Nicely done!
This beats my polo wrap for cushioning, Cashel pad for support, and draw reins as a sling with the other polo at the back of my friend’s neck for a suspected busted arm when she came off on a hack.
That’s how you determine what kind of experience your orthopedic MD has. The trick is that you have to ask early in the appolntment. For example, “When I can ride my horse?” or "Can I just groom my horse if I don’t ride? " . You should get a very energetic response, which you did. My favorite orthopedic surgeon retired so I had a new one (same practice) when I broke my wrist in October. I asked him a test question because I put my horse down in July. “When can I ride my horse again?” “6 weeks!” I answered “Well that won’t work!” “Why not?” “Because no horse person will do that. It is totally unresaonable to expect a horse person to go that long without riding. Or grooming. Or anything.” What worked best for me was my wrist fracture prior to this one. We agreed on 2-week blocks starting with easy grooming, no feet. It was worth sticking with the plan because I could avoid surgery if I was careful.
I know this works. The prior fracture was at mom’s apartment on Cape Cod. They brought a specialist into the ER. I intended to drive home to Maine. Didn’t need any pain meds. I got a great “what is it with you horse people? and so on.” Then he told a really funny joke. Nice touch.
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When I had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus I was supposed to be on crutches for a couple of weeks and to take it easy. I was up and about on the second day, cleaning stalls, feeding, the usual. Took longer to heal but I feel the trade off was reasonable.
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Lol. I was pretty good about my elbow because it was a bad break and I have a bunch of plates and screws in it so I didn’t ride for a bit.
When I went back after PT, I asked if I was cleared and he was like “so what have you been doing that I wouldn’t approve of?” I said “riding horses.” He was like “anything.” He was a college hockey star, and did part of his residency with the US Olympic docs. He says horse people are the worst, followed by ultra-marathoners then hockey players.
I do think my activity helped. Ortho said if I did all the PT I would be able to open my elbow angle to a 30 degree angle. I have a full range to 0 degrees. I can’t hyperflex it, but I have full range of motion.
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I think I’ve told this story here before but I’ll repeat it.
I came off a horse and bounced off the arena fence before I hit the ground. I was not at home. I went home, fed and watered my own horses, took care of the dog, took a shower, and fell asleep. Got up in the morning and drove myself to the ER. It turned out that I had 5 broken ribs.
The ER doc called an ortho for a consultation. After the ortho got there, the ER doc was telling him my story, incredulous that I had 5 broken ribs and hadn’t called 911 immediately.
The ortho pulled out his phone, scrolled for a moment, then showed me a picture of a lovely young woman on a lovely, big gray horse and said, “My daughter.” Then he looked at the ER doc, shrugged, and said, “Horse people.”
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I love all your “horse people” orthos! My last two didn’t know enough about horse people to have that opinion.
My first ortho kind of treated me like an athlete, but not really, and was dismissive about the severity of my knee injury. He literally said “I’ll order an MRI just to humor you.” When he got the results, he called me and said “I just want to be sure your pain is really a 3 or 4.” And I said “yeah, mostly it is just swollen and feels unstable. Why?” And he said I had a moderate meniscus tear, and usually that’s painful. I think maybe I was his first Horse Girl? Needless to say, he sounded way more respectful after that.
My most recent ortho tried to suggest I shouldn’t ride horses at all after I told him my back and hip pain started after a recent fall, then told me I have bone on bone arthritis in the hip that wasn’t bothering me, then changed subjects when I said “well, it doesn’t hurt” and never broached again. Then he saw a picture of my mare on my phone’s Lock Screen, asked “Is that the beast that did this to you?” and again suggested that riding is a dangerous activity before sending me on my way.
He wrote me a script for PT for the side of my back and hip that were bothering me - which I promptly “lost” and never followed up on. Don’t get me wrong, I love PT and it helped enormously with my torn meniscus, back pain and ankle arthritis, but I figured if nothing looked too nefarious and he was pretty certain it was muscle spasms, I’m good to go.
Pain went away within a week. I think I was trying to “protect” myself and bracing and gave myself muscle spasms. Once I knew I was fine, I felt loose.
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I’m sure I’ve told this story here as well, but it is so similar to yours. I was way overhorsed. I was riding in the arena because I didn’t like the way my horse was acting that day, and substituted arena time for a trail ride. He bolted in the arena, heading right for the arena fence and the fence bordering on a busy road. I was sure we were going through it. He hung a quick left at the last minute, but lawn darted me. I was shaky and didn’t want to get on him again. A barn friend got on him so he wouldn’t get out of work.
Then I led him back to the tack room area, unsaddled, groomed, fed, and walked him out to his current pasture, about half a mile away. Of course, then I had to walk back. Got in my car, drove my manual transmission car home, and sat down. Then I nearly screamed from the pain in my dislocated right shoulder.
I put it in a sling and went to work the next day. DH drove me because I couldn’t shift. I just don’t know how I’d made it home from the barn the day before.
My coworker took one look at me, called my doctor (we had the same doctor), and drove me to the emergency appointment. The doctor sent me for an X-ray, and when I got to radiology, they all yelled “Sell the damned horse!” I’d been there before with horse related injuries. My friend said she heard me shriek when they moved my arm to get the X-ray.
I did sell the horse not too long afterward.
Rebecca
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@fordtraktor I saw a physical therapist who was a hockey player and we enjoyed debating who was the worst patient. He said “all you runners are gluttons for punishment.” I got my revenge, I’m sorry to say. He had a bad accident and came in on a knee scooter awaiting surgery on his ankle. “And it’s the runners who are what now?”
He wasn’t troubled that I rode horses because he said “I don’t have enough of you in my practice to know if you’re all stupid or not, but I KNOW all my runners are trouble, so I know YOU are going to be.” I ought to go back to him with an equine injury. It will be good for his education. (Please, universe, I don’t want to borrow trouble.)
A few years ago I had a non-sports-related accident that landed me in the shock trauma unit. There I met a lovely nurse who was delighted to hear (from my husband) “she was just at a horse show five hours ago!” as she was applying my tourniquet and regaled me with stories of her 34-year-old pony. We agreed it was for the best I had gotten home from the show some time ago because “I would have had to cut your boots off, dear, zippers or no.”
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I got splatted against the wall training a young horse and fractured a vertebrae and racked up my shoulder but it happed to also be the day I was moving barns. After said splatting and trainer riding the snot out of young horse, I hopped back on and rode for a little while longer and then loaded up all my tack and gear, drove to new barn, got her settled in, and called DH to let him know he’ll need to drive me to the emergency room when I pick him up.
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SMZs are excellent for a UTI 
In case anyone needs this information 
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GOLD!
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Oh, yes… after the deer-goring incident, which came up in another thread the other day, I went inside, called my husband to tell him he needed to come get me and take me to hospital, and went back out and fed the horses. Came inside and changed my clothes. Sort of.
My mantra, if you don’t look at it, it hasn’t happened.
It only works until the adrenaline starts to wear off. I was a gibbering basket case by the time the poor man got me to the ER. But I was wearing clean underwear.
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And I’m remembering now, once they’d taken me back and pumped me full of some anti-anxiety drug and calmed me down while they worked out what to do with me (they don’t get a lot of deer goring survivors. I reckon every member of the medical staff that was on duty that day came by to take a look.) They were a little suprised that I was most concerned about getting in touch with DNR to get the damned deer out of the fence and contacting my neighbor to see if she could go supervise and make sure the horses didn’t get out.
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