Realization of how lucky we are all.

[firstcoueswas80]

Tonight at work, I helped a very nice young man. He was "slow"(if this term is offensive, please forgive me as I do not know what else to say. PM me and I will edit/erase it), and had a obvious physical handicap. I assumed it to be a born tragedy. After talking to this bright eyed, always smiling young man, I found out that he was walking to class when he was younger (hes only 18 now) and was struck by vehicle while in a cross walk. He was minding his own business in a marked cross walk and got nailed by a car going 45 mph. I could see the scars, and could tell he had quite a battle for his life, which he won including one month of acoma. He had a passion to hunt, was telling me about his spike coues and two cow elk that he had taken before the accident. He still loves to hunt and asked me what rifle to buy and how to apply. He ended up leaving with a 7mm-08 and a copy of the regs to read.

 

This was a eye opener on how lucky we all are to be able to do what we love to do every day. Please do not take a day for granted that we are able bodied to be in coues,elk, even mule deer country!

[CouesWhitetail]

Good reminder Casey! I frequently am thankful for being able to hunt the harsh terrain that Coues love. I was very thankful on my backpack hunt that I was healthy enough to go where I wanted and needed to go. A friend of mine was in a bad car accident a year ago and she was in a coma for quite awhile. The doctors gave her about zero chance to come out of it, and yet she did AND she is now able to walk a little, which is amazing. Her mind seems perfectly intact, but her body has some catching up to do. That's coming very slowly. She was a very active athlete before the accident and it's amazing what a moment of tragedy can do to a person. I am truly thankful for my health!

 

Amanda

[azpackhorse]

Great post Casey! I am proud of you! Not a day goes by that I am not thankful for my health, just like many other people I have literally been 1mm from being bound to a wheelchair and even closer than that to not being around at all.

 

Just last Friday my wife and I were hit by someone that had been drinking, they impacted us at 90+ mph (my estimate). Other than our car being totalled and a couple of cases of whiplash we came out of it alright.

 

One of my buddies told me that I am the luckiest unlucky person he knows

 

 

Be thankful for what you have and your loved ones, you never know when either will be gone.

[Snapshot]

Physical ability is something we take for granted until we don't have it anymore, and when we see how it effects us and others it is an eye opener.

I have been plagued by a chronic back problem and I am looking into surgery next year. I have always been the type of hunter who charges up the mountain, down the other side, and up and over three more mountains and back to camp in the dark. I just can't do that as much because of my condition, and being only 45 years old, I would like to enjoy the 20 years or so that I have left to hunt without being severely impaired.

But in retrospect, my condition is nothing compared to other hunters/fisherman I have seen with severe impairments, and I am glad to see that they still try their best to do what they love!

[CouesWhitetail]

Great post Casey! I am proud of you! Not a day goes by that I am not thankful for my health, just like many other people I have literally been 1mm from being bound to a wheelchair and even closer than that to not being around at all.

 

Just last Friday my wife and I were hit by someone that had been drinking, they impacted us at 90+ mph (my estimate). Other than our car being totalled and a couple of cases of whiplash we came out of it alright.

 

One of my buddies told me that I am the luckiest unlucky person he knows

 

 

Be thankful for what you have and your loved ones, you never know when either will be gone.

 

Wow, Brian. I am sorry to hear about that accident! What a nightmare. Thank God you both came out relatively unscathed. Man that is so scary.

 

Amanda

[mattys281]

I've got a buddy from Prescott who helped meget into roadracing years ago who was injured in a quad accident down in the dunes right before Christmas 2 years ago. He was probably the most active person you could every know, the kind of guy that would run to the box to check the mail, because he hadn't the time to stroll. He was working for the Prescott PD when the accident happend & loved it. Two years later, he's still paralyzed from the chest down & bound to a wheel chair.

 

You're right on the mark Casey. Your health is something you should never take for granted, because it can be gone in an instant.

 

Incidently, Robb is probably still one of the most active guys I know. Visited him a couple months back & he was telling me about his garage that he'd been working on. He was having trouble finding someone to help him finish the inside, so he'd done it himself. As he explained it, it was only taped & drywalled about four feet high, because that's the highest he can reach from his chair, but at least he'd gotten that much done. There's no stopping some people.

 

Matt S.

[firstcoueswas80]

I have been reading through some old posts tonight and came across this one.

 

3 years later, I still can recall this exact encounter and it reminded me to be thankful.

[.270]

last saturday was one of the worst days of my life. took some friends to my cousins ranch to hunt lions for a few days. as they rode off and i stood there watching em, it really hit me hard. back is too screwed up to ride anymore. at least right now. i kinda doubt i'll ever be able to ride all day, day after day, again. i spent all but the last 2 days of deer season in bed with this sciatic garbage. take care of yourself. one little car wreck that didn't look to be bad, wiped out 4 discs. add the accumulation of working hard and being especially active and it can really take a toll on you. just as bad as a really bad accident, like the kid casey talked about. be thankful for health. at least i don't have to live on pain pills, like a couple guys i now. but man that hit hard when i realized i had to stay at the cabin. and they caught a big tom too. guess i'll hafta learn to cook better. Lark.

[roninflag]

Reminder could not come at as better time of year. thanks . roniflag

[CouesWhitetail]

Amen Brother!

[Blade53]

Very true, you can have everything in the world,but without good health, nothin else really matters. My bro was a good example of that, I would wish everyone good health and happiness.............Dan.

[billrquimby]

I have lived with heart-related diseases for nearly 45 years. I'm alive only because doctors were able to insert a stent in my 100% blocked "widowmaker" artery within five minutes of a massive heart attack at Tucson Heart Hospital in 2003.

 

I had been a three-packs-a-day smoker until then, and although that attack scared me enough that I quit cold turkey, fifty years of abusing my lungs with cigarettes left me with COPD, CHF, and a bunch of other acronyms for some awful maladies.

 

Atrial-fibrillation caused my heart to race erratically up to 300 beats per minute with the slightest stress or extra physical activity. This still occurs, but a pacemaker implanted in 2009 helps. More importantly, it keeps me from having to be cardioverted (shocked) every couple of weeks as I needed to have done before then.

 

Sleep apnea (without realizing it, I wake up at least 80 times per hour, gasping for air because I've stopped breathing) means I never can get a good night's sleep and am constantly fatigued.

 

Although I take pills that make me pee every 10-20 minutes, my body retains water and I've puffed up like the Pillsbury Doughboy. No matter how much I diet, I still weigh a lot more than I should.

 

Because of peripheral artery disease and chronic heart failure, my heart has trouble pumping blood back from my lower extremities. This causes my lower legs to turn permanently purple and ache when I must stand in a line or walk more than 75-100 yards without stopping to get my weight off my legs.

 

Nonetheless, I'm fortunate to not have to endure what a lot of people on this planet must endure.

 

A guy I once worked with at the Tucson Citizen crashed his motorcycle into a tree and for the last 30 years has been in a wheelchair, unable to move his legs . A fraternity brother had polio as a boy and his 18-inch legs are useless. A friend -- a famous and very talented wildlife artist -- developed Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and now stares at walls and doesn't recognize his family. Another friend's wife has severe macular degeneration and soon will be blind. There are thousands of young people who lost multiple limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

I could go on but my point is, at 74, each day I wake up is a good one. And when I spend a few hours hunting something, it's a truly wonderful day.

 

Bill Quimby

[firstcoueswas80]

Bill, 3 packs a day? How did you manage to do anything else besides smoke? Holy helll! Imagine how rich you could be!

 

Glad you are still here with us!

[billrquimby]

Bill, 3 packs a day? How did you manage to do anything else besides smoke? Holy helll! Imagine how rich you could be!

 

Glad you are still here with us!

 

I had two full-time, high-stress jobs with drop-dead deadlines in those days. We still could smoke at our desks, and cigarettes weren't as expensive as they are now.

 

I'd get up at 3:30 a.m., light my first cigarette and be at the newspaper at 4:30, work until 11:30, and be at my other job a bit after noon. I'd try to be home by 7:30-8:00 p.m. and be in bed by 10. I had a cigarette burning almost all my waking hours.

 

Dumb!

 

Bill Quimby

[azslim]

my wife has medical problems, when it was first diagnosed and she spent lots of time at the hospital she would feel sorry for herself - until she saw little kids that had just barely started living coming in for treatment, that changed her attitude. No matter what we face, at least we have spent some time on this earth, seeing a baby, or a kid that is 3 to 5 fighting for life puts a different slant on things.