spinal disaster!

Hi everyone,

I haven't blogged for ages due to various disasters! I know that this blog must make me sound super accident prone (which i obviously am,as the last 6 months have been just one thing after another!)

After mending my broken finger (Dec)I somehow managed to slip a disc in my back in April. I don't really know what specific incident hurt my back (and luckily it wasn't a big horse crash otherwise i would have had years of "horses are dangerous etc" from Jon!).

Since training and competing in triathlons in 2007/8 I had developed an aching pain deep in my bum cheek, which wasn't super-painful but did make me go to see a sports physio. The physio did all the proper checks and put it down to periformis/sciatic nerve problems and gave me a range of exercises to do.

The pain suddenly got worse one day in April (about 2 hours after I did some jump schooling on Tess). I couldn't get comfortable that night in bed and woke up in the middle of the night with a numb back and bum. I also went for a wee and found that nothing was happening and i knew something wasn't right.

I googled "numb bum can't urinate" on the internet and everything i read suggested i had a rare condition called Caudal Equina syndrome.

I went to the doctors and he was very dismissive telling me a probably had a bladder infection!? I put my foot down and made him read the medical pages i had found online and within a minute of reading it he buzzed straight through to the spinal unit at the QMC.

I went into hospital, was assessed by the spinal consultant and given an MRI scan (where your whole body goes into a space-age tube!). The scan revealed that i had slipped a large disc and it had snapped off and was compressing the spinal nerves that supplied my bladder.

Despite being 13 weeks pregnant they had to operate immedietely under general aneasthetic. I was told that if they didn't operate within 24 hours there was a good chance i could lose all bladder and bowel function and in some cases use/sensation of legs.

The operation went well and i had to stay in hospital for over a week. I had an ultrasound after the op and the baby appeared to be fine (i am now 21 weeks pregnant and she is completely healthy).

I was told no running, triathlon or horse riding for months. My absolute favourite!

It has now been 7 or 8 weeks since my op and my back has healed brilliantly and i can wee normally (i had to have a nasty cathetor for 3 weeks after the op and we were worried that i had sustained permanent nerve damage either before or during the op, but all is fine now).

I am fully mobile and have been walking 2 miles a day for the last 4 weeks. I have ridden a few times in walk (and a tiny bit of trotting) and been out for a few hacks (on 100% safe horses) but am not doing too much as riding is very concussive.

I initially panicked and decided to sell all the riding/dealing horses and just keep my mares. Monty, Ellie and Az have all been sold now. Because i am more mobile than i originally thought i would be, i have decided to keep selling a few carefully selected ponies/small horses but am not handling youngsters or breaking in again until next year.

We still have 4 broodmares and a couple of riding/selling ponies which the girls have been exercising.

Tessy and Belle have been scanned in foal and we are collecting them from stud tomorrow. We are taking Nita and Marcie to stud and doing a swap over.

I will try to post something more horsey and less disaster-striken soon!

Lucy x