Lee Loader

Begin Rant:

Well my forum friends, and maybe dissenters, aging just took another bite. Spent the last few of days back in the hospital. The third cranial nerve went haywire. That piece of wiring controls constriction of the pupil, the position of the upper eyelid, eye movement and the ability of the eye to focus. I've now for all intent and purpose lost my right eye. It only look way down and to the right. Talk about cockeyed and that's me. Extreme double vision when I manually hold that eyelid open. Got home last night at about 11:30. Today I past the adrenaline rush stage of telling myself I can live with this. Feeling very depressed am I.

How do I continue in-letting the patch box on my 1803 Harpers Ferry flintlock build with out depth perception? I'm right handed, right eyed so how do I shoot again?

Rant over.

On the plus side my entire family, all 5 kids and 7 grandkids are being very supportive and helpful. I'm pretty sure I'll still be able to crank out reloads for them. There is the plausibility over the next 6 months It will regain some lost ground. The VA folk went the extra mile and sent me to one of the nations best neurological hospitals in this country, Barrows here in Phoenix. No expense was spared to provide the best care they could all on your tax dollar.

Probably be sorry I posted this but I just needed to air out my feelings.

daboone wrote:I'm right handed, right eyed so how do I shoot again?

I'm very sorry to hear that. I can believe this is a deep cut in quality of life.

But "I can't see" is no excuse for not having fun shooting.

No hands:


No arms at all:


Blind guy at the gun range:

daboone wrote:Begin Rant:

Well my forum friends, and maybe dissenters, aging just took another bite. Spent the last few of days back in the hospital. The third cranial nerve went haywire. That piece of wiring controls constriction of the pupil, the position of the upper eyelid, eye movement and the ability of the eye to focus. I've now for all intent and purpose lost my right eye. It only look way down and to the right. Talk about cockeyed and that's me. Extreme double vision when I manually hold that eyelid open. Got home last night at about 11:30. Today I past the adrenaline rush stage of telling myself I can live with this. Feeling very depressed am I.

How do I continue in-letting the patch box on my 1803 Harpers Ferry flintlock build with out depth perception? I'm right handed, right eyed so how do I shoot again?

Rant over.

On the plus side my entire family, all 5 kids and 7 grandkids are being very supportive and helpful. I'm pretty sure I'll still be able to crank out reloads for them. There is the plausibility over the next 6 months It will regain some lost ground. The VA folk went the extra mile and sent me to one of the nations best neurological hospitals in this country, Barrows here in Phoenix. No expense was spared to provide the best care they could all on your tax dollar.

Probably be sorry I posted this but I just needed to air out my feelings.

I know the feeling. Last year was two brain surgeries (in a week's time) to correct a shorted out 9th cranial nerve which ties to the pharynx, right inner ear and other things. The damage done to my right inner ear seems to have left it about 30%, but the damage caused (most likely) during care provided immediately after the first surgery - which lead to the second (emergency) surgery - has left me physically unstable. Not the best thing for one that is completely self employed, nearing retirement age, and still having to work in the field. I don't remember much about last year other than the intense pain when the nerve shorted out every fey days, hours or minutes as the progression moved along and the drugs had less and less effect. It abruptly started last April and was the end of June before the docs in the ER finally recognized that I really did have a problem. It took two months of begging and pleading to finally get a referral to a qualified surgeon and get off the silly thought of depending on drugs to mask the pain for the rest of my life. Finally, the nerve was re-insulated the end of September (back of skull) to correct the "short", and the blood clot and brain bleed were patched in the first part of October (front of skull). I can't stand and shoot accurately (relatively speaking) now without something to brace against but I suppose it is all coming back slowly.

I don't envy your position at all, particularly concerning the loss of vision in the right eye. That has to be a tough one to find the day to day work-around methods of dealing with. I just hope you haven't had to deal with the physical pain caused by the nasty nerve that puts you on the floor/ground passed out. I just have to remind myself that God alone can give us the strength to keep going. All we gotta do is ask.


jd

Daboone and JD, you guys are a mess! Seriously, you have both been held in my prayers and will continue to be so. Don't know what to do or say beyond that other than to tell you to hang in there.

Daboone, I think that you will be able to move beyond the right eye with your shooting. I know a fellow that shoots right handed with his left eye open, and he shoots real good. I've never asked why as he hits what he shoots at, so what business is it of mine. I'm sure it takes a bit of time to work through, but hey, that's more ammo down range.

JD, with the surgery it sounds like maybe you will now find yourself in a better position to see your way through this.

Whenever you guys want to tell us whats going on, please do!

There is a book "A singlar view" it will help get a handle on some of the one eyed jack things .
My dad lost his left eye young . He did some drag racing in the 60s and shot probably 1000s of game birds from pink mist starlings to swans past 80 yd . At 35 or so he got his pilots license and participated and won several spot landing contests , ribbon cutting , and some open formation flights . He's run backhoes , tractors , chainsaws , table and radial arm saws and pitched fast pitch softball .

Me I just had the vision drop from 15/20 to 20/40 with a dead spot about 2:30-4:00 in my left eye . First thing I did was take up a right hand 48# recurve and learn how to shoot a bow with my 18/20 nondominate eye . With the single contact in my left eye I get to have it back but with glasses or with out I loose 4-5x magnification in my scopes or can't see them at all .

Chin up it only takes a few days to master getting a glass of water and hitting the bowl 100% .

I'll keep you in mind .

God never let's a door close to lock oneself in. There should be windows or maybe another door. You have to find a way to make your hobbies work. Try to see if you can learn to switch up your shooting to left eye. Maybe not with a flintlock until you get pratice. You can do it were never to old to learn. We just get to old to be told how to on some things. I'll pray for you you'll find a way

Thanks for your support, comments, prayers and suggestions. I honestly appreciate your advise and support.

Please don't take this the wrong way but my ugly rotten dog has one up all of you. If interested see my comment in the Dog comment posted in this section.

Hang in guys, and best of luck. had to slightly relearn some things with both shoulders rebuilt, and changed out a lot of my firearms. No more magnum handguns, no more 300 Win Mag rifle for %@*&$ and giggles. Now it is a lot of levers and cast bullets and light loads. Can still get in the tree stand and painfully drag a deer out, so all is good. As mentioned, you learn to adapt. Hope things just get better and easier.

Just an update.... Spoke with Dan at length the other day, he is at his place in Hawaii,
( Man what a rough Gig??? ) with kids & grand kids. He sounds great & is in super spirits.
When he gets back to Phx, we're getting together & see if we can't figure some things out ?
The old goat has already roped me into inletting a stock of his. :)
That's Ok, this in no way covers what he has done for me, & after 28 operations, including
5 back operations & 2 total shoulder replacements I'm an expert at work around & know
how important they are. Look out for the flood of tears folks, I'm getting ready
to crack the whip on the old fool :):):):)