A little help!!

I apologies in advance is this offends anyone or is a little to graphic.

I headed out this morning to sit on stand for a couple hours before having to be home to take care of the kiddies while the wife is at work. I get all the way out to the stand and had to turn around to come home.

A little background on this. I have been dealing with some health issues for over a year now. Sept 08 I was diagnosed with ulcertive colitis/chrons. The has been no evidence of the disease in the small intestine, but the doc said if I was a betting man I would put my money on chrons. I said, “I don’t gamble so we will stick with what is proven!” The month of Sept and half of oct sucked I had what they call a “Flare”. For me this consisted of running to the toilet 20 plus times a day and losing a lot of blood. Things started to look up I made it out a couple times to bow hunt and did mange to down a doe. I was fortunate enough to make it through the second season of firearms before things started to head south. A week before Christmas I ended up in the emergency room with excruciating pain. I had a 4″ fistula that did not break through the skin yet. I would image this is the closest a man could come to feeling the pains of child birth!! If you don’t know what a fistula is I hope you never have to experience it. They did a surgery to remove it. Things were going good, thought the meds and everything were working from Dec until the end on March. I started to have pain, loss of blood, and increased frequency again. The docs ran some tests and found 3 more fistulas. They explain to me my options. I wanted to take a less aggressive approach at first. To say I have a white coat syndrome would be putting it mildly. I have/had extreme anxiety when going to the doc or hospital. Weekly trips to Mayo and doctors I have begun to trust have helped cure that. Over the next weekend I was basically stuck on the couch because moving was not much of an option. I have 3 boys the middle one asked me to come play and I was not up to it. He went to tell the other and he said something like he can’t play with us cause his butt hurts, he has not played with us in forever!! Which was pretty accurate. So that made me decide to have the surgery. I was disconnected in April which is suppose to be temporarily. The initial hope was to be reconnected in Dec. In July I got a staff infection. All the meds I was on killed everything except the staff. Apparently everyone has a type of staff it typically does not effect us. So that shot the Dec date to he dbl hockey sticks Now hope is for Feb-Mar. I have been having trouble getting the meds dialed in and finding ones that work. I am hoping the current med is working. So far I am not absolutely positive it is!!

Back to this morning I have a bag that collects my waste. It is what it is. My two younger boys call it my toilet They docs did not mention until after I was disconnected I would still have discharge out the rectum. This is referred to as bowel sweet. Everyone has it. It basically lubes the chute to help things move along. When I got out to my stand this morning I could feel something making progress! I do not have a lot of control or time when it comes to this! I start to climb back down to handle it. Unfortunately I did not make it Hence head on in and forget about hunting this morning.

I wondered if any of the members have to deal with this disease and have any suggestions for me. I really don’t want to admit it but I might either have to give up hunting or start wearing a depends. Quitting hunting is not an option so the depends will probably be my answer!! At least I would be able to stay on stand a lot longer!! Do you think scent-blocker or scentlok would give me a some free gear for field trials!!! It would be the ultimate scent control test!!

I try to keep a sense of humor about it, I have to or I would flip!! But it is wearing on me!! I know I have it better than 90% of the people at Mayo and I feel so guilty about being frustrated with this when I see a child and parents at Mayo. What do I have to complain about!!

I understand if you would not want to post on here so if you have any suggestions send me a pm. I hope this was not out of line! I already feel better than when I started this post!!

Wow, Winkels, wow. I am impressed and humbled that you would have the strength and guts (no pun intended) to post this. I really wish I had any type of suggestion or guidance for you and your situation. You do have the best medical help available right out your back door, which a lot of people take for granted. Keep your faith, keep your head up and hopefully you will get through this.

When I first read your diagnosis I remembered seeing some commercial lately about U.C. It has a hockey player in it. U.C. Commercial If you’ve already been there sorry, but maybe this can help you. I truely hope everything works out for you.

Winkels its really nothing to be ashamed of and it doesnt sound like you are. A lot more people have it than many may think. A guy that I went bear hunting with in August has crons, and I learned a lot about the disease. Just like you he was having a heck of a time for about 5 years. He went back and forth with different doctors because non of them could diagnose him correctly. He was going to the bathroom atleast 20-30 times a day, and it wasnt always successful. Then they finally figured it out and now he comes up to Mayo every 8 weeks for a transfusion that takes about 3 or 4 hours. And it seems to be working for him as of right now. He also has a poop card(no lie)you may have one also it. For example if he gets pulled over for speeding(to get to the bathroom) he can give it to the cop and it has his medical info on it, etc. So if you want more information on his treatment sent me a pm and I can get that info for you no problem at all.
Justin

Winkels, up until now I had no idea what chrons was but have heard the term. Hopefully things will get better for you soon. Can’t imagine what you’re going through.

It sucks but I think it might sound worse than it is! At least it is not life threatening!

There are a lot of other things that would really suck to have!

Did I stump the panel? The folks on here are a wealth of knowledge, but I would of thought a couple folks might deal with this.

Thanks for those who did chime in!

What you really got going for you is the fact that the folks here are here to help others enjoy the outdoor sports, and with that a person is able to talk about issues that may be a little tough to talk about. I will say one of the greatest qualities I like about the site is the fact we all get along and we all treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves.

The only suggestion I can give is you may have to look at using depends I would also look at a scent blocker pants and jacket that is able to be taken off fast if need be. I would read up and study all facts possible on learning the advantages on how to hunt with a ground blind, this will allow you to react fast without the danger of slipping and falling because of having to panic-ally get out of your tree stand fast.

I really hope you can continue enjoying the outdoors – you just may have to adapt to some new ways of doing so.

But keep your chin up, I hope in time things may be a little closer to normal for you.

And I know you can still enjoy getting your Buck of a lifetime.

Jeff

Jeff has really good points in his post. Ground blind would be ideal situation. Not sure about everyone else, but when “duty” calls in the woods. I like to have a wide mouth bottle bottle available for #1, for #2 I always bury the excrement for scent purposes. having a hole ready in the ground blind that could be covered up, or heck get a porti potty , and leave it in the blind would be as ideal as one could get. I have even seen the snap on lids for the 5 gal bucket. It would be tough if i had the condition, but this is what I would do if it were me. Good luck and to you for sharing a tough subject, this is a great site, because of the great members here.

Those are some good ideas. Thanks!

I will have to see if the funds can support a blind. Yeah burying it works great until the ground freezes. I have done that already. The bucket would be ideal but what about the scent? Would a scent killer cover it?