There's a guy on the forums who had an on-the-job back injury in September of '88. Started dealing with High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, and imbalance due to the back injury in '90 / '91. He was still able to get out detecting a lot on better days, but struggled.
• In early '93 he had to start using a cane full-time due to the back injury and sciatic nerve numbness down both legs. He still detected quite a bit, but it was getting more limiting as time went by.
• In June of 2010 he had a fall off a ladder when 10' high. That fractured his skull on the right side and ruptured the right eardrum, cracked two vertebrae in his lower neck, and broke four ribs on the right side when he impacted the cement floor. He detected less for the next 4-5 months, then was able to get out a little more, but not as enthusiastically as before. Needed a lot of rest in a recliner.
• By March or April of 2011 his left leg was very swollen with excess fluid. Not good for his High Blood Pressure, and the cause was determined to be Blood Clots in his left femoral vein, from 3" below the groin to his left ankle. More meds and a need to wear prescription compression socks ... forever.
• Then in May of '12 he injured his left foot on an a loose screw gong into a motel shower. He treated it immediately, but while the initial injury heled, another sore came from the bandage and rubbing on the inside of the shoe. That didn't mend well and infection got to the bone in his left foot. Not great for a bad diabetic and in December of 2012 it had eaten away some bone and he was admitted to the hospital to have part of his left foot amputated. The doctors call it a 'modified foot'.
• Mobility? Definitely worse with increased imbalance. Mid 2014, MRI's showed another issue causing him to struggle more to get around with torn tendon, torn ligament, torn cartilage and torn meniscus in his left knee that was now mostly bone-on-bone. Needed knee replacement, but the diabetes was way too-far out of control so he had to wait until the A1-C came way, way down. It hasn't. More impaired movement, but he painfully struggles to do what he can.
• March of 2018 he injured his left rotator cup, and in April, a month later, a fall tore the right rotator cup and muscles, and the impact and neck twisting did a job on some of his cervical spine .... and increased pain was cutting in on his ability to get around. More limiting detecting time, but he struggled to hang-in-there as best he could.
• August of 2018 he had cervical spine surgery to remove some disks and bone spurs, implant new fake disks, and fuse the spine. Back to the recliner, a lot, during the mending process.
• March of 2019 the right leg was very swollen. Blood clots now in the right leg just like the left leg, groin-to-ankle. Continue with compression socks forever, and also now on Eliquis (blood thinner) morning and night for the rest of his life. Did manage to get 70% to 80% of his right arm and shoulder strength and mobility restored, but that continued to impair the mobility.
Once upon a time he was young and healthy and very mobile, and that's when he would put in day-long detecting jaunts when thousands of coins were easily findable. Day-after day or multiple days every week. Those early years of 60 to 70 thousand coins a year when Coin Hunting was in its hey-day. Time passed and the fun increased even after the bulk of the easy finds were gone because we had better, lighter-weight detectors and features that made detecting easier. But as health issues impeded his efforts more and more and age started to take its toll, he never gave up. Always did, whatever he could, to overcome he pain he lived in and struggle to put in whatever small amount of time he could.
No more trying to trudge along in those loose, sandy beaches. Forget about trying to take on any hilly or graded sites. And even
the rough-texture terrain of the desert of brushy mountainous ghost towns had to be eliminated from a regular detecting routine. It was time to go back to normal, everyday Coin Hunting in tot-lots yards and other grassy places where you can get close and not have to move far or fast. Nor dilly-dally because what time could be put in to detecting was brief. Maybe 15 to 30 minutes at a slow pace.
It's tough to give up something you really enjoy doing. I've been driving for a little over 56 years now, but I'm pretty certain my driver license will be surrendered in the next month or so, and that will also curtail some of the detecting I'll be able to do, and with health issues, I don't doubt that metal detecting is also nearing its final chapter in my life in the not too distant future. But I won't surrender easily.
I have trimmed my detector outfit to a few very light-weight and comfortable models so that I can stretch my detecting time, while limited, as long as I can. I'm finishing my move to Texas tomorrow, I hope, and have had to go back to almost exclusively urban Coin Hunting. Only two of my 16 grandkids will be living close-by to visit with, and just my oldest son of 6 children. All we can do is try and get the most enjoyment out of the time and effort we put into detecting. For me, here on this Forum, plus a coupe of others now-and-then, and mainly my own Forums at ahrps.org, I can still have the enjoyment of answering detector and detecting-related questions to try and help others as they start and progress in this great sport.
'Pap', I hope your health can improve and you can hang in there as best as you can. Try to get out, even what little it might be, and pop on these Forums to lend your support and experiences to those readers in need. This has been, and is, one of the most enjoyable outdoor sports or hobbies and any help you can share with others can be very satisfying to you as well.
Monte
again..sorry to hear about your physical condition and wish you the best. Tim
