Mom's Accident

The day sure didn't go as planned. Most everything was done by 2:00pm, just a bit more cleaning needed on the apartment when mom came over wanting to try out either Missy or Cookie. Not knowing the mares well, Missy was chosen, according to Rhoda she is the one most likely to behave. Well behave she didn't. Mom asked for a trot and Missy bucked so high she hurled mom into the air, over her head and onto the sand. She was thrown a good 5 feet into the air and when one is 80 years old to be slammed into the ground even if it is sand can do some major damage. Mom had her wind knocked out and couldn't speak, I'm panicking the dogs were circling trying to figure out why she was laying on the ground. Missy was too close to her head for comfort so was pulled to the end of the arena and tied. By the time I ran back mom was up on her hands and knees vomiting while still trying to catch her breath. At that point mom was told to lay still, the horse ran back and thrown in the paddock and the car driven into the arena. She was claiming to be ok but still not able to catch her breath. There were guests coming at 2:30pm to see the Friesians, they were called to ask them not to come and off we went to St. Francis arriving shortly after 3:00pm. The very first thing they do to mom is tell her to lay flat and put a neck brace on her. She kept telling them "I can't breath laying flat, do you have to follow the rules when they don't make sense?" Finally they listened and raised the cart enough for her to catch her breath. While waiting for a trauma room to open they ran an EKG on her which was fine. Wearing the hospital gown laying on a cart with a neck brace on, her gray hair a mess from the fall, her sandy jeans on and filthy tennis shoes sticking out under the gown, she is being wheeled into the trauma room when the nurse takes one look at her and says, "wrong room, we are waiting for the horse back accident." I'm sure she was expecting someone years younger but I said, "this really is the horseback accident, she just doesn't look her age." Just too bad the camera was left at home! An IV was put in and blood drawn then came the emergency room doctor, mom is complaining about the neck brace, he asks her to sit up and she thinks he has agreed to get rid of the neck brace (she didn't have her hearing aids in) and rips off the neck brace throwing it to the side. The doctor's eyes open wide then stops checking her heart and starts asking her to move her head. Mom kept telling him "my head is fine, my neck is FINE, it's just my ribs that hurt, that and I can't breath." A chest x-ray was ordered and thankfully that showed no broken bones. Next came the belly ultrasound which showed no internal bleeding. Mom was all ready to go home at that point except she was still having trouble breathing when the emergency room doctor insisted on calling in the trauma team. That meant another few hours of waiting and when they came in they ordered a pelvic x-ray. They told her if that was clear she could go home. That actually didn't take too long but waiting for the doctor to read it must have taken hours. We arrived home after 8:00pm and mom went straight to bed. Thank goodness she had already cooked a 20 pound turkey, cleaned my kitchen, baked 4 pies and made enough stuffing for tomorrow.