Distal Fracture of The Left Elbow
I eagerly prepared for my 1990 show season.
My mother dropped Danielle and I off one morning at Windy J on the way to work. It was April 19. She had a funny feeling that morning...but left us anyway as she had so many times before. We had planned a large trail ride that day. Fox however, was a show horse. Things outside the arena usually frightened him. He was strong though and followed the herd as horses do...beside he had been on many trips into Clinton from Tantivy...many journeys walking right down the Oriskany Creek. I knew he would be fine. We hooted and hollered all day as we jumped logs and galloped through the trails.
On the return ride back to the barn, Fox and I jumped a small stream at the base of a hill. On the other side he took off bucking and playing as we had all day. In a western saddle I wasn't sure how to grip on properly to him, and as he twisted his body and headed straight toward a large pile of fallen trees I knew I was coming off. He went right…I went left. As I fell to the ground, I straightened my left arm to break my fall and catch myself. I never heard it snap, but I felt the pain instantly. I look down to see that my upper arm was not in the same place it had always been.
Determined that I had only dislocated my shoulder and that my show season was NOT shot, I sat in the field in a slight state of shock. I felt the blood rushing out of my face, and what felt like my entire body and I began to shiver. Fox on the other hand galloped through two fields back to the barn. With the doors closed and no way in, he quickly realized that he was alone and, bless his soul, came back for me. I hade lain myself back down into the cool spring grass as he trotted to my side. He sniffed my right shoulder and neck then proceeded to graze at my side.
Shortly after, one of the nice women we had been riding with and her blind, that's right blind! Appaloosa came looking for us. She tied my arm in place with my flannel shirt and helped boost me up onto Chief and led the three of us home. She called out ‘up’ and ‘down’ through the entire ride to her trusty, blind horse so that he would know how to place his feet. I think I was probably chatting with her, however now I can’t even remember that part of the ride. How broke I was at the moment is hard to say, but as we got to the barn, she forgot that I was still sitting on Chief as she led him straight into the low ceilinged barn forcing me to move abruptly or be decapitated. That hurt. Finally down from my blind rescue horse, I sat on a flipped over pale and rested my tired, busted left arm on another turned over bucket. My friend Jana walked up her happy self to ask about my condition as Danielle put Fox away. Jana grabbed the seemingly free bucket and took a seat...my arm dropped to the barn floor. Yup. It's broke.
Danielle called my mom who then drove me from Sauquoit to the Griffiss Medical Center so that the bill would be covered by their government insurance...something I didn't understand until later in life. They sent me to Rome Hospital where they informed me of my Distal Fracture of my left elbow. The way that Dr. Lim, or as I called him, Dr. Hang me by my limbs, explained it, it was much like when you break a piece of chocolate…little flakes all shatter off. That’s what I had inside my elbow joint. There was no easy fix. Shortly after I would be wheeled into surgery to have a pin drilled through my arm and be set in traction. Seven weeks and one day later of weights and pulleys, hospital food and bed pans, X-rays and Game Boys, I was released.
This was a tough time for a sixteen year old girl, but I learned a lot about myself during my stint in traction. I learned a lot about my friends. I watched the Bulls play the Pistons in the Championship. I learned to put my contacts in with one hand, and still do it that way prompting odd looks from people. I got to 120 lines with one hand in Tetris on the Game Boy. I loved when my dad brought me breakfast. My parents snuck in the family dog and cat on one occasion. I knitted myself a pomel pad I'd never actually used. And I watched the movie Summer School about thirty seven times and for that reason I understood when my future husband stopped and yelled out in frustration one day and then smiled at me and said, “Stress breaker.” Most of all I missed Jr./Am. as well as Breeders and was very bummed. Upon release I was shocked to see how hard it was to stand after seven weeks flat on my back.
Fox spent his time at Lamb Quarter Horses where Stacy rode him regularly keeping him in shape.
Tom held strong to his convictions that Fox should be punished for what he had done...he never was though. I defended my boys inoccence to the end.
From there, me in my arm brace, and Fox none the changed, would venture together to Spike Holmes farm in Westmoreland that was changing ownership. We would spend quite a bit of time there as one of their few borders. I would take no heed to anyone's advice and get right back in the saddle again. One arm really wasn't a big issue...we would just show western for the rest of the summer.
** I do have a picture to insert here, however it’s lodged in a collage frame in my hallway. But let me paint you a picture…sixteen, curly mess of hair, flat on my back in a hospital bed, pink blanket on me and my arm set in a perfect ninety degree right angle, hanging over my head by a series of weights and pulleys that would be adjusted every few weeks. I was lovely.
My mother dropped Danielle and I off one morning at Windy J on the way to work. It was April 19. She had a funny feeling that morning...but left us anyway as she had so many times before. We had planned a large trail ride that day. Fox however, was a show horse. Things outside the arena usually frightened him. He was strong though and followed the herd as horses do...beside he had been on many trips into Clinton from Tantivy...many journeys walking right down the Oriskany Creek. I knew he would be fine. We hooted and hollered all day as we jumped logs and galloped through the trails.
On the return ride back to the barn, Fox and I jumped a small stream at the base of a hill. On the other side he took off bucking and playing as we had all day. In a western saddle I wasn't sure how to grip on properly to him, and as he twisted his body and headed straight toward a large pile of fallen trees I knew I was coming off. He went right…I went left. As I fell to the ground, I straightened my left arm to break my fall and catch myself. I never heard it snap, but I felt the pain instantly. I look down to see that my upper arm was not in the same place it had always been.
Determined that I had only dislocated my shoulder and that my show season was NOT shot, I sat in the field in a slight state of shock. I felt the blood rushing out of my face, and what felt like my entire body and I began to shiver. Fox on the other hand galloped through two fields back to the barn. With the doors closed and no way in, he quickly realized that he was alone and, bless his soul, came back for me. I hade lain myself back down into the cool spring grass as he trotted to my side. He sniffed my right shoulder and neck then proceeded to graze at my side.
Shortly after, one of the nice women we had been riding with and her blind, that's right blind! Appaloosa came looking for us. She tied my arm in place with my flannel shirt and helped boost me up onto Chief and led the three of us home. She called out ‘up’ and ‘down’ through the entire ride to her trusty, blind horse so that he would know how to place his feet. I think I was probably chatting with her, however now I can’t even remember that part of the ride. How broke I was at the moment is hard to say, but as we got to the barn, she forgot that I was still sitting on Chief as she led him straight into the low ceilinged barn forcing me to move abruptly or be decapitated. That hurt. Finally down from my blind rescue horse, I sat on a flipped over pale and rested my tired, busted left arm on another turned over bucket. My friend Jana walked up her happy self to ask about my condition as Danielle put Fox away. Jana grabbed the seemingly free bucket and took a seat...my arm dropped to the barn floor. Yup. It's broke.
Danielle called my mom who then drove me from Sauquoit to the Griffiss Medical Center so that the bill would be covered by their government insurance...something I didn't understand until later in life. They sent me to Rome Hospital where they informed me of my Distal Fracture of my left elbow. The way that Dr. Lim, or as I called him, Dr. Hang me by my limbs, explained it, it was much like when you break a piece of chocolate…little flakes all shatter off. That’s what I had inside my elbow joint. There was no easy fix. Shortly after I would be wheeled into surgery to have a pin drilled through my arm and be set in traction. Seven weeks and one day later of weights and pulleys, hospital food and bed pans, X-rays and Game Boys, I was released.
This was a tough time for a sixteen year old girl, but I learned a lot about myself during my stint in traction. I learned a lot about my friends. I watched the Bulls play the Pistons in the Championship. I learned to put my contacts in with one hand, and still do it that way prompting odd looks from people. I got to 120 lines with one hand in Tetris on the Game Boy. I loved when my dad brought me breakfast. My parents snuck in the family dog and cat on one occasion. I knitted myself a pomel pad I'd never actually used. And I watched the movie Summer School about thirty seven times and for that reason I understood when my future husband stopped and yelled out in frustration one day and then smiled at me and said, “Stress breaker.” Most of all I missed Jr./Am. as well as Breeders and was very bummed. Upon release I was shocked to see how hard it was to stand after seven weeks flat on my back.
Fox spent his time at Lamb Quarter Horses where Stacy rode him regularly keeping him in shape.
Tom held strong to his convictions that Fox should be punished for what he had done...he never was though. I defended my boys inoccence to the end.
From there, me in my arm brace, and Fox none the changed, would venture together to Spike Holmes farm in Westmoreland that was changing ownership. We would spend quite a bit of time there as one of their few borders. I would take no heed to anyone's advice and get right back in the saddle again. One arm really wasn't a big issue...we would just show western for the rest of the summer.
** I do have a picture to insert here, however it’s lodged in a collage frame in my hallway. But let me paint you a picture…sixteen, curly mess of hair, flat on my back in a hospital bed, pink blanket on me and my arm set in a perfect ninety degree right angle, hanging over my head by a series of weights and pulleys that would be adjusted every few weeks. I was lovely.
Comments