Rod's Custom Rods 'something to do' for a man in constant pain

DESERT AIRE — Most people start businesses to make money, maybe even become wealthy.

Rod Bollinger, 55, started Rod’s Custom Rods to have “something to do.” He’s been losing mobility since his late 30s, and he lives in constant pain.

“I can barely get around now,” he said. “It takes everything to get from the house to the shop.”

The shop is at the side of the house, with a narrow open space between the two buildings.

Bollinger has what is called Advanced Degenerative Disc Disease. It came about after several surgeries to repair a leg he broke as an eastern Montana ranch kid.

“I had surgery, but the leg healed crooked,” Bollinger said.

Subsequent surgeries did not correct the problem. Late in his 30s, Bollinger was working as a stocker at a hardware store when he noticed he was losing mobility.

The answer, the doctor said, was surgery on his right knee. But it wasn’t the answer. From that point on, Bollinger has lived with pain — more and more of it.

“The surgery brought my leg back to the length it was supposed to be, but the rest of my body didn’t like it. Everything started going wrong,” Bollinger said.

Since then, Bollinger has piled up the surgeries. He said he’s on No. 30, which was supposed to come up this week in Phoenix, Ariz.

After his most recent surgery, in Tri-Cities, Bollinger flew to Tampa, Fla. to visit the Laser Spine Institute. He was told that some of the damage from previous surgeries could be repaired. He decided to have surgery from a LSI team in Phoenix.

But after all of his experiences with surgeries, Bollinger is not real hopeful of ridding himself of pain. He’s been told that because of ADDD he has only a few good discs in his spine. He is fearful that he’ll be bedridden some day.

Bollinger has already experienced one nine-month stretch like that. Unable to exercise, he’s added 100 pounds over the years.

Bollinger’s is a long story. The short of it is that he’s been on disability for several years. His wife, who is a professor at Heritage College, is responsible for most of the family income. Even with help from her insurance, Bollinger has had months when medications cost $1,100 out of pocket.

The Bollingers were still living in Montana as Rod went through most of his difficulties. Needing something to take his mind off the pain, he started making fishing rods.

He had learned basic rod making earlier when a friend who made rods for himself, brought his materials to Bollinger’s place. Bollinger thought it would be cool to make his own.

It took almost three years for Bollinger to be declared disabled. When he was, he turned to rod making.

“I really can’t do much of anything else,” he said.

Bollinger said he usually doesn’t earn enough from his work to affect his disability. But to make sure, the business is in his wife’s name, and he works for her.

Bollinger said the Montana Department of Vocational Rehabilitation suggested he do it that way. He continued that practice when he and his wife moved to Desert Aire eight years ago.

Bollinger started making rods in 1991. He estimates he’s made from 2,500-3,000 since then.

“I don’t make a lot of money, maybe 10 percent over my costs,” he said.

In addition, Bollinger has donated rods to charitable causes.

Most of the rods are valued in the $100-200 range. But Bollinger has made a $1,500 rod.

Bollinger also repairs rods. He did about 200 repairs during last fall’s salmon season.

Most of the damage Bollinger repairs comes from human error, he said. Fishermen too often try to get something out of a rod that they shouldn’t.

“Every time a graphite rod is bent, it’s breaking,” he said.

Eventually, after enough times being bent, the rod will break. However, there is a new rod that combines graphite with a new resin, Bollinger said. When it bends, the resin rushes in to support the graphite.

Bollinger has made rods that include wine corks and champagne stops from Gingko Forest Winery.

Bollinger is an enthusiast. He has books that preserve fishing rod history, including the telescopic aluminum fly fishing rod of years gone by.

No matter what anyone might claim, Bolllinger is sure that the willow rod was the first rod. It was his first rod back in eastern Montana when he could still run around and explore his world.