Surgery and afterward...

During the brief show season that I enjoyed this year, most of my injuries from the horrible accident last February were healed.  However,  it became evident that the fractured clavical bone was not going to heal properly and solidify.  Too much scar tissue had developed for the cells to build solid bone in the area.  Initally we had thought that I could wait till winter to do the clavical pinning surgery and re-do the effort to heal.  But with just a couple shows and clinics the pain had become debilitating.  I can "work through" pain as needed to strengthen and heal, but once the doc declared "non-union" I realized that the enduring pain was not something I was ever going to work through.  A date for surgery become open for the surgeon on July 8.  I agreed to fill it.  It was no longer a tough decision.  The surgery went smoothly.  I have a four inch steel screw inside the collar bone to make it rigid and secure. And I am once again banned from the saddle and ordered to "be still" like I have a plague on my right arm so the fracture area re-grows healthy bone.  Thank you all for you well-wishes.  It is likely that it will be October before I can resume riding... hopefully.  The horses are getting fat and lazy already.  The hot summer temps do not inspire them to move much on their own.  My son, Aaron, has been given the biggest load of duties to take care of them.  There really isn't much to do, or much going on here for now.  My students are enjoying some clinics and shows... and doing super well without me!  Susan just won a couple 2nd-level classes and the dover medal at Raleigh on Paxton last weekend.  Sanibelle has been very good and Bailey Cook has stepped in to give a few clinics to my crew during my layup and I hear about great results.  Dana just got back from vacation... Ines is in Germany watching the World Breeding Championships (The competition that we were hoping to qualify Sanibelle, pre-accident plans)... Mostly, they are hiding from the heat and looking forward to better weather soon.  Tonight, I am meeting some of them for a dinner at Asahi in Greensboro.   Linda is to try sushi for the first time.  I am no expert, but somehow I got chosen to be her guide into the world of sushi cuisine...  Hope she survives.  Anyway, it will be fun to chat and feel, briefly, what its like to still be busy in the game of life.  I will be sporting the fashionable arm sling for a couple more months.
I plan to resume this blog when things pick up around here... Maybe October?  Thanks for waiting.  Lookin' forward to it.  If you have any stories or events going on in your neck of the woods, please hit the comment button at the top right corner and share!  Below, there is a small photo gallery  from Welle's Intermediare debut at Raleigh CDC in June 2011.  She won the class on Sunday.