jdmidwest

How can you be broke with a $20 an hour income and no debt?

After my little Jolt in November, I have already had all of those thoughts. Now with my second chance, realizing that I am 52 and not bulletproof and waiting quarterly for the next 5 years for some feller to verify that his cuts got all of the cancer, life has a new perspective. Keep doing what I was doing. Exactly what I was doing with one little exception. I now realize there is no need to sweat the little stuff. I am the luckiest man in the world, how can I do better than that? I have my health again, my family and friends, and I can still do everything that I did before. I don't need anything more than that.

Was it a brown jersey with 5 fingers. I lost one of them and don't know where it is....

Maybe some skid marks left over on the banks..... Use some corn to match the hatch... What are all the complaints about? I have to drink the crap down here when I stop to eat in Cape Girardeau.

They used to call it a Montauk special. Add a marabou tail to it and you have a woolly bugger streamer. There are several catapillers that float on the water film when they fall in. A dry woolly worm would make a good imitation. Cracklebacks were originally designed to fish dry or stripped as a wet fly.

Irish Wilderness portion will have jet boat traffic, nut no worry. You have to worry more about flood water that time of year. Turkey flocks are fewer in that area, no crop land to support them. Just natural mast and bugs. Should be a good hunt.

It will flush out soon in the next big rain.

There has been poop in the water longer than there have been fish in it. It will dilute itself out next big rain. I think what made this flood monumental was all of the tributary flash flooding running into a swollen Mississippi. 93 was from flooding upstream on the Missouri and Mississippi backing up and spilling out into the Mississippi flood plain. This time, most of the water locally came from local streams like Meramec and others.

Aww poop. Good place to find brown trout now.

Never really thought about that one. But I am Protestant. Not sure who is the blame, the printer or the proofreader.

Not how he spells it on his storefront.

Something more to be thankful for. I was able to Fish a local lake for trout last Thursday. Casting into a wind and landing a 14" trout did not cause the arm any pain to speak of. I managed to get in an hour of fishing before dark. Last weekend was spent on the Spring River, my first trip out since surgery. Casting both a spin rod and fly rod worked well. The arm performed good with a wrap on it for protection and support. Fishing was fair, the river still running full. I enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets with a friend on the deck overlooking Lasseter's behind Riverview Motel. Ducks were flying and a cold beer was in hand. I count my blessings daily. I can fish again and enjoy life.

The park is open for camping at Montauk. There are plenty of places just south of the put in to camp at Baptist. Big gravel bar or hike down into the woods along a trail.

I usually run into a good rope swing on alot of my floats. Tie off the hammock to the tree and the rope and camp over water of the night. Fall out of bed into a refreshing bath to start the morning.

That wader wearing berry picking idea is a pretty good one. I hate ticks. How do they hold up against snakebites? Always see a few around the vines looking for vermin.

Yes it is.

Its nice to be getting back to normal. The surgery was pretty intense, but less painful than I expected. I posted some pics a while back. Things have healed up since. The tongue has hair on it now... The arm looks and works so much better. I almost passed out the day they unwrapped it and I got my first good look. It is almost fully functional again, just tender in spots.

First of all, thanks for all the thoughts and prayers from this group during my cancer issue. On Oct. 30, I was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue, stage 2 with a tumor about the size of a marble at the time of surgery on Nov. 23. Everything went well, they replaced about half of my free mobile tongue with a portion of my forearm and excised the cancer part along with my lymph nodes. I spent 9 hours in surgery, 7 days in the hospital, 2 1/2 weeks with a feeding tube and trach in my neck and nose. Results came back on Dec.9, no cancer was found outside the area of the tongue they cut out. Cancer free, no further chemo or radiation treatment. One little hiccup on week 4, the neck incision developed an infection that put me back in for 2 days of hospital observation. I have been back at work now almost 2 weeks. Customers and friends do not notice any difference in my speech. All that know what I have been thru are amazed to see me back to normal only 6 weeks after going into surgery. The arm has recovered most of its usage and mobility. I can talk, eat, swallow, and do everything normally with my new tongue. Life is almost normal again other than a few surgical scars. The new part of my tongue has hair growing on it, just like it did when it was on my arm, an interesting little conversation starter. I dropped about 20 lbs while on the feeding tube and actually feel better. I am now at my normal weight that I should be. I have spent the last few weeks thanking all that helped me along the way. Of course the surgeon and staff in St. Louis have been receiving my praises since I woke up after surgery. I have went back to the dentist and staff that found it. I have contacted the ER doc that first saw me later that afternoon, he was really concerned as he was the first one to officially say, "its cancer". What really amazes me is how many people were pulling for me. I don't do Facebook or other social media. This forum is my only outlet to the digital world other than my face to face connections in real life. My life has been spent dealing with the public for the last 30 years in some form or another. I keep getting stories about how it has gotten out on family and friends Facebook pages and how complete strangers were praying for my health. People telling me how they had me in their prayer group at church. It is getting to be pretty overwhelming to fathom the support I had going thru all of this. All of the stories coming in from friends and family telling me about others that have contacted them asking about my progress. I thank the Lord for being able to talk, eat, swallow, and function as almost nothing happened. I am above all thankful that I am now cancer free and pray that I will stay that way. And again, I thank all that have supported me along this part of my journey thru life.

I use a Renzetti Traveler. Have used it for about 25 years now. I upgraded it once when they cam out with the cam lever jaws, I replaced my old screw jaw one. It holds any size fly up to 2/0 very well. Full rotary, quick to mount a hook, and fairly reasonable for price. It is a high quality vice with good reviews. If you are tying alot of large flies, they have a saltwater version for big hooks.

Actually the life jacket might have saved your life. The body's normal reaction to frigid water is suck up and quit breathing or suck in a lung of water. The jacket would have kept your head up till the initial shock was over. I always wear a life jacket when fully clothed, in waders, or when the water is cold enough to create a shock. Glad you made it out.

Jan. and Feb. started with trips to fish for trout in Catch and Release areas and put and take ponds. Spring time brought goofy weather and lots of water. Panfish did well on lakes, rivers were too big to fish locally. Several planned trips were spent drinking beer watching muddy water rise or rain. Kayaks only spent one weekend on the Spring River and one weekend floating the Current/Jacks Fork. Something else kept them off the water all summer. We had one good jet boat trip on the 11 pt for a few days, then got rained out. August brought a turn of events for me. Lake and river fishing in Tennessee was the trip every weekend. Weather was fair most weekends. We travelled to fish Center Hill Lake and tailwater. The lake was uneventful, cold front messed up fishing. Tailwater trout fishing was pretty good, we were catching good numbers of small trout less than 10 inches. I think I spent every weekend and most vacation days from Aug thru Sept on TN waters with some great trips. Oct. had a few good weekends till the last one, which was the cancer diagnoses. From that point on, it was focus on getting the cancer out and recovery. Surgery was Thanksgiving. Cancer Free declaration on Dec. 9. My life has returned to almost normal this week with return to work for the first time in 5 weeks. Arm has healed and I am able to cast again. I don't feel like pushing my luck and trying to wade mud and muck, wagging dekes and a layout boat right now, so the rest of duck season will be spent fishing instead. New Years Eve was the first step in planning the new year and I made a few calls. All rivers and lakes are pretty well blown out now, so fishing is on hold this weekend. As soon as they clear, it will be trout in the Ozarks, Sauger at Pickwick, and Smallies on the TN River. Maybe a trout excursion to Chattanooga. Maybe a new bass boat by summer. This little cancer scare has taught me that life can be shorter than we plan.

Good Dry Bag and a nice comfy seat system.

None of the Docs pointed any fingers at what caused it. First question was "do you smoke" followed by dip tobacco next. Of course alcohol use promotes oral cancer too. My only message would be to watch for changes in your body and keep on top of it.

3 weeks later and alls well. Prayers have been answered and fulfilled many times over. Thanks to all that have kept me in their prayers. The surgery took about 9 hours as expected and 3 hours in recovery. 2 more days in ccu unit then out to a private room. By Thursday, I was weaning myself off pain meds to clear my head. I walked out of Barnes 1 week later under my own power with a feeding tube in my nose and a trach in my throat. Doctors said I had responded and recovered to the surgery as well as anyone could have, a perfect patient. I met alot of nice people there and am thoroughly impressed with the care I received at Barnes. On Dec. 9, I went back for a followup visit. The lymph nodes taken showed no signs of cancer in them, so the prognosis was no further chemo or radiation would be necessary. I am believed to be cancer free, surgery got it all. They removed the trach, cast off the arm, and feeding tube and I felt like a new man. I drove home. I still have some recovery to do. The arm needs some work, but I am able to type this. All fingers work and things are gaining strength. Speech is pretty good. Eating is a chore with the new tongue, it is a little fuller than the original and tends to wad stuff up in the roof on my mouth. You don't really realize the part that it plays in chewing, drinking, and swallowing. But I will learn to live with it. Here are some pics of the tongue before and after, and some of my scars. The divot out of my arm was used to build the new tongue portion, the square out of the leg was used to cover the divot. One little word of advice. Don't ignore any sore on your body very long. Have it checked out by a professional. Cancer grows very quick.

Barnes pioneered this tongue procedure, I have faith in them. I just want the cancer out so I can return to normal.