hurting yourself right before a hunt?

[boom]

i'm okay.

i use MTN-biking as my exercise. i get out, it's very strenous, and it is fun. my cardio health is doing so much better these days.

July3rd, it kinda went sideways. how it happened isnt important; but i crashed. hit my head and my helmet sacrificed itself and saved me some misery, or worse.

i fractured my knee in the process. i absolutely RUINED my 4-day camp/hike trip up the Inca Trail in Peru. talking to the PT guy yesterday, my Sept elk hunt is at risk. it is a mild fracture. i can bear weight on it, and i am in a brace to immobilize it. i thankfully do not need crutches. road rash barely describes what i have going on..haha.

i think i will be okay by Sept. i wont have the strength and endurance, but my fracture is so mild. i get a new xray next week to see how it is doing..then start PT i hope.

oh, i am still going to Peru. i paid some $$ to move my trip about. i'll get to the top of the mountain on a train to meet my group. then fishing in the Amazon jungle should be a non-issue.

please tell me some stories

 

[elkyinzer]

July 8, 2015. I remember the date because we picked up our puppy the next day.

Playing 3rd base in a co-ed softball game, taking a throw from right field have this young lady dead to rights. Throw was pretty good but I have to go out a little to get it, instead of sliding like she should have or simply avoiding contact she just form tackles my knee instead, I guess she thought that was the best option at the time. I was pissed. Torn MCL. Took about 6 weeks to rehab to the point I could train for the mountains again, but I was ok. Did a lot of kayaking to keep up on cardio. Legs weren't 100% but I gutted it out and killed an elk that September. Listen the the PT, that was my third time through and each time early on I thought they were trying to kill me, but you gut through it.

 

[unclericco]

LOL...oh man do I ever have a story on this subject that’s gonna make you feel a whole lot better. I have to go to a meeting right now tho so I’ll have to come back later.

 

[loggerchas]

Here's a story....

August 2015: I had recovered from prostate cancer treatment very early in the year. Unfortunately, the treatment aggravated/caused a urinary stricture in my urethra. Just taking a leak was like molten lava through the main vein. After multiple tests including a camcorder being shoved where it should never go, the cystoscopy showed the urinary stricture plain and clear. An insurance dispute forced me to go to a different urologist. The new urologist suggested expansion of the urethra/stricture using a balloon catheter. During the procedure the balloon ruptured. Burst. Exploded inside the juicy bits. Imagine a M80 going off inside your perineum. It hurt. I screamed. I cried. I hunted with a penile catheter in all during that elk hunt and am quite sure I brushed against every twig in the forest at waist level. After additional complications during the antelope hunt that year (after the catheter was removed), I scheduled my urethroplasty (don't Google images of that if you have a sensitive stomach, LOL) after Christmas so I had plenty of time to heal for 2016.

Get well!

 

[boom]

Here's a story....

August 2015: I had recovered from prostate cancer treatment very early in the year. Unfortunately, the treatment aggravated/caused a urinary stricture in my urethra. Just taking a leak was like molten lava through the main vein. After multiple tests including a camcorder being shoved where it should never go, the cystoscopy showed the urinary stricture plain and clear. An insurance dispute forced me to go to a different urologist. The new urologist suggested expansion of the urethra/stricture using a balloon catheter. During the procedure the balloon ruptured. Burst. Exploded inside the juicy bits. Imagine a M80 going off inside your perineum. It hurt. I screamed. I cried. I hunted with a penile catheter in all during that elk hunt and am quite sure I brushed against every twig in the forest at waist level. After additional complications during the antelope hunt that year (after the catheter was removed), I scheduled my urethroplasty (don't Google images of that if you have a sensitive stomach, LOL) after Christmas so I had plenty of time to heal for 2016.

Get well!

holy crap!! that was good writing..i felt the pain!!

and i am so glad you are better!!

 

[KSP277]

29th of August 2006, blown up by IED. Free Blackhawk ride
29th of August 2008, fell out of the bed of a pickup going down highway shoved my big toe out bottom of my foot, pissing blood, covered in road rash.
29th of August 2010, Anhydrous Ammonia exposure at work, burnt my lungs and enjoy a dose of pneumonia every year since.

Now, On even years, on the 29th of August I stay in a dark room sitting in my hands

 

[KSP277]

Don’t recall which injury it was but I did arrow a few deer wearing a walking boot and crutches. Hobbled my ass all the way to a ground blind, only to find out it’s been stolen. Got mad. Threw crutch. Then got extra mad my dumbass just threw my crutch and now had to go find it

 

[Trial153]

Dropped a tree on my foot about 4 weeks before a moose hunt. Amazing i didnt break anything. I could put a boot on till about a week before the hunt. I managed to arrow bull despite walking around gingerly. The pack out was excellent, loved it .....

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Bobbyboe]

In October of 2016 I fell out of a tree stand and broke my ankle in a few places. After a 1/2 mile crawl through a flooded field I got to the hospital for treatment. I had surgery to place a few screws in my Talus bone.

Against doctors orders, I made it out hunting in November on crutches.

Still feeling pain periodically today from that injury.....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Becca]

Find a good PT who understands what you want to do, and supports you and setting appropriate goals. I fractured my tibia and fibula (both lower leg bones) in my left leg mountain goat hunting in oct 2010, and have a titanium rod and 3 screws. My leg will never be the same as it was pre-accident, but with 2 separate years of physical therapy (I went back about 5 years after my accident for a tune up)I am in better shape than I have ever been and know how to manage the issues I am prone to. Follow directions, actually do the work (don’t just expect them to fix you during your sessions, actually do the exercises at home) and set realistic goals.

I got hurt in Oct 2010, was totally non weight bearing for 8 weeks and in a walking cast until January 2011. I spent Jan-April working to rebuild strength, Black bear hunted in May, backpacked in June and July (with less weight than normal for me), and hiked 18 miles 1 way to help my husband shoot his first fall sheep. I carry ibuprofen and Tylenol in my bino pouch, although I find I take it less now than I did those first few seasons.

My physical therapist (now a personal friend) is also a hunter, and never once told me I shouldn’t go. But he did help me set reasonable expectations, and encourage me to keep doing the activities I love with minor adaptations when necessary to prevent further injury.

 

[5MilesBack]

Getting hurt or having some other issue right before the season is pretty much an annual event for me. Broken bones, torn ligaments or tendons, losing my hearing, detaching a retina, blowing up a bow, etc, etc.

In 2009 I had a torn retina in my left eye the second week of August. No biggy, he lasered it and I went on with my life. Two weeks later the Tuesday before opening archery elk weekend I had my two week followup. He dilates the eye and looks around and says "I'm scheduling you for surgery on Thursday". WHAT?

He says the retina is now detached and needs surgery. I told him I was leaving Friday for elk season. He replied "Fine, as long as you want to hunt blind the rest of your life". I asked how long the recovery would be and if I would make it out hunting within 4 weeks before the season closed. He replied "NO". Bummer.

So had the surgery with the buckle around the eye, the Nitrogen bubble inside my eye, and my head down with both eyes closed while sitting on the couch for two straight weeks. Hardest thing I've ever had to do. Sitting for 5 minutes is like having teeth pulled for me.

Well, the Wednesday before the season ended I had a check-up. He says "I've never seen anything like it, but I don't even need to see you back, it's healed". I looked at him with a big smile and he says "Yes, you can go hunting". Yesss!

Because of the buckle strap around the eye, it changes the vision. So had to stop by the optometrist for a contact for that eye on Thursday, and then loaded up the truck and headed up Friday morning. Set up camp, ate lunch, and drove off to one of my spots about 1pm. I started cow calling as soon as I left the truck, and a couple hundred yards later I shot a 6x6 five minutes into my hunt. Crazy stuff. To top it off, it was a bull I had chased the year before as well. That's the only time I have ever called in and shot a bull using cow calls. I'm a bugler.

The next year I somehow completely lost the hearing in my right ear 10 days before the season started. 10 days of high dose steroids and it slowly crackled back over the next few weeks. Then broke my left thumb on Sept 1st sliding and then tumbling down a wet slope in the dark coming out that night. Weeeeee doggggggie. Keep pressing on.

 

[CorbLand]

Working for a tire shop and we were always playing with each other. We had an exceptionally good day. Steady business to keep us busy, everything went as it should have. We were killing it in terms of getting people in and out quickly. I was balancing the last cars tires for the day. I had the hood up on the balance machine and one of our favorite things to do was hit the plastic hood with something when they were concentrating on the tire. It would scare the crap out of you. A kid I work with threw a chunk of wood at the hood right as I dropped it and it smacked me in the eye. Eye brow and nose took the brunt of it but my eye still twitches to this day. Didn't effect my hunting season but it was in August and I had a tag for late August. I was a little worried but I was good to go by the time the hunt came around.

 

[WV Mountaineer]

Left testicle swelled up the size of a baseball plus. Over 3 inches long, and about 9 inches girth. They cut me from the back of my bag to the base of my tool, to remove the Testicle due to "Testicular torsion". I was fine with that too because it HURT man. Anyways i awoke to a room of urologists just giddy with themselves. They told me that it was in fact still alive and they were able to "save it". I left the hospital the next day and was hunting 3 weeks later. If you have never walked multiple miles with a healing scrotum and a over swollen testicle, you've never lived really. That took real will power trying to get back on my feet. It took real patience to find out 9 months later they misdiagnosed it. Nearly lost my life to stage 3 Testicular cancer. Missed most of the next hunting season doing Chemo too. So, be happy with what you got. It could always be worse. I promise. God Bless and heal well.

 

[jeffpg]

Damn...

I was going to share about my fractured tailbone during a offshore fishing freak accident before my Wyoming elk hunt, it was very slow healing and limited my exercise ability, but it kinda pales in comparison.

 

[handwerk]

One of the toughest things about getting old is not bouncing back like you used to.
In 2007 I went over the handlebars of my Mt. bike...11 years later my shoulder is still a mess and likely to only get worse with time. At 51 I do find I'm much mellower on those single tracks...... not to mention being self employed and getting racked up is very costly.

 

[IdahoElk]

Broke 6 ribs riding my trail bike first week of July and was packing into camp
Sept.1st

 

[Whaledriver]

Blew out my Achilles over the spring. Was back to work 8 weeks after surgery. Starting to ramp up hiking no load. 2 weeks will start adding weight. My suggestion is to do the things you can, upper body, other leg, shooting ect. Do not stop because of injury. I have set goals and the goals will be met. Hunting season has been an excellent motivator. I plan on this being my best year yet.

 

[archer wapiti]

Geezus! that's some scary stuff you all have been through!

I was just thinking last night 'this would be a helluva way to screw up my hunts' as I was creeping closer and closer to the eaves of my new steel roof to install some more screws...

Be careful out there, folks!

 

[boom]

i actually feel like the SAFETY guy in this group..

hahah..some of you all bludgeoned yourselves! i am glad collectively, we are all okay.

 

[307]

This topic is why I absolutely hate the crash course fitness programs that try to get people "in shape" way too quickly with way too much intensity on top of generally poor exercise selection.