Horses Are Not a Good Idea

Wednesday evening after clinical a friend and I decided to go riding. We had been doing this for about a month regularly. We did it to relax and get away for awhile. We headed back to the barn because it was starting to get dark out. I seen the tail end of something white and furry and big running through the woods. Mistie seen it to, we gave our horses a tap so they would speed up and we could see what this animal was before it headed into the woods. Unfortunately our horses both got spooked. Mine took off a dead run, I was scared. Adrenaline was pumping through me. The next thing I know, I am on the ground and I am confused. I can't see anything for the life of me...I can hear a bunch of people talking and they were talking about me. Mistie rushed me to the ER that night, where the ER doctor said I had a concussion and my CT scan results were fine, she let me go home to be monitored every two hours. I slept fine throughout the night, that next morning every time I would stand up I would get this splitting headache and I would get really nauseated and dizzy. My sister in law made me go to a different ER. They repeated the head and neck CT and did a x-ray of my right hip bone due to pain. I waited in the room for what felt like forever with a C-Collar on waiting on the doctor to come back in and tell me the results. She came in, I was told I had a fractured C-2 Vertebrae in my neck. My world got really small at that point. I was scared, she told me they were shipping me out to a bigger hospital. Somewhere where they could deal with my neck, I needed an orthopedic doctor. Once I got to OU Medical Center in the city the doctor came in and did a neurological assessment on me. He was surprised I could feel fine and he teased me about it, he looked over my scans and decided no surgery was needed, but that I would be in a neck brace for roughly 6 weeks. He told me I was lucky 97% percent of people with a "Hangmans Fracture" either die instantly or are paralyzed. God wasn't through with me....my husband comes in really really soon for RR. I am so ready. It's a bitter sweet moment to have my husband back, even for a short amount of time. I am so thankful to be alive today to tell the story, I am thankful I can walk and I am thankful I can go on to nursing school like a normal person with a neck brace. With a little bit of persistence I will be fine....