"riverman" wrote in message
ups.com...
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

Please disregard my reply to Roger, except for the part about wishing you
and he well.

You know I had a similar experience back before my back surgery. Both of my
hands started to ache incredibly one morning, out of the blue, for no
apparent reason whatsoever and I had lost 80 or more percent of the strength
in both hands? I couldn't lift a pot of coffee with one hand. Even stranger
was that the morning after I had my back surgery --disc at c6-c7, went in
thr the front of my neck-- the pain was gone, completely and I had recovered
most of the strength I had before the onset of this affliction?

Unfortunately, it came right back as soon as I got home that afternoon? I
went thru a series of specialists. Arthritis doctor said it wasn't
rhuematoid. He was stumped. Sent me to DR. PAIN for electro-shock and needle
probes into my arms and back to check for nerve damage. Was told nothing was
wrong there. I finally gave up paying the outrageous and indecipherable
bills. My surgery was in Dec. of last year and I have finally regained most
of my hand strength--90% or better, I'm guessing--and I have some slight
pain and residual stiffness but am otherwise much better now.

I sure hope thing greatly improve for you in the very near future!

Take care.

Op