Back in the Saddle

For the first time since I was thrown and badly injured over three years ago, I got back on one of our horses and rode around the arena. When I was thrown, I had broken my tailbone, dislocated over half my ribs and severely damaged my hip and thigh muscles. I'd managed to ride my friend's horse, Red, who is extremely well trained and very reliable a couple of times over the past three years, and both times, my tailbone still hurt fairly badly. So getting back on the horse this time was partially just to see how my tailbone would deal with sitting in the saddle. The other part was to see how much I remembered about riding and to hopefully help build my confidence up again.

I wasn't confident enough to ride Shadowfax, our Andalusian gelding that threw me, so I was riding Ziggy, our "more sedate" older TB gelding. I was planning on just riding around the arena at a walk, but things got a little more interesting than that.

There is one corner of the DASH arena that is called "The Scary Corner". All the horses seem to have problems to some extent with that corner. I was trying to get Ziggy to go into that corner, and Foxfire came over on Shadowfax to try and show Ziggy that there was nothing scary in the corner. Of course, Shadow got into the corner and completely freaked out, proving that there was indeed something scary in the corner, a bucking, kicking Andalusian. Naturally, Ziggy spooked. He ducked and backed so fast that I came out of the saddle and halfway onto his neck, then he spun a complete 180 and started to bolt. Fortunately, I managed to tighten the reins enough that he didn't bolt, and we just walked away from the corner before turning to watch Shadowfax continue to freak out. It's a good thing that Foxfire is as good a rider as he is.

I directed Ziggy further away from Shadowfax and continued to sedately walk around the arena, and things went fine for a while. Foxfire eventually got Shadowfax's brain back in his head and decided to end the ride on that good note. DA decided that she was done riding at the same time, so both of them left the arena. I decided to ride Ziggy around one more time, then get off. Before leaving the arena, DA actually asked, if I would be okay by myself, and I said that I would be. I couldn't really blame Ziggy for spooking when Shadow went ballistic right next to him, and other than that, he'd behaved very well.

I'd forgotten that Ziggy can be a little buddy sour. As soon as both DA and Foxfire were out of sight of the arena, Ziggy began to call to Shadowfax, then he began to buck. Yes, reliable old Ziggy actually began to buck. They weren't very big bucks, but they were enough to bounce my butt out of the saddle and scare me pretty badly. The first buck caught me completely by surprise, during the second buck, I managed to tighten the reins enough to pull his head up and back so that couldn't buck anymore and he stopped dead, still quivering a little.

I immediately called to Foxfire to come back. I did not want to get thrown again, and Ziggy's bucking had pretty well freaked me out temporarily. By the time, Foxfire made it back to the arena, Ziggy had calmed down and I was feeling less freaked. I told Foxfire what had happened and said that now that Ziggy has mis-behaved, I needed to ride him longer to teach him that he couldn't act out simply because his buddy had left him behind. DA had finished untacking and grooming her horse and was able to stay and watch me while Foxfire went back to finish with Shadow. I told him NOT to bring Shadow back to the paddock by the arena for a while to make sure that Ziggy learned to behave when his buddy was out of sight.

The rest of the ride went pretty well. Ziggy did try to call to Shadow several more times, but each time, I would tighten the reins and make him pay attention to me before he could do anything other than whinny. I rode him for a lot longer than I really wanted to, my tailbone was fine, but my knees were really beginning to hurt. Eventually, I decided that he'd learned his lesson and dismounted.

All in all, it was a bit more of a ride than I planned on. However, I managed to stay in the saddle and wasn't hurt, so it was a good experience. I also learned an important lesson. I should never ride when no one is watching. No one was watching me when Shadowfax threw me, and no one was watching when Ziggy decided to act out. From now on, I will make sure that someone is always watching me when I'm in on a horse. Maybe then, my rides will be a little less exciting.

Despite the unexpected excitement, it was good to be back in the saddle.

Could a Jousting Accident Have Been the Reason That Henry VIII Became Such A Tyrant?

In a joust that may have changed history, on January 24, 1536, 44 year old King Henry VIII was unhorsed by his opponent during a jousting tournament at Greenwich Palace. It is believed that his armored horse actually fell on the downed monarch as well. But whatever the details of the accident may be, all accounts of the event agree that the king was knocked unconscious for two hours.

This was actually his second notable jousting accident. In 1524, he failed to lower his visor before entering the list and was struck by his opponent's lance just above his right eye. After this incident, he began to suffer from constant migraines.

This second jousting accident in 1536 may have had even more serious repercussions. Not only did it exacerbate existing leg injuries, it may have also caused permanent brain damage. Even by today's medical standards, being knocked unconscious for more than five minutes is serious cause for concern. According to records, Henry VIII was unconscious for two hours and was unable to speak for a while even after he regained consciousness. Historian Dr. Lucy Worsley, chief curator of Britain's Historic Royal Palaces, believes that damage to the frontal lobe of his brain as a result of this trauma "provides the explanation for his personality change from sporty, promising, generous young prince, to cruel, paranoid and vicious tyrant."

Jousting is a dangerous sport. Even modern jousters, whether performers, re-enactors or competitive jousters, know that they are risking injury and possible death every time they participate in this historic activity. So, why do they do it? You'd have to ask a jouster.

As the wife of a jouster, I do worry about him every time he takes the field. I know that he has practiced to the best of his ability; that his armor is as safe as it can be made; that his horse is well trained and will not create any more danger than is usual in any equestrian activity. I know that everyone involved is aware of the danger and will do their best to compete cleanly and honourably. No one wants to get hurt, and I like to believe that -- no matter the trash talk -- no one really wants to hurt anyone else.

But I still know that jousting is a dangerous sport. That's part of the excitement -- the risk of injury. However, injuries themselves are not exciting, at least not for those involved. So although I enjoy watching jousting tournaments and watching my husband compete, there is always a part of me that is a little scared, not just for my husband, but for all of my friends and even those I don't know very well who risk themselves in order to demonstrate their skills in this extremely difficult sport.

Federico Serna gets hit by the lance during Lysts on the Lake 2011(Photo AzulOx)

So to all the jousters out there, have fun, compete to the best of your abilities, and "don't be a dick". But also remember... you are carrying the hearts of your loved ones with you onto the list field, try not to damage them.

Informative Links

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-jousting-accident-that-turned-henry-viii-into-a-tyrant-1670421.html
http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/8139/henry-viiis-jousting-accident-24th-january-1536/

Books that mention the jousting accident

1536: The Year That Changed Henry VIII by Suzannah Lipscomb
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII by Retha M. Warnicke


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Electric Needles

Sorry for the long hiatus. I got all caught up in preparations for Lysts on the Lake, then working as staff for Lysts, then recovering from Lysts, and then just sort of being out of the habit of writing. I'll try to do better in the future.

Anyway... A while back my butt was healed enough that I was able to start doing sit ups again. I had to do them on the thickest softest carpet in the house, and I couldn't do many of them because it still hurt. And, of course, I was horribly out of shape. Over the past year, I'd gained almost 20 pounds and lost most of my muscle tone and flexibility. It seems like just laying on the couch reading and watching tv all day leads to flabbiness and obesity. I had begun to really hate my body. I've been physically active all of my life and I had been one of those few women who were actually quite happy with their bodies, until this accident happened. So, as soon as it wasn't actually painful to exercise, I started doing sit ups again. I'd tried walking on the treadmill, but that was actually quite uncomfortable. (I now know why it hurt, but didn't understand at the time.) So I just stuck to doing sit ups.

When I first started doing the sit ups, my tailbone was still so sensitive that I sort of did them off center. I was basically putting almost all my weight on my left hip so that there wasn't as much pressure on my tailbone. Naturally, this led to my sit ups being somewhat lopsided. I didn't care. I was exercising again. And it was helping me to feel better about myself even if I really wasn't doing that much. However, as my tailbone became less sensitive, I tried to start doing more balanced sit ups and I noticed that something was seriously wrong.

When I actually distributed my weight evenly between both hips, and did a sit up, as I was in the sitting up position, my right knee was NOTICEABLY higher than my left knee. At first I thought that because I was in the habit of sitting on my left hip, that I was simply not actually distributing my weight evenly. But after several attempts to redistribute my weight evenly so as to even my knees out, I realized that I was actually sitting evenly on both hips, and there was simply something wrong with my right hip that was forcing my right knee up higher. I sort of freaked a little. I wondered if I had actually broken my hip in some way, and that it had healed all wrong and now I was going to have the live the rest of my life with a mangled hip. I kept trying to re-assure myself that there was no way, no matter how good I am at ignoring pain, that I could have been walking around all this time with a broken hip. But I also kept remembering how much trouble I did have walking at first, and how my right leg at times simply refused to do what I told it to.

My husband and DA did their best to re-assure me and I set up a doctor's appointment as soon as possible. My doctor examined me and agreed that there was definitely something wrong with my hip, but that he wasn't sure exactly what it was. He wanted to do an MRI, but we only have catastrophic insurance with a $3000 deductible, so we really couldn't afford that. So we did a series of simple x-rays which reassured me that nothing other than my tailbone was broken. The problem was obviously in the muscles. My doctor then sent me to a specialist/physical therapist to try and figure out exactly what was wrong with my muscles. Turns out that my muscles had been so traumatized by the fall that they basically knotted up and then became so inflamed (swollen) that they couldn't unknot. The muscles in my right buttock and thigh had been continuously flexed for over a year. And what happens when you repeatedly (continuously) flex a muscle? It gets bigger. I now have one ginormous butt muscle.

Even the physical therapist wasn't quite sure what to do to try and fix things. He asked me to do some stretches and things, but I still had enough left over flexibility that the stretches didn't have the least effect on loosening up my poor butt. He decided to try poking it with electric needles. He wasn't sure that would work because the electric needles are actually used to cause the muscles to contract, but he thought that if we made the muscles contract even more, then, when we turned the electric needles off, the muscles might actually relax.

He didn't use the electric needles during my first visit, he just did some heat treatments and sent me home. He wanted to do some research and think about things before actually trying the electric needles. On my second visit, he first had me do some exercises that dealt with balance and theoretically worked the affected muscles in some beneficial way. Then he took me behind a privacy curtain and had me lay face down on a table. He then proceeded to stick a bunch of acupuncture type needles into various places on both buttocks. Though he did place more in my right buttock than my left. The needles were hooked to an electric current somehow. I really couldn't see much from my position. And he turned the electricity on. He adjusted the current by asking me when it was just on the edge of painful. Then he left the electric needles to do their thing for about 10 minutes.

After it was over, my butt was pretty sore for the rest of that day and somewhat sore the next, but on the third day, it actually seemed like it had helped. Of course, ever since I found out that the problem was overly tense butt muscles, I'd been trying to consciously relax my butt and that may have been helping as well. Because of my dance, meditation and martial arts background, I am actually pretty good at making my muscles relax on demand. However, I'd never really focused on my butt muscles before.

Anyway, over the next few weeks, my butt did seem to feel better. I could sit for longer periods of time before it became too painful. And in general, my body was beginning to feel better. I added push ups and squats to my exercise routine and I can now walk on the treadmill even though I still have to be careful with that, and if I feel my butt muscles tensing up, I stop. My body is finally beginning to trim down a little, although I am still pretty unhappy whenever I look in a mirror. But I will keep exercising and sooner or later, I'll get a healthy body back. However, my right buttock will probably always be bigger than my left. (And yes, having uneven buttocks definitely affects my riding. More about that in the next post.)

I really should go back and get another treatment with the electric needles. I'm sure it would help. I just have to make the time.

And next time I get injured, I'm going to a doctor right away. I promise.

Lunging Shadowfax

Well, I finally felt well enough (and brave enough) to try and lunge Shadowfax. Not that he's bad to lunge. When he is lunged consistently, he does just fine. But he hasn't been lunged consistently since we bought him. (I know that's bad, but first there was knee deep mud and then I was injured and Foxfire doesn't really know how to lunge since his horse was never trained to do it.) I don't know why I decided to lunge Shadowfax today. Foxfire was actually out of town with SH doing SCA equestrian stuff. And you would think that I would want to do it when he was around. If for nothing else than the fact that he could take pictures. (I still don't have any pictures of me with my horse. Sigh.) But for some reason, I felt like doing it for the first time this afternoon, and so I did.

Now, I don't exactly have much experience lunging horses. Back when Cash was still sound, JJ showed me how to lunge him a couple of times. But that was well over a year ago, and Cash was extremely well trained. All I really had to do was hold the lunge line and speak the cues and Cash did what I said with absolutely no fuss. A few months ago, at the jousting clinic, JJ had demonstrated lunging Shadowfax to me, though, because of my injuries, I couldn't actually lunge him myself. Shadowfax is not quite as well-trained or willing as Cash. With some consistent work, he probably could be, but he's not there right now. Even with JJ lunging him, there were quite a few fireworks. So, I knew there were probably going to be some problems when I started lunging him. And there were. But they weren't that bad. And by the end of the relatively short session, he was actually doing pretty well. So here's a brief summary of how things went.

Now, since I had treats in my pocket, the minute I walked out into the pasture, Shadowfax came up to me. How he knows I have treats in my pockets, I don't know. I only have treats about one in ten times I go into the pasture, but, I swear, the horse is psychic, because he always seems to know when I have treats. When I don't have treats, he'll look up at me, but he doesn't come over unless I call to him. If I have treats, I don't have to call, he just comes. Smart horse. I haltered him and led him to the trailer which is where we keep the lunging equipment.

The flies were bothering him, so I decided to spray him, which I knew he wouldn't like, but he needs to get used to it. I pulled out the fly spray and when he saw the bottle, he stepped back just a little and looked nervous. I held the fly spray in the same hand the I held the lead rope in, and with my other hand, I pulled out a carrot stick. I held the carrot stick up next to the fly spray where he could see it. After a moment he stepped forward and reached for the carrot. I made sure that he had to rub his nose against the side of the bottle in order to get the carrot. Then as he was munching the carrot, I slowly sprayed his front legs. He sidled away a little bit in a semi-circle on the lead rope, and I followed him until he was against the side of the trailer and couldn't sidle any more. I again sprayed his front legs and he sort of shifted a bit, but couldn't really go anywhere. I sprayed his leg again and he finally just stood there, so I gave him another carrot stick. As he was munching the carrot stick, I moved to his side to spray his side, back and belly. He moved forward and got away from the trailer, so I moved him around in a circle again, until he was against the trailer again. I rustled the pocket with the treats in it and then sprayed his side again. He twitched a little, but basically stood still, so he got another carrot stick. Then I sprayed his back leg. We went in a circle again and he ended up back against the trailer. Etc... We repeated the pattern several times until I had gotten him to stand still while I sprayed him all over. Then I held up the bottle in front of him again and when he sniffed it, gave him another carrot stick. (The carrot sticks are pretty small, so I can feed him a lot of them.) I put the fly spray away and got out the lunge line and whip, and led him over to a clear flat area.

Now when I started all of this the donkeys and Ziggy were way on the other side of the pasture, but when I started to walk Shadowfax in a circle, they ALL had to come over and see what I was doing. Ziggy actually stayed far enough away not to be a problem, but Kanny and Tessla managed to actually get between Shadowfax and me just ahead of the lunge line, they kept walking and I actually let them lunge with us for about half a circle because it was really sort of cute. But after half a circle, I stopped because I figured sooner or later someone was going to get out of sync and cause problems and I truly did not want that. I locked the donkeys in the goat pen and started Shadowfax walking in circles again. He actually did really well walking at the end of the lunge and after about 5 or so circles, I asked him to trot. He didn't trot right away and I had to ask more forcefully and flip the whip a little bit to actually get him to trot, but he trotted eventually. When I asked him to go back to walk, he did so promptly. When I asked for trot again, he did a little better and he was always willing to slow to walk.

However, when I asked him to canter, there were some fireworks. He wouldn't go from just the voice cue, so I had to flick the whip at him several times. I finally actually touched his rump with the whip, not forcefully, just enough for him to feel it and he bucked and kicked out. I yelled, "NO!!" and he immediately went into a hell bent for leather canter. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was a canter and he wasn't pulling on the lunge line or anything. I let him run around about five times, then tried to slow him to a trot. At first, he just kept running. I tried different things to slow him and finally figured out that speaking extreeeeeemmmmmmmllllllyyyy slowly and letting my voice drop in pitch and volume was the way to get him to slow down. He gradually slowed down and finally dropped into a trot. I trotted him two circles, then asked for a walk, and he slowed to a walk. And then I asked him to stop.

Sadly, he doesn't seem to understand "Ho" at all. The only way to get him to stop is to pull the lunge line shorter and shorter and he'll eventually stop. It's a bit frustrating, but I suppose there are worse things. I'll ask JJ what I can do to teach him to stop when I say "Ho".

I switched which side the lunge line was attached to and started him walking in the opposite direction. This time when I asked for trot, I got it a bit more easily, I still had to make tsk, tsk noises at him, but I didn't have to flip the whip. I walked, trotted, walked several times, then I asked for canter. Again there were fireworks, but a loud "NO!!" was all it took to make him canter instead of buck and kick out. (He only did one buck and one kick before he went into the canter on each side and I sort of wonder if he would have gone into the canter after expressing his displeasure even I hadn't yelled. Who knows.) Anyway, he did hell bent for leather canter again and I let him go for several circles then I started slowing him down. I asked for a slower canter, by saying "canter" in a slow drawn out way on a descending scale, and he actually slowed into a nice controlled canter. After a couple of more circles, I asked for a trot and got it immediately. I asked for walk and got it fairly quickly and then I had to pull him in to get him to stop.

I switched directions again and asked for walk, trot, walk, trot, canter, trot, walk, and got everything I asked for reasonably quickly and with NO fireworks. I tried asking for stop again, and again had to pull him in closer to finally get him to stop, but he did stop a bit more easily than before. I decided that that was a really good positive note to end on and didn't lunge him in the other direction again. Maybe the lunging was a bit uneven in numbers of circles in each direction, but I wanted to stop on a positive note and wasn't sure it would go as well in the other direction. I gave him a carrot stick and told him that he'd been a very good boy.

I led him back to the trailer, switched the lunge line for the lead line and held the fly spray bottle out to him again. At first he pulled his head back, but then seemed to remember the carrots and nosed the bottle. I gave him another carrot stick. I closed everything back up in the trailer, led him over to the gate to the backyard, took his halter off, gave him another carrot stick and petted him a few times. I let the donkeys out of the goat pen, petted them, petted Shadowfax again and came inside.

It wasn't a very long lunging session, and it certainly wasn't perfect, but I am very happy that it went as well as it did. And even though my arms and shoulders are a little tired, my ribs and tailbone don't hurt any more than usual, so obviously it didn't strain my injuries. Now that I know that I can lunge Shadowfax, I will try to do so several times a week. Hopefully, he and I will both improve our lunging abilities, and it will strengthen our relationship.

An Irrational Body

I can feel my shoulders trying to curl inward and downward. I can feel my back muscles pulling against my spine, twisting it sideways. My body knows that it is in pain and doesn't understand why I am moving around and doing chores. It just wants me to stop. But sitting down just makes things worse as my body tries to avoid putting pressure on my broken tailbone or dislocated ribs. And even laying down, my muscles twist and turn and attempt to find some position where nothing aches. But it doesn't work. There is no position where there is no pain, and my body's attempts to find that elusive pain-free zone merely cause muscle ache and fatigue and pull my body out of alignment. I wake up in pain, I move in pain, I sit in pain, I live in pain. And about half of this pain is caused by my body's attempts to escape the pain.

I know that allowing my body to twist itself into a pretzel doesn't really help, but my body insists that it will. I have to constantly monitor my body and consciously straighten my back and pull my shoulders up and out and try to keep everything in its proper alignment. When I stop paying attention, my muscles surreptitiously contract and pull until I am twisted and hunched. Sooner or later I realize what has happened, usually when the muscles that have worked so hard to get me into this distorted position begin to realize their own pain. Then I have to convince my tired body to straighten itself out, to try and pull itself back into its proper alignment.

I carefully stretch and move about, persuading my muscles to loosen and relax. The tightness and cramps gradually release, and the muscle pain diminishes. Then I can go back to what I was doing. But even though the muscle pain has been relieved there is the still the pain of the broken and dislocated bones. And so, as soon as I stop paying attention, my body again starts to try to escape its pain. My muscles contract. My body twists and distorts. And soon I am in more pain than I was before.

It's a brutal cycle that makes no sense. And it leaves me feeling exhausted and helpless, trapped within an irrational body.

Okay, so I lied...

I did not get pictures and a post about the Lysts of Castleton up in a timely manner. In fact, I'm still not really posting about Lysts. Turns out every time I try to edit the pictures, it reminds me of how upset I was that I was not able to participate in the first Lysts held since I finally got my own horse. I get all cranky and frustrated and end up doing something else just to escape all the negative emotions thinking about Lysts generates. So who knows if I'll ever get the pictures edited or a post made. I'm writing this post to basically give myself permission to move on and write posts about all the flower pictures I've been taking, the new hens I bought and all the other more positive stuff going on in my life.

Unfortunately, there is some negative stuff remaining in that I am still in pain from my broken tailbone and dislocated ribs. I can't even sit on a nice squishy chair without pain, so I definitely can't sit in a saddle. SIGH... The chiropractor says that it isn't unusual for a tailbone to take so long to heal. Since you can't immobilize it and it's in a part of your body that you really can't avoid using, it can take a really long time to heal. Dr P also noticed that I was still favoring my right leg even though it quit hurting a while back. He told me to be aware of it and to try to take more even strides and it would help with both my tailbone and my rib pain. I'm not sure why my ribs are still bothering me. Maybe because I keep doing things to aggravate them like trimming and hauling large tree branches and mucking out the stable. But these things need to be done. Oh well...

I'll start posting more upbeat stuff soon.

My first fall... Frustrating.

Sunday, Feb 7(I'm really late posting this) was not a very good day. It didn't start well in terms of my psychological well-being. I had a rather long, intense UMPA which left me feeling pretty down and out of it. But DASH had invited Foxfire and I over to ride in their arena. And since our pasture was basically a mud pit and will likely continue to be one for quite some time, it was probably going to be the only chance for me to ride Shadowfax for a while. So... I sucked up all my bad feelings and tried to make the best of it.

Shadowfax loaded up in DASH's trailer without even pausing. And even when DA's mare in the next compartment made a fuss, he remained pretty un-fazed. He stood pretty still for being groomed and tacked up, which he doesn't always do. However, once I mounted him and started riding around, he started acting a little antsy. Maybe it was me, maybe it was the weather (the other horses were acting up a bit, too), maybe it was just that he hadn't been ridden in a while. But he kept tossing and ducking his head and trying to go where he wanted instead of listening to me. Because of this, I just walked him. And walked him. And walked him. I walked him around the arena, across the arena, through the heads course, over the trot poles. I just walked and forced him to go where I wanted to go. It wasn't always easy. There were times when I had to stop him. Force him around to face the direction that I wanted to go and really kick him to get him to go where I wanted instead of where he was trying to to go.

But finally, after 30 - 45 minutes, he seemed to settle down and was going where I asked him to without a fuss. I was pretty bored with just walking by that point, so I kicked him up into a trot and started to do some 20 meter trot circles. He was pretty willing to go into a trot at first, but after completing the first circle, he started to slow back into a walk, so I kicked him to keep him trotting. That's when something bad happened. I'm not entirely sure what occurred. All I know is that one moment I was trotting and the next moment I was flying over Shadowfax's outside shoulder. I turned sort of a somersault in the air and landed - HARD - on my tailbone and right hip. It hurt like hell all the way up my back. All I could do was sit there stunned. I still had the reins in my right hand and Shadowfax was pulling against them, but even if I had wanted to, I don't think that I could have let go.

Foxfire didn't see what led up to the fall, but he did see me hit the ground, so he and another friend of SH's came over to try and help. When Foxfire got to me, I handed him Shadowfax's reins. But I still didn't move, it just hurt too bad. I simply sat there repeating, "I hurt my back". Eventually, my brain started working again, and I sat up straighter and then accepted help to stand. I carefully moved my arms, legs and head around. Then tried bending my back in different directions. It hurt, but it didn't seem like anything was broken, just a lot of muscle strain throughout my back. So, after a few minutes to finish calming down and finding ways to deal with the pain. I led Shadowfax back to the mounting block and Foxfire held my stirrup while I mounted.

Shadowfax stood very still and when I asked for a walk, went into a nice even walk. I walked him around for about 10 minutes, then decided that I had made my point of getting back on the horse that threw me, and carefully dismounted so as not to jar my back any further. One of SH's friends helped me untack Shadowfax, and we turned him loose in DASH's fenced yard. I went and lay down on DASH's couch and waited for Foxfire and everyone else to finish riding and socializing. I'd raided DASH's supply of ibuprofen, but I was still in a lot of pain. Not fun.

The next day, I was still in terrible pain all up my back and down my right leg, so I finally made an appointment with the chiropractor that DASH and Foxfire had been recommending even before I took my fall. I really hate going to doctors. I think that most of them are a waste of time and money, but I was hurt enough that I willing to give it a try. And, boy, am I glad I did. Turns out Dr P is actually a caring and COMPETENT doctor. After that first visit, my back was already feeling better, WITHOUT any useless, expensive pills.

I guess I should explain that I have idiosyncratic reactions to a lot of drugs. Most relevant to this situation, most pain meds don't really work for me. Hydrocodone/Vicodin, Tramadol/Ultram and most other pain pills have absolutely no effect that I can discern. Oxycodone/Percocet does reduce the pain, although it doesn't get rid of it entirely, but it also leaves me fuzzy headed and sleepy, and I hate feeling fuzzy headed. I sometimes envy my husband who can take one little Vicodin and be feeling no pain, whereas I can eat pain pills like candy and still hurt. Just another example of how life is not fair. Oh well...

Anyway, Dr P said that I was pretty messed up and that he would have to work through various layers of injury to get me back to normal. For example, that first day while I was laying on my back on his table, he asked me to bend my knees and draw my feet up to my hips and my right leg just wouldn't do it. I kept telling it to move and all it did was lay there and twitch. WEIRD feeling. I'd known that my right leg was hurt. I'd had trouble getting dressed, and I'd had to use my right hand to shift it from the accelerator to the brake as I was driving, but I hadn't realized how bad it was. However, I was now convinced that it wasn't just my back that was injured. Actually, it wasn't my spine that was injured, it was that I had dislocated quite a few ribs. Dr P did his best to put them all back into place and my back did begin to feel better almost immediately.

After the third visit, Dr P had pretty much convinced me that my tailbone was probably broken so I eventually went to an urgent care facility and got x-rays done. And yes, he was right. My tailbone was broken and is now healing at a slightly different angle than nature intended. The urgent care doctor (not as disagreeable as most) said that since it was just my tailbone, that there really wasn't any reason to try and straighten it out, especially since it had already had a week and a half to start healing in that position. Dr P seemed a little more concerned about my tailbone being out of place, but agreed that there was really nothing to be done about it at this point. I suppose I should have gone and gotten x-rays sooner. Oh well...

While I was at the urgent care facility, I went ahead and had them x-ray my left foot as well. About four and a half weeks earlier, Shadowfax had stepped on it and then a couple of days later Tessla stepped on it in almost the same place. And Tessla didn't just step on and off, he sort of dug in and then slid off the side. It had been bothering me ever since, but I really didn't think that anything was broken and it turned out I was right. No broken bones. However, because of the continuing pain and the numbness in a few of my toes, the urgent care dr said that there was probably tendon and nerve damage, and gave me this stupid plastic boot to wear. It was very awkward to move in, and so, after driving home in it, I took it off and didn't put it back on. The next day was my fourth visit with Dr P and he said that the last thing that I needed with my back and hip injured was a thick rigid boot throwing my body out of alignment. So, no more boot. Yay!

I'd previously told him about my foot being stepped on and now that he knew that there were no broken bones, he felt free to get a little rough in his manipulations. He said that though the bones weren't broken, they were obviously out of alignment and he needed to force them back into alignment so that they could heal properly. It hurt, but at this point I trust him to know what he's doing. (And I do NOT trust many doctors.) I think my toes are a little less numb now. It's hard to say for sure. But my foot still hurts. I guess it will take more than one adjustment to fix it.

So... anyway... that's the story of my first fall as an adult. (I'd fallen off once as a teenager, but I don't think that I was even bruised that time. It was a more controlled fall and I landed and rolled properly so that I wasn't hurt. And no, I didn't really ride when I was younger. I was simply out camping with some friends and hopped on a horse that belonged to one of the other kids and rode around bareback for a bit until the horse decided to jump a ditch and I fell off.) I really wish I knew what happened to make me come off Shadowfax. But since no one else was watching me and I don't have any memory of what led up to me flying over Shadowfax's shoulder, I guess I'll never know. Frustrating.