- Joined
- Feb 25, 2021
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- 3,130
My wife has a soft heart and loves our animals, primarily horses and cats. But last week it bit her, we had a horse that had been down for half a day so we wanted to get the horse up. Typically when horses lay down for too long they can get numb in whichever legs are underneath them, so rolling them onto the other side is frequently helpful. Unfortunately this mare got up and then fell back down, her head whiplashed out and smacked my wife on the side of the lower leg. My wife now has a fractured tibia and fibula just below the knee. Fortunately not displaced. Orthopedic surgeon hopes it will heal without surgery but he does say it is a marginal case. She's looking at multiple weeks of non-weight bearing and probably 3 months for full recover if surgery can be avoided. It's going to be tough on her as she normally does the majority of care for 8 horses, then splits firewood for "exercise".
It was a challenging weekend, as initially the ER sent her home with opiate pain meds but encouraged her to go light on the meds. She passed out getting up from the ER bed, and repeatedly whenever she tried to move. Within 24 hours she was dehydrated, and hadn't slept. I took her back in and got her admitted. She passed out on the porch trying to navigate out the front door on crutches, I grabbed her but ended up with my arms around her and the crutches, which made it nearly impossible to set her down in a chair. After an extensive couple of days of evaluation in the hospital for other possible causes, they conceded that the fainting was caused by pain and gave her a significantly stronger dosage, and some basic instruction on using a walker instead of trying to use crutches.
We have been kidding that she wanted her turn after all the challenges I have had during this year. It does make me glad we retired when we did, the only thing worse than getting old is the alternative.
It was a challenging weekend, as initially the ER sent her home with opiate pain meds but encouraged her to go light on the meds. She passed out getting up from the ER bed, and repeatedly whenever she tried to move. Within 24 hours she was dehydrated, and hadn't slept. I took her back in and got her admitted. She passed out on the porch trying to navigate out the front door on crutches, I grabbed her but ended up with my arms around her and the crutches, which made it nearly impossible to set her down in a chair. After an extensive couple of days of evaluation in the hospital for other possible causes, they conceded that the fainting was caused by pain and gave her a significantly stronger dosage, and some basic instruction on using a walker instead of trying to use crutches.
We have been kidding that she wanted her turn after all the challenges I have had during this year. It does make me glad we retired when we did, the only thing worse than getting old is the alternative.
