Quick: Name the most dangerous part of deer hunting.
The list of hazards adds up pretty quickly, doesn’t it? Most of you probably will mention things like hunting from tree stands; razor sharp broadheads or, heaven forbid, accidental firearm discharges.
All can be deadly, no doubt, but not as deadly as what I just encountered last Friday.
The morning wore on, and the pain in my calf got worse. It got so tight that I knew something wasn’t right. Then, at the urging of my wife, I called the clinic to make an appointment.
“You best get in here today,” the nurse said after hearing me describe my symptoms for less than a minute. “It could be a blood clot, and we don’t want to take any chances with that.”
It took the ultrasound technician fewer than 5 minutes to confirm my worst fears: blood clots. Yes, plural.
“How could that possibly happen?” I asked the doctor.
“It just happens,” he said. “Could be from a long plane flight. Could be from sitting in one spot without moving for too long. These just don’t happen to ‘old’ folks, you know.”
It had to have happened on Monday when I sat in a tree stand with my crossbow across my lap for four-plus hours.
It was cold that afternoon, and I immediately realized how awkward it was to sit in a tree stand while holding on to a crossbow. I was quite uncomfortable, but I rationalized “no pain, no gain.” After all, should a deer show up, I didn’t want to be sitting there without my crossbow at the ready.
Blood clots. Scary stuff, right? Well, something else the doctor said was far scarier: “Good thing you brought yourself in. There’s only one of three ways those clots will go once they break up: to your lungs; to your heart; or to your brain.”
I later learned that somewhere between 60,000 to 100,000 people die in the United States every year from untreated DVTs, usually in the form of a heart attack, stroke or pulmonary embolism.
I went home that evening with two prescriptions for blood thinners — warfarin (Coumadin) which is pill form; and Enoxaparin (Lovenox), which comes in needles that require self-injection in the side of the belly.
There is no quick fix. I will have to jab myself twice a day for maybe a month, plus take the oral blood thinners for six months. The thinners will help keep me alive should a clot break free, or another one form in the short term.
Thanks for the heads up. I know I cant sit in one position too long. My back can get stiff and I need to move around a little. I will draw my bow several times during a sit just to stay loose.