The Accident
Understatement: The last month has been eventful.
For the few readers who don't know, I was in a riding accident shortly after my last post. In this entry I will try to explain what happened. Fair warning to my readers: there may be unpleasant descriptions ahead.
The Impact
Allow me to first say that I am no stranger to falling off horses. In 30+ years of riding and showing horses it is bound to happen. Not terribly often, thankfully. I have not been without injury, I have hurt my knee, ankle, broken my tailbone, and bruised and banged various body parts. However, with a few exceptions, the worst of my injuries to date have been from conquering jungle gyms and jumping on furniture. This tumble, however, was a bit more dramatic than the other times I've been de-horsed.
The entire day of Wednesday the 19th of January is gone from my memory (*poof), but the facility's trainer witnessed but the moments preceding and immediately following my accident. My dear, beloved Gus, who is truly good-natured but also young and still figuring out his new surroundings, was scared by a couple horses playing rough nearby. It took us both by surprise. He spooked forward, bucked, leaped, bucked again... we went out of sight... and next thing the trainer saw was Gus coming back around without me. She ran to the ring to see me laying on my back, unconscious, on the soft footing of the covered arena.
In the fall, my head must have hit the wall of the arena, or a hoof, or impacted something on the way down, because aside from a bit of a strained rotator cuff, I didn't have any evidence of a hard landing. No bruise, no broken bones, just a broken brain. But I guess you can't call it a freak accident it it makes a lot of sense, eh? Per witness report, I was unconscious for about a minute. After which I apparently got up of my own accord and declared myself fine. Despite my protests I was ordered to the nearest ER for a check up - a very smart thing to do.
On the way to the ER I apparently had a seizure (not uncommon after a concussion). After the seizure I was a lot less adamant about my well-being. Apparently I became very disoriented and confused. I had no concept of who I was, where I came from, who anyone was around me, let alone what had happened. By this time it was evident I had a traumatic brain injury, confusion, amnesia and a partridge in a pear tree. Thankfully, my head CT was without any bleed and for that I can surely thank my super awesome helmet!
At some point I gained more awareness and began to ask questions. The same 3 or 4 questions. Over and over again. With the same inflection, wording. Like a 10 second episode of 50 First Dates, or my very own Groundhog's Day. One of the exchanges on repeat went like this:
Me: What happened?
Karin: You were thrown from a horse
Me: A horse? Was it my horse?
Karin: Yes, it was your horse
Me: I have a horse?
Karin: Yes
Me: That's awesome!
Me: What happened?
Karin: You were thrown from a horse
Me: A horse? Was it my horse?
Karin: Yes, it was your horse
Me: I have a horse?
Karin: Yes
Me: That's awesome!
Me: What happened?
Karin: You were thrown from a horse
Me: A horse? Was it my horse?
Karin: Yes, it was your horse
Me: I have a horse?
Karin: Yes
Me: That's awesome!
And so on...
After everyone was positively 100% sure I didn't have a broken neck or a sneaky little bleed in my brain, I was transferred by ambulance to a hospital closer to home. When Karin arrived I was in the hospital bed, watching a video on fall prevention. I mention this little detail on my blog for a couple reasons: 1) to point out the ridiculousness of "educating" someone with amnesia by leaving them alone in a room with a video playing, and 2) I just had a traumatic brain injury, one thing I certainly should NOT have been doing is watching TV. Shame on you, Unnamed Hospital! While I have no memory of the video, I have it on good authority I still managed not to fall.
The worst of my amnesia and short term memory loss lasted until the next morning. Even though I was able to make new memories and keep them, the week after the accident still has some holes in it. And Karin reports that my personality didn't return until over a week after my discharge from the hospital. I can only imagine how frightening it might be when the someone you love who isn't acting like that someone anymore.
Silver Lining
The most amazing and wonderful thing about all of this was how my friends and family rallied. My friends from band and family in the area signed up to take turns staying with me that first week when Karin had to go back to work. I ended up with more ice cream than could fit in my freezer! People brought meals and cookies and picture books. Some people even had the patience to read to me (as I was unable to read for the first few weeks). Surely I wasn't good company, I would tire after short conversations and spent most of my time sleeping and resting on the couch. But people kept coming by and helping however they could. For two weekends in a row my father flew in from Michigan to help out and made his killer spaghetti sauce which usually only gets revived at Christmas. There's still some hoarded in the freezer!
There is excellent evidence that a good support system improves recovery rates in the ill - whether it be traumatic injury, chronic illness, acute illness; concussion, cancer or heart attack. And my support system ROCKED! I truly think I owe my quick recovery to my unbelievable support system. My accident helped me realize how lucky I really am.
Recovery
It took about three full weeks before I started to feel more like Liz again. Even now, more than four weeks later, I still have symptoms like headaches, dizziness, weird creepy-crawly, feverish-like feelings that come on when I stare at the computer too long, and a poor tolerance for florescent lights, but presumably those will fade over time.
I have started work. It's definitely not easy with the florescent lights and computer screen time, but talking to the patients and doing the exams is nice again after my 7+ month sabbatical. Plus, I am really looking forward to being able to pay my bills (yay paychecks!). And, I must say, I am thrilled to have the brain health to be able to do my job!
I also have learned that I need to get my DPOA paperwork, disability, and life insurance in order. Karin was there from beginning to end, and was as powerless as a stranger. So DPOA paperwork is complete and only awaiting to be notarized.
There you have it. My accident in one blog post. Hopefully that answered a lot of people's questions. The rest of February will hopefully be generally uneventful. In my next entry I may expound further on the New Job and other less traumatic adventures.
(photo borrowed from Google images)
For the few readers who don't know, I was in a riding accident shortly after my last post. In this entry I will try to explain what happened. Fair warning to my readers: there may be unpleasant descriptions ahead.
The ImpactAllow me to first say that I am no stranger to falling off horses. In 30+ years of riding and showing horses it is bound to happen. Not terribly often, thankfully. I have not been without injury, I have hurt my knee, ankle, broken my tailbone, and bruised and banged various body parts. However, with a few exceptions, the worst of my injuries to date have been from conquering jungle gyms and jumping on furniture. This tumble, however, was a bit more dramatic than the other times I've been de-horsed.
The entire day of Wednesday the 19th of January is gone from my memory (*poof), but the facility's trainer witnessed but the moments preceding and immediately following my accident. My dear, beloved Gus, who is truly good-natured but also young and still figuring out his new surroundings, was scared by a couple horses playing rough nearby. It took us both by surprise. He spooked forward, bucked, leaped, bucked again... we went out of sight... and next thing the trainer saw was Gus coming back around without me. She ran to the ring to see me laying on my back, unconscious, on the soft footing of the covered arena.
In the fall, my head must have hit the wall of the arena, or a hoof, or impacted something on the way down, because aside from a bit of a strained rotator cuff, I didn't have any evidence of a hard landing. No bruise, no broken bones, just a broken brain. But I guess you can't call it a freak accident it it makes a lot of sense, eh? Per witness report, I was unconscious for about a minute. After which I apparently got up of my own accord and declared myself fine. Despite my protests I was ordered to the nearest ER for a check up - a very smart thing to do.
On the way to the ER I apparently had a seizure (not uncommon after a concussion). After the seizure I was a lot less adamant about my well-being. Apparently I became very disoriented and confused. I had no concept of who I was, where I came from, who anyone was around me, let alone what had happened. By this time it was evident I had a traumatic brain injury, confusion, amnesia and a partridge in a pear tree. Thankfully, my head CT was without any bleed and for that I can surely thank my super awesome helmet!
At some point I gained more awareness and began to ask questions. The same 3 or 4 questions. Over and over again. With the same inflection, wording. Like a 10 second episode of 50 First Dates, or my very own Groundhog's Day. One of the exchanges on repeat went like this:
Me: What happened?
Karin: You were thrown from a horse
Me: A horse? Was it my horse?
Karin: Yes, it was your horse
Me: I have a horse?
Karin: Yes
Me: That's awesome!
Me: What happened?
Karin: You were thrown from a horse
Me: A horse? Was it my horse?
Karin: Yes, it was your horse
Me: I have a horse?
Karin: Yes
Me: That's awesome!
Me: What happened?
Karin: You were thrown from a horse
Me: A horse? Was it my horse?
Karin: Yes, it was your horse
Me: I have a horse?
Karin: Yes
Me: That's awesome!
And so on...
After everyone was positively 100% sure I didn't have a broken neck or a sneaky little bleed in my brain, I was transferred by ambulance to a hospital closer to home. When Karin arrived I was in the hospital bed, watching a video on fall prevention. I mention this little detail on my blog for a couple reasons: 1) to point out the ridiculousness of "educating" someone with amnesia by leaving them alone in a room with a video playing, and 2) I just had a traumatic brain injury, one thing I certainly should NOT have been doing is watching TV. Shame on you, Unnamed Hospital! While I have no memory of the video, I have it on good authority I still managed not to fall.
The worst of my amnesia and short term memory loss lasted until the next morning. Even though I was able to make new memories and keep them, the week after the accident still has some holes in it. And Karin reports that my personality didn't return until over a week after my discharge from the hospital. I can only imagine how frightening it might be when the someone you love who isn't acting like that someone anymore.
Silver Lining
The most amazing and wonderful thing about all of this was how my friends and family rallied. My friends from band and family in the area signed up to take turns staying with me that first week when Karin had to go back to work. I ended up with more ice cream than could fit in my freezer! People brought meals and cookies and picture books. Some people even had the patience to read to me (as I was unable to read for the first few weeks). Surely I wasn't good company, I would tire after short conversations and spent most of my time sleeping and resting on the couch. But people kept coming by and helping however they could. For two weekends in a row my father flew in from Michigan to help out and made his killer spaghetti sauce which usually only gets revived at Christmas. There's still some hoarded in the freezer!
There is excellent evidence that a good support system improves recovery rates in the ill - whether it be traumatic injury, chronic illness, acute illness; concussion, cancer or heart attack. And my support system ROCKED! I truly think I owe my quick recovery to my unbelievable support system. My accident helped me realize how lucky I really am.
Recovery
It took about three full weeks before I started to feel more like Liz again. Even now, more than four weeks later, I still have symptoms like headaches, dizziness, weird creepy-crawly, feverish-like feelings that come on when I stare at the computer too long, and a poor tolerance for florescent lights, but presumably those will fade over time.
I have started work. It's definitely not easy with the florescent lights and computer screen time, but talking to the patients and doing the exams is nice again after my 7+ month sabbatical. Plus, I am really looking forward to being able to pay my bills (yay paychecks!). And, I must say, I am thrilled to have the brain health to be able to do my job!
I also have learned that I need to get my DPOA paperwork, disability, and life insurance in order. Karin was there from beginning to end, and was as powerless as a stranger. So DPOA paperwork is complete and only awaiting to be notarized.
There you have it. My accident in one blog post. Hopefully that answered a lot of people's questions. The rest of February will hopefully be generally uneventful. In my next entry I may expound further on the New Job and other less traumatic adventures.
(photo borrowed from Google images)
Labels: Concussion, Gus, RCB
posted by Beta at 9:00 PM
1 comments
