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Dear Subscribers

It is quite a long time since I published Hatari Times # 23, and many of you have been wondering what is going on.

Last year, while splitting firewood in the old fashioned way of steel wedge + sledgehammer, a steel chip large like a fingernail but thin as a razor blade, came flying with bullet velocity, went 4" deep into my upper leg muscles, missing the main artery by less than 1/2". - That was my previous year's bad luck, which caused me to miss the late season in Africa.

My spine problem had built-up slowly but continuously over the last 2 years - and was always miss-diagnosed as a muscular problem. I had been in the scanner tube several times over the last 2 years, but they obviously looked for other things, which they could not find. After the long flights back from SCI-Convention in Reno my back and right leg became ever worse. I got injections into my back-strap to no avail and carried on as usual. Built a couple of guns until it became unbearable in late June. Went to see my local doctor on Wednesday, who again said that my main blackstrap muscle causes the pain. Friday morning I collapsed within 5 minutes or so, as I suddenly could not stand - and sitting down was even worse. Just made it from the garden into the house and went flat on the ground, where my wife, who was out shopping, found me a few hours later in an advanced state of shock, just trembling all over due to the horrendous pain. She called emergency ambulance, which had to carry me out through a window. Now, it’s obviously not a good idea to enter any hospital through emergency entrance on a Friday afternoon, particularly not on a very hot summer day when lots of elderly people arrive with breathing/heart problems. I don't recall what they gave me, but sure as hell, it did NOT ease the intense pain. Maybe they were not allowed to give morphine in the emergency rooms (I later got plenty of morphine!). Eventually I was taken through a scanner again, and after a few more hours, me still trembling with pain, a doctor came and told me its a ruptured fiber ring of disc L4/5 pinching the main nerve down the right leg. My wife though I had gone insane by the pain when I told her that this is really good news! Seriously, I said a spine disc problem is every day's routine. Once they manage to ease the pain they will sort out the problem shortly. By that I was only partly right, as they never managed to make me reasonably painless, and after a full week and lots of more scans, neurologist tests and spine injections, they said I had to be transferred to a special clinic in our gun making capital of Liege for specialized surgery. After 9 days of lying like paralyzed (due to really unbearable pain) my strong leg muscles had turned into soft pudding (never thought that this could happen so fast!). Surgery was positive, and a week later I went back home. It took me 6 weeks of daily training to get back on my legs. Now, I am doing a daily walk of 4 miles through the forest in 45 minutes, which is a fairly brisk walk. Alas, my spine is still extremely sensitive to pressure. After standing, walking or worse sitting for 45 to 50 minutes my back feels as if somebody puts a 100 lb bag of cement on my shoulders. The surgeon had warned me that it would take a very long time for the spine to recover completely, and if I try to rush things I would end up again in hospital very soon, with the bitter possibility of quitting my job as a gun maker forever! So, by force majeur, I have to take it easy and slowly. I had built an interesting .600 Nitro bolt-action rifle in spring, plus a beautiful .500 Jeffery and .404 Jeffery in summer. I was just about to start another .500 plus a traditional Mauser/Jeffery trio .404 + .333 + .280 Jeffery + 2 more Newton Arms LeverBolt straight pull rifles when disaster struck me. My legs are fit for elephant hunting again, but I certainly cannot get on a plane or even on a longer vehicle ride for 3 more months. However, I am positive that all will be O.K. by December. I will definitely attend the SCI-Convention in Reno 2010, sharing booth # 129 with my friends from Buffalo Hunters Australia as usual.

Thank you so much for your patience.

Yours Sincerely

Harald Wolf, Publisher & Gun Maker

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