Love, bubs and life on our little farm

So prior to Christmas I had a fall whilst showjumping - I ended up with a mild concussion that included nausea, passing out and blurred vision and speech. I also had a terribly sore and swollen finger from getting it caught in the reins as I fell. I am no stranger to falling from horses - showjumping and Cross Country tends to result in higher chances of falls during high speed air-bourne maneuvers. But I tend to land on my feet - years of practice you could say! So I was yet to have a fall on the hard clay paddocks we have here. And now that I have, I discovered two things - One, its way harder than the soft volcanic soil of the Byron Hinterland where I grew up and Two, you just don't bounce like you did when you were a teenager!

  So I tucked myself into bed expecting to feel better in the morning, like I always did. And I did - the concussion anyway! But my finger only got worse, so swollen the skin was pulled tight and shiny and it turned black and red. I have a high pain threshold but I was struggling to do things with the girls and the farm and with looming public holidays, I decided it was time to visit a GP clinic. Long story short, he immediately sent me for X-rays, where they found a fracture in the middle joint and I was sent to hospital to check for tendon damage. I was in a sling and bound up. I "rested" as much as any mother of little kids on a farm who is hosting Christmas can (ie not much) and got increasingly frustrated at the constant pain and lack of improvement in the finger.

I was asked to visit the outpatient clinic today at the hospital and the orthopedic registrar was also not impressed with the state of the finger. So off I went for more X-rays, more waits and more orthopedic consultants. Lo and behold, they found that in the top joint, the tendon had torn from the bone and pulled away a piece of bone at the same time. A "mallet fracture"
Untreated - it results in a permanent droop and bend in the finger as the tendon is over stretched and won't reattach properly. Treatment - 6-8 weeks of being splinted and taped, that CANNOT be removed, not even for showers. One bend of the finger without the splint in that 6-8 weeks puts you back at day 0 with 6-8 weeks of treatment again. Wow. This is going to be tough. It is my right hand and I am a molecular biologist - all I do is write formulas and calculations, pipette tiny volumes, open small tubes, handle highly infectious bacteria wearing tight gloves (double layers!) and write reports and documents. Nevermind that I have two kids under four and a farm full of animals, including my new young horse in training. And my birthday, wedding anniversary and two beach holidays away in that time. Aaarrrghh.

The pain of the finger being bent straight is nothing to the pain of being told you are useless and can't do anything. Sigh.

Of course, could be way worse. But definitely not what I had planned for my two weeks of holidays!

Life always has a way of throwing you something unexpected!