2nd postscript

SECOND POSTSCRIPT TO FISHING MEMORIES

I truly thought all good things came to an end for me in fishing terms but it seems that I was indeed wrong. Exactly a year after packing up my gear and almost taking the action of selling all my fishing equipment, the medical world did me a huge favour and discovered that my Fibro-myalgia, which has no cure, was indeed a form of the disease called Poly-myalgia.

The medics informed me after a series of blood tests that this was so and that they could keep it at bay with Steroids. They prescribed a product called Prednisolone.  They informed me that I would know within a month if the product did the job or not and so I agreed to give it a go. They also informed me that it had side effects which would have to be dealt with to enable me to go on functioning as normal.

The main problem was that steroids tend to soften the bones which support the joints and so I would have to ensure that I took a fairly high dose of Calcium in the form of tablets on a daily basis to help counteract the steroids. This was to be supported by a tablet of Alendronic Acid once a week.

They started me on a fairly high dosage of steroids and the idea was to arrest the chronic muscle and joint pain and subsequent wastage due to the low usage of these over time. The specialist was of the opinion that I should drop the dosages down slowly over a period of about nine months until I got to the point of taking just enough to keep the disease at bay. With a bit of luck the disease might burn itself out over time.

 Within three weeks I was indeed free from most of the pain and I considered it to be a bit of a miracle as I was able to sleep for the first time in many months. Over the following year 2014, I tried dropping the dosage lower and lower until I was on about a half of the original dose. I attempted to drop it a couple of milligrams more and then it started to come back again, so I had to go back up again to keep it at bay.

That is the dosage I am on at present and it seems to do the job for now. Although the muscles have built up again, they are only about two thirds of the strength they were before I fell foul to the disease. I am not sure whether I could play and land a big double carp but I feel sure that I can land smaller ones. I just don’t know whether or not I could fish the river holding a float rod for a long time or not. The only way for me to find out I suppose, is to give it a try.

With regard to the stroke I had a couple of years ago, I seems to me that I have recovered from it, but I have to take an Aspirin every day to ensure I do not get any more blood clots.

It is now March 2015 and I have renewed my fishing licence for the year, but I have not joined the local angling club in Newton Abbot as I don’t yet know what my capabilities are when it comes to getting my gear to the bank side. There is not much in the way of river fishing down here in Devon but there are a fair few lakes about. I miss having a fishing mate to share my time with. I really enjoyed fishing with my brother Gary and miss those times very much.

 I know that he is not too well himself these days. It feels that us old boys of the eighties and nineties are simply fading away one by one, so I just cannot give in and I am determined to get back onto the bank one way or another.

I know that I will never be the angler I was in the old days and that the world of angling has moved on these days to loads of lakes filled to the brim with ever hungry carp to massive weights. I cannot really handle long poles and I will have to rely on the good old fishing rod and reel to realise my dreams in the future.

 The wonderful rivers that we enjoyed as young and middle aged anglers have declined and seem to have gone forever except for a few fortunate places in the South. As I have said, I am determined to carry on and perhaps there are still a few more angling adventures in store for me yet. I hope that the first might be in this fishing season of 2015. Watch this space.

Gordon Rowland

18^th March 2015