Gia - session 955 - lesson at CDP

 So, the last 6-7 months have been a bit crazy.  You may be wondering why I wasn't blogging, and partly that was due to my own injury, and partly that was due to Gia's surgery.

Let me back up.

Early in July last year, I had a "bit of a fall" off of Phillip, while schooling cross country.  I immediately knew something wasn't quite right, but luckily, it didn't hurt too bad.  When I stood up, I could feel my right arm dangling quite a bit from my shoulder socket.  When I visited my doctor a few days later, he confirmed that I definitely had injured my shoulder, but he couldn't tell me how bad it was without an MRI.  We discussed doing PT first vs an MRI first, and we both decided PT would be the route to go first.  Unfortunately, there was no improvement after two weeks, so I scheduled the MRI.  It took a few weeks to get on the schedule, and then another week to get in to see the doctor for the results, but basically, I had F'd it up real good.  He informed me that I had torn the Supraspinous and Infraspinous ligaments in my right shoulder.  They were "only" 75% torn, but that was enough that PT

Me and Gia post surgeries

was not going to help, and thus surgery was required.  It took a couple more weeks before I was able to get on the surgery schedule, and by that time, I was so ready to get it over with, that I was ready to take the first available spot.  So, when the nurse called and said that the first available spot was on Wednesday August 28th ... my birthday ... I sighed and said "yes".  I was planning to take that day off anyway, but I was certainly NOT planning to take it off for surgery.  Oh well.  And did I mention that I had to get up at 4am for that surgery??  So much for sleeping in on my birthday.  Although, I did get to do a LOT of sleeping afterwards ...

Surgery went ok.  It was only supposed to take 2 hours, but once the doctor got in there, he said it was a lot worse than the MRI showed, and it ended up taking him 4 hours.  He also found that not only had I torn my rotator cuff, but I had also torn the labrum, which is the connective tissue that goes around the inside of the joint.  When I fell off Phillip, he had been spooking as we went over a jump, and then he threw in an extra buck as well.  As I was coming off, I was holding on to the reins with my right hand, and probably spiraled in the air, thus the rotator cuff injury.  And then we surmised, that when I hit the ground, and he yanked the reins out of my hand, that's probably when my labrum was torn. Needless to say, it was a hot mess in there. Danielle had been waiting to take me home after surgery, and as the doctor was explaining all this to her, he says "Hopefully, this will be Heather's last fall".... (little does he know, ha ha)

I had to wear an IMMOBILIZER (it just sounds like it belongs in all caps, and needs to be announced like it's a super hero's weapon) for the next 6 weeks, whether awake or sleeping.  It wasn't too bad at first, but I would wake up crying from what little sleep I did get, and by the end, I was so sick of it!  All the while, I was going to PT once a week, and doing exercises at home 3 times a day (or supposed to be doing them 3 times a day, anyway).  Let's be honest, I was exhausted, on tons of pain meds (the injury

"Permission slips" from my PT

itself wasn't painful, but the muscle cramps in my lower arm after surgery were excruciating!), and probably a bit depressed from no riding. I was doing the best I could, and sometimes 3 times a day didn't happen.  After the 6 weeks went by, I was able to get out of the IMMOBILIZER, and finally start working on increasing my mobility, and eventually my strength.

I was finally allowed to get back on and ride at a walk on November 15th!  The first horse I rode was Gia (incidentally, she was rehabbing too, and was only allowed to walk, so it worked out.  More about that in just a minute). On December 6th, I was given the go ahead to start adding trot work, and gradually add canter (I added that in a week or two later).  Finally, on January 6th, I was allowed to start jumping again!!  On January 9th she said I was improving so much that I could drop my appointments to every other week.  And finally, on Thursday, February 6th, it was determined that I was back in the low end of "normal" range of motion for my shoulder, and I was released from seeing my doctor and physical therapist altogether!  I do have to go back in 6 months for a recheck, and it will probably still be a few months before I have back my "full mobility and strength".  I probably won't get back 100% of reach that I had before, but I have everything I need to ride 😁.

Meanwhile ...

Gia has been going through her own saga ...

Back at the beginning of August, Gia was diagnosed with a condition called Laryngeal Hemiplegia, or what it is most commonly called, Roaring.  You can read the details in the article, but there are a few things that are interesting to note about Gia.  With most horses, there will be a significant decrease in their ability to work, due to a significant decrease in their ability to breathe.  They are born with this condition, but it's not typically noticed until they are in a good amount of work, like Gia had been for the last several years.  However, if you've been keeping up with Gia's blog, or if you know her in person, then you probably know that she has no desire to slow down when working, and often wants to go harder and faster.  

When I was discussing Gia's treatment with the veterinarians at the NC State Vet School, they were all quite baffled.  They said that a horse with this severe of a laryngeal paralysis (she was a grade 3.3 out of 4) should have been trying to quit, not trying to go.  We decided to move forward with a  Prosthetic Laryngoplasty, or "Tie-Back" surgery.  She had her surgery on August 13th.  It was uneventful, and she came through surgery beautifully!

When she came home, she had a ton of medications, orders for stall rest, and a LOT of trazadone to help keep her calm.  We tried decreasing her trazadone at times, but would come out to find the panels to her pen bent out.  I'm guessing she was ramming them in the middle of the night, but not sure why.  We went back up on the trazadone. 

Unfortunately, her recovery was not as smooth as her surgery.  About two weeks post surgery, she

Gia with abscess 2 weeks post surgery

developed an abscess at the surgical site and had to be rushed back to the vet school.  They were able to flush it out and administer IV fluids and IV antibiotics, but she had to remain there for almost another week.  Luckily, I was able to bring her home the day before I had to go in for my surgery.

After that, the healing process did go smoothly.  She did have to remain on stall rest for about another couple of weeks until everything healed up. Since I was IMMOBILIZED, Danielle took wonderful care of her, making sure she got all her medications.  It wasn't easy - she was quite difficult since she hated the meds and hated being on stall rest. 

Finally, she was allowed to be turned out!  Meanwhile, she had several recheck endoscopy's.  On one of them, they thought they saw some granulation tissue, so we had to make another appointment to visit the Vet School.  It took us a couple of weeks to get in, and once they saw her the granulation tissue had resolved itself.  She was cleared to start under saddle work at the end of October!

I should mention that, for the rest of her life, certain strict rules MUST be followed with her, due to this surgery.  Since part of her larynx is tied back and unable to close properly, it's possibly for food particles to get into her airway, which could cause pneumonia, among other things.  In order to help prevent this, Gia MUST always, and forever, eat and drink from ground level only.  That includes when traveling in the trailer as well, which can make things a bit tricky.  We have managed to figure things out for both the straight load 2 horse trailer, and the 6 horse head to head trailer, so that she can still have hay, but that it is on the ground, but that it also will not get caught in her feet, or in any way cause her any harm during travel.  

Once Gia was cleared for work, I still wasn't able to ride myself, so Danielle started things off with her.  They did a lot of walking under saddle, for just a few minutes at a time, while Gia got used to how her breathing would go during work.  I was able to start walking on her after a couple of weeks.  It was mid-December before Gia was finally allowed to trot, but she felt great!  She does cough 2-3 times at the beginning of her work, and that will probably go with her the rest of her life.  

About mid-January we were able to starting adding canter work back in.  I had done a lot of thinking about my riding during all my time off, so when it came time to canter Gia, I had some plans in mind.  I'll talk more about that in another blog, but suffice it to say, there are still moments when she bucks, but it is a lot less severe and a lot less often.  I think the restriction of her airway might have had a tiny bit to do with it, but I also think that Gia and I were able to work on some really important basics during all her walk and trot rehab.

We were finally able to add jumping at the beginning of February, and we just had our first show yesterday (that will be a separate blog)!  This whole saga for both of us has finally, come to an end since both Gia and I have completed our rehab programs.  As I am always telling my own students, whenever you have to take a step back, whether due to your injury or your horse's, or in this case both, the silver lining is that you can use the slow time coming back up to really improve the tiny but very important foundational basics.  Gia and I are both coming back better and stronger!