Dewey
New member
This day will be remembered - both for myself and my lab, Ruby.
Some of you will recall that I've been dealing with health issues for a over a year / half. I went through chemo treatments last from Sept, 08 to Feb, 09. The chemo knocked the crap out of the form of luekemia that I had, but it also did a number on my bone marrow. From March through September, I went through blood and platelet transfusions almost on a weekly basis. In October, a unrelated match was found and I went to Mayo for a Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplant.
Well, today is Day 63 post transplant and received the ok to go home for the weekend and even the ok to chase a bird if I used caution. How could anyone resist that opportunity?
My friend and I headed out this morning and ready to hunt at the 10 am bell. I noticed right away that walking in the field definitely was a lot different that the exercise walks I've taken in Rochester. I wasn't going to be able to bust up the heavy stuff, but if I took my time and let Ruby work I was doing fine. Seemed like a rather slow start, then realized that we were pushing some birds as the dogs started getting more and more excited. It didn't take long to find we were in the thick of them. There were plenty of wild birds that bailed, but there were just enough holding that we actually finished shooting at 11:15.
The other story is Ruby. She ruptured her CCL early last December. I originally had the new tightrope procedure done, but she never really recovered from this surgery. We finally opted to let our regular vet (he didn't do the tightrope) to go back in and take a look. He found a tear and then also did tie off the other side of the joint to create additional stability in the joint. What a difference that made. We spent plenty of time with rehab for her again and it really paid off. She really came on strong and really using the leg again.
So this was the first day Ruby got to hunt since early December last year. She did not lose a step. She did a fantastic job finding and retrieving birds. One of the birds I shot was not hit very hard. The bird managed to bury itself so deen in the weeds and snow, I thought we would not find it. Ruby never gave up. She finally went on point about 5 yards were the bird landed. I dug through the weeds and continued through the snow and finally found him buried.
Anyway, I'm not sure there's enough words to describe how I'm feeling tonight with the fact things are actually going well with the transplant, I was actually able to hunt and and seeing Ruby hunting again.
Some of you will recall that I've been dealing with health issues for a over a year / half. I went through chemo treatments last from Sept, 08 to Feb, 09. The chemo knocked the crap out of the form of luekemia that I had, but it also did a number on my bone marrow. From March through September, I went through blood and platelet transfusions almost on a weekly basis. In October, a unrelated match was found and I went to Mayo for a Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplant.
Well, today is Day 63 post transplant and received the ok to go home for the weekend and even the ok to chase a bird if I used caution. How could anyone resist that opportunity?
My friend and I headed out this morning and ready to hunt at the 10 am bell. I noticed right away that walking in the field definitely was a lot different that the exercise walks I've taken in Rochester. I wasn't going to be able to bust up the heavy stuff, but if I took my time and let Ruby work I was doing fine. Seemed like a rather slow start, then realized that we were pushing some birds as the dogs started getting more and more excited. It didn't take long to find we were in the thick of them. There were plenty of wild birds that bailed, but there were just enough holding that we actually finished shooting at 11:15.
The other story is Ruby. She ruptured her CCL early last December. I originally had the new tightrope procedure done, but she never really recovered from this surgery. We finally opted to let our regular vet (he didn't do the tightrope) to go back in and take a look. He found a tear and then also did tie off the other side of the joint to create additional stability in the joint. What a difference that made. We spent plenty of time with rehab for her again and it really paid off. She really came on strong and really using the leg again.
So this was the first day Ruby got to hunt since early December last year. She did not lose a step. She did a fantastic job finding and retrieving birds. One of the birds I shot was not hit very hard. The bird managed to bury itself so deen in the weeds and snow, I thought we would not find it. Ruby never gave up. She finally went on point about 5 yards were the bird landed. I dug through the weeds and continued through the snow and finally found him buried.
Anyway, I'm not sure there's enough words to describe how I'm feeling tonight with the fact things are actually going well with the transplant, I was actually able to hunt and and seeing Ruby hunting again.
