Monday, May 26, 2008

Horse accident - Part two

May 9, 2008...around 1ish....Part Two

OK, so I am signed up for a local cow dog trial and taking Ray. Ray is Tess x Pleat and is a big, rough coated male that loves to work and is biddable. He works geese, ducks, sheep and cattle. He will grip the head or heel. I signed him up for Open and since it was a arena trial I would be on horseback and should be able to help him if he needed it.

So Friday, I hop on the ancient Arabian (Emmy) that I use when I work my dogs. She is used to dogs or sheep going under her and is very calm. I can hardly get her into a trot. We are working the cattle in the lower pasture and Ray is doing a great job. Then off to the side in another field, I see a flash (coyote?) and then it all goes to hell in a hand basket.

Emmy obviously sees the coyote and spins to the left, hard stop and then spins to the right and then rears....all of this happened in microseconds.....I am bareback and thank goodness I rode a lot of horses when I was younger bareback and I stayed on. At the end of the second spin she reared and I saw it coming and turned my head away trying not get hit dead-on but she got me at my left cheek. The impact was so hard that my head hit her rump and I came back up and blacked out for a second and I was still hanging on. she kept on spinning and I was thinking of bailing but I would have gotten trampled so I turned her to the barn. Blood was spraying out and I covered my left side with my hand and the blood then gushed down my arm. I was thinking "Oh sh*t"

I rode Emmy back to the barn and she was still acting up. By this time, I was in shock because I took the bridle off her, opened the barn door and hung it up and called Jeff and told him I was hurt and he need to take me to ER. So he ran into the barn just in time to see me fall down, covered in blood and he is freaking out. I get up and we got to ER.

Jeff rushes me in and they take me to a room and get a IV in....I was flailing about and it took a bit and then they pumped me with pain killer, anti nausea and wait for it to work....I just want to throw up and they give me more. They ask me questions and I tell them the best I can but I was in so much pain that I had a hard time telling them anything.

I hardly remember anything of the ER...I had a CAT scan of my brain and head and x-rays and lots of probing and questions and more pain meds and anti nausea meds and then more pain meds and anti nausea meds. The CAT scan showed no brain damage but the brain got jostled around quite a bit. They found a two piece fracture in the cheek area and upper jaw. My upper jaw was in the worse pain. There was a gash in the cheek that was deep (hence all the blood earlier) and the did a tidy job of sewing it up. I have a scar now.

Apparently Jeff watched TV and I don't remember watching TV and we talked but I don't remember that either. I don't remember the six hrs that we were in ER...it seem like a hour or so. They turned us loose at 8 and we went home. Concussion, laceration, broken cheek bones, fracture jaw, whiplash and sick as a dog.

They said it would take 8 week for the concussion to go away and I would have some effects from it. I went and saw the Ear, Nose Throat DR and he said the same thing and wants to do surgery to fix the cheek bones so I guess I will be doing that soon.

I was pretty much on bed rest for most of the two weeks. Tess is my bed partner. I lost 20 pounds and she gained a few more. Jeff takes the load of taking care of the farm as well as us. I married well.

So it has been 2 weeks since the accident and I still have issue. I have some memory loss which is not good. I also have speech issues...want to say the word but they don't come out or I stutter them. I also mix stuff up...like calling people the wrong names or instead of calling "chicken wings'...."chicken wings"...I called them "fish wings". I also asked my boss the same question twice in a row. I get disabling headaches if I push myself too hard.....bad enough like the "migraines from hell"

They say it takes 8 weeks and I sure they are right. I got a call into my regular Dr to see what see says...like do I need to go to see a specialist.

I was going to post this last week but my head hurt so I went to bed in early evening and got up 12 hrs later. I'll keep you posted on this. Now I know what people go through when they have a head injury and it sure is scary

1 comment:

Darci said...

Geez, you poor thing. You just cant win fer loosing lately. Sorry to hear of your troubles. If it aint one darn thing its another. I can relate. (and sympathise) Silly horses, dont know why we mess with em. You get well soon, and take care and rest. Not sure I want to follow your diet plan though, weight watches just sounds so much less painless. :)