I was dragging all the extra gates I have laying around the farm up to the garage so I have them all in one spot this winter in case I have problems with fencing in the oustide pastures. If I need one they'll all be corraled in one spot so I won't be faced with a hole in a fence somewhere and all my gates are iced over and snowed in behind drifts all over the farm. This way they'll be readily available in the garage and easily accessed in cases of emergency.
Well, while I was dragging a heavy one up from the donkey pasture I stepped on a rusty old nail. Yup ..... went right through my tennis shoe sole and into my foot. It was sticking up in an old peice of wood in the garage .... so it nailed my foot to the board. That is the nastiest thing to look down, pick up your foot and have a big board come up with your foot. So I freaked out .... stepped on the board with my other foot .... and pulled the nail out. Took my foot out of the shoe and sure enough ... blood everywhere. It poked through. I don't know why I looked .... a little peice of me thought ... maybe it's not that bad ... maybe it just poked through the sole of my shoe and not in my foot. Even though my foot was telling me different .... i still was hoping for the best. --But not so lucky. I had a hole in my foot.
So I went inside and called the doctor. I told them I stepped on a nail and wondered how long a tetanus shot lasts? They asked me how long it had been since I had a tetanus shot. That's when I realized that I have no idea when I last had a tetanus shot?! I haven't stepped on a nail since I was a little kid. They asked if I had any major injuries. Sometimes they give tetanus shots when you get injured. Well, yeah. I've had lots of major injuries ..... but I don't remember what year they all were in or if I got a shot with any of them. So they told me to come in around 11 and they'd give me a shot just to be safe.
After I got there they had pulled my records and it turns out I had my last tetanus shot in 1998. 14 years ago. So I'm due. I asked the nurse if it says why I had a shot then? She looked a little bit and said .... um, it appears as though you had a pretty bad injury to your upper right arm from a horse bite? ...and they gave you a tetanus shot before your surgery.
Oh yeah! I forgot when that happened. 1998. We owned a stallion named, Beringer Bey. A nasty, NASTY boy he was. Downright dangerous. We stood him as a stallion for about 6 or 7 years out here. Took our life in our hands everytime we were around him. Luckily he didn't pass his attitude onto his babies. His babies were super sweet. It was just him that was hateful to humans. I can't believe
we kept him around as long as we did. ...but we were young .... and invincible. Nothing scared us. I remember one day Russ was working with a young colt of Beringer's in the bottom barn standing him up in the isle. He wanted me to come over and take a look at him so I was walking over to where he was. I passed by Beringer's stall ..... who at the time had double dutch doors and the top door was open. As I walked by he whirled in his stall and lunged out over the top door and grabbed my right upper arm in his mouth. He grabbed me with such force that he actually picked me up off the ground and pulled me toward him onto the closed bottom door. He was meaning to really hurt me. He was pissed that the colt was out in the isle so close to his stall. We should have had his top door closed but wasn't even thinking he would do something like that. The doctor later said if he had gotten a little less of my arm in his mouth he would have torn the entire upper arm off .... but he had too much to completely bite off. Instead he just tore it and ripped the muscle and severed a bunch of nerve endings. He did a lot of damage in those few seconds he had a hold of me. I remember winding my fist up and slamming him between the eyes as hard as I could and he dropped me. Blood everywhere. I ended up having to have surgery on it because he had damaged it so badly. I have a big scar on my arm to this day and tons of scar tissue leaving me with no feeling in that upper arm at all.So then the nurse told me ... ok, this shot might hurt a little bit and later you might experience swelling or numbness or maybe some slight pain in your arm. That's normal she said. She said I'm going to give this shot to you in your upper arm. Then she asked me which arm do I want it in. Well, since she had just reminded me that I have no feeling in my right upper arm -- what the heck .... let's choose the right upper arm! She gave me the shot and I didn't even know she had done it. Sitting here an hour later typing this ..... nope, still no feeling at all. It's like i never even got a shot. :o) So I guess one could look at this in a positive way .... had I not had that accident years ago, I would likely be in a lot more pain right now than I am. I actually don't feel a thing. I know .... that's a stretch. ...but I'm trying to see the good in everything instead of focusing on the bad.
So that's been my day so far. My arm doesn't hurt at all ..... my foot; however, hurts like billy hell. oh ... and again, it is my RIGHT foot. those that remember my other serious accident remember that my LEFT leg is totally messed up. I am still hurting a little bit after walking so much this weekend on Saturday and again on Sunday. ....been taking a lot of pain pills. after stepping on the nail, walking has been interesting to say the least.
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