From glory days to a broken heart...

  From glory days to a broken heart...


Hello,

    My name is Al and I recently moved to South Carolina from Rhode Island. I arrived here on June first of last year. Once I got down here, things started going down hill for me. I went out to do some detecting at my neighbor's farm about three weeks after arriving and I started not feeling very well. I chalked it up to the southern heat which I wasn't use to but it was starting to get worse instead of better. I started getting a shortening of breath and dizziness. I thought I must be allergic to something in the area, so I went to a local urgent care facility in hopes of getting something for the allergy. When they checked my blood pressure, it was off the charts. I was hooked up to an EKG and they determined that I was in Congestive Heart Failure!

  I've always been a very healthy individual. I've been an avid martial artist for 30 years. I've been detecting every weekend for quite a few years and I've never been really sick a day in my life. Anyway, I was sent immediately to the hospital and found myself in the ICU so they could figure out what was going on with me. After about four days, they found that I had Hyperthyroidism which in turn gave me Grave's disease. The Grave's disease affected the lower vents in my heart, better know as cardiomyopathy. That's what put me into Congestive Heart failure.

    They said thank God I didn't wait any longer to go to the urgent care because I would've past away from a massive heart attack. I'm only 46 too. Now, I'm on more pills than the local pharmacy! They are doing the trick though. I now have my Hyperthyroid condition under control and I'm out of Congestive Heart Failure. Good news. Right? Well unfortunately for me, things went from bad to worse.

   I got the bill... Now, remember, I had just moved down here and I hadn't even started my new job yet. I had no insurance and I was stuck with a $14,000.00 bill which I had to pay. So, I did what I had to. I sold my car, my son's ps3 gaming system, my 42 inch 3d tv, my home PC and last but most certainly not least, all of my detecting gear. I managed to cover the bill but I'm still not out of the woods totally.

    Now that my condition is beginning to improve, the doctors say I need to start walking more to help strengthen my heart again before I am released and can return to work. We all know what the best way to walk is and that's while out detecting! Right? However, now that I'm basically penniless, I have no way of buying a new machine. I've owned many different brands throughout my years of detecting and I settled on two particular companies to which I've stayed most loyal to. Garrett and Minelab, naturally.

   I sold my Garrett AT Pro, my Minelab Explorer SE Pro, plus everything I had to go with them. Different coils, different diggers, a few sand scoops and even my Backpack. It's all gone... I sold it all to a guy here for $1,00.00. Needless to say, he was quite thrilled with the purchase.

   Please don't think that I am just some poor fool trying to get something for nothing because I'm not. Throughout my years of detecting, I've helped many people with different aspects of their own quests in our wonderful hobby. Funny how for some reason, after I moved down here, no one from where I am from seemed to want to help me out in my time of need. Figures. Right?

    Anyway, all I really need is for someone to help me out with my dilemma by possibly getting a detector to me so I can get my health and mind back. If you or anyone you know can and are willing to help, PLEASE, send me an email or a private message so I can restart my own quest of a more treasured life. I really do hate to ask anything of anyone. Believe me. I just don't have anywhere else to turn.

Thanks for listening to me,

Al

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Hello to all...
 

   Al here. I went on my first hunt in 7 months this morning. Got permission to hunt a Civil War battle site which happens to be on private property. Unfortunately, I must've lost some skill during my hiatus because all I pulled out was a bunch of crushed beer cans, two Hotwheels cars and two Memorial pennies... I guess that's what I get for my previous post... I was quite grateful that I found someone who let me use their backup machine. There are still some good people out there.
  
   I shot my first Youtube video as well which I'll be posting once I edit it all together. I'll be sure to leave a link here as well. I apologize if my post seemed out of place and I did post on quite a few different forums basically because I was desperate to get back out there. I have to say, I'm in some pain because I haven't walked that much in a long time. One good thing though, I didn't get winded. Probably because when you detect, you tend to move at a much slower pace than you do when just walking.

   If anyone knows anything about Hyperthyroidism, the doctors basically give you medicine that puts you into Hypothyroidism. They then try to balance the drugs until you are neutral. Anyway, while you are in Hypothyroidism, your metabolism slows way down and a big side affect is weight gain. I've weighed 170lbs for like 20 something years. I could eat anything and never gain an oz. Most likely do to my Hyperthyroidism. I'm now at 240lbs.That's a lot of weight to be walking with and my back is killing me but it was well worth it!

  I'll try to get out as much as my body will allow and when I can use that machine again... Next weekend, I'm heading to the beach to walk the shore. Hopefully my luck will return and I'll have something better to talk about than just my ailing condition... I could talk all about my escapades of my years detecting in Rhode Island but this is a new chapter in my quest for treasures and I don't feel the need to live in the past. Only forward for me.

   I have learned a valuable lesson with this as well and I apologize again if my previous post didn't sound very sincere or that I was trying to pull a fast one on my fellow hobbyists. That really wasn't my intention. I have deleted all of my posts on other forums but if I missed any, please let me know so I can remove it as well.

Thank you all and I hope all is forgiven. Expect to see some great finds from me in the near future. (I hope!)

Al          

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Al  walk that weight off soon. Just had my second heart attack  (shoveling snow) after (a quad and 6 stints and 2 heart attacks) I might have what you described as have to walk and they warned of weight gain as I have been 200 for some time lost 40% of lower heart function. I couldn't think of not detecting after 42 yrs of it,what a wonderful exercise and to meet a bunch of nice people in my lifetime,I can't swing a detector yet till about 3-4 more weeks but like you I take more pills than a sack of M&M's. Alergic to most so stay safe and keep-a-diggin'. With all the tv shows it won't be long till our detecting is cut off anyway.  rwdmo shortribs.

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