Interesting Weekend

An "Unremarkable" Brain!

So it was an interesting weekend, one spent not doing what I originally intended of helping Jack on the last day of deer hunting, rather sitting at Mercy Hospital while getting my head literally examined.  Now I am sure that some of my friends would attest to the fact that this should have happened years ago but never the less by 7:30 on Saturday I was told to go home and relax.  Because it was 50 degrees on Saturday the plan was to work in the shed, getting the boat tucked away for the winter, moving the snow blower out, gathering all my ice fishing stuff and putting it front and center.  Getting a good start by 1:30 in the afternoon I was on a pretty good roll when I began to lose feeling on my left side lasting about 20 seconds and felt like when your leg goes to sleep then starts waking up, that feeling like pins and needles abound.  Hummm this isn't good!  At 58 years old and recent discussions about my friends mom having a stroke I immediately locked up everything and went to the emergency room.  Although I actually felt pretty good when I arrived, after describing my concerns they issued a CODE 3 STROKE and I was whisked away faster than Alex Baldwin's show was cancelled.  An IV went in immediately as 3 nurses worked on checking out my vitals, which were now normal.  Cancelling the Code 3 almost as soon as they issued it I was still in for some tests before anything else would happen.  Emergency room protocol meant that I would get the heart ultrasound and brain MRI when they could fit it in.   I've had both before and somehow knew the heart scan would show nothing.  My surgery in 2010 pretty well fixed any issue with the ticker and was more interested in the MRI.  By 6:00 I was in the MRI machine, thank God I'm not too claustrophobic yet toward the end of the 20 minute procedure it was getting tense.  With nothing to report, I was allowed to leave and had an appointment with a neurologist on Tuesday.  Keeping that appointment the first thing I learned was the MRI showed my brain "unremarkable".  Wow, I never knew!  I guess it's a term meaning that there is nothing evident to remark about, go figure.  In fact the doc complimented my on my brain's lack of little white benign spots, apparently guys my age often have many of these as opposed to my single one.  In the end it was determined I had Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), a very temporary blockage of a blood vessel in the brain either cause by a clot that disappeared quickly or a blood vessel collapsed for a split second.  Either way I have no evidence of anything wrong, no treatment recommended, the usual watch the blood pressure and cholesterol, and there's no need to follow up.  Well, at least now I know as it one can't help think it could have been a lot worse.  What was amazing is the compliments I got from the staff citing that most guys would have not taken the time to got through this rather simply tough it out.  We are a stubborn bunch, ya know.

Kevin's Successful Archery Hunt

So, instead of going north to help my friend Jack finish off the 2013 deer hunting season, I decided to play it safe and stick around home for the day.  It worked out for the best as it gave me a chance to rearrange the pole shed and put the summer toys away for their long winter's sleep.  One thing that's a staple for winter storage is making sure anything with a battery in it has a battery tender attached.  A battery tender does just that, tends to your batteries by first assuring that it is fully charge before going into a maintenance mode which holds the battery voltage at 13.2 volts.  At this voltage the battery stays charged but will not loose water and most have a high frequency component to them which helps prevent sulfation of the battery plates caused by holding them in a single polarity for too long.  At around $30.00 each they are a bargain.  One thing nice is my boat has a built in 3 bank charger and does the same thing, keep the batteries optimally charged and maintained as long as you keep it plugged in.  The only time my boat is unplugged is when I'm using it.  With Saturday's high expected to be only 18 degrees and the cold weather continuing into next week can only mean ice fishing is close at hand.  Sunday gave me the opportunity to put my new Clam Scout TC, a single man portable, together.  When fishing panfish and the weather is nice, I prefer to go lighter than dragging all of my heavier stuff out on the ice.  I have to give another plug for D-Rock, a Strikemaster Service Center in New Brighton, MN.  As I explained last week, the did a fabulous job on my Strikemaster Lazer so I left my old and seemingly wore out Jiffy.   I'm sure it hasen't run in at least 9 years.......have at it boys and call me if it's junk.  4 days later it's running like new and the bill is $63.36.  You can't beat that for sure as I now have both augers ready to go.  The nice thing is the Jiffy has a heavy duty transmission and can drive an earth bit, which I have. 

So, with the Packer's having 3 losses in a row, Sunday is with the Vikes and I'm sure it's going to be interesting, especially if the Purple win.  Thanksgiving is next week, San Antonio the week after, hopefully there will be some room to drill a few holes.  Either way, it's nice to end the week knowing that going forward I should have a few years left in me!  I'll leave you with a picture of a nice 8 pointer my friend Kevin harvested a few weeks ago.  Maybe some day.