Pumpkin spice ponies: September and October Training Thread

[StraightForward]

Here's our new thread!

We are wrapping up rehab, so not much for goals this time around:

Me: Regular gym-going

Tesla:
Keep improving the 2nd/3rd level walk movements since we MUST WALK
Introduce trot through the short sides this month.
Introduce canter in October, and probably SI and LY in trot

Saddles: Get the Erreplus sent to Italy for a new tree, hopefully sell the Trilogy.

[heddylamar]

I just lost a novel, having to re-login

Me: Get healthy.

Maia: Stay sane, safe, and don't explode into a giant, red bouncing ball.

I was trail running on Friday, tripped, and cut my knee. I started to run on, then realized that maybe I should stop: there were rivers of blood running down my leg. Urgent care flushed, stitched it closed, and sent me off with antibiotics and a knee immobilizer.

Monday evening, it wasn't looking quite right, but nothing significant, so I went back to urgent care when they opened Tuesday morning. Popped parts open, drained, and packed, and sent me home. It was massively swollen by Tuesday night, so we went to the ER. They took X-rays, CT, and started antibiotics, then transferred me to another hospital with ortho and infectious disease specialists.

And then the real fun started.

First up was the ortho resident, who was too impatient to wait for the ER staff to figure out which pain meds I could take (not many, yay allergies!), so he did the knee prick without local or pain meds.

The white blood cell count wasn't too high, so a whole team of ortho residents came back and debrided, this time with local. I do not want to know what that would feel like without local anesthetic. Multiple abscesses, some "very deep" (which makes me question my knowledge of deep, because this is my knee cap, not a thigh), and extracted all sorts of stuff for culture.

Side note: it's a bit disturbing when a bunch of 20-somethings get excited about your wound and descend like a pack.

After more antibiotics and a dressing change, the orthos plan was to send me home today, but the infectious disease doctor came in this afternoon, looked at the wound, and asked me if the redness was the same or better than during the bandage change this morning. Worse.

So here I am. I'll be here until at least Saturday when they get the cultures back. Then they need to figure out what antibiotics will work for whatever is growing in my leg that I can take home (more allergies, including all sulfas).

The ortho team flooded the thoroughly abused and cleaned wound with six large bottles of sterile solution. By comparison, urgent care used 3-4 60ml syringes. I had to laugh. If the DH had brought me the sterile solution I'd requested, in addition to the gauze, I might not be here.

Now every time the DH gives me shit about "that time I insisted on washing my hair instead of going to the ER" (I scrubbed the shit out of the road rash with wound wash, and then myself because I was running a trail race) before going to the ER with a dislocated phalanx, I am going to push back with "septic arthritis."

If this heals without surgery, I hope to still go backpacking in October with friends.

And, once the wound closes, I'll start back with Maia on getting your anxious ass in the horse trailer. To that end, I should try lighting it up with the battery-powered work light. It's a Hawk, so lots of windows and light, but she hates any hint of a dark space.

[StraightForward]

Damn, you are taking "fall" way too literally. Yikes, I hope the infection is under control and you're on the mend soon!

[Moutaineer]

Yikes, Heddy! I'm glad you're in the right place to get it resolved (I get you on the pack of gawkers coming in to check you out. When I had my deer-goring incident, I reckon the entire hospital staff came through for a look. Fortunately I was so high on Ativan by then, I was past caring. This is a small town. For some time afterwards I'd have people saying "I know you from somewhere!" And I'd respond "Do you work at the hospital?")

Anyhow, Potters continues to improve. Justin just rode him as I was at the hospital this morning myself, having had an abnormal mammogram last week. They've just done an extremely thorough follow-up and found nothing, which is a relief, but I feel like I've been run over by a road roller. So I watched instead of riding. It was lovely, actually. Now I just need to ride him as well as Justin does!

[exvet]

Wow Heddy! My friend was just beat up by her young horse (spooked as she was leading and ran all over her) and now your 'more than' mishap. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Had a great clinic today on Troy. Ace was the bomb schooling for the schooling show tomorrow and Junior was his cheeky self. I'll post more in the other thread but Junior's radiographs were not too bad - still moderate rotation on left fore, improved with less rotation on right fore and moving sound. Farrier is coming next week and we'll talk about rehab plans. His lab results were stunning except his insulin which was right back up to 64, bummer.

Goals - me, well I've lost quite a bit of weight just due to stress and all the extra work I've been doing to care for Junior, so I just want that to stabilize.

Ace - get through tomorrows training level test 3 without embarassing ourselves and then keep working on his stamina and skills for first level.

Troy - get him confident in the canter and solid in the bridle. He's been pretty good so now it's time to work on consistency.

Junior - see if I can keep him sound (with the grace of God). He at least seems pretty darn happy which does my heart good.