Farming is Dangerous

On Wednesday, August 14, Johnny and I were unloading feed into the goat barn when disaster struck. As I came out through the feed room door to get another bag, the door got caught by a mighty gust of wind and slammed into me, knocking me off the loading ramp, three feet down onto the hard ground.

It hurt a lot. I screamed a lot. Finally quit screaming and held up my right hand for Johnny to pull me upright as my left side was in much pain and not able to help. I walked slowly back to the house, telling Johnny he had to unload the rest of the feed himself. Which he did. (However I think he must have been a little shook up because he put all the bags in the feed bin upside down without noticing what he had done. I told him several days later when I finally staggered out to the barn to try milking goats.)

I did not think I broke anything, but even if I had I was unwilling to go to the hospital as I had done 20 years earlier when I came off Mr. Smith (my horse) dramatically, breaking many ribs and my collarbone... all on my left side. (My poor left side has taken a beating over the years.) The doc at the hospital had told me ribs and collarbone have to heal on their own and gave me a sling... but they would not let me out of the hospital until my partially deflated left lung (found in an x-ray by an overly conscientious x-ray technician) had re-inflated. After a week it had not so I told the doctor I was leaving the hospital and he said he could make a hole in my chest to let the air escape from the outside of my lung...  what was likely keeping my lung from reinflating. So he did and it did and I went home.

But while I was in the hospital, the foal I had been waiting for from my mare Jessie Anne was born. So I missed it! My wonderful father drove two hours to our farm that day, took photos of her, drove an hour back to Salem to have them developed, then another hour to McMinnville and the hospital so I could see my foal the day she was born.

I had no foal due this August, but I was no way going to the hospital again. So I put ice on and went to bed. I have been recuperating ever since, getting a little better each day with help from arnica supplied by my "niece" Faiza, healing thoughts and Qi from a host of friends and family members... plus  Lidocaine patches, arnical gel, lidocaine ointment and whatever else I could find to ease my sore muscles. Now I use a heating pad in bed on my sore left side muscles and it does wonders.

I have been milking morning and night for the last 5 days but only milking. Johnny has to do everything else and if a doe refuses to come into the milk room, he has to retrieve her for me. I'm sure he wishes I would hurry up and get well.

Getting in and out of bed was pretty impossible at first especially, so Johnny rigged up an ingenious system of ropes hung from the ceiling that I can grab with my uninjured right hand and both lower myself into bed and pull myself back out of bed. I took photos. I still need the rope to get in and out of bed without pain.

My left wrist and hand was hurt but fortunately I could still squeeze teats. Most of the swelling of that hand has gone down now and I've been able to type with two hands for over a week.

The most frustrating thing for me is being unable to climb The Thumb to check on the Black Oystercatcher chicks that hatched several weeks ago. But a friend is going to climb up this weekend and check for me. I'm hoping to be able to get there myself in another week.

One never knows what may happen in the blink of an eye.. or with a gust of wind... to change a life. Fortunately for me, the change is temporary. Enjoy the moment, friends.