[eskielover]

Ouch.....I never thought there was the slightest possibility that a break would actually show up in the xrays. I had them taken to show that it would be healing soon & that the pain was nothing to worry about. Now I know they are justifying the pain I am feeling & that it is not my imagination.

As most of you may know...my horse stumbled & while recovering, his back leg gashed his front let & we went down....I landed on my head & shoulder but thought that my head with my helmet on took the worst part of the fall. Now I am wishing that there were such things as shoulder helmets for horse riding.

Everything was Dx'ed....my neck was sprained even with the neck fusion I had 5 years ago. I had a concussion that effected me for just about a week with dizziness & blurry vision besides a continuous mild headache which was at a pain level above what is controlled by my 200 mgh duragesic fentynal patches for my migraines.....(with that amount, I don't think I ever should feel any pain). When I hit the ground I don't remember a thing after seeing my horses neck & until I remember standing up looking at the reins under his feet (so probably blacked out). My helmet had several chunks broken out of the outer shell so thought that was the major point of impact. Don't ever think that the desert is sandy.....the ground is as hard as cement or harder. My right arm was scraped & bruised & my shoulder was the same. It ached & hurt to touch like a bruise usually does. I thought back to when I fell off my horse the last time when I fractured my SI joint in my hip. I remember that hurting continuously with some sharp pain when walking. That time I was taken to the ER by ambulance & the hip xray showed nothing.....so I continued riding & showing my dogs.....until several months later when the pain continued & it was xrayed again showing a fracture.

With that in mind, I tried to compair the difference & the pain this time was much less. (however I am on a much higher dose of pain med). I realized Wed after getting back on a horse & taking a lesson, then throwing around 50 lb bags of pellets to feed the horses that my shoulder was not feeling good at all. That was when I decided to at least check it out with my Orthopedic specialist. I figured that he would take an xray & it would show nothing (meaning it was only a bruise) or at worse case, a small line showing a fracture that would heal with time & let me know that the hurt was justified but nothing to worry about either. I had an appointment with a new internist on Thursday & told them about the shoulder & everything else....I asked them if it was possible to have xrays taken so that I could just take them to my orthopedic specialist for him to look at (save some time on Monday). They gave me the ok & the form to take to a local xray center for Friday....I could just walk in any time & done & could take the xrays with me for my Monday appointment.

My pain specialist earlier this week & my new internist had told me to take Motrin to help with the pain that was over what my patches were controling.....& friday morning my shoulder felt some better....thinking I was just imagining anything. They took 3 xrays of the shoulder & I sat in the waiting room to get them to take with me. I had plans to go to the ranch for another riding lesson. Curiosity got the best of me & I took out the xrays in the car to look at them. I knew where the pain was, so tried to locate that on the xray. I thought worse case I was looking for a small line that would indicate a fracture....but wow. There was a dark place where there should have been bone showing....about 1/4 inch wide.....just above the shoulder joint where the ball fits into the joint. I really thought that I would never be able to see anything & wondered it I was really seeing what was there. I took out the other 2 xrays & they showed the same thing. I stopped by home & showed my husband the xrays. He looked at some little white lines & said oh.....told him to look closer at the location of the pain & he saw the same thing i saw. I decided to take them out to the ranch to have my trainer take a look to see what she thought of it. The break popped out at her along with what looks like the ball part of the shoulder joint is not in the cup completely (not completely dislocated). It doesn't make sense to me because I seem to have pretty good motion with only a little soreness in some positions but nothing that seems to indicate what the xrays show (all I can think is that the fentynal is really working on pain).

My mind is wondering how the break is going to fill in that 1/4 inch of void.....& just how the joint is going to be put back into place. There is a bit of fear that pinning the bone together may be the solution is something I don't even want to think of...operation, hospital, time away from riding (no way that will ever happen). I seriously thought I was just doing the xrays to prove to myself that there really wasn't anything wrong & that my trainer was right in suggesting that they would just let me know that if it were a fracture that I had reason for it to be sore for a little longer time than what it would take a bruise to get better.

I never thought in my wildest imagination that the xrays would turn out like this. The fear of how it will be treated is going to haunt me until Monday too. At least I know that I have the best orthopedic specialist around taking care of it. When he did my knee reconstruction 19 years ago, I told him I had to be ready to ski in 6 months......& I was.

The internet does provide some good information hopefully with more reading I will know better what options (if any) I will be given on Monday. Right now there is kind of a sick feeling in my stomach that comes when something is worse than I ever expected.

It is amazing how a simple walking trail ride could turn out so bad for both my horse & me......at least we are dealing with our injuries together. My horse is not so mad at me now that I have given him all his antibiotics. He would stick his nose up in the air & wouldn't even take a piece of apple of carrot from me to show his protest of how I was treating him.

I hate the feelings I am experiencing right now, knowing what is wrong but not knowing what the treatment will be.

[(JD)]

WHOA!!!!! Oh no eskielover!!! I guess you're still running on adrenalin and not feeling the pain (from the increased pain meds too) and being able to do movement??? THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE that this has happened to you!!! I am so sorry to hear this... really. Well, any dislocation will be RElocated maybe once any swelling has gone down to allow it??? and...you KNOW it means physical therapy later on.... a movable joint though.. hmmm immobilize it ... broken.. if a piece of bone has broken off, unless it becomes more of a problem they would leave something like that.... if the cup doesn't work right or is impeded for any reason...they would fix that... but whatever they do NOW you simply must plan on doing those exercises in PT later... and for a long, long time or your shoulder will become "frozen" and that's not any fun at all, and not fixable!!!!

I'm so sorry this has happened, you trying to help yourself feel better by being with the horses... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[1Dar]

shoulders are a hard thng to injure in the way that you use them every day....you never realize how much you actually use them untill you hurt them. I had shoulder surgery when I was 16, that was back in 1998. My shoulder was 75% dislocating itself with certian movements. I played volley ball at the time and was out for a year...I shouldn;t have played my sesnior year but I wanted to so I did. I have an extremely high pain tollerence so it takes until it gets really bad for me to do anything about it hurting. IMOBILIZATION is your best option! Try not to use it until you get it looked at by the dr. Also ICE ICE ICE! I know this is going to sound silly, but go the grocery and buy the cheapest bad of frozen peas or corn, and used that for an ice pack. It works well. That is something that my ortho surgen told me to do to save money on ice packs and ice.

Hope you are feeling better....give us an update.

Dar

[kimmydawn]

(((((((((((((((((((((((((EL)))))))))))))))))))))))))))

keep still until you're back in touch with dr! i'm glad you followed up! smart!

hoping that everything comes out good after talking with dr and that no procedures are necessary.

kd