Saturday, January 24, 2009

Horseback Riding - "Sally-style"

Last August, after several days of horse back riding, I was literally launched out over the Clydesdale horse that I was riding's head. I grabbed on around his neck and managed to hang on until he slowed down enough for me to drop to the ground. I went into a ball, so I could minimize any injuries, but bumped my head on the ground, anyway. I was wearing a helmet, and stood right up, without any apparent injury, fixed the saddle, which had slid sideways, got back on and rode home.

Two days later, I, Katie, Jennifer and a couple of friends went on a really long ride, about 8 hours away from home. Just as we were getting home, for some reason, I lost consciousness and fell off my horse. Jennifer was the first to notice and called Dave to assist immediately. I was unconscious, for the most part, until he got me to the hospital, where he says I refused to get on the gurney and insisted on walking into the ER myself. The doctor took one look at my helmet, which was destroyed, and ordered a CT scan. Upon the results, which indicated subdural bleeding in the left frontal lobe and right occipital lobe, I was transferred to Covenant Medical Center in Saginaw, where I spent the next few days in the ICU. For the most part, I have no recollection of any of this, just little "snippets." I spent a total of 10 days in the hospital before I was allowed to go home.

Upon release from the hospital, I was scheduled for 3 followup appointments, which has since set off a number of other pathways and directions for me to take in my recovery journey. For the most part, it is my short-term memory which is causing me the most grief.

As I mentioned, I had a "neuro-psychiatric" evaluation, which is a complete workup, evaluating every area of my brain, looking for deficits and areas in which I could benefit from therapy, so I might make as full of a recovery as possible. I had my followup explanatory appointment last Tuesday, which just about sent me over the edge. I was informed that, although I am making a miraculous recovery so far, I still have 12-18 months to go before I reach a full recovery (Or as full of a recovery as possible.) and can return to work as a nurse. When we left the office, I just about became hysterical. I was so upset. What he said made sense and it definitely applied to me, but I so wanted to hear something very different. I want to get back to work!

On Monday of this week, I had a followup appointment with my Neurologist, who gave me a little better news, but also ordered a whole bunch more tests. She told me that she thinks I could return to work in about a month or so, but only part time and in an environment in which I would have good support and backup. I had a sleep study performed Tuesday night and it was horrible. I've had a cough and sinus issues for a couple of weeks that made it really hard for me to get through the night. The good thing is, the tech thinks that I no longer have sleep apnea. Needless to say, I was in bed the next night at about 1800 hours and didn't budge until about 0600 hours the following morning morning.

The interesting thing about this whole ordeal is that with my neuro-psychiatric evaluation, I've learned a lot about myself. In every area of testing, the summary came back as being "grossly intact" and well within the "normal" range, if not in the "above-average" range. My scores actually landed in the 87 to 95th percentile. I have always thought of myself as being fairly bright, but not to that extent. And these numbers are after, literally, suffering brain injury! The doctor found that my short term memory is suffering and, due to the frontal lobe injury, where emotions play out, I also suffer from an inability to control my emotions, especially, when I get the least bit fatigued, which has been pretty consistent since my injury. He has referred me to a head-injury rehab specialty clinic for cognitive and behavioral therapy.

So that's the whole story! I'm feeling like a bump on a log right now, but have gotten very involved in the High and Middle School Band Boosters Program (I am the president!), the Elementary School PTA (I'm did the concession stand for their Winter Carnival!) and will soon be driving down to Troy to work as a Chip Seller for an "All-In Poker Game" as a fund raiser for the local YWCA Summer Camp. (The same one I worked at the summer of 2007 as the Camp Nurse!) I've also become a "teacher's aide" of sorts to the Band Director. I always have found it much easier to organize someone else, other than myself, and have been going in for a few hours every day to help him with getting sheet music pulled together and new instruments (Quad Drums) put together. All these activities definitely keep me busy, but as much as I love doing them, I really need to start earning something in the way of a living.