I'm having brain surgery Monday morning for a Chiari Malformation Type 1.  I'll be having Decompression surgery including a suboccipital craniectomy, cervical laminectomy of my C1, and a Duraplasty.

Bow season starts in 7 weeks.


I doubled my workout time for the last 2 months to get as physically ready for this surgery as I possibly can be, and am in probably better shape at 48 than I was at 28. I really want to recover in time for hunting, it really is the only thing that gets me up every morning the rest of the year. I have 5 weeks scheduled off of work on FMLA, so I'll still be drawing a paycheck out of my sick time.


I did all my deer camp / deer stand work ahead of time, took my 4-wheeler down to camp 2 weeks ago since I won't be able to lift the trailer onto the truck for some time, salted my salt holes, put new ratchet straps on my stands, etc.

Phase 1 of this challenge is ending, and Phase 2 is about to begin: The healing.

good luck, keep us updated

This

 

Good Luck!

And I switched to rifle season just to give my simple foot surgery more time to heal!

Surgery went great, I am at home now.

Do what you need to in order to obtain the fullest recovery possible.  I wish you all the best, but please do not be foolish.

I am like you, and would push it to go afield.  Now that I am older, and hopefully wiser, I look at it this way.  If your recovery is not as fast as you like, you can miss one deer season and recover to the fullest extent possible.  Or, you can push it to make this year, and possibly shorten your whole life many years.

Hunting is life for many of us, but keep it in perspective.  God and family first bud.

Godspeed.

If I am not ready I will not go until I am.

July 8th 1992, I had a frontal Craniotomy, for treatment of a Benign Pituitary Macro adenoma.

The recovery was difficult, but I was able to go grouse hunting on the September 1st opener.

Haven't missed an opener since.

Stay strong.

Hope you are doing well. I got seriously hurt at work on April 1 and shattered my scapula. I had surgery on the 17 of April with placement of metal plates and 15 or so screws bolting my angel wing bone back together. Hosed some nerves in there so I cant yet lift
My Mathews and draw or even get the foreend of a gun up but I am hopeful. If I have to Ill hunt with my "Dirty Harry" 629 in 44 mag
And shoot 1 handed. Ill be dMned if I wont be in the woods Opening day

Dang Cleatus!!!  Sorry to hear about the mess, but I'm glad to hear the surgery is over.  Prayers sent for a quick and full recovery!

Had my 1 week check up with the surgeon, and he said everything looked great so far. No brain patch leakage, and the incision is healing fine. Cleared me to drive and start exercising again, but no lifting over 10 pounds for the next 3 weeks. On Monday I'm going to start going back to the gym and just do treadmill work to build up my stamina slowly as I get tired fairly easy. My arms hurt more than my head does from all the IVs, all of them seemed to have dumped a lot of blood into my wrists and forearms.

Pic of my glued up head.

Wow. it is amazing how far the medical field has advanced. I spent a week in recovery, had twenty staples in my incision (looked like something out of a horror movie for weeks), and wasn't allowed to drive for six weeks.

Glad you are doing well.

Hunting season shouldn't be a problem.

I have my 4 week check-up with the surgeon tomorrow morning, and I am expecting him to clear me for normal activities including going back to work, so September 8th I'll be getting back to the shop., and bow season starts September 13th.

My boss has promised me a light work load until I say I'm healed ( I do bench work rebuilding brake valves, so I can do small valves). Looking forward to getting back to work as I got a congratulatory letter in the mail from the company about a suggestion that I submitted back in March that saved the company about $253k this year. They are cutting me a check for $5k as a reward for the idea.

Incision is all healed up, and I cut grass yesterday which was a nice workout.

Going to Bass Pro Shops today to finish up shopping for bow season, crossbow has been cleaned, strings waxed, and channel lubed.

My friend and co-worker had that surgery done in 2005.  Recovery was about 3 months, but he played golf afterwords, and still does OK today.  He still has some residual gait issues and numbness in his arm, but overall he's doing pretty well.



Good luck with yours.

Cleatus,  I just read your GD post.    Two steps forward.  One step back.  Hang in there, brother!!

Yeah, had fluid build up in the surgical space, and it found a way out. Had more surgery, and 5 more days in the hospital. Good news was that my brain patch wasn't leaking, and all my infection tests came back negative, so I only have to heal the incision over again.

I have a  drain attached to the incision to keep the fluid drained away until Friday.

I've written off bow season, but am hoping to be good to go for Muzzle-Loader and gun season.

Glad you are healed up!  I hunted all of bow season last year with an ankle injury and it sure wasn't fun.

Things are looking good so far, we approached this recovery a little differently with the drain in for 8 days, which I had removed Friday and got the incision stitched up real tight. Also have a course of post-op antibiotics this go-round. Glad my surgeon ( who is the best around for this kind of thing) wanted to be aggressive towards any potential infection with a second, less-invasive surgery.

I'll be getting my stitches out next Friday and can return to work the following Monday.

Not going to push it and try to get any bow season in, going to shoot for muzzle-loader so I can have a few extra weeks to heal up. Our gun season is real long, so I'll have plenty of time to hunt.