A Day in the Life....................911

In yesterday's post, Day Off, I mentioned that Dave was having problems with his back. When he came home, I think he thought that a heating pad and some over the counter muscle relaxants would fix the problem. He's had minor problems with his back before after bucking hay or stacking bags of grain. I'm pretty sure he expected this to go the same.

Unfortunately that's not how things worked out. Somewhere around 1 in the morning, Dave tried to get up to go to the bathroom and instead found himself on the floor. He was unable to get up and there was no way I could get him to his feet. I ended up dialing 911 to get assistance.

That meant it was a long night in the emergency room. Pain meds were administered intravenously (a fact Dave didn't appreciate much since he hates needles.) Dave was given a CAT scan to see if there were underlying issues causes his intense lower back pain and we waited around for hours waiting for test results.

The good news was there were no underlying issues. The pain is strictly muscle pain. The bad news is it's going to take a while for him to get over it. In the meantime he's on some pretty strong pain meds and is icing his back 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off for two days. Then he'll go to heat in the same rotation.

It was sometime after 7 am before we ever got out of the emergency room. Getting Dave into the car for the trip home was excruciating even with the meds that had been administered. There is no easy way to deal with this. He's going to be hurting for a while.

He cannot walk upright on his own. Instead he's using 2 stall fork handles in place of canes for support. This precarious situation meant I called Richard to tell him I wouldn't be bringing horses. I was afraid to leave (other than to fill his prescription from the ER) in case Dave might fall again.

He is doing a bit better tonight. Although he still can't stand up straight and is using his "walking sticks," he is feeling steadier on his feet. If I can catch up on some sleep tonight, I hope to be back working horses. tomorrow. Maybe only one load, instead of two, but if I don't get back to work, I'm going to be pretty darn crabby. That withdrawal from horses is a ghastly affliction in itself.

Oh ya! and just for the record, I think we're getting way to familiar with the guys from 911 here on this far. I think we've filled our quota for the next 20 years!

PS I apologize for no pics, I'm too darned tired to mess with them. Will try to make up for that tomorrow (if Richard will just send me the notes I'm waiting on.)

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