The Beginning:
Many people have asked me to tell the story of how I ended up going from being a physician specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology to professional fishing. For those of you who don’t know what an Ob/Gyn is, it’s a doctor who sees only women for women’s issues, like babies and hormone problems. I’ve never heard of another woman Gynecologist, or doctor of any kind, who ended up fishing professionally. Here’s how it happened, starting from the beginning…
A few years ago I had some knee problems, and doctors did a scope on my knee. I got a resistant Staph infection and ended up on IV antibiotics and crutches for six months, and having multiple other surgeries and procedures to try to repair the damage from the Staph infection from the first surgery. I ended up being worse after my surgeries than I ever thought about being before it, but through it all I persevered and continued my private medical practice as best I could. I had started an office in Lancaster, TX in 2001, and was settling into the hospital there when I was challenged by the CEO of the hospital to fish in their annual bass tournament benefitting the Children’s Arthritis Foundation. I learned how to fish, beat the CEO, placed second overall in the tournament, and learned I had a new passion - bass fishing.
My knee problems continued, however, and it was discovered that I had ruptured discs in my back that were causing problems. I underwent surgery for back fusion successfully, but during the recovery process, had a terrible fall, which messed up the hardware from the surgery, and left me even more injured than before. Now I had problems with numbness in my hands and feet, more severe pain, and other problems. A second major back surgery was unsuccessful in fixing the problems. I developed even more severe nerve problems, and multiple procedures to attempt repair have also been unsuccessful. Despite daily physical therapy, the pain, numbness and other problems continue.
Losing Everything:
I fell on September 28, 2004. From there things went downhill. Even with surgery and daily physical therapy, I never recovered. Being left with numb hands made me face some hard facts. I was not going to be able to operate on patients again, and even treating patients in the office was out of the question because I could miss important problems. In addition, I was in uncontrollable pain and my bone wasn’t healing in my back. My surgeon told me that it usually takes 4-6 months for bone regrowth after the type of surgery I had. It wasn’t until a full year and a half after my surgery that the bone re-formed.
After my fall and realizing I would never be the same again, I made the hard decision to shut down my medical practice. Since I was bedridden and unable to work, I lost everything in my office to my landlord. Bankruptcy followed, and I lost everything but my home. My business, with all the equipment I had purchased, was liquidated by the landlord. I lost my boat and even my car. I was pretty philosophical at that point, however. Since I was bedridden and my hands and feet were numb, I couldn’t drive anyway. I also figured I’d never fish again. Because of all of the hardware in my back and the extensive nerve damage, it is painful for me to stand or sit - (actually sitting is harder than standing) - so it was difficult for me to even sit in the car for long enough to go to my doctors’ appointments. For the past five years, there have been plenty of months where the only times I have left the house have been to go to my doctors’ appointments.
Physical (and Mental) Therapy:
Since it was hard for me to sit in a car, even riding 20-30 minutes to do physical therapy seemed to take two steps back for every one step forward. After a couple of years, we were able to put a shallow physical therapy pool at our house so that I could do therapy at home. In the meanwhile I used a treadmill that sits beside my bed. I use either the pool or the treadmill every day, depending on the weather. I have found that if I feel too badly to do my therapy one day, it is even harder to get up the next. Although I still spend about 90% of my time in bed, I have been able to build up my stamina and pain tolerance to where I can be on my feet or sit for awhile. Not comfortably, however.
My hands and feet are another issue. My formerly pampered surgeon’s hands have become a mass of scars from the frequent injuries caused by the numbness. All of the glasses in our house are plastic now, and we eat off of paper plates. It’s hard to hold a grip when your hands are numb, something I learned to the detriment of our dishes and glasses. I type incredibly slowly from what I used to be able to do, but since I can’t hold a pen and write anything readable anymore, typing is better than writing. It seems the harder I try to do things with my hands, the more numbness I get. As I type I see the new scar on my left hand from my recent Thanksgiving incident. Normally my husband does the cooking, especially involving things like ovens, but I had to do the mom thing and try to cook at least one thing for the big family Thanksgiving Dinner at my parents. Rod painstakingly prepared the dressing according to my directions, but while the oven was preheating I decided to “help” and put the pan in the oven. It wasn’t until I saw the smoke and smelled the burning flesh that I realized that I had my hand up against the bright red heating element at the top of the oven. It’s been over a month since that third-degree burn, and it has yet to fully heal and appears as an angry red mark on the top of my hand, keeping company with all of the older whitened scars decorating my hands now.
Accomodations to Fish:
It was my husband’s campaign to be able to get me out of the house for a little while to fish occasionally. First he constructed a special bed for me in the backseat of our pickup so that I could lay down to travel. By laying down to travel, the pressure on my spine is minimized, and all that I have to deal with is just the bumpy roads. Rod then rigged my rods with floaties, so that if/when I dropped them he could fish them out. Next were rod and reel grips to increaase my sensitivity and help me turn the reel crank with numb hands. he also taught me to “feel” the fish bite with other parts of my body, such as my abdomen where I now rest my rod handles. He then taught me how to keep hold of the rod and hold my grip (it is more natural to relax a grip when your hands are numb), and encouraged me to change the rod from hand to hand so that I could work out numbness from one side to the other. He tied on all the lures and put all the line on the rods, something he always does for both of us to this day without complaint. It was also his idea to get back braces, and pillows and blankets to be able to lay down on the boat. Because my problems with my feet make it impossible for me to use a trollingmotor foot pedal, he changed ours out and got a remote-controlled one. I could spend the day listing the accomodations that my engineer/mechanic husband has dreamed up to help me fish. It is absolutely incredible all the changes he made to accomodate my limitations. The bottom line is that, after a fashion, I could fish.
The next item a woman thinks of regarding any activity she is going to be doing is, “What can I wear?” Rod was even the instigator of my getting different clothes to fish in since my old ones wouldn’t work. Pretty much everything I wear now is pull-on due to my hands. In addition, my knee gives me pain and problems, even just due to something like material rubbing against it, so I have to be careful about that. Sometimes I get brave and wear some of my old clothes. It is all well and good to have your husband hook, zip and snap your clothes for you- that is until you have to go to a public restroom and can’t take him with you. Enough said.
Even though I budget my energy and pain tolerance levels in order to compete, I have a down-time for every out-of-bed event. Some days are better than others and some activities are more taxing than others. It has been known to take me a week or two to recover from a day of fishing. Now for the crucial question. How am I going to fish WBT?
Fishing the Dream: The WBT:
Since becoming an angler, I dreamed of fishing professionally with women. I learned as an adult that I am naturally competitive , and I actually did fairly well and held my own in fields of men, even with my issues. In 2007, when I placed first in one of the hours and was tied for the day for the boat (top prize for under-the-slot fish) in the Berkley Big Bass Tournament on Lake Fork, I realized that I might be able to fish the WBT. Since its inception, I had been following (and envying) the women fishing the tournament trail. Following the trail news I found out that there were many retired women fishing, including an incredible 82-year-old woman. I then found out that a pregnant woman given restrictions by her doctor was able to place second in the Championship in 2008. There were also reports of women dealing with multiple other very serious health issues and still fishing the WBT. Not only were there women, but there were women like me - who dealt with and accomodated their disabilities in order to fish. When the 2009 WBT schedule and rules were posted, I voraciously read every word. Once I found out there were four well-spaced tournaments, I knew I would have my built-in recovery time, so I decided to give it a try.
No Hindrance:
My major concern from the very beginning of deciding to fish the WBT was that I not be a liability to someone fishing with me. Following the WBT guidelines as our example, Rod and I set out to fish tournaments with me as the boater and him as the non-boater, to make sure he could fish unhindered with me in front running the boat and doing everything I would have to do during a tournament by myself. We have successfully fished many tournaments in this manner and Rod managed to win a boat last year, so we know that this arrangement works just fine. Rod is still in charge of all boat maintenance, but he has taught me everything I need to know to pilot the boat safely, without undue jostling of my injuries. The things I have learned have not only made me a better, safer boat captain, but will also ensure a smoother, more enjoyable ride for my non-boater. I have learned that the adrenaline rush that the tournament setting provides helps mask the pain during tournament hours. I only stay at hotels where I can do my physical therapy every day whenever I am away from home. The WBT Trail of four tournaments and a Championship is spread over an eight-month period of time, giving me plenty of recovery time for each tournament. I don’t need any special accomodations to fish, other than those Rod has already done, and I promise my colleagues that I would never do anything that would hinder another woman’s ability to fish and win in her category.
The Bottom Line:
The bottom line is that I enjoyed being a ladies’ doctor and have missed the socialization that is part and parcel of groups of women. Even better is being with a group of women doing something that they enjoy. I credit my husband taking me fishing as the sole reason that, when I lost my career and everything else, I didn’t become overwhelmingly depressed. Even being predominantly bedridden and in constant pain has not done this either, since I have something that I can look forward to, even on my worst days. I get happy every time I am heading to the lake to go out and fish. You can ask my husband - he’ll tell you how almost every time we head out on the lake I will invariably say, “I forgot how much I enjoy this and how happy this makes me.” And it does.
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Feb 10 2009