When health issues get in the way of hunting and fishing

I’ve been telling you about my health issues over the past few months to alert older men to the potential danger of prostate issues. I’ve also mentioned my seventeen-year-old left ankle problems to illustrate how significant permanent injuries folks suffer through the course of their lives can impact their quality of life.

Doctor’s appointments over the past week have provided significant new knowledge to me about the state of my health and opportunities to improve it. My first follow-up visit to my urologist provided me with the most encouraging news I’ve had in a while. The blood panel my urologist ordered a few days before my appointment showed that all my organ functions were within normal ranges and things were doing well (not bad for an old guy, huh?).

The most important news was that my PSA reading, which shows the condition of my prostate, was reported as undetectable in the lab test. That means the urologist was totally successful in removing my cancerous prostate gland. Ongoing monitoring will continue, but as it stands, I am totally cancer free with no indication of a cancer return. I was smiling quite broadly (under my mask) as the urologist gave me that news.

My cancer situation will be monitored for the rest of my life through blood tests and other procedures as needed, but this initial PSA reading strongly suggests that I might be spending more time talking fishing with my urologist (an avid fly-fisher) than about health issues in my future regular visits.

I’ve also written about my ankle over the years and Nick, a friend and fellow Fish and Game retiree, called after he had had ankle joint replacement surgery. He said the procedures were not that bad and that, as his surgery healed, he had almost the same complete use of his ankle as before but without the pain.

Up until now, I had rejected the idea of any surgery on my ankle because I didn’t want to lose a hunting and fishing season while healing and doing physical therapy. I was surviving on steroid shots to reduce swelling and relieve the pain of walking on the ankle. That steroid treatment worked well for a few years but became less and less effective as time went on. I am at the point where I can only get the shot every three months, but the shot only is effective for about six weeks. The other six weeks are painful when I walk. Essentially, my hunting and fishing activities were already significantly curtailed.

This past week, I had an appointment to see an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in ankles to consult about what can be done for my situation. At this point, my options are either a joint fusion or an ankle joint replacement. I assumed that a fusion would be the way to go because of healing times, my age, and all the hardware I’m still carrying in my ankle after seventeen years.

I was wrong.

The orthopedic surgeon ordered a set of x-rays of my ankle, and we began the discussion of what to do. Much to my surprise, he said an ankle joint replacement would be the preferred technique because of the hardware still present in the ankle. In fact, one hardware set would actually be beneficial for strengthening one area of bone. He also said that healing time would be shorter in that after about four weeks, I could start to put limited weight on the ankle.

The surgeon said that putting the limited weight on the joint would help it heal quicker and would assure the replacement joint was properly seated in the ankle. Thankfully, my diabetes was not a concern for the prostate surgery and the upcoming ankle replacement surgery since I seem to have it relatively under control.

The orthopedic surgeon does his ankle surgeries in batches, since he must bring up a representative with the hardware needed from the Lower 48. This person comes out of the San Diego area. His March “batch” is already full, and the next scheduled time currently is August. However, I think I might be the second person for August and the surgeon is checking to see if a May or June “batch” can be put together. If so, my surgery could be earlier than August.

Either way, I’ll lose the hunting season and probably a good chunk of the open water fishing season, but I’m really looking forward to being able to walk pain free after seventeen years!