Kicked in da head...

So, I wanted everyone to actually know what I was doing when I got hurt instead of thinking I was a doofus around the horse. I realize the picture is a little old, but it was all I could find. It was in the powerpoint notes I still had from the island. To point out, this guy is actually standing wrong. We are taught to stand with our shoulder pressed against the horses shoulder. If this horse were to kick with his back foot, he would be toast. He should have his butt pointed at the horses head. I think this was in our powerpoints to show us what NOT to do. Oh well, it seems like even when we do what we are taught, accidents can still happen.

This is called an abdominocentesis. It is one of the primary diagnostic tools that we use on horses, especially for colics. It involves sticking a needle into their abdomen. USUALLY they don't mind, don't even flinch. The needle is advanced into the abdomen, then either a syringe is attached to obtain the fluid, or it is collected into a tube as it drips from the needle.

I had advanced my first needle and could not get any fluid. We tried gently twisting the needle and pulling back a little, neither which worked. Finally, my clinician told me to insert a second one....well, that's when the horse started to mind!

All of the sudden I felt all of this pressure and I took one step away from the horse. At that point, I almost didn't realize what had just happened. I bent over at my waist and put my two hands on my knees and thought everything was ok....until I opened my eyes and I was staring at a pool of blood on the ground below me.

The tech that was holding the horse and the clinician ran over to my side, both grabbed an arm and made me go to the wall and sit down. As I was sitting there, they were busy running around getting towels and ice for my face. At this point all I could do was wonder what my face did look like. They called for the ambulance and the Purdue FD came right away. I got a ride in the rescue truck (on the outside it looked like a fire truck, on the inside it looked like an ambulance). Before we left, the head clinicians (over all of the Large Animal Hospital) ran down to look at me (we were 2 buildings away in an Isolation ward). Their first reaction when I took away the ice pack was.. "ohhhhhh, YEP, that's broken". Let me tell you, it's not a cool thing to have 5 people looking at your face (which I haven't even seen yet) and making all these weird faces and ohh gawd, etc.

The guy working on me took my blood pressure 4 times then asked what my normal blood pressure is. I told him it's usually right on normal 120/80. He then took it 3 more times and replied that it was 120/78. The tech, who is pretty dang cool, says that she was impressed at how cool I remained about the whole thing. She said she couldn't believe I didn't cry and I said, "well, I am pretty tough". She said she would have cried just knowing her face was messed up.
I got to the hospital with all of my teeth and never having lost consciousness. The PA at the hospital takes my vitals, goes to leave the room and swings around and asks, "oh, by the way, would you like some pain meds"? I wanted to ask him which part of: 1) kicked in the face by a horse, 2) blood all over me, 3) 7-8 out of 10 for the pain scale; that he didn't understand. Instead, I looked at my friend, grinned, and said "yes, please, I would like some pain medicine. Sheeesh....

Then I had my CT done to make sure there were no other fractures in my poor skull. That was all clear, so I got the laceration on the bridge of my nose glued and a referral to the Ear Nose and Throat doctor. I was out of school on Tuesday with a terrible headache, went to the ENT Wednesday morning, then went on to school. The ENT decided I needed surgery on Thursday morning. I worked at school on Wednesday and even worked a regular shift I had from 5pm-midnight.

Thursday morning Brad took me to the surgical center and I was put all the way out for an hour. Then I woke up with a bandage and cast (literally) on my nose. Brad picked me up and brought me home. I slept, slept, and slept. When I woke up, I took my drugs, and iced my face and fell out again.

I am doing ok now. Jimmy, Kimmy, and Mom have been good about calling and checking on me. All of them offered to come up and babysit me. All I needed was a good nest on my couch and a quiet house. Tally has been good and Bella won't leave my side.

I go back to school on Monday with light work. Now that I have this experience out of the way, I hope to never repeat it! I do count myself lucky, though, it could have been much worse.

Damn horse.