The Katmah Experience

Well, my busy weekend was a bust.

Since Saturday’s super fun physics experiment, and resultant hilarious evening spent in Seven Oaks triage surrounded by paramedics- I have been waging a war with gravity and inflammation. Oh, and crutches. Those things are the worst. I thought I was in shape, until using them for 5 minutes.

Needless to say, the horse I was showing probably won’t be bought by those particular viewers.

This was definitely one of those things in the sport that could have happened on any day to any rider and any horse. While there was somewhat of a “perfect storm” on Saturday (horse hadn’t been worked in a while due to weather, weather was changing, lights in arena weren’t working, the arena was creaky due to weather changes)- there really isn’t anyone at fault. And thinking back, I probably was thrown in the best way possible. If I had stayed on any longer, it would have been my head/neck hitting the top of the door at full speed, and if the horse had stopped at the wall instead of turning and running out the door I would have A)gone head first into the wall or B)stayed on (this probably would have been best case, but you get the point). Physics is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

Funnily enough, the scariest part of all of it for me was not the actual flying through the air towards a solid wall. All that was going through my mind when the horse took off was a nonchalant “this is going to be a bad fall. I hope I don’t hit my head..”. You can always tell before they happen which ones are going to be nothing, and which ones are going to be bad. That mid air realisation was confirmed when I recognised from where I landed that there was no way I was moving my leg, and that something was wrong.

Fear didn’t really kick in until much later, just before Lauren showed up and I had sent the girls who were there viewing the horse to find him and untack him; I was completely alone supporting my leg and I felt shock starting to set in (ignorance might have been bliss in this situation). My face went numb, nausea set in, my ears began to tingle, and my vision started to go. Thankfully I was able to reverse all those really nice feelings with recognising what was happening and focusing on my breathing. It maybe lasted for a minute, but it was one of the scariest minutes of my life. After that, besides pain, I was fine.

Slowly, but surely, the icing every hour and elevating as much as humanly possible during the day (while still attending classes) is starting to make gains against the swelling in my leg. I have some pretty nice bruises scattered, and some even nicer strained muscles in my thigh and shoulder. I haven’t gotten much farther on assessing the actual damage yet, other then the hospital’s “it’s not broken, you can leave now”, as currently every single movement is an issue due to inflammation in the confined spaces of my lower leg. The past couple days have been more about preventing compartment syndrome from cutting off circulation to my lower leg while inflammation runs it’s course. Thursday, now that my WCB claim is in place, I will be for real assessed to see what the damage is. Yay more poking and prodding.

I’ve been attending school for two reasons, 1- no way am I falling behind, and 2- I feel the safest there, surrounded by numerous ATs 8hrs a day and having full access to ice and someone to check my foot’s circulation in the clinic whenever I need. Work is another story, obviously HC is put on hold and I definitely wasn’t able to work at MORfit Sunday or tonight (wasn’t able to teach either :() due to being horribly intimidated by stairs and 110% useless. Which means I’ve also been staying outside of the city, as my place as three terrifying flights (thank you to the Korstrom family, and my dad/Tesia for putting up with me!)

I am definitely glad that last week I felt the need to get as caught up with everything as I could (premonition much?), because this week not much catching up is possible.

Today I have been able to weight bear, a little. I have been able to make it around the house at a awkward shuffle- I can’t really move my leg out from directly under my hip (so heck no to any extension or flexion while moving) unless I want to experience full on muscle spasms. But this is leaps and bounds compared to Saturday night/sunday when I couldn’t move from the hip down, let alone even consider putting weight on the leg. Woooo progress. Even since yesterday, when we discovered that my right (injured) foot was quite a few degrees colder then my left, a few shades paler as well, and my ability to control movement at my ankle was next to zero (holla at me compartment syndrome)- I’ve regained decent circulation and can make movement happen when I want it to. Thank goodness for compression socks.

I’ve quickly discovered that most of the handicap doors throughout UW are dysfunctional, and pretty much everyone outside of the Duckworth seems to enjoy watching the girl with crutches struggle to open, hold, and go through doors herself.

One of the things that’s surprised me the most about this whole ordeal is how I’ve been handling it. In the past, injuries that withhold my ability to continue living my life at high speed tend to put me in a bad place. Maybe it was the overwhelmingly hilarious experience Lauren and I had with some pretty great paramedics on Saturday, but as much as it sucks that everything is being put on hold (again)- it’s not really phasing me like it used to. I guess maybe I’m finally learning to not fight what the Universe throws my way as much, especially when I can’t change the situation anyway. I do think I should start getting bonus marks for going above and beyond in understanding injuries, the healing process, and all that. Because, c’mon… It’s obvious I take my education quite seriously.  So far this idea has just gotten me the esteemed position of class example for lectures this week.

I’m truly hoping that in the next few days I can master a decent walking ability so I can ditch the crutches. I truly am a complete circus on those things, and my arms are so dang tired! Wish me luck, and I will keep you updated!