Trust me…I know what impossible feels like - Part 1
On November 18th, 2017, I had a terrible fall while riding a horse. It was here that my journey began. At first I thought I’d broken my arm which in my head I was thinking, “Oh, that’s no big deal. I can definitely keep riding with a cast on (which I had done before).” But by the next day, I soon learned that that was not the case, but it was actually my back that was injured. I had never been in this much pain before (or so I had thought - but there was actually more to come unfortunately). I could not sit, stand or walk without extreme pain to the point where I was getting physically sick (I mean no one likes to vomit - UGH!). I kept telling myself to keep going, play through the pain, and it will all just go away. As the symptoms persisted and worsened, I had to leave work early 3 days after the fall (which let me tell you leaving work early was never the most well received or welcomed even if I had nearly fainted from the pain). I drove myself to urgent care where they did nothing more than give me a shot of Toradol for the pain (eye roll here because what I wanted is to find out what was causing the pain not to just attempt to cover it up). Well, the Toradol did not work, and I continued to get sicker (vomiting, fever, fainting) and in more pain. I went to see an Orthopedic Surgeon this time as I knew there was something quite wrong with my back. My doctor was awesome, and he thought I definitely had fractures so he sent me to have X-Rays and then on to an MRI. Although I did not want to have a fractured back, at this point I simply wanted to know what was wrong, and if it was a fracture I’d deal with it. When the imaging came back inconclusive, both the surgeon, and I were dumbfounded. He arranged for me to do physical therapy (PT) for the next several months to see if that helped. After 6 months of PT and 3 different physical therapists, my condition continued to decline. I went back to the surgeon and at this point I couldn’t even sit on the exam room table. My hands shook because of the pain I was in, and I could not keep from crying - the pain was just too much. He was immediately alarmed and concerned by my worsened condition. He was for sure there was more going on and ordered a CT scan and for the MRI notes to be resent to him to give them another review. It was here where we discovered the issues with my L4 and L5 vertebrae and my sacrum. Now with more insight into the injured areas, he sent me to do 2 more months of PT and to see a specialist for regenerative therapy as the injuries could not be operated on.
This is where the story truly begins… STAY TUNED FOR PART 2.
Pics of Remy and Caroline.
(the horse I was riding when I fell)
