On Oct 18, 9:05 pm, rb608 wrote:
On Oct 18, 8:16 am, riverman wrote:

Hi folks:

Hi Myron. Sorry to hear about that. As others have already said,
best of luck to you on the hopefully quick recovery. I am such a
total feeb left-handed, I can't imagine having to deal with something
like that.

Yeah, me too. I can't even use a fork left handed.


Any clue as to the initiating event? Is this just one of those things
that happens, or could it be in any way connected to your far-flung
travels?

Joe F.

No one knows, but I guess it's possible that it could be related to my
travels, since I've been in some rather offthebeatenpath places. There
is a theory that it might sometimes be virus-related, and god knows
that HK and Congo are virus central. However, the cases that they
think are viral occur immediately after the patient gets an
innoculation, and I haven't had any shots in quite a while. And they
account for a very small fraction of the total cases, which in itself
isn't so many. That's part of the reason it took so long to get it
diagnosed, and all of why there still isn't any real idea of what to
do about it besides wait and see.

My guess is that, whatever the cause was, it was exacerbated by
casting a heavy 8-wt for a full day with all my strength (casting for
Taimen involves some serious hurling with very large, heavy flies).
Then, when it started really hurting, I was several days out in the
wilds of Mongolia so instead of getting immediate medical care and
resting it, I had to paddle 100 miles and live on dozens of aspirin a
day. Ken will appreciate that I went days on end with the paddle up
under my right armpit, steering with a sweep, and just drifting
through class 2 and 2+ rapids without taking any strokes.

I think if I had been in civilization, it might not have gotten so bad
before I gave it a chance to rest and recover. But then again, its a
mysterious thing and I don't have a control group to compare myself
to.

Meanwhile, if I can get my head wrapped around it and get it written,
watch the online version of Canoe&Kayak for an article about the trip.
They asked me to write one earlier this week, and I'm trying to get
started. I'll avoid any reference to my injury, but you guys will be
able to read between the lines when I make reference to layover
days...

--riverman