Hi all.
As you can tell by the heading I have the rather unwanted affliction of a broken ankle. You may wonder why I am starting my blog on day 15? Well I'm so bored of not being able to do much, I decided this might keep me occupied some of the time, and it's taken me 15 days to come up with it since my accident!
The Accident
How did I do it? I hear you ask. Well, I blame the horse - the horse probably blames me! I was out on a hack, I don't ride often, it's just a treat for when I'm on holiday and birthdays, etc, this particular hack was a birthday present. I have never come off a horse before and somehow managed to do it twice in one ride!
So I had quite a dull horse - he quite clearly had the route programmed into his head and didn't want instruction. But it was a beautiful day and I was perfectly pleasant with him - so all you horsey people don't go saying he sensed something from me! We paused to check our girths about 15mins into the ride, I had all my weight on one side and was leaning over when the horse spotted an extra tasty bit of grass (I think) and jerked over to one side, the next thing I knew I was bouncing on my arse on the ground!
I picked myself up and dusted myself off, no injuries - just bruised my pride. I decided not to let it deter me and, with great effort as it was quite a large horse (who would not stand still!), I got back on and continued the ride. In my head I was going over everything and thought to myself, 'I don't mind trotting but I really don't feel comfortable cantering on this horse'. We did a bit of trotting and it was fine (rather uncomfortable - I usually get on really well with trotting but this horse just felt rather unpleasant!), then we walked out onto a large grassy area on a cliff top.
The instructor told us to prepare for a canter, so I started to get ready.... but the horse was off! I was not ready! I instantly lost my footing and slipped forward, holding onto his neck for dear life! I could feel him getting faster and faster, it felt like we were gallopping (then again his trot had felt like a canter!). He obviously had enough of me clinging to his neck because he stopped and started to buck and try to throw me off.
I was clinging on for as long as possible, but I decided I'd rather come off of my own accord than be thrown off. Using my left leg and arm I pushed myself away from him mid-buck, swinging my right leg over his back and arcing through the air then smashing my right ankle onto the ground. I just remember trying to get further away from him but not being able to use my right leg, luckily my launch off to one side had got me far enough away from his hooves.
#PAIN!#
Oh it hurt so much! I rolled around on the ground for about 5 minutes not knowing what to do with myself, I remember taking my right boot off and my foot just flopped - ew!! That did not help! Eventually I managed to get comfortable in 1 position and calm down a bit.
The grass was nice and soft and springy and the sky was beautiful and blue with clouds that you can make shapes out of, so I entertained myself with that to take my mind off the pain. The instructor rang various people to come up with a plan but there was very limited access to our location on the cliff.
The Rescue
A very nice man from the National Trust came to try and load me into his buggy, but I was in too much pain to get up - even with help. Eventually they rang the coastguard and some lovely men in a helicopter came to my rescue me. They gave me some very pleasant gas to help with the pain - I liked that gas! They put my leg in a splint and then carried me to the helicopter.
The view was stunning as we took off and flew the short distance to Poole. I didn't mind the ride - despite my dreadful fear of flying - in fact I actually really enjoyed (I think the gas had something to do with that!).
The Hospital Bit
As they loaded me onto a stretcher I looked around and saw we had landed in a playing field, loads of children and parents were stood around staring at me - some were even taking photos - oh the embarrassment!
Then the fun hospital part began. You know, the waiting and the xrays and the pain of someone forcing your foot into a right angle. They actually had to do my cast twice because it wasn't straight enough the first time!
The Aftermath
So I've fractured my talus bone and will have the cast on for about another 6 weeks. Then I have to have an MRI scan and possible key hole surgery.
As you can probably guess I am dying of boredom and hope to hear from fellow cripples, even if its just to have a moan or to get ideas on how to entertain myself on crutches whilst I'm off work! That's all for now, until tomorrow......
