Painless hunting and fishing, dead ahead……
To begin 2014, I would like to thank the thousands of you who sent “get well” notes and cards as I recover from full hip replacement surgery December 26.
Yes, I would really like to do that but none of you sent me even a single flower. What’s wrong with you? Actually it is my wish that you and your families found a blessed Christmas, and will find a healthy new year ahead. May the rutting monster buck turn toward your stand. And Lori, no man ever had a better wife-nurse post-surgery. Thanks for letting me wear your stockings for circulation. I’ve been doing that anyway when you leave for work for 10 years. FYI.
As noted, I will spend the upcoming weeks and months updating you as I work my way back into the field. Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin Baby Boomers in particular, are finding themselves more and more in need of repair or replacement of hips, knees, shoulders — with painless hunting and fishing again the ultimate destination.
I’m guessing my story as a 55 year old male may reflect your own. For a decade, I have experienced pain in the left hip area. I hunt with a climbing tree stand that I carry in on my back to areas that hold the deer at any given time. I fish way-back trout streams. I golf. I walk with beautiful wife Lori. I do these things with my other constant companions; pain, pain, and pain.
Finally, over the last year, when sharp pain led to a strong feeling that my leg would collapse occasionally when walking, and my friends asked me if I knew I was limping (I did not) and politically correct brother Jim Ellis started calling me Festus, I went for orthopedic evaluation through my family caregivers at Aurora. Dr. Nicholas Webber evaluated the x-rays, said “your hip is horrendous”, scratched off any need for physical therapy as a potential fix-it prior to surgery, and scheduled the knife for the day after Christmas.
It’s a crazy world. My wife was given an iPad at St. Luke’s and kept updated step by step as the surgery progressed. Surgery was estimated to be 90 minutes from “prep time to clean-up” and I was not on the operating table for more than two hours. Doctor Webber told Lori my hip was among the worst he’s ever seen and transferred a photo from his phone to my wife’s phone. Instead of the normal round white cue ball-like bone, it’s a bloody red oblong excuse for a bone.
Anyway, I am one week into recovery, exercising and resting and working and leaning a bit on Vicodin and Oxycontin. Bowl games and basketball games are a great break, and, believe it or not, I should be doing anything I want again…without pain….in six weeks. Thanks for coming on this journey with me.
Thanks too for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. Our January-February issue is on the streets and posted here on our homepage. Also posted are the usual Guide and DNR reports, outdoor media releases, firearms updates, and hunting and fishing information, scattered throughout.
Healthy New Year. Shoot straight.
Dick Ellis