Rethinking my load

[LDog]

Heading out in just under two weeks to hike from Rock Gap near Franklin to Manchester Center, VT - That would be where an injury took me off the trail during last year's spring nobo attempt, to where a hernia took me off during last summer's sobo attempt ...

I've been going through my gear, making some big changes to my summer load, tweaking everything, and writing about it at my blog. Check it out. I'd love to read your comments.

http://www.laughingdog.com/search?q=rethinking

[Special K]

Heading out in just under two weeks to hike from Rock Gap near Franklin to Manchester Center, VT - That would be where an injury took me off the trail during last year's spring nobo attempt, to where a hernia took me off during last summer's sobo attempt ...

I've been going through my gear, making some big changes to my summer load, tweaking everything, and writing about it at my blog. Check it out. I'd love to read your comments.

http://www.laughingdog.com/search?q=rethinking

HI LDog I just read through your blog. Very nice and very well organized! I especially like the picture of the white dog in the upper right hand corner. ;)

Could I ask you a question about your hernia? Since hernias can happen on more than one place in the body, where was yours located, what specifically caused it, and how did you treat it? If it's too personal a question, I understand. Thanks!

[LDog]

HI LDog I just read through your blog. Very nice and very well organized! I especially like the picture of the white dog in the upper right hand corner. ;)

Could I ask you a question about your hernia? Since hernias can happen on more than one place in the body, where was yours located, what specifically caused it, and how did you treat it? If it's too personal a question, I understand. Thanks!

Thanks for your nice comments. That's our old dog Ranger, who inspired the name laughing dog. I had an idea I wanted to build woodstrip canoes, and came up with Laughing Dog when watching Ranger. In the meantime, someone else had the domain name, went out of business, refused my less than generous offer to buy it cause they "wanted to hold out for big money." A year later I got it in an auction for a tenth of what I had originally offered.

Maybe someday I'll buiid canoes.

Mine was an inguinal hernia on my right side. I usually explain that's where yer innards try to escape out yer iguana hole. Don't know what caused it. I lost a lot of weight. Maybe that weakened the abdominal wall at the inguinal canal? Maybe that and picking up my pack a dozen times a day? (shrug) Didn't know I had it till I got to a hostel, saw myself naked in a bathroom mirror, and I had this huge bulge in my abdomen. I was horribly asymmetrical, and I had a pretty good idea what that meant. Considered denial, but went to a doctor who he told me I had to get home for surgery. Many people live years with them, but he said mine was such that I could have intestines slip thru the canal and become strangulated. So I got on the Amtrak and went home. My surgery was laproscopic, and the doc placed a mesh around the canal. The abdominal wall grows all around and thru it, creating a strong bond. While he was in there, he checked out the left side and slapped some chicken wire on it too.

[Special K]

Wow! That sounds painful...thanks for sharing that. And now the other side is fixed too!

Good luck on your hike!

P.S. I just reread your post..."that's where yer innards try to escape out yer iguana hole..." That was very funny!!!
:D

[LDog]

P.S. I just reread your post..."that's where yer innards try to escape out yer iguana hole..." :D

Thats why ya gotta slap some chicken wire on it