How else are you supposed to get to the ER? You don’t want to have to drag a friend who has other places to be then sitting in an ER waiting room for a couple of hours if you are cognizant and can operate the car. Plus you can go right home, not back to fetch your own car. Guess the docs are used to more drama over these things.
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When I drove myself to the ER after being kicked in the chest (just bruised ribs luckily), I was told that the ER docs use a different scale for riders when assessing pain LOL! Apparently a Rider’s 1 is another person’s 8. If you do not know about rating your pain on a scale from 1-10, consider yourself lucky.
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The ER nurse told me I probably didn’t have broken bones since I wasn’t crying from pain. I had a broken shoulder blade (two places) and a broken rib.
Any news on how he is doing?
I think there is often some pain delay. I laughed when the ER doc told me I had a tibial plateau fracture. But later…the excruciating pain arrived.
Adrenaline is a hell of a drug. I think doctors often forget that. Couple it with the horseperson’s tendency to blow off all but severe pain? You’ve got a recipe for missed injuries
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I agree with the adrenaline! At a show in October my horse misjudged the 3 foot fence and landed in the middle breaking the gate in half. I didn’t even have a chance to react and slammed into the ground. I got up limping not realizing I was hurt and got back on my horse and jumped around a 3 foot course and did the flat class. When I got off my horse I was in so much pain I could barely walk. I was nauseous, shaking and sweating. People came up to me and told me to get x rays and I said no I’m fine. I honestly thought I tore a groin muscle. Long story short I walked around for five days not knowing I broke my pelvis in two places. Here I am five months later and I still can’t ride. Moral of the story if you feel pain go to the ER asap. It’s better to be safe than sorry. I learned a hard lesson. It was a freak accident. I am hoping to be able to ride again in April or May.
I agree about both the adrenaline and horse people having a different pain threshold. I honestly didn’t feel that bad, no tears or nausea, and I didn’t feel like I was going to pass out. I actually was posting and making jokes on facebook on my phone about having to miss bingo that night while I was in the ambulance, because really, what else was there to do for the 15 minute ride? I don’t think I rated the pain more than a 6 when the EMTs were initially assessing me and once I’d had surgery and was admitted it was barely over a 2 or 3 at any given time. One of the nurses told me that they’d had adult men with essentially the same injury who were screaming in pain. I also had a nurse who apparently rode jumpers who said that she had gotten dumped while riding her horse one morning, had scraped herself up and finished her ride, drove herself home, and got her kids fed and off to school before she decided to get herself looked at and she apparently had a fractured vertebrae or two. We’re definitely an odd lot.
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You guys are way tougher than me! When I fractured my humerus after my mare bucked me off onto the wood fence surrounding the arena, I was in agony. I couldn’t move until the fire department and paramedics arrived and pumped me full of drugs, and even then, they had carry me to the ambulance and keep giving me drugs every ten minutes (the bumps during the ambulance ride were excruciating) until we got to the ER. I wouldn’t wish that injury on anyone.
Wasn’t that tough when I cracked the top of my upper arm right under the ball, no surgery but didn’t drive myself to the ER with that one. The worst pain ever…and you don’t know how much you use your shoulder for balance and even sitting up until you lose it and flop around like a fish out of water trying to get up. Had to sleep sitting up in a chair for 6 weeks. Thought ribs were bad until I experienced this. Sucked and I whined pretty good about it. Hear collarbones can be bad too, but they heal faster.
I had a very similar injury in December of 2014. Went to get off, landed on my feet, spiral fracture and broke tibia and fibula in 2 places each. Tibia came through the skin. I was in the hospital for 3 weeks, 2 surgeries (I have 2 plates and more screws than I’ve cared to count), non weight bearing for another 3 months, then partial weight bearing for 3 months after that. My total recovery was about a year, but there are still a few things that bother me 3 years later. That said, KF is an amazing athlete, and I’m sure his recovery will be much quicker. Hope to see him in the irons at WEG!!
Get the metal out. It took me about 30 months post-surgery to do it, but so glad that I did.
Is there a reason to take them out of they’re not a bother? I’ve also got two big plates and a bunch of screws but don’t have any issues with them. Don’t want to go through another surgery if there’s no reason to.
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I’m curious to know this too. I have a rod and screws in my humerus that doesn’t seem to bother me. The first surgery was brutal and I wouldn’t want to repeat it unless there was a compelling reason.
Sorry for hijacking. I will start by saying that I was petrified of a second surgery, which is why I waited over 2 years to get it done. I had a tibial plateau fracture with two plates and 12 screws. I had pain to a tendon which my original MD said was not related to the metal, but a sports knee guy (who does all he can to avoid operating) said he thought was referred pain. My original surgeon retired and stopped operating, so I went to someone at the Brigham in Boston recommended by my sports knee guy. The difference was palpable. I was on crutches for less than a week. Always weight-bearing. A lot of the swelling that had been residual in the leg started to go down. I went back to PT. My PT said that I had been walking to protect the painful tendon for the last two years, so she set about building my left leg back up. I am still rehabbing, not because the second surgery was so invasive, but because I favored the leg for more than two years.
If you have no residual discomfort, leave it alone, but if you have any pain or feel like your leg is not right consider it. My muscles around the metal in that leg were always cold and uncomfortable, so I always wore a brace or knee strap. Now I no longer need one. Rehab sucks, but I am able to walk better,run my dog agility, and wear a skirt without a brace :).
Yikes! Do you mean bailing off a horse, or simply dismounting?
When I owned a lesson barn we used to say take up tennis if kids cried when they fell off. I think equestrians are pretty tough although I must say I’m paying for all my falls when I was young now that I’m 55. I had no pain with my broken wrist and it took me two weeks to go to a doctor for what ended up being a broken neck. Whoops! I actually worry that I’ll miss small but significant signs of major issues when I get older.
I agree with the “leave the metal in” contingent. I had compound fractures in both my radius and ulna, have a plate and several screws. I was 16 and my mother saw the pain of my first two surgeries (Doc kept the wound open since it had so much dirt from the ring in it, requiring another surgery) and let me decide whether to get the plate and screw out. I opted not to. 40 years later I have no complaints. A couple of years ago I had a new X-ray taken and that Doc said there were no issues with the metal.
Just dismounting. Freak accident.
I’ve talked to my surgeon about hardware removal. The smaller of the two plates can be removed without a problem, but the big one had to go between the two bones, so the only way to get it out is to re-break bones. No thanks!
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Does anyone have a update on how Kent’s doing? Word at PBC is that he’s back in the saddle and is planning on riding at NYC Masters. Is there any truth to this?
