Hi folks:
Haven't posted for awhile for various reasons, too complex to really
explain, but the overview is that I had a weird medical thing happen
right at the start of the Mongolia trip in June, and its put me way
off balance for awhile.

I'll spare the long story, reasons will be evident, but my right hand
and forearm basically died over a spell of a couple of days. Lost
almost all strength (but no sensation loss), most of my wrist
mobility, and ached like absolute hell for the entire trip. It was
impossible to cast my 8wt, and within a day, even my 4 wt. I finally
got off-river and saw a doc in Ulaanbaatar, another in HK, another in
Dubrovnik and several others in Maine, ran up thousands of $$ worth of
MRIs, Xrays, electrical tests, etc, and went from mid-June until late
September without even a diagnosis. But the pain and loss of strength
was enough that I could not type, fish, write, start a car, turn a
door knob, button a shirt...you get the drift.

Eventually, a doc back in HK diagnosed me with Idiopathic Brachial
Neuritis, and predicted about an 80% recovery in 3-4 months, and
possibly (but probably not) 100% recovery in a matter of years. In two
days I have my 4-month deadline, and I'm way less than 80%...probably
50%. It does not bode well, and although I'm back in the classroom, I
have noticed that the brain bone is connected to the nerve bone. I
feel like I've got a couple of short circuits...words don't flow,
thoughts jumble. Now I know how folks who have had a stroke must feel.
It really sucks. Of course, its because I know I'm 'mentally
distracted' by having a half-lame right hand that I have to
continually accommodate, but its enough that my daily routines take a
whole lot more time, and stupid as it sounds, its embarassing to
suddenly become semi-literate and lose a certain 'edge'.

So I'll probably make a few posts here and there, but I'm far from
back. My personal deadline (if we can impose such things on a healing
process) is March 1, when I'm taking 17 kids to NZ for a flyfishing
trip. Between now and then, I need to teach them the basics (knots,
simple casting, nymphing, terminology, how to assemble their rig, C&R
techniques,etc), so look forward to some posts about that process.
Along the way, I'll learn to cast left handed, but there are still
some important things (mending, reeling) that I have to see if my
right hand can do.


I'll let you know how it goes.

--riverman