What comes with getting older

Things have been a little slow the past few weeks. I mentioned in the columns about my caribou hunt that my left ankle “failed” me. I was thinking the right knee might be a problem, but it did quite well, actually. I was disappointed with the ankle. That serves as a lead into my next statement.

The past two weekends, I’ve been involved in teaching Hunter Education classes. The first was a muzzleloader class which went well – I didn’t have much walking to do and all of that was on flat, even ground. This last Saturday, I helped with a crossbow class, which also went well except…. The proficiency shooting part of the class involves a layout of targets on the side of a ridge located at the Elks Camp north of Palmer, where the class was held.

Even though the trails to reach the shooting area are fairly obvious, they are steep with lots of exposed roots. My ankle did not take kindly to the climbing and walking. Everybody waited patiently for the old guy to catch up, but had there been a large group of students, I definitely would have been the delay in the program.

As things turned out, we got done a little early. Sunday, I turned 70 years old. Monday, I had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon who replaced my knee. He was happy to hear the caribou hunting trip report on how well the knee was doing. I then brought up the subject of my ankle, a fifteen-year-old injury.

There is no real corrective action that can be taken with the ankle, in my opinion. Oh, they can fit me for a brace or fuse the bones in the joint or even do a joint replacement as a “last-ditch” approach, but none of these fixes will bring me back to where I was prior to the injury.

The easiest and least “dramatic” approach involves getting a cortisone shot in the ankle joint to relieve inflammation and reduce pain from arthritis and the accident damage. I had that done several years ago and found, if the medication is injected into the exact area of the ankle, I had near normal use of the joint for almost nine months. The doctor doing that injection is an ankle specialist and knew exactly where to make the injection. The knee surgeon suggested we try another injection.

I was referred to another medical provider where the radiological doctors had experience doing this type injection using an ultrasound/x-ray type device which allowed them to watch exactly where the injecting needle was in relation to the joint. And, much to my surprise, I was able to get that injection only an hour-and-a-half after leaving the knee surgeon’s office.

While it is way too early to say this latest injection was a success, I have experienced significant pain relief so far. I see the knee surgeon in four weeks to evaluate how well this ankle procedure works. If things go well, this injection activity will be my “band-aid” for the ankle as long as the cortisone has any positive effect. Then we figure something else out.

For those of you who have experienced limitations on your mobility, you can appreciate what I’m talking about. Those of you who haven’t, be thankful and take care of yourself to avoid this situation if possible.

I’ll still get around but not being able to walk like I used to will impact my hunting and fishing activities. If I can fly in or boat in or ATV into an area, I can, at least, try to hunt and/or fish. The downside is that all my “secret spots” will have to be easily accessible, which means everybody else can get there too.

I’m also looking at reducing my big game hunts simply because the meat packing is getting to be more than I can do. I’ll probably concentrate more on small game and waterfowl because the chunks of meat are smaller and easier to carry. I can take my time with the walking part and, while I might not cover a lot of ground, I can cover it thoroughly.

Along those lines, I recently bought a little 410-gauge, bolt action shotgun. Don’t ask why, I just thought using a gun like that for grouse, ptarmigan, or snowshoe hares would be fun. And, since I’m a meat hunter first and foremost, I’m perfectly happy shooting a bird on the ground, so the bolt-action shouldn’t be a problem.