This is a fantastic challenge for the OBS to issue. Cancer does suck and it will effect everyone at one time in there life. This year Cancer has played a huge roll in our hunting traditions.
Earlier this year our father was diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 56. Talk about a buzz kill. Luckily they had caught it early and in an early stage. There is a lot that goes into treating this cancer. Unfortunately he also had an enlarged prostate so they could not treat the cancer until they dealt with that. So finally in early July they were ready to treat this cancer. When it came down to types of treatments he chose one that would still allow him to have his grandkids sit on his lap, this was real important to him. Just before he was to go in for treatment the insurance company had to get involved and questioned weather or not this is the best treatment for him. Why they get a say, who knows, that’s a whole other topic.
They ended up having to push back his treatments because the insurance company was reviewing this. The treatments consisted of two days of radiation treatments in the hospital. He had to have two treatments two weeks apart. He was really stressed about this because he wanted to start early July so he was done with treatments by the end of July and had plenty of time to recover before our hunting opener on August 15th. He ended up not getting his first treatment until July 22nd. It took a good two weeks before he was able to recover back to 100 percent and then went right back in for another treatment on?August 5th this only gave him 10 days to recover for the opener.
On Friday August 14th we went to lunch before we headed up to our favorite ridge. My father has been hunting on this ridge for over 40 years and it is very special to him. Our tradition is to go up the night before and camp and shoot a little. At lunch he was concerned because he was still needing to visit the restroom every hour during the night and didn’t know how to handle that while camping. Luckily we have access to multiple cabins in the area. My brother Travis’s in-laws have one that is 40 min away from where we like to hunt, we were able to go stay there that night so he had good access to a restroom. Even though this was not our tradition we made the best of the situation and?picked up?a good hunting video to watch that night as we relaxed and let him get the rest needed to hunt the next day.
He didn’t get as good as a night sleep as he wanted. For the first time I was the one waking him up, usually it is the opposite. We made it up to the ridge and were able to have a great hunt. We experienced Utah’s first snow storm for the year and had a good chance to talk and laugh about it. He turned the corner that day and later that evening made the comment that he felt like all of his energy was returning. I have a belief that just being in nature helped reinvigorate his spirit and energy.
A few years back my father in law also was diagnosed with cancer. His was in the lymph nodes. His treatments were more significant and were spaced over a period of 3-4 months. There were countless sleepless nights dealing with the disease that had taken over his body. He ended up spending the night in his favorite recliner trying to get some sleep. He had a cat named socks that would nestle up on his lap and fall asleep on his lap. He found the constant purring of socks calming and ended up falling asleep. He ended up using the companionship of this cat for the rest of his treatments to get some sleep. Shortly after he was cured from the cancer Socks passed away. My father in law had Socks cremated and plans on having Socks placed with him in his final resting spot. Again nature stepped in and made a difference in his treatment.
I hope that I never have to go through the pain and anguish that they went through and will do what I can to prevent it. But there is one thing that I do know for sure, if I was ever to have to endure this there is only one place that I know of that I can feel total peace and that is in nature. The outdoors have a natural way of calming us down and relaxing us. When our body is hard at work defending itself, nature can only help us relax and give the body the energy needed to fight the disease.
Cancer does suck and is a difficult thing to fight. But we cannot give up the fight we must persist to rid the world of this disease.
Great post, and this was such a great challenge from the OBS. I’m glad to see that your Dad still went hunting, and that everyone made accomodations so that he could still participate in the hunt. That is what it is all about after all.
Thank you for participating in this Challenge. I’m glad to hear both your Dad and father in law are feeling better. Thank you for sharing their stories.