Larry Nixon on the Mend
Nixon is committed to fishing next season after quadruple-bypass surgery.
It started with a tingling sensation in his fingers.
Larry Nixon first thought that his hand and forearm were “going to sleep” because he was in a constricted position last January while sitting in a duck blind with hunting buddy George Cochran. More recently, at the recent Forrest Wood Cup, Nixon experienced the same sort of numbness as he was walking up the steps to the championship weigh-in at Huntsville’s Propst Arena. It was then that he realized the feeling implied something more serious.
Nixon made a mental note to see his family doctor when he returned to Arkansas. Good thing; the sensation he felt in his arm was a warning signal that something bad was happening inside Nixon’s heart and it needed to be repaired sooner rather than later.
Within two weeks after returning from the Cup, Nixon underwent quadruple-bypass surgery, a valve replacement and repair of a heart murmur that he had since he was a child.
Though Nixon quipped on his Facebook page that “I had to have four new pistons and a new valve and I should be good for another 100,000 next year,” his condition was serious enough that a heart specialist told him he was approaching “the widowmaker” of a heart attack had he not undergone the surgery when he did.
“When I got back home from the Cup and had the time, I visited my doctor and he sent me on to Little Rock to do one of those dye tests,” recalls Nixon, who lives in Bee Branch not far from Greers Ferry. “Afterward he said ‘you’re going to need a stint and I’m going to need help with it.’ So that Friday they ran another dye test just before the stint operation and the specialist said ‘uh-uh, there ain’t no stint with this boy; we need to go in there and do the whole job.’”
The General, as he was nicknamed long ago for his strategic approach to fishing and knack for making pivotal tournament decisions that often paid off, was anesthetized around noon and was on the operating table for almost six hours. He came to that night in the ICU, with his wife, Amy, by his bedside.
“I was up walking around Sunday and went home Tuesday,” says the 66-year-old Nixon. “The doctor told me that it was a record with him as far as having a patient who could get around so soon after surgery. He said my heart was in immaculate shape and I just gotten some bad genes mixed in with the good ones.”
Given the promising prognosis, Nixon plans to fish the Walmart FLW Tour next season. In fact, he hasn’t missed a Tour season since he first joined the trail in January 1997. Of more immediate concern to Nixon, however, is deer hunting season, but the heart specialist gave him the green light for that, too.
“Considering they cut me from stem to stern, nothing really hurts too bad except my breastbone. Right now I’m trying to keep from laughing or coughing,” notes Nixon. “Actually the doctor said that by Nov. 1 he probably would clear me for anything I wanted to do except maybe for climbing up and down trees. I might have to get somebody to put up some stands where I show them, but I plan to be bow hunting this fall.”
If the number of well-wishers who have expressed their concern and affection for Nixon on his Facebook page is any indication, he shouldn’t have any trouble finding volunteers to hang tree stands. Otherwise, he’s got plenty of time to mend before the 2017 Tour campaign, and meditate on what might have been had he not recognized one of the warning signs of heart trouble that he felt at the Cup.
“To be honest, I didn’t feel any anxiety. I’ve known so many people who have gone through this successfully and that was a confidence-builder,” says Nixon. “All I could do was put myself in the hands of the surgeon and the Lord, and I really wasn’t worried about it.”
Facebook Update from Larry Nixon: