COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Collateral Damage: Consequences and Complications

In battle we have collateral damages, for example civilians killed in an air strike on military positions. From surgery, we have post-surgical consequences and complications including pain, loss of mobility, tissue swelling, potential blood clots, and with narcotic pain control, the loss of alert function and the side effect of constant constipation. You get the message, limited mobility, loss of conditioning, frustration, and worse of all for this avid but aging hiker, depression and putting hiking on hold. That's the biggest frustration of all. I haven't hiked in almost five months, trapped in a virtual cage created by surgery and the recuperation process.

The attached photo shows this frustrated hiker, trapped in a real cage, on my last hike. I guess you would call it an old cattle guard with barbed wire fencing extending to either side, allowing people (hikers) to pass through a chain link labyrinth, but too tight for cows to fit through. It's on the Metacomet Trail, south of Orchard Road, in Berlin, CT.