Getting back to normal

Sunday, October 18, 2009

I finally had my follow up appointment last week and I am cleared for normal activities. I can drive again and I go back to work tomorrow, not that I'm terribly excited about that but I do need the money. I'm not supposed to ride for another week and a half, but of course I haven't exactly listened to that completely. Only light riding though I promise!

So of course, once I had wheels again first thing to do was go to the barn. And I got there just in time. Little Boo Boo hasn't been doing well all summer. He got an infection he just couldn't quite shake. He's been on antibiotics off and on for most of the summer. Wednesday he really just went downhill and so Thursday morning Bonnie called the vet and said it was time. I pulled up to the barn just as she was putting him in the struck to go to the vet. Luckily I did have a chance to say goodbye. Afterwords Bonnie brought him home and we buried him under the weeping willow in the front yard. R.I.P. Boo, we miss you already.

Taryn had come to the barn while Bonnie was at the vet and I kept her company while she cleaned some stalls. I'm still not allowed to lift anything too heavy, so no stall cleaning for me yet. After Bonnie came home we went to lunch at Pizza Hut and then it was time to ride. Taryn had a lesson on Bugs and I was dying to get on a horse. No riding for three weeks and I was going crazy. Bonnie suggested that I get on Naughtie as she is pretty smooth and easy to ride. I just walked her, I was taking it easy. I just had to actually ride though. It was so good to get back in the saddle!

Friday morning I was at the barn early. We were headed to Pedro, OH to deliver Tramp to his new home. Taryn tagged along and of course Astrid had to see the pony off, so it was a full truck for the trip. It took us about 6 hours to get there. We got off 71 just south of Columbus and it was two hours on back roads. And boy was it pretty redneck there! The place Tramp went to was literally on top of a mountain. The driveway was about 1/2 mile straight up. The house and barn were absolutely gorgeous. But it was on top of a mountain. I think Tramp will have a good home there. The family was very nice. They have four kids, the oldest is 9. All the kids were very kind to the dogs and cats, so I think they'll be good with the pony. Astrid did not want to leave him. We practically had to drag her out of the stall when it was time to leave. And then we had another 6 hours to drive home. Bonnie got us off the mountain and then I got to drive the rest of the way home. In the rain. Why do I always get to drive the trailer in the rain? We didn't get home until 10:30, still had to feed the horses and then I had to take Astrid home. I didn't get home until midnight. Long, long day!

And then of course I was back at the barn Saturday morning. It was kinda nice though cause we didn't have too many of the kids. Only Astrid, Henry, Ethan and Maeve. Kids all had lessons, and then while Astrid and Henry were riding I took Miss out to the arena for lots and lots of walking. We're hoping that getting some exercise will help her out. We did some cavalettis, getting her to pick up her feet and really build up her muscles. Then after the kids all rode, we went out for a short trail ride up and down the driveway a couple of times. Miss had a ball. As soon as I went into her stall with the saddle she perked right up. She barely even let me get her bridle on, she just wanted to charge right out of the stall. And then she perked up even more when we went outside. She was really enjoying herself as we splashed through all the puddles on the drive.

Today, I was back to the barn. Rode Miss again, and we actually trotted a little bit. The work the day before did her a lot of good. She had such a good appetite. I could tell she was a little tired when I tacked her up today, but she was still excited to go to work. She really likes being ridden. She is not happy just standing around in her stall. So I think getting her back to work a bit will be so good for her. Then after I rode Miss, I got on Kaye. Astrid's been riding her a lot and well, Astrid doesn't make her bend she just kinda lets Kaye go where she will. And Kaye has a tendency to lead with her shoulder on circles and bends if you let her. But Astrid's still learning so it's not really her fault. So we just had a walking lesson where we did lots of bending and circles and laterals. Kaye didn't care for it one bit, she's not so patient with the walking. But it was a good lesson for her. I had to lighten up her sides again. As soon as I put any leg at all on her she just started trotting. No Kaye, inside legs means more over not trot. I spent a good 45 minutes just doing laterals and spiraling circles with her. She was going very nicely by the end though. I can't wait till I can really start riding again. X was starting to go so well and now he's done nothing for a month. And I'm really looking forward to working hardcore on my dressage with Kaye this winter.

Anyways, back to work in the morning. Looking forward to life getting back to normal. But I will admit I'd really like some more time off. Oh well, can't afford it so I guess I'll go to work.

Read more...

Surgery

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Well, the last two weeks have been fun. The weekend of the 26th I had the weekend planned out. X was getting his new shoes and so I could really start to put him back to work. Saturday I was going to have a jumping lesson on Kaye to get ready for the jumper derby on the 4th. And then Sunday I was taking X on a trail ride with Tom. Well nothing went according to plan. I woke up early Saturday morning with this really sharp pain in my lower right side. And of course me not wanting to admit that something might be wrong, I figure if I ignore it, it will go away. I go the barn as usual. Hurts to clean stalls, hurts to sit down, hurts to really do anything, not that I let that stop me. I cleaned X's stall, took me forever to do. Then Bonnie had me get on Kaye to ride with Taryn. God did that hurt! But I pushed through it and rode. I was even jumping fences, although it hurt like crazy to do so. Eventually though I had to stop, I actually almost fell off because of the pain. Finally I called Aunt Sandy. She and Uncle Ralph drove out to the barn to pick me up and while Uncle Ralph drove my car home, she took me to the Urgent Care place in Beaver. Mom and Dad met us there. I was examined by a PA there and she sent us to the ER for a CT scan to rule out appendicitis. We go to the ER, wait around forever for someone to finally see me. The guy was basically like I don't think you're in enough pain for it to be anything serious. you probably have a ruptured ovarian cyst. He kept saying he didn't think that I needed a CT. Mainly becuase it was a lot of radiation and if I was worse the next day they would have to do another one. Which ok, thank you for not wanting to subject me to that much radiation when it might not be necessary at that time. But then he was like asking me if I wanted one. Aunt Sandy finally got pissed and told him off. He's asking someone with no medically knowledge to basically order her own tests. Helllo! You're the doctor you tell me what tests should be done. Don't leave it up to me to decide. So he just ended up sending me home with an Rx for Percocet and instructions to come back if it got worse.

So we go home. I do start to feel better after taking the pain meds, but then as soon as they start to wear off it hurts again. I talk to Aunt Sandy late Sunday morning and she says to go back to the ER. And she calls Dr Burke, the surgeon before we get there. So Dr. Burke sees me right away and he orders the CT. I have to drink this really gross stuff before they can do the CT and of course it starts to make me sick. So I get some stuff for the nausea and they give me some good drugs for the pain. I get the CT, wait around for a bit longer and Dr. Burke comes back to tell us that my appendix looks ok, but there is some inflamation in the secum. But he doens't know what it's from. He recomends that I be admitted overnight for further testing and observation. Yay, just what I want to do. So get admitted Sunday night. Monday they do an ultrasound, still not exactly sure what the problem is. So they schedule me for a colonoscopy Tuesday. Had that done Tuesday afternoon, and it turns out that a have an acute secul ulcer. I pretty much go straight to surgery.

So long story short I was in the hospital for 8 days. I'm off work for at leat another two weeks, which really sucks. I'm using up all my time off. And if I can't go back after my appointment on the 15th, I'll be off unpaid until STD kicks in after 31 days. Even then I'll only get paid at 60% so I really can't afford to be off that long. And then even worse, no riding for at least 4-6 weeks. Probably longer! This sucks! And now I'm hoursebound at my parents. I can't drive, so I can't go anywhere. It's driving me crazy, I'm so bored! So don't expect too much here in the next few weeks. I'm not really doing much of anything but watching TV and reading. And I won't bore you with those details.

Read more...