Two Weeks Out

Photo from the last show of the summer with Chili.  Who would think that pesky left hip would be sliced open eight weeks later?

I officially had my surgery two weeks ago and I have to say, I have been doing great.

I read a lot (too much) information beforehand and had quite frankly ended up terrified.  Some folks having more pain after surgery and I really was wondering I had signed myself up for something I would regret.

But two weeks into this adventure, I have no regrets at all. Tomorrow I return to work and I have to say, I am looking forward to it.

Today I met with my surgeon and he was able to show me images from the surgery and give a better explanation of what he found.  Essentially, he was much more conservative and decided not to do as much "reshaping" or suturing as initially indicated on my imaging. He did remove a bunch of torn labral material, but left another portion which, while torn, is still smooth and laying in the correct location.  His feeling as a high performance person himself, is that suturing or provoking that part of my hip would possibly introduce a problem where that wasn't actually the problem (but it certainly was evident on my imaging!). 

The best part of my visit today was because I didn't have a lot of heavy hardware in my hip, I could be weight bearing and get wean off of my crutches, as long as I don't feel I need them to steady my gait.  Hurrah!

Hoping that I will be able to be in the saddle sooner than later.  I have a lot of plans hopefully for 2019!

Surgery on the Horizon

This past year has been one where I feel like I have been primarily whining, which really isn't my goal.  It's been a search for some answers with myself and tools to hopefully improve my riding.

One thing is my Ehlers-Danlos diagnosis.  The second recent thing that has been the diagnosis of a FAI and a labral tear in my hip.  Some people choose to avoid surgery, but after struggling with physical therapy and the pain getting substantially worse over the past six months or so, I have the surgery scheduled for this upcoming Monday.

To say I am anxious about it may be an understatement. 

My surgeon said in the preop appointment that to expect four to six months out of the saddle.  I think these semi feral horses are going to be really quite feral by the end of that vacation, but hopefully some good friends will help keep them civilized.

Chili has been injured since September anyway with a large hematoma that is slowly going down, but was so large, she actually has stretch marks and butt wrinkles from it.  I am sure she appreciates the time off.

So the 48 hour countdown is on. Wish me luck and I am hoping to come back better than ever in 2019 in the saddle.

What A Pain

I have much to catch up on.  Mostly it's a combination of disappointing shows and frustrating life in general.

However, it does seem more of this is tying together.  After a recent diagnosis with Ehlers-Danlos, I was referred to physical therapy for hip pain.  I dutifully attended PT and learned useful things like how to stand on one foot, which I have never actually been able to accomplish before. 

Unfortunately during one round of physical therapy, something distinctly went crunch that probably shouldn't have been crunchy.  The therapist suggested contacting my provider and asking for imaging.

The good news is that imaging was ordered quickly.  The initial radiographs showed Femoroacetabular Impingment which essentially meant that excess bone had been laid down in the hip socket and was rubbing.  Makes sense to a certain point.  I was having difficult moving my left leg back and it would just be stuck or frozen.

An MRI with contrast was ordered to see the status of the labrum.  I was not impressed with the radiologist who injected lidocaine first which was supposed to numb the area before the contrast was injected.  Unfortunately, he went to down with the contrast as he was teaching a young radiologist the procedure and I don't think he really let the lidocaine do the whole numbing thing.

10/10 don't recommend doing it without some kind of pain block
The office called the next morning and said they were putting in a referral to one particular orthopedic surgeon as he's the only one in network who will touch this surgical case.  The labrum is badly torn, but the Ehlers-Danlos diagnosis complicates surgery.

So now I wait until I actually meet this doctor.

Not really sure what to think or plan.  I want the hip to heal and have a chance of not being in pain, however, five or six months of no riding seem to be a bit much.  I was hoping to go to Sport Horse Nationals in the fall of 2019, but I don't know if turning my horse out to be absolutely feral for six months is the way to accomplish that. 

Anyone else have a similar hip surgery?  It would be nice to be a little less crooked and who knows, it may be the magical key to accurately riding a 20 meter circle. ;) 

Another Birthday!

I missed celebrating the Semi Feral Filly's birthday.

OK she's seven years old, but she's still my silly filly.

Enjoy the photos that I took on May 8th, her birthday!

I had just finished bodyclipping her, hence the really pale look, but not too bad for my first real attempt at a proper body clip!

White with Black Stripes?

“When you hear hoofbeats, it’s most likely a horse and not a zebra.”

Part of my struggle as a rider and as an equestrian in general has been pain related.  I have always suffered from a bit of poor luck.  Growing up, I had numerous dislocations and soft tissue injuries: shoulders, knee, ankles, you name it, I injured it.

This horse is also injury prone

In college, I started having some additional chronic pain issues.  Headaches, GI pain, and exhaustion.

By the time I ended up in graduate school, it had combined with some serious drug and food allergies and I was very sick indeed and not a very pleasant person to be around.

It was a time where I ended up with a lot of testing, not a lot of results, and many vague labels and syndromes attached to my chart.

I brought up my concerns to my previous primary care physician who shrugged and was indifferent about my concerns.  After a switch in insurance, I saw my new primary care physician who seemed intrigued by a challenge.  I ended up in a rheumatologist's office (and by far the youngest in the waiting room) and have the diagnosis which I've suspected for the past six or seven years: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. 

There are different types.  Some much more severe than others.  I am pretty lucky in the sense that my classification doesn't involve some of the most serious consequences.

I am not sure why I feel a bit relieved to finally have just one diagnosis on my chart with everything else still correlating.  The pain is still difficult, but I find the fatigue to be even more aggravating. There are some days that going to the grocery store, I get to the car and just have to sit there before having the energy to drive home.  Work is often a similar affair with just sitting after a shift is done before my hour long commute home.

Anyone else dealing with similar issues?  I have finally ventured onto a couple of EDS related Facebook pages and there are some equestrians, but many more that are concerned on how dangerous equestrian sports are, which is certainly true.  My last major shoulder injury was from showing two excitable yearlings.  I subluxated my pelvis in a dressage lesson the other year and I am having a very difficult time with SI pain on my poor, crooked little horse. 

But in the end, I can't imagine anything else right now?  Even if I am a zebra, I want to hang out with the horses.

Horse Fair

The other weekend was the Midwest Horse Fair, which is a large equine expo in my area.  Vendors, demonstrations, clinicians, and all the usual equine goodness.

The past few years I have been pretty busy with actually taking care of horses at the expo.  Everyone usually thinks it's a great time to take horses to the expo.  But I disagree.  It's not so fun.  You are essentially tied to 5,284 things you need to do a day that if you get 5 seconds to leave the area to run to the restroom, you are bound to run into one of the five thousand equestrians you know and probably one you don't want to know and he or she will inevitably want to chat for at least fifteen minutes to the point that you will be late for your next adventure and not have time to actually use the restroom.  

Riding with Jec Ballou.  I look terrified.  I basically was, LOL!  

But I digress.  My point is that I had zero horses to care for this year.  I just was helping with the Morab and Arabian breed areas and then the rest of the weekend was mine to do as I please.  I brought my camera for a couple days and shot some images of the Arabian, Morab, and Fjord groups just to play around and see if I can improve my photography.

That being said, shooting fast moving horses in dark arenas is certainly a challenge.

I did a little bit of shopping, but I didn't find as many deals as I would have hoped.  I watched a few different clinicians, including Clinton Anderson, but the nice thing with not having to pay per auditing experience, I didn't feel I had to stick it out so I left after a few minutes of CA. 

Here are a few of my favorites images from the weekend.

What's your favorite part of equine expos?  Do you usually get to watch demos?  Clinicians?  Shopping?

Birthday Girl!

 Happy 23rd Birthday to the Original Semi Feral Mare

She's managed to survive some hairy situations including a large colon displacement, an arterial leg laceration, and pneumonia!  Tough stuff for sure.

A friend rode her yesterday and she was still absolutely full of P&V.  Twenty-three going on approximately five years old.  :)

A little more hairy this year.  She was diagnosed last fall with Cushing's, but so far, so good.  Just maintaining the coat and needs to be bodyclipped, but if that's the extent of our troubles, I'll be thankful.

So happy birthday sassy grey momma mare.  Hope we can celebrate many more.