Season finale of LOST tonight!

Ohhhh.. so exciting it is..

Amazing lightening photo taken in Belgium.

Today Matt and I went into Denver for dim sum and a nice walk downtown. Dim sum was very crowded and after waiting for some time, I had to pee really badly. Matt didn't want me to go because we were the next number to be called. I assured him I would hurry and be back as soon as I could.

I bee-lined my way to the bathroom, rushed into the women's restroom door, entered the first stall (thankfully empty) and fell promptly on my ass onto the wet, pee-ridden, bacteria infested floor right in front of the toilet.

I sat on my ass for a while, contemplating the disgusting, traumatic incident. My legs and feet were well into the adjacent stall which was occupied by, no doubt, a horrified person using the facilities, startled by the unwelcome visitors (she was wearing white, fancy flip flops). I got up and finished my business quickly, expedited by the sound of my neighbor flushing her toilet. I certainly did not want to run into her face to face.. so I hurried and washed my hands and left (with damp jeans, UGH).

The rest of our lunch and our afternoon was nice and uneventful. Hours later, I am nursing a nice fat bruise along my elbow. *sigh*

Tomorrow, Matt and I are driving up to an animal shelter in Cheyenne, WY to look at this girl:



She's a golden retriever/basset hound mix. Exciting.. :)

Deer in the backyard - movie
Originally uploaded by Julienne:)

As mom and I were working in the dining room during her visit, a family of deer wandered into the backyard. A buck, doe, and their two sons. They hung out for quite a while. The doe was very concerned with us looking out the window at them, but the others just hung out.

The Gold Inferno is back!!



Love this guy...

Penny is doing better. I rode her last night and she seems to have really taken to that low port correction kimberwick I have her in. Although she really didn't appreciate me jabbing her in the mouth after she leaped across the bridge. :( She doesn't trust herself over the bridge with my weight on her, but alone she goes over it just fine. I'll have to enlist Matt's help to handwalk her over while I'm riding her. Overall I'm pretty pleased with our ride yesterday out in the farmer's fields, I even trotted her and it felt great even though my body was all crooked from the Freeform saddle I've been using on Isabella. I can never get the stirrups straight and it's very frustrating because it's affecting my riding and balance quite a bit. I may just go to a treed saddle. :P

This picture is amazing. The route of the tornado goes straight for that little trailer. :(

1 person dead so far..

California isn't any better, fires have broken out in the Santa Cruz mountains with 50 mph gusts, and I've heard Napa and now near Cool as well!

God is busy smoting today..

WOW


TORNADO WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WT 334
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
103 PM MDT THU MAY 22 2008

TORNADO WATCH 334 REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM MDT FOR THE
FOLLOWING LOCATIONS
COLORADO COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE

ADAMS ARAPAHOE BOULDER
BROOMFIELD CHEYENNE DENVER
DOUGLAS ELBERT JEFFERSON
KIOWA KIT CARSON LARIMER
LINCOLN LOGAN MORGAN
PHILLIPS SEDGWICK WASHINGTON
WELD YUMA

"Dude. Stop taking all my corpses"
--Matty, overheard from the next room

Whenever I see China in the yard picking up a stick then dropping it somewhere, it reminds me of the little dog in NetHack that would pick up corpses or random items and drop them randomly. The best would be when he'd pick up a chamleon corpse and turn into something cool like a dragon.

Well, I left the house at 11:30 and got home at 6:30. It was a loooooong day. The drive was a bit stressful also, with the cold wind and rain driving up on highway 25 and trying to make the appointment on time. Yikes.

I originally had a 12:30 appointment with Dr Baxter, the head of the lameness department. Unfortunately he had a meeting so Dr McCoy (a resident) and Dr Cawcek (an Associate Professor) took over until he got back. After flexion tests and a lot of trotting, they isolated it to three out of 4 limbs (yikes). Mainly the right hind, my suspicion all along. I strongly suspect the ride where she slipped her right hind underneath herself a year and a half ago is where all her problems stemmed from. And compensating it to the left front which is the limb we'd been treating all along was helping treat the symptom, but not the origin of the pain. So she was grade 2 lame on right hind, grade 1 on left front, and very slightly lame on right front. *sigh* She had swelling in both stifles, more the right than the left. She was very sore on her sacro-ileus joints and I learned later from Dr Baxter that this area is becoming more and more common to get injected with horses that really engage and use their hind ends. He suspects that she may have torn those ligaments around this joint in her injury. More on that later.

Dr McCoy, the resident, suggested an SI and hind end bone scan. Very expensive but a good diagnostic tool. After she quoted me the price and when I regained consciousness (around $2K) I asked her what the other options were. She said we could do isolation blocks to localize the area of pain and give joint injections as needed. I gave her a budget of $1000 and ended up paying $650 at the end of the day so it was pretty reasonable when all was told.

First they blocked the p2, both front feet. Marked improvement. Dr Baxter came back after his meeting after that and after some acupressure points examination, thought it would be prudent to block the right hock instead of the stifle. He was right on - after the right hock was blocked, she trotted out sound. When the block wore off she was same as before the block. After all was said and done, he recommended injecting both hocks, and the SI joints. I could've gone ahead and taken front foot xrays as well, but I really think those problems will resolve after the hind end is taken care of (Dr Baxter said it's quite possible). He recommended frog support (hoof pads) to help if the source of the pain is the hoof bursa. Couldn't hurt, so I will try this out on her next shoeing. He said those SI joint injuries last a long time if left untreated. Those ligaments never fully repair themselves without help and hopefully the SI joint injections will be a one time thing. Hock injections, with her age and what sport we chose to do, may not be a one time thing.

After sedation and hock/back prep, Isabella was injected in 4 locations. Both hocks, both SI's. The SI joint injection is done with a 15" thick needle that goes right into the point of the back. He injects the joint and injects the ligaments around the joint to promote healing. Now, I've worked at a vet hospital for several years, seen multiple surgeries, worked in the pharmacology world and performed multiple surgeries, but seeing such a big metal instrument protruding out of your baby's back is not taken lightly. That whole afternoon of not eating anything since 7 in the morning and feeling light headed anyway all caught up to me and I had to take a few deep breaths and look away. Thankfully I did not faint.:)

On to the prognosis. 30 days of rest (being very conservative and giving her a lot of time), I can ride at the walk if I want. Bute for the next 5-7 days. Pad those front feet for frog support. After all of this she should be sound if we really did treat what the cause of the lameness is. To fully know and treat we'd have to go the bone scan route, but I am really feeling that we did the right thing in treating those SI joints. Perhaps some chiropractic work would be helpful as well after this.

I am relieved that we went through this, but a part of me feels very very guilty for putting Isabella through this. The first thing Dr McCoy asked me was, Was she bred for endurance? No.. her parents were parade horses. She wasn't bred to do what I ask her to do, so her body isn't really made for the long trail miles and so it broke down. I am the reason why she is going through all this treatment. I think she loves it though. She is finally eating and drinking well, never had a problem with recoveries, and she just loves the trail. She LOVES it. If at any point she told me she didn't want to go down the trail, I would have found another equine sport to involve ourselves in.. but when we trot down the trail and her ears and perked forward.. she is just such an awesome trail horse. So I hope I did the right thing with her. If we go through all this and she is still lame, she will be relegated to Top Pleasure Trail Mare and be retired from endurance permanently.. which makes me