I may be hunting ducks again next season

[MCgunner]

I didn't go this year. I've been quite unsteady on my feet in the last 9 months or so and lacked energy. Walking in the marsh that is the WMA I hunt is tough enough on a healthy young man. I figured I was just getting old and would have to give up the ducks. My grandpa gave up deer and all hunting when he was my age.

So, I recently found out WHY these things were happening to me. I collapsed in church Sunday, my legs just gave out and I was quite helpless on the floor. If I'd done that in the marsh, I'd have been quite dead by now. The gators or the hogs would have finished me off. Well, in the ambulance I saw that my blood pressure was 85 over 30. THAT got me worried. Turns out my blood sugar was nearly 500. I have another condition that complicated things, too, that I've been fighting for 20 years, but I've never been a diabetic until now. No time like the present I suppose.

So, I've already been getting stronger through exercise, my walks in the woods which I can do again. I've had to modify my diet a bit, no more potatoes or at least not as much, same for white rice, etc. And forget sweets. Gone are my late night cereal treats.

I have been working in the garden and getting my heart rate up, huffing and puffing, but able to do the work. My current goal is to once again swing my Mossberg in my beloved marsh again, see the sun rise over the water and the early teal come whistling in. We'll see how that goes, I suppose. At this point, I just thank God I'm alive.

 

[Patocazador]

I had to just about give up duck hunting too due to the exertion necessary to load the stuff, hook up the boat, launch it, go 7 miles up the river to a swamp, put out the decoys and then do it all in reverse when I'm through. At least my 12 yr. old dog is still active enough to retrieve when I go twice a year just walking.

The fact you got to where your blood sugar is that high tells me you haven't been keeping up with regular check-ups. It's important to do so at our ages to keep from getting into serious trouble.

Good luck with your regimen.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

I didn't go this year. I've been quite unsteady on my feet in the last 9 months or so and lacked energy. Walking in the marsh that is the WMA I hunt is tough enough on a healthy young man. I figured I was just getting old and would have to give up the ducks. My grandpa gave up deer and all hunting when he was my age.

So, I recently found out WHY these things were happening to me. I collapsed in church Sunday, my legs just gave out and I was quite helpless on the floor. If I'd done that in the marsh, I'd have been quite dead by now. The gators or the hogs would have finished me off. Well, in the ambulance I saw that my blood pressure was 85 over 30. THAT got me worried. Turns out my blood sugar was nearly 500. I have another condition that complicated things, too, that I've been fighting for 20 years, but I've never been a diabetic until now. No time like the present I suppose.

So, I've already been getting stronger through exercise, my walks in the woods which I can do again. I've had to modify my diet a bit, no more potatoes or at least not as much, same for white rice, etc. And forget sweets. Gone are my late night cereal treats.

I have been working in the garden and getting my heart rate up, huffing and puffing, but able to do the work. My current goal is to once again swing my Mossberg in my beloved marsh again, see the sun rise over the water and the early teal come whistling in. We'll see how that goes, I suppose. At this point, I just thank God I'm alive.

Next fall when you reach your goal and that first teal tumbles, I wonder if you will think you have died and gone to Heaven.

 

[Armored farmer]

Best wishes mc, im glad you're still among the living. Im glad you were in church too.

I've been noticing myself how far down the floor has gotten, and even further back up. Msybe if i would lose 50#, my old Kirkpatrick gunbelt would fit again!

 

[MCgunner]

I had to just about give up duck hunting too due to the exertion necessary to load the stuff, hook up the boat, launch it, go 7 miles up the river to a swamp, put out the decoys and then do it all in reverse when I'm through. At least my 12 yr. old dog is still active enough to retrieve when I go twice a year just walking.

The fact you got to where your blood sugar is that high tells me you haven't been keeping up with regular check-ups. It's important to do so at our ages to keep from getting into serious trouble.

Good luck with your regimen.

You can thank Obamacare for that. I left the plant in my 50s, bought a little healthcare plan for 162 dollars a month. Obamacare comes along and suddenly I have to pay 700 dollars a month and a 6000 dollar co-pay. SO, everything was out of pocket for a time and I just didn't go to the doc.

I got medicare in November, first thing was to get my cataracts fixed as I was legally blind. I bought a "medicare replacement" plan for an extra 40 bucks a month that is really good, United Healthcare. So, I've been going to the docs a lot, got the eyes fixed, got a pre-cancerous skin condition treated yesterday and have to go back for another one in a month. BUT, I've had several CBCs since getting medicare, but not blood sugar. That's the one thing I missed.

Yeah, at least I don't have to hunt out of the boat anymore, all walk in at the WMA. I never liked the boat ride across the bay dodging markers and crab trap balls in the dark, scary, AND, yeah, too much work that early in the morning.

 

[jmr40]

Glad you are getting back to yourself. Keep up the work and get back into the hunt. Gettin old ain't for sissies.

 

[Iroquois]

MCgunner,

Keep up the good work, better days are ahead! Nothing like being in the great outdoors doing your favorite past time. Wishing you well and much success,

 

[Patocazador]

You can thank Obamacare for that. I left the plant in my 50s, bought a little healthcare plan for 162 dollars a month. Obamacare comes along and suddenly I have to pay 700 dollars a month and a 6000 dollar co-pay. SO, everything was out of pocket for a time and I just didn't go to the doc.

I got medicare in November, first thing was to get my cataracts fixed as I was legally blind. I bought a "medicare replacement" plan for an extra 40 bucks a month that is really good, United Healthcare.

I know what you mean. My wife was eligible for medicare about the same time you were. She was paying almost $1400/month under Obamacare. She has asthma and some auto-immune issues and needed one of the high-dollar policies.
My heart goes out to the folks that have to pay through the nose for the gouging prices of Obamacare.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

My heart goes out to the folks that have to pay through the nose for the gouging prices of Obamacare.

If we could just get a Republican in the white house and a majority in congress, we could repeal Obamacare.

 

[Armored farmer]

My wife and i pay over$24k / yr in health insurance for us and our 3 boys......and we're all healthy! (Knocking on wood)

Think how many guns that would buy. Wow

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Best of luck to ya MC.