I went to work yesterday for the first time on crutches. I established a system – little dogs and cats that could go on the table I saw while on crutches – big dogs I saw while sitting on a rolling chair. It worked out great. I thought that I wasn’t very good on crutches but found out that I could fly around the hospital. Then I realized that I only use the crutches here to go up and down stairs and outside to the barn. No wonder I think they are hard work!
So working went well but I am losing jobs because of this. I work for an agency that places me in clinics in addition to other jobs I have. One clinic that I was supposed to go to this Friday cancelled because I’m on crutches. I haven’t heard from the other ones yet. That’s the problem with getting hurt when you have a physical job.
But I am able to work with the horses some. They got their feet done yesterday and they were very bad. They wanted to go outside – not stand still for their feet. I actually poked Spirit in the butt with a crutch once. Greatly extends my reach! My farrier put them outside when they were done and they ran around like idiots. Acted like they hadn’t been out in a month. Actually they had been out 36 hours before.
The husband is doing very well working with the horses even if he won’t admit it. He’s got feeding down. He hates to put them outside though. I thoroughly blame Spirit for that. Spirit has toyed with him ever since they met. So the husband doesn’t like to handle him and now Spirit doesn’t get out as often as he would like.
I gave him a pep talk the first time he put them out. I told him to tell himself that he wasn’t going to take any @#$% from Spirit. He thinks that because Spirit is bigger that he can’t tell him what to do. Spirit knows he thinks this and takes advantage. Prize is very good for the husband though so he likes her.
Even worse is bringing them in. At that point he has to handle them both at once. I told him to put halters on both of them. Then put Spirit’s lead rope over his neck and forget about him. Open the gate and lead Prize in. Spirit will follow.
The first day they met him at the gate and it worked fine. But Spirit had to crowd the husband a bit at the gate. I told him to give that horse a good push to make him knock it off. He gave him a half-hearted push and Spirit sort of stopped. Yesterday they were out of sight of the gate. He had to go get them. I told him to just catch one horse and the other would follow. He went off muttering the whole time. He disappeared over the hill. About 30 seconds later Spirit’s ears appeared over the hill followed in close order by the rest of Spirit and then the husband leading Prize. It was going very well but then I noticed that Spirit was weaving a bit as he walked. Yes, he was stepping into the husband’s path and making him swerve and then stepping back so it wasn’t so obvious. He let them out the gate and Spirit beelined to piece of metal siding on the ground. It has been there forever but Spirit jumped on it so it made a big noise. (If you had asked Spirit to walk on it he would have acted deathly afraid.) That made Prize stop and look over which worried the husband. I reassured him that it was just Spirit making noise and Prize saw that too and started walking to the barn. Spirit followed quickly and I swear he was giggling. When I’m back on two legs we are going to have to work on reinstalling his manners!
My sidesaddle is at the post office. Unfortunately I’m in no condition to carry a saddle so I called to have them redeliver. If I didn’t miss the carrier it will be here today. If I did then the husband will need to go get it tomorrow. I’m going to put it in the living room and pet it until I can try it out.
On the bright side the workout is working! I’ve been going around the house in the wheelchair so it was a shock yesterday when I stood up in the bathroom and saw myself in the mirror. My face looked thinner. I thought that might be wishful thinking until I got to work and the other vet said to me, “How can you possibly be losing weight?” I weighed myself and I had lost 5 pounds since the accident.
Here’s the diet plan –
Make it hard to get to the kitchen. Getting up off the recliner takes more energy than you really want to expend to satisfy a slight craving.
Exercise by pushing yourself in a wheelchair on thick carpeting or using crutches up and down stairs and on uneven ground outside.
Repeat for weeks.
