Sunday, December 31, 2017

Is It Over Yet?

The last quarter of this year has been something else.  Something else beside relaxing, productive, or fulfilling from where I stand.  I wish I could say that tomorrow everything will be better, but really, that isn't up to me and that one point--that it isn't up to me--is what  has been the hardest for me through the past several months.  2018 is bringing, for me anyway, maybe more uncertainty than it is promise.  Mainly uncertainty pertaining to where my grandkids will reside on a regular basis (which affects my schedule, working, and riding to varying degrees).

This past week we had the grandkids from about bedtime on Christmas Day until roughly 3:00 Friday afternoon (Dec. 29).  Thank goodness that DD1 was also here for a good portion of that, DH had the entire week off (although he did have prior commitments taking up most of Tuesday and Wednesday), and DD2 also was home the entire week.  Because I could not possibly have taken care of the kids without their help as I had previously committed to not only my regular hours at the dressage barn when I work, but also filling in for morning feeding and stall cleaning at the eventing barn where I used to work. And, to top it off, I had agreed to ride someone else's horse daily while that person was out of state for a week.

The extra riding was nice, until it wasn't.  On Wednesday, the last day of that particular commitment, I suffered a rather large crash.  The kind where one minute you are trotting around nicely, then suddenly you feel the horse start to scoot while your brain registers that the horses back feels like an enormous buck is eminent and you think Oh shit, I'm going off and the next thing you know, you are lying flat on your back staring up at the rafters of the indoor arena while someone is kneeling over you calling your name.  It was the kind of spectacular crash where you get knocked out and no one allows you to move, they just cover you with layers of horse blankets and pack rolled up polo wraps around your neck while calling 911 for an ambulance.

Thankfully I am hard headed enough that my brain didn't seem to sustain any more trauma than a concussion and I was able to (repeatedly) tell the paramedics not only what day it was, but my name, home address, birth date, etc, etc that they ask you in order to judge how loopy you might be. palpation of my skull, neck, spine, ribs and hip didn't indicate anything broken, so they allowed me to make the choice whether I wanted to ride in the ambulance to the hospital for more examination or just go home and take it easy.  Being that I felt pretty much normal, not counting the growing headache and the feeling in my right hip and lower rib cage that clued me in to exactly which body part I hit the ground with first, I declined an ambulance ride.  I did promise them that I would let someone else drive me home in my vehicle, and that if I were to start vomiting, I would go to the emergency room immediately.

I spent most of the rest of Wednesday and a good portion of Thursday taking large doses of anti-inflammatories and laying on the couch as much as possible with young kids in the house.  I never did throw up, which is good because I couldn't see how the grandkids would get taken care of (they currently cannot be at home unless their father is there) if I ended up needing DH to take me to the hospital.  My body felt like I'd been in a car wreck: all stiff and achey when I moved the wrong way--which was pretty much any direction requiring reaching, twisting, or bending. Needless to say, I was unable to do any barn work on Thursday and Friday.

By Saturday morning I felt normal enough to attempt driving and grocery shopping.  I took DD2 with me, just in case.  Other than the fluorescent lights of the grocery store messing with my head (what a strange spacey feeling they induced), that went fine. Today I feel good enough that I am contemplating getting back in the saddle (need to dig up a helmet to wear, mine should probably be retired after that crash), and plan to resume my regular work schedule.

Needless to say, with the family turmoil of the last few months, and my bordering on famous unplanned dismount from the horse on Wednesday, I'm not sad to bid goodbye to 2017.