people in person soon.
And as always, keep that shiny side up, thegreasy side down.
(13:05):
Fly safe, everybody.
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