| Who would have thought? | | | | problematic task of combing your hair can drop you |
| When you think of fishing, you seldom envision too | | | | to your knees in anguish. |
| many things that can keep you from partaking in this | | | | Luckily, I have no hair. |
| recreational activity. | | | | Even trying to turn your steering wheel, wax your |
| Think again. | | | | car or picking up a pot of chili can make you wince in |
| I am on the disabled list. | | | | pain. |
| That's right, in rehab-- to much pain to cast my fly. | | | | Of course, chili can make you wince in pain for other |
| Or my powerbait for that matter. | | | | reasons--but that is a different story. |
| Now, complaining about a "fishing injury" is sorta like | | | | Reaching back into the cooler for a beverage? No |
| complaining that a hangnail is keeping you from | | | | can do Elmo--we are talking major problems here. |
| typing.OOHH poor baby! Nonetheless, I am telling you, | | | | Naturally, it is my right arm--my casting arm-- and |
| I am in too much pain to cast. | | | | even though I don't exactly throw a ninety mile an |
| I didn't exactly get injured fishing, so if your first | | | | hour roll cast, the casting motion definately brings out |
| thought was: "What, did he pull a muscle setting the | | | | some really creative and colorful language. |
| hook?" Or "Does he have 'fisherman's elbow' ?" "Did | | | | So, for now it is the disabled list, while I ponder |
| he fall out of his folding lawn chair?" | | | | surgery or therapy, hoping there is an off chance |
| You would be wrong.Although negotiating a lawn | | | | that it is really really bad tendonitis just flaring up like |
| chair can be tricky business, especially while holding a | | | | an air bag in my shoulder. |
| beverage. | | | | There isn't enough ibuprofen on this planet to ease |
| Actually, I am not one hundred percent sure how I | | | | the pain when it hits you. |
| got injured, but it might have had something to do | | | | I mentioned that I wasn't really sure how I tore the |
| with doing a face plant--or shoulder plant to be | | | | rotator cuff--because when you think about it, the |
| exact-- onto the basketball floor while playing a | | | | art of casting is similar to the art of pitching or |
| loosely resembled game of basketball. | | | | throwing a baseball.(baseball or throwing is probably |
| I say loosely, because fi you saw the "brand" of | | | | the most common cause of torn rotator cuffs) |
| basketball we play here in the "old boys" basketball | | | | Who is to say that the numerous hours spent trying |
| league here in Southern Oregon, well--you would | | | | to get just ten more feet of casting length has not |
| know what I mean. | | | | taken it's toll on my casting arm.Pumping and |
| As it was, I was already nursing a pulled hamstring, | | | | wrestling in salmon and steelhead could surely put |
| when as I limped along like a struggling Wildebeast, | | | | wear and tear on the shoulder also. |
| my shoe grabbed tight hold of the freshly finished | | | | Maybe I should just hang up the ol' waders and call it |
| hardwoods, and dropped me like a Douglas Fir sapling. | | | | a career? |
| Unfortunately, my "catlike" reflexes were unable to | | | | Give up fishing? No way!! |
| respond to the sudden pull of gravity, and I crashed | | | | Even if I have to go back to dangling a worm and |
| shoulder first into the floor. | | | | bringing in a "relief" reeler, rest assured I will be back |
| Sharp pain--no more basketball... | | | | out there soon tossing casts into mighty rivers. I just |
| ....or fishing. | | | | might have to work my way back up by casting on |
| I now have what modern medical technology has | | | | creeks and catching smaller fish during "rehab". |
| deemed as the "torn rotator cuff". | | | | Probably will have to pour smaller drinks too! |
| Move over Pedro Martinez, my pitching career may | | | | So beware of those fishing injuries, they can really |
| be over. | | | | put a crimp in your fishing life. |
| If you have never had a torn rotator cuff, then you | | | | And if you see some guy stretching and warming up |
| will not know the pain I am in. If you have, then you | | | | by tossing short casts ten feet out into the |
| will understand the strange feeling of being able to | | | | water--you just might want to ask him how his |
| pick up seventy pounds in one direction, but the | | | | rotator cuff is doing. |