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Broken pelvis

Riders with Health Issues
#21

And not that its really any of your business, but I was wearing a helmet when I fell and broke my pelvis, so please explain to my obviously ignorant self how that should have prevented my injury? I figured you would have an answer since you must know something the rest of us don’t? And since you are on my FB you can freely look through several other albums of me on other horses where I am wearing a helmet. In the albums I listed here I think there are all of two pictures from two separate rides that I have no helmet on.

People that act holier than anyone else really peeve me. I am an adult, fully capable of my making my own choices. I didn’t come on here asking for critics. Just for advice from.people with similar injures. If you don’t like how I ride or what safety gear you do or don’t see in a few pictures, keep it to yourself. You don’t interact with me as a rider or trainer. I also chose to ride my ATV with no helmet and I sure don’t wear one when I drive my truck or walk across the road… All of which are equally as dangerous if not more so than riding. In 22 years of riding horses this is my first serious injury. None of which has anything to do with my use or lack of helmets. I have lost a close friend when her horse reared up and fell on her. She did have a helmet on and still broke her spine. So a helmet can only help with a small percentage of injuries. It is far from a cure-all.

For everyone else who has been so helpful and encouraging, thank you so much! The advice is greatly appreciated. There is always the one person who has to be nasty. Such is life.

#22

You assume that I’m on welfare or government support? I actually pay for my own health insurance thank you very much. Please take your nasty attitude somewhere else. No one asked for your opinion on my use of helmets or anything else. and sice you have nothing helpful to add to my thread I ask that your unwanted advice elsewhere.

#23

Oh, I’m getting sympathy pains! I broke my pelvis in a riding accident when I was 24 (7.5 years ago, where the heck does the time go?) in the right pubic ramis…in layman’s terms right in the crotch, between the pubic bone in the front and the “seatbone” in the back. I was never on bedrest, but was on crutches in some form or another for about 2 months. I was back on my horse within 10 weeks (despite my mother’s protests). I have so much hard-earned experience to share that I made a list :slight_smile:

  1. Get thee to a physical therapist! Tell your ortho doc that you need/want a referral to PT. In my experience, lots of orthopedic docs are under the impression that if it doesn’t require surgery, there’s nothing to do other than just sit around and wait for the bones to knit. My PT was instrumental in my recovery. In the early days, she taught me how to do things (get out of bed, shower, use the crutches) without causing myself more pain in the fracture OR in the rest of my body from overcompensating. Later on, she gave me exercises I could do while laying down to keep my strength up as much as possible. When I was transitioning back to going without crutches, she helped with that too. I can’t stress enough how much the PT helped.

  2. If you haven’t been given something containing a narcotic for pain (Vicodin, Percocet, Norco etc), see if you can get that. There’s this stigma about asking for meds cuz no one wants to be seen as a druggie. Your pain is totally legitamate and taking something for a month will not turn you into an addict. I was and still am a total light-weight, had never been on anything stronger than codeine in my life. One Vicodin would knock me out…which is helpful if you can’t sleep because of the pain. You don’t want to get into this viscious cycle where you can’t sleep because of the pain, so you’re tired, which makes you grumpy and the pain seem worse… I took the Vicodin a couple times a day for the first 1-2 weeks and then took it only at night before bed for another month

  3. Pillows are your friend. I was a student at the time, and I took pillows to class with me to sit on. I slept with a memory foam pillow between my legs to minimize movement. Also, I was amazed at how tired I would get from basically doing nothing and how much sleep I needed at first. I was a student at the time, and I would go to class a half day and then come home and nap for 2-3 hours. Then I’d sleep like 10 hours a night.

  4. OK, this may be TMI but it freaked me out, and it would’ve been nice to know that someone else had the same experience. For several months after my accident, I had this weird internal pain if I tried to use a tampon during my period. My doctor told me that she couldn’t find anything obviously wrong “down there” and that she was going to assume that it was soft tissue trauma. And it did go away eventually, but for a while I was really worried that I had “broken” something.

  5. When you get to the point, swimming is great exercise to get some mobility back without the stress of weight bearing. I did lots of swimming laps, initially just with the kickboard like a little kid.

  6. When you get back on a horse, it will feel weird, both psychologically and physically. I also had been riding since I was a little kid, and it’s very strange when your brain knows what you should do and your body won’t cooperate and you’re a little nervous or hesistant on top of things. My solution was to ride my (now sadly departed) good-as-gold heart horse, who had a fool-proof “whoa” installed and was perfectly happy to trot and lope around on the buckle while I got my “sea legs” back. You need a BTDT steady-eddie at first. COTH is a great resource for all the physical and mental issues. Do not expect the ortho doc to understand why you NEED to get back in the saddle…mine flat out asked me why I even wanted to be within 50 feet of a horse.

  7. This is probably not what you want to hear, but even with youth on my side, it took a full year for me to feel fully recovered, even though the xrays showed complete healing at 8 weeks. I would be feeling good, and do something trivial, like walk a little faster while crossing the street, and get a twinge of pain. Sometimes I did more than I should’ve, and paid for it. During the healing process, it takes a while to figure out the balance between doing enough that you make progress and not over-doing. Even now, almost 8 years later, I have some stiffness in the right hip…not from the fracture, but from changes in muscle pattern use. It’s not obvious, but I know when I ride, my right leg is not as strong as my left. Yoga, pilates, massage, stretching all help, but the fact is I’m not longer “mint condition.” That being said, I still ride and otherwise lead an active life. You can get through this and get back to riding.

While I was recovering, boredom/depression/isolation were issues. It’s really tough to go from young, active and healthy to NOT all of a sudden. I was single at the time and my mother had to temporarily move in with me. I was hobbling into class and then coming home and crashing. After the first few weeks, friends stopped coming by. I was in too much pain at first to go out to dinner, see a movie or anything else, so I felt completely out of the loop. I watched a lot of DVD box sets and read a lot of books. Which helped, but at some point about a month in I was just overcome with this self-pity and feelings of “this sucks and it’s never going to get better.” It DOES get better, it just doesn’t seem like it at the time.

Best wishes for a quick recovery. If you want to talk, PM me
BES

#24

Good Luck tomorrow!

Good luck tomorrow at the ortho. I’ll be thinking to you. Please let us know what help he is giving you. We DO care about you!:slight_smile:

I wish you better drugs, P.T., and happy helpful BF.
(I hope you will praise him when you can. It is hard to be pleasant and not take the heads off of the people around you, sigh…)

#25

Just got back from the ortho! Good news is since my break isn’t near any joints and doesn’t actually affect a joint, PT in my future for now. He said at about 6 weeks I can start to swim and do exercises in the pool to help my build my strength up and no riding until at least 8 weeks post-injury and to take it slow and do lots of strengthening exercises in the saddle at the walk and on a lunge line so we don’t get a repeat break! (thank god a doctor who has horses himself!!) He gave me more pain pills ( a step up from what the ER gave me and with refills!lol) A muscle relaxer since I have been having some muscle spasms and a sleeping pill to help since the pain has been keeping me the past few nights. And best rest for at least two more weeks, he said more than likely it would be 3-4 weeks before I would really want to get up and more around much. That is the only sh*tty part really. BUT the bf is taking me to the barn this weekend so I can see my boys for a few minutes. I think I need that just for my otherall mental health. I don’t have many friends around here due to always working so much plus when I wasn’t working I was at the barn- didn’t leave much time for a social life lol. Didn’t bother me much until now when I could use a friend or two to stop by and come watch TV or just hang out with me for a bit :frowning:

I did bite the poor guy’s head off a bit last night… he works a normal 8-5 job but on top of that he is trying to get his race car ready for the upcoming season and I got on him for being home so late the past few nights, not so kindly reminding him that I am stuck home by myself if he isn’t here :frowning: I felt so bad later and did apologize. He is really trying his best, just forgets that my hard-headed “no go do whatever, I’ll be fine” responses are me trying to not be needy, but that I don’t really mean for him to just leave me all day lol. His grandmother is going to come over a few days a week and help clean the house, do some laundry and cook for us since he can’t cook. Quite honestly the thought of him in my kitchen makes me very nervous! Its a win-win, she feels needed (she is always offer to help, but no one ever takes her up on it. when I called her to ask for help you would have thought she won the lotto!) and I will have some company during the day. She also promises to try and teach me to knit… should be pretty interesting!

Other than the usual pain and depression trying to set in ( ya I don’t really do well isolated for long periods of time- I am use to keeping busy and being around people throughout the day, not to be a big titty-baby, just being honest) I feel pretty good. I hadn’t really thought about all the soft-tissue damage I have until the doc appointment and what that means for more intimate parts of my life, which I am not so happy about! From what he said that will take longer to heal than the bone itself :frowning: but I will survive.

Once again thank you all so much for the help, encouragement and support! It means more to me than I will ever be able to put into words. And I don’t think I will ever be able to repay you. But I will sure try my best!

Amanda

#26

Where in MS are you?

#27

The Delta region- North West MS to be exact. Roughly 40 miles from the Arkansas state line and only about an hour drive from Louisiana. 117 miles North of Jackson, MS if that helps you any lol

#28

give your bod time

Thank your lucky stars for the volunteer grandmother It will definitely be a blessing to both of you! give yourself more time to heal:yes: than you intend to now:lol:; take it from someone with LOTS:winkgrin: of old injuries; you will someday be old; then the aches and pains really set in:eek:take the pain meds , muscle relaxers and sleep:yes:; give your bones time to heal; if possible find a rehab associated with a sports medicine practice; I’ve found that they appreciate our drive to get back into action asap:cool:;

btw. Kim Severson broke her pelvis and came back to go to the Olympics :cool:and more:yes::yes: re. the bf and intimacy:winkgrin: pm/ email me and I will write more

#29

help withe bf

http://youtu.be:lol:/ezVib_giTFo

#30

WNfarms,

I wish you a speedy recovery! I have a few tidbits of advice for you. I am currently leasing my horse to woman in her late 50s who is ready to move up the levels. She was showing my horse first level when early last summer, she was emptying a wheelbarrow of manure, turned to walk down the ramp, tripped over her dog who followed her up the ramp, fell, and broke her pelvis. She did have surgery, as I recall.

She was devastated, not by the injury, but because she was making such progress with her riding and now she had a major setback. As I recall, she was walking with a walker for weeks, and was not cleared to ride for 2 months or so.

She sent my horse to our trainer 3 days/week to keep the horse in reasonable shape. She followed the doctors advice, went to physical therapy, and did not push her healing. I want to say it was 3 months before she got in the saddle again, and luckily my horse is rather quiet and very accomodating to the rider. She started off just walking (obviously) but kept up her physical therapy on her own. Again, I want to say she got back in the saddle in september. But because she waited to fully healed and was very diligent with her exercises and physical therapy, she was ready to get back to work. She was ready to do clinics by the end of October. She began showing again this year and just scored in the mid-60s at second level tests 1 and 3 in March.

They key to her success was not pushing herself to ride before she was ready (truly, it all comes back rather quickly), putting the horse in training to keep her in shape and tuned (even though it was just three times a week), and keeping the horse in training while she was getting herself back in shape in the saddle.

Time flies!!! You’ll be back in the saddle in no time. Good luck!!:slight_smile:

#31

I’ve been on the google Mississippi map, trying to learn about your part of the world. You are vaguely near Granada? It literally sounds like the home of the blues music. I’ve been to Huntsville, Alabama; Little Rock and Fayettesville, Ark.; and down to New Orleans. But you are in a new part of the region for me.

I’m glad to hear that your BF’s grandmother is going to come over and spend some time with you. It is a great way to get to know her and build a friendship. She can tell you so many stories of the family history and culture of the area. It will help you better understand your BF. You can help her by writing down the stories, so they are preserved.
The National Smithsonian Museum, in Washington, D.C., has an archive of this kind of stories, and if you contact them, they can preserve her stories, too. She has been through an important era in history. Should be fascinating listening.

It sounds like your ortho understands you well. Nothing like a horseperson to understand another horseperson, LOL! :slight_smile: Does your dr. know any other injured riders with whom you could form a phone buddy support group?

It’s going to take some directness in letting your BF know what you do want. If you explain about the loneliness and work through a plan together, without accusations and miffed silences, You can grow closer together through this time. Maybe you can spend some time with him while he is working on his car. At least you can see him, even if you have ear protection on and fall asleep.

#32

J-Lu, thank you for your insight! I am trying my best to take it slow and allow myself to heal! I just talked to my trainer last night and we are working out getting my horses to her while I am out of the game to keep them both progressing in their training, thankfully her and I are able to trade off services once I’m healed since I won’t be back to work for a while (she has a lovely young horse I will be working with for her, plus a great 3rd level mare she wants me to put some show miles on, win-win all around!)

Whicker- Look up Inverness, MS. That is exactly where I live, 6 miles down the highway from Indianola, MS, the birthplace of BB King. I do live in the birthplace of the blues and all that entails! It is a great place to live for that culture alone. On of the bars I worked at when I first moved here is directly across the street from the BB King museum, talk about neat! The owner herself has meet BB King several times and has been a big part of the blues scene here for a long time. To hear her stories are amazing! The great thing about Ms. Frankie coming to help is usually the funny stories of Mitchell (the bf) growing up and the silly things he did. We have been dating almost a year (a full year in May) so his family and I are very close already, they are very tight-knit and all get together monthly, so I get to see everyone pretty frequently. Makes it very nice since none of my family lives closer than 8-10 hours from here. Getting her to talk about some of the other things she has seen and been through can be difficult, like a lot of the white people around here, some things are just too controversial to talk about, or at leasts thats what has been ingrained in their heads over the past several years. Mississippi does have a deep, dark history that can be less-than pleasant to talk about. But when she does talk about how things were, especially how big the town we live in use to be when cotton was booming, it amazing at how much this town has really died since the US started importing cotton from foreign countries. Not something most people even start to think about. But its areas like the MS Delta that really took a hard hit when that happened.

Unfortunately my doc doesn’t know of any other riders in the area that have suffered my same injury :frowning: so y’all are stuck being my support group lol.

The BF and I did have a good talk about it and he really is trying his best. He even went to wal-mart for me last night! And thats a huge deal in our house since his complete dislike of that store is well known! This weekend he has promised to take me to the barn so that I can see my boys and his mom is digging up an old pool lounge chair so that I can hang out at their house this weekend for Easter, his car shop is also on their property so I will be able to hang out with him some while he works on the car, he was really trying to make a race this weekend in Greenville (about a 40 minute drive from here, almost to the Arkansas state-line) and I think when I pointed out there was no way I would be able to go (they get there around 5, after working on the car all morning, and we never get out of there before 11pm or midnight). There is no way I could lay there through all that, he felt bad. Which made me feel bad so I told him I am going to try and get the few friends I do have here to come over and hang out so he can go race. I know how much it means to him. And he has spent the off season this year building my pasture on the land we bought next door to his parents and helping me with my horses, including driving with me to KY to pick up Tunes when I found him on NV’s website. So he has been greatly supportive of my sport, way more so than many non-horsey bfs and husbands I know. I got lucky with this one. SO I am going to make it work so he can go race this weekend.

Thankfully I do enjoy the car and racing as much as he does so no ear protection needed! But the chances of me falling asleep are almost a sure thing since my meds have that effect on me! which hopefully doesn’t happen at the family easter gathering, god only knows what the little cousins would do to the crazy tattooed girl passed out ( oh ya, I am pretty well covered in tattoos on my arms, so I was a bit of shock when Mitchell’s extended family met me, they are what I politely call super-christians. I’m sure you all know what I am talking about, no offense meant).

Thank you all again! Whicker you have been a HUGE help and have really helped keep my spirits up, which I so appreciate! Even my dad who has been involved with dressage horses longer than I have been alive doesn’t really know what to say or how to act, he has never been hurt riding so this is all out of his comfort zone. And everyone else can’t comprehend why I am so worried about my horses and their overall health and well-being while I am down. So I am on this forum a lot learning and seeing what others say. So when I see on new post on this thread, it about makes my day!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! All of you are really keeping my spirits up and helping me stay focused!

#33

Bye, Bye, Miss America Pie

Hi Amanda,
Thanks for the details of where you live. It’s fun for us to hear about the blues music and B.B.King. One of my sons likes to dance the Blues. There is quite a national network of blues social dancing with lesson clinics. Since his horse is here with me, and he is in Washington state for grad school, this is one of the things he does to have some active social life. He does have a small group of rider friends, so he can muck a stall in exchange for some saddle time.

I have started reading about the cotton industry. Wiki is pretty brief, but I’m getting more of a feel for it. That’s really flat country- except where it drops for a water area. Is the Mississippi in levees above the ground level? Does the cotton prefer dry soil or is it like rice and want some wet, too?

Do you get tornadoes as well as the big tropical storms?

And the most important question, What’s the footing like?:winkgrin::lol:

My gallant DH, Saint Carl, is from Lubbock, Texas. That’s the cotton seed oil capital of the world. His Dad, “HoneyDad”, was the manager of the largest elevator there. When we went to visit him, I first saw cotton growing. It is super dry and arid there, so I wonder if they grow a different kind of cotton. Lubbock is also the hometown of Buddy Holly and Texas Tech.

Since you have a computer, you can hit the net and order the things that you want, like the memory foam mattress pad. Then your BF won’t have to go to Walmart.:slight_smile: I learned to type when my friends got me my first laptop and showed me how to shop. It was soo nice to have packages show up on the door step, without the agony of moving or asking someone else. Gave a bit of a sense of control over my destiny, and accomplishment. Plus the pleasure of something to look forward to. Then I discovered tack shopping online…:uhoh:

#34

Yep flat is an understatement for the area here! I once had someone mention hill work to help Shumaker build muscle back up after a leg injury. I politely pointed out they must not be familiar with where I live, the only hills here are the ones going into and out of the ditches on the sides of roads and between fields LOL.

As far as I know the cotton prefers dry soil, with the occasional rain. Tornadoes are super frequent here! We have had 4 in our area so far this year alone. And yes we do get the big almost tropical-like storms. Had one yesterday actually. Made a muddy mess out of everything! Having the blues so popular here does make it very nice, gives the area a very unique culture all its own!

The footing I am dealing with now is so-so :frowning: my current dressage arena is a grass one as its temporary until our barn is finished. The plan is to do a sand arena as that seems to work best around here.

I have been doing a lot of internet shopping! We have to any way since the closest tack shop is… well not very close! Most everything I buy for my horses besides their feed, hay and shavings is all done online. And since there isn’t even a good bookstore close by, all my reading material for while I am in bed is also ordered online. It does make it nice, almost like christmas all the time since you never know what package is what until you open it :slight_smile:

#35

My usual passthetimeNWB or bedrest suggestions are learn a foreign language, organize your photo collection or research your family tree, but I have a new one…Kindle app for your PC. Lots of free books and some aren’t half bad.

SIL broke her pelvis and was grounded for 6 months

#36

Just wanted to update everyone, week two is going slowly but surely! I have gotten two phone calls in the past week from eventing barns looking for a working student, one in Alabama and one in Florida. Both still wanted me to come and check things out even after I told them I am currently down for the count! So now I have even more reason to behave and do my best to heal correctly! That has definitely helped improve morale. The bf and his family have also been super helpful and have really done their best to help me out around the house and keep this crazy ship on its course.

Thank you all again for the advice, motivation and kind words in general. They have been a great help as well and really helped me realization this is just a bump in the road and not an end to the ride!

#37

How are you doing?

You are in week 4? Just thought I’d ask how things are going for you. I reread one of your most recent posts and learned you have to do quite alot of shopping on line. Have you tried “Giddyup.com?” They have rental plans for videos that are very flexible and inexpensive.
I was thinking the only long term effect breaking my pelvis had is I don’t really sit on my left seat bone without actively thinking about it. The right side is automatic, the left not so much. And I haven’t cantered Bad Boy Blue in the place in the field where the accident happened! So I guess there are a few mental cobwebs to work on. Hope you’re doing well and keeping yourself happy.
And one good thing came from my injury. I feel blessed everytime I swing my leg over the saddle.

#38

Thinking Body, Dancing Mind

Hi Amanda,
How is this week going?

I found this book important to my recovery. While I’m sure there are more advanced sports psychology books, this one was critical for me for the process of dealing with major injury.

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Body-Dancing-Mind-Extraordinary/dp/0553373781

It has many of the elements that I learned from the Le Goff training. (Without the negative parts of his personal style)

Can you have a P.T. session to learn how to maneuver and restart your neural pathways? You can do a lot by thinking exactly a correct movement. Whether or not you actually physically move, the pathway is activated. By riding in your head, like the preparation of each step and then the feel of the step, you will be able to fire the neural pathway memories to the muscles when you actually use them.

#39

Thank you for checking up on me! Almost in week four (officially week 4 starting tomorrow) and things are going very well!!! I am walking completely on my own, no walker needed. I had a pretty awful limp, but its almost completely gone. I have been off all my pain meds for about a week now and have even been able to go to the barn a few times to love on my boys :slight_smile: I still have a lot of stiffness and sore muscles in my left side, so I have been getting in my friend’s pool doing a little PT and it is helping. About two weeks ago I got an even bigger reason to heal and get back into shape - got a call asking me if I would be interested in a working-student position. I even told the trainer about my injury and how recent it was. Didn’t phase him a bit. Told me to keep him UTD about how I was healing and when I was ready to ride to let him know!

I have had a ton of free time and talked the boyfriend out of the CC we have for “horsey stuff only” hehehe. I try to be a pretty smart shopper and buy only what I really need, so both the boys got new boots, I bought a new pair of breeches and a new helmet for my head :slight_smile: still on the lookout for a new safety vest- just can’t bare to spend $300+ on a brand new one at the moment. And thankfully I got the Dover sale catalog in, so I got some great deals! I have been reading a ton- thank you Amazon.com and even wrote a post for horsenation.com about my fall, which they published yesterday :slight_smile:

So all in all, even though I really freaked out the first two weeks, now that I am healing on track and slowly feeling back to normal, I feel a lot better all a round! I am halfway through this and every day is a bit better. I will never take the ability to get on my horses again and I think that by going through this it will hopefully make me a better, more conscious rider in the long run.

Thank you all again! Especially Whicker- you have no idea how your up-beat post really helped me those first few days, I was pretty depressed about it all and scared more than anything. And since I didn’t have a friend I could talk to face-to-face who had gone through what I was, you really stepped up and made me feel a lot better!!

#40

Yes, Yes, Yes!

You are talking about Feldenkrais technique! Find a practitioner in your area, many of them ride! TTEAM is based upon Feldenkrais; It is amazing:yes:The body work, calledfunctional integration, seems so simple;), yet, has an amazing effect:cool:

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