Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The Diagnosis

No bumps in this road--this is my street

Another bump in the road besides relapsing on the cigarettes is it turns out my back is broken after all. My girlfriend says to stop talking negatively, it’s not actually broken. She says broken would be like if you had two bones that were completely snapped in half like a wishbone. In that case I think I would be paralyzed because the spine protects the spinal cord and that would be pretty negative but that’s not happening.

I have two fractures (T12 and L3), one “severe”, and a multitude of wear-and-tear issues—degenerative disc disease in many of the discs and some kind of scoliosis thing that’s probably from my bad posture. I’m not too worried about the degenerative disc disease and the scoliosis thing. I expected that. Most of us cowgirls have that. It’s from riding and lifting fifty-pound bags of grain and pushing wheelbarrows. You get that. I also had a feeling about the fractures. This back pain felt different. It is not the worst pain that I’ve had but it’s different. It feels like an accordion collapsing in on itself and when the doctor drew me a picture, that’s exactly what it looked like.

I have to go to the orthopedic doctor. He will probably order an MRI so they can make sure the fractures are stable. If they are stable, it’s just a matter of rest, possibly a brace, and if I could, water therapy might help. (I learned this from the Internet, not from my family doctor who knew squat. I call family doctors “gateway doctors” nowadays. You have to go to them to get referrals to go to the real doctor who will fix you.) If they’re not stable, I would need surgery. They would put something in there to hold it together so that the bones don’t impinge on the spinal cord. Trying to be positive, I assume I’d be in more pain if the fractures weren’t stable so I’m not losing any sleep over it.

But I’m afraid my barrel racing career is over before it even got started. All these years I’ve been trying to do it and one thing or another got in the way, mostly moving. Every time I got my horse ready, we decided to move again and then I had to fix the house and stage the house and sell the house (we always sell it ourselves with no real estate agent so that takes a lot of work) and pack the house (one time I packed the house completely by myself because Kurt was recuperating from double bypass surgery—he didn’t even see the new house when I bought it because he was in the hospital) and then we’d move into a new house and we’d have to build fences and build barns and replace roofs and replace heating systems…. And start our business all over again. That’s like starting a whole new business! I’d get halfway settled in and then start riding my horse again and I’d go to a barrel race or two, and then something else would happen. So all these years I never really got going. And now I don’t know if I will ever be able to get going. Those high speeds and hairpin turns really throw you around in the saddle and I’d be afraid I’d reinjure the healed fractures. I imagine it will always be a weak area and the spine is nothing to mess around with.

I’m not ruling it out though. I am looking into protective vests. The eventers wear them. Jockeys wear them. They protect your ribs and your spleen but I don’t know how well they protect your spine because they don’t stop the spine from compressing. I know of a company that makes a safety vest that blows up like an air mattress when you fall off the horse. It attaches to the horn by a cord and when you fall off, the cord breaks and the vest inflates. We made jokes when we were told how it works by the vendor at Colonial Nationals a couple of years ago. He zeroed right in on us because he thought we were an easy mark since Kelly was one of the only riders wearing a helmet, plus she had emergency-release stirrups, a real rarity in the western world. He probably thought, “Here’s a family that’s safety conscious!” But we laughed. We wanted to know if we’d bounce. We asked if there was a parachute attached to it because when Bullet bucked, Bullet bucked hard and one time Kurt landed up in a tree.

But now I’m thinking it’s not so funny after all. I’m trying to be positive but there’s nothing wrong with taking every safety precaution as possible. Because bumps in the road, or the arena, really hurt.
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13 comments:

Tammy Vasa said...

Step back from the cigs! You don't want to go thru that whole withdrawal crap again!

Sorry for the bad news and the possible end of your barrel racing career. Where were horses when we were younger and had the time and energy (and good back) to ride? Hang in there! Hope you are feeling better soon. You can become a trail rider like me. :)

Leonora said...

I'm praying for the best when the doctors look at that MRI.
How about coaching barrel racers? It wouldn't be quite as exciting as riding, but would keep you in the sport. The older we get, the less we bounce : )

Chris said...

I gave up riding several years ago because I had had many falls over the years and at my age I don't bounce back as well as I used to. I kept a horse as pasture ornament for a few years because I didn't want to admit that that part of my life was over.

But then I took up playing music. I had never played an instrument before but now I love playing with people and am asked to play out occasionally. I still have animals and love horses but find my new passion very rewarding.

Hoping for healing and more passionate experiences for you.

Grey Horse Matters said...

I think you'll be better able to make safety decisions after the MRI. Barrel racing might not be in your future but there are so many other things to do with the horses I'm sure you won't be bored. Good luck ad feel better. Oh, ad rest...

Cynda said...

I'm sorry to hear your back is broke! You should take every safety precaution as possible! I was surprised to see the picture of your road because it is not what I expected NJ to look like at all. There is a lot of wide open space. Please take all the time you need to let your back heal. It is nothing to fool around with! And get that protective vest Debi!

CountryDew said...

I have my fingers crossed for you. Good luck and I hope everything works out okay.

Jeff said...

No, your back is broken. Don't fool around and ignore what the doctor tells you to do. You may well have to have surgery. If you do, you must go through physical therapy, which can be excruciatingly painful. But if you don't do it, you're mobility will be limited forever. It's time to re-direct your energies. Don't fool around with life-threatening activities - find some other way to live your passion.

I'm in the process of redirecting my life - you can do it too!!

Gilly said...

I'm really sorry to hear about your back. Do take the best care of it you can, its the only one we have, and what goes down the middle is rather important!

Sloan said...

I don't care what you want to call it. This is serious Debi and you can't fool around with it. Do not push yourself and take all the safety precautions you can. That is just common sense. No one thinks you are not tough. Don't hurt your back even more just to prove you are.

Greener Pastures--A City Girl Goes Country said...

Thanks everyone. Don't worry, I am taking it seriously. Updating soon!

Cape Coop said...

Hey, Debi, a fracture IS a break, so your back is broken in TWO places. Pfft, that is not a negative statement, it is the truth. Water therapy- NOW! Build up the muscles in the rest of your torso and your legs, to compensate and give your spine as much help as possible, and the BEST way to build that kind of muscle with a broken back is in the water. SO, there's a YMCA in Carney's Point, there's one in Vineland and there's one in Woodbury- they all offer pools. Here is the Google map link for them. https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&q=ymca+woodstown+nj&fb=1&gl=us&hq=ymca&hnear=0x89c721ce355782e1:0x3255514fd505ad78,Woodstown,+NJ&cid=0,0,2811133618042696218&ei=Mv7QUZGpLM-60QGGlYCYAg&ved=0CJIBEPwSMAA

Becky Mushko said...

I broke my back (compressed the 3rd & 4th lumbar vertebrae) in 1977 when I fell off a runaway while taking riding lessons. I drove myself home afterward but it hurt like hell. Six weeks later, when I could stop wearing the brace, I bought my first horse. I figured I'd rather fall off my own horse than a strange one, and I already owned the brace. For a year or two after the break, my back could predict the weather.

Greener Pastures--A City Girl Goes Country said...

Yeah, you might as well get your own horse Becky if you already own a brace!

Thanks Rebecca!