Hoosier Outlaw
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jun 2010
Location: Marion, Indiana
Posts: 4280 |
Just a couple of broken down old dogs...
my new titanium parts in my lower back
Gr.Nt.Ch.-PKC Ch. Ky Moonlight Breanna a few days after having most of her hip removed.
Well, the past year has been a rough one for me, my dogs and some of the people I have been working with to reach our goals of producing better redbones in the future.
My good buddies, Rodger Shabel, and Roger Gibson lost one of their best since Famous Amos when Famous Willie Boy fell out of a tree and was killed, and then a few months later Gr.Nt.Ch. and 2010 Southern Redbone Days Champion, Big Time Britt who died suddenly from a heart attack or brain annurism. Both were devastating blows to our breeding program.
Then last summer I suffered a serious injury at work and just before I was due to have surgery....I was in a bad wreck that totaled my truck. In October I underwent a surgery on my left hand followed by a surgery to my back in which they had to go in and partially remove two ruptured discs and totally remove another and fuse two of my vertebra together. They put a plastic disc in between the two vertebra and injected some cadaver bone marrow and then screwed everything together with titanium screws, rods and ball socket locking devices to hold everything in place till the bone grew together between the two vertebra.
I spent 6 days in the hospital and I got to say for the first 4 I thought I would never walk again. What little I could feel below my waist was almost unbearable pain because I couldn't have a morphine pump due to the fact my respiration dropped below acceptable levels when I would fall asleep and it would set off an alarm. Well, with the help of two big burly male nurses and nurses who probably got tired of seeing my surly face for 4 days....they pretty much drug me to my feet and forced me to walk. I cant describe how much pain I was in but I made it about 15 feet with a walker (no not a treeing walker....an old fogie walker) and those two male nurses helping to prop me up. Then I rested a couple of minutes and turned and made it back to my bed where they had to help me up and into it. That walk, painful as it was....made me realize quite a few things....one of them being that I can be broken....at least in body. It also made me understand that I need to slow down and not take so many risks because I am not a cat with 9 lives. I made up my mind that I was gonna get out of that bed and walk again on my own and I wanted to go home as soon as possible. The next morning, after about 30 mins of trying....I managed to get myself upright in that bed and get stood up and I walked out of my room and down the hall and back on my own. The nurse chewed me out when she caught me but I didnt care....cause I knew I was going to be able to go home soon and they let me go the next day. the months that followed were hard...very hard. I just dont heal as fast as I did when I was younger. I know I will always have some level of pain to deal with, probably everyday for the rest of my life...but I consider myself lucky to be able to walk again, even if I am going to be alot slower. The one thing that kept me going through the pain of the physical therapy and the things I had to do everyday was my desire to get back in the woods with my dogs...thats all I thought about most of the time.
Its been about 7 months since I got injured at work, and I just returned to work this past week. I am not as good as I once was....but hope I am good enough to do my job and continue to follow my hounds and compete with them. I would say I am between 80 and 85% where I was before my injury. I may never run again...but I can walk at a pretty good pace. I will probably never do another sit up (didn't like them much before I got hurt, so no big loss there)....but I think I can follow and handle my dogs and that is what I hope to do once this dang snow melts...
I know alot of people have tried to reach me over the past few months and I just didnt really feel much like talking at the time. Even while dealing with my own physical recovery I had to also deal with the loss of probably the best young dog I have ever owned when my young male Outlaw Infamous Amos died suddenly a couple of weeks after my surgery. That really took the wind out of my sails and I even considered not hunting anymore. But as I healed and grew stronger....I felt that pull of the dogs more and more and I still have some goals I wanted to reach in this sport.
As I said it has been a very tough year for me personally as well as for some of the guys on my team and even after all that happened, there was more bad news to come....
In late December I noticed that Bree was favoring her left rear leg and holding it up. I checked her over good and couldnt find anything wrong. after a week or so of it not getting better, I took her to the vet. she had a fever and they were not sure if it was related to the leg issue or not. After 2 courses of different anti biotics and many xrays....they were sure it was some sort of bone infection and referred me to a specialist because it appeared to be doing signifcant damage to the ball and socket of her left rear hip. After many more xrays and tests...it became evident that she was in alot of pain and her ball was disentigrating from the infection and in turn erroding the socket and doing even more damage to the surrounding tissue. The surgeon reccomended removing the ball and some of the bone from the top of her leg and also removing a significant amount of the socket and bone surrounding it. He said he felt like there was a 60% chance he could save the rest of her leg and that once it healed she might even regain 40-50% use of it if we could build her muscles back up...but she had lost most of the muscle mass in that leg from not using it for close to a month. Well, I talked to my partner Danny Biggert and we decided that the surgery had to happen, so about a week ago they removed her hip and I have been working with her every day and night since to try to strengthen her muscles while she heals. She is getting around and is in good spirits and if she is in pain...she doesn't show it. I hope that I will be able to take her hunting again someday, but I doubt that she will ever be able to jump up and load again by herself, and with my back the way it is...I wont be able to pick her up and lift her...so I will need to get creative and find a solution to that problem. I hate to see a four year old dog go through what she is going through....but I kind of understand now.
Breanna is a great dog and I know had this not happened that she would have went on to win many more hunts. She may surprise me yet and you may see us at a hunt someday after she recovers. Her and I used to be a couple of speed demons and we always felt best when we were leading the pack....but now we are just a couple of broken down old dogs with alot of heart and we still have plenty of desire to compete. We just have to gear down, and subscribe to the age old theory that slow and steady sometimes wins the race. Good luck to everyone with their redbones this year...hopefully I will be seeing many of you at some of the hunts before long....Shane
__________________
Shane Maxey
Proud lifetime member of the NRA
Banshee Wildlife Products
Hoosier Outlaw / Moonlight Redbones
1994 American Redbone Coonhound Association Hunter of the Year
My first 3 redbones raised from pup's were:
Dual Gr.Ch. Outlaw Billy the Kid
Dual Gr.Ch.- PKC Ch. Outlaw Timber Girl
Dual Gr.Ch. Outlaw Scarlett Fever
(((( Current Favorites ))))
2013 AKC Ladies World Champion
Gr.Nt.Ch.- PKC Ch- AKC Ladies World Ch Ky Moonlight Breanna
Gr.Nt.Ch. - PKC Ch. Ky Moonlight Woody
Dual Grand Moonlight Deana
Dual Grand Ch.- PKC Ch. Moonlight AfterShock
Dual Grand Nighty Night Amber
Gr.Nt.Ch. Moonlight Big Time Britt
Gr.Nt.Ch Outlaw Billy Jean
Gr.Nt.Ch-PKC Ch.-2015 PKC Red Days Champ Outlaw Cherry Bomb
Gr.Nt.Ch Outlaw Breeze
Gr.Nt.Ch.Gr.Ch. All Grand Outlaw G-Man (over $20.000 won in PKC & CHKC) 2019 Southern Redbone Days Overall Champion
Gr.Nt.Ch. Moonlight Outlaw Mac
Gr.Nt.Ch. Classy Cali (Heavy Outlaw bred)
Gr.Nt.Ch. Moonlight Cat Scratch Fever
Gr.Nt.Ch. Moonlight Addiction
Gr.Nt.Ch. Moonlight Overdose
Gr.Nt.Ch. Moonlight Jinx
Gr.Nt.Ch. Moonlight Banshee
"Always outnumbered...Never outgunned!"
To enjoy lots of pics and videos of out redbones, find me on Facebook
as Shenandoah Maxey
Last edited by Hoosier Outlaw on 02-18-2014 at 12:29 AM
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02-18-2014 12:12 AM
