All about Lou

This is the story of how I got my new Louie horse. 

Pancho has been the best partner I could ever ask for but he is 24 and is semi-retired so I decided to start looking for a young eventing prospect. Once I had reestablished myself in Idaho (after moving back from New York and buying Pancho back) I was finally stable enough to start seriously looking for a new partner. Jannae (my best friend) and I had looked and looked for months and we didn't find anything that I seriously considered bringing home. I was getting really discouraged and figured I'd have to wait until next year because I didn't want to drive anywhere in the winter.

One day I was at work and Jannae sent me a post to a mechanical horse in California that you can ride over Grand Prix courses and it helps you with your position (plus as a non-GP level rider you get to ride a GP course with a much lower chance of dying!) We were joking about how we needed to go down and spend some time on this mechanical horse to magically become incredible riders. Also maybe go to Disney Land... As we were playing around with this idea Jannae made a joke about how we should pick up an OTTB while were down there. Sounded like a pretty stellar idea to me. Next thing I know I've been sent an ad of this silly little horse from Canter. 

Pictures from his ad 

I immediately fell in love with his adorable face and those dapples!! 

He was advertised as Sharpton (AZ) a 16hh 4 year old. Raced 11 times in California (Golden Gate) only winning around $17,000 (Pancho only won $1,159 hahah!!). He was a little over my budget of $2,000 but he was the first horse I was actually interested in enough for me to look into him more. 

I ended up really liking his bloodlines (always drooled over Storm Cat babies) so that pushed my interest even higher. I finally decided I would go ahead and call his trainer and just talk with him and see what this horse is about. I called the number and his trainer Dan picked up. You could tell by the way he talked about this horse that he absolutely loved him. Dan has owned him since he was born so he knows everything about this horse. I explained to him that I'm an eventer and I planned on turning him into a sport horse and (a little to my surprise) Dan was thrilled!! He was so excited that Sharpton could possibly be going to a non-racing home where he could still be using his full potential. 

I had a few problems with this. He was in California. I didn't have a truck and trailer. He was over my budget. And I wouldn't be able to go get him for two weeks because of work (and a Wasatch show Pancho wouldn't let me miss!) Also to my surprise, Dan was happy to negotiate price and had no problem keeping him until  I could pick him up or have him shipped up to Idaho. Things were working out??? I honestly figured I would call him and he would tell me this horse only had 3 legs or something like that. 

Now was time to try to work out all the other details to possible make this happen. I'm blessed with a friend who has a truck and trailer and was more than willing to drive to California with me to pick him up. I couldn't believe that!! I had a few other t's to cross and i's to dot (like making sure to get money into correct accounts and get a cashiers check and budget for gas and find a place to stay and pick a rout to California) Magically everything worked out really well. I called Dan and was praying that no one had bought him out from under me but Dan had taken his ad down until I made a decision! I offered to transfer him a $500 security deposit to keep him for me for two weeks but Dan for some reason was very trusting in me and declined it. 

Jannae and I prepared for this trip for 2 weeks straight making sure we had every possible thing ready for him in the trailer and when we got him. We even had our friend Jen (who worked with polo horses in Flordia) drill us on the quality of our wrapping of shipping bandages so we could wrap them efficiently and correctly when we were ready to put him in the trailer. (I definitely needed a nice refresher course after being out of horses for 3 years!! So thanks Jen!)     

I think the only person more excited about this pony was my dad. My dad had already given him a barn name!! I was showing him pictures of Sharpton from his ad and my dad goes "look it's Lou Ferrigno!" then proceeded to show me these two photos side by side:

It was too true to deny, Sharpton was a beefy fella for sure. We ended up just referring to him as the Louie horse for the few weeks we were waiting to go get him. 

September 10th 2016 was the morning we left for California. 

We took two hour shifts driving and we had the Harry Potter movies playing in the background. Now, Jannae and I weren't all THAT close at this point in our relationship so I was low key (okay high key) worried that we would end up killing each other while attempting to drive 30 hours within a 48 hour period. Especially since 6 months earlier we hated each other with a firey passion because of miscommunication and rumors about Pancho while I was in New York which ended up all being false. The drive down was long but actually went quite smooth. We didn't have any problems worse than hitting the sleep strips a million times in Nevada (because they're not even wide enough for a horse trailer!!) #exaggeration. 

We made it to California and went straight to the race track that Louie was living at and we got to meet him! This barn was the worst thing that's ever happened to me because 100% of their horses were incredible! Jannae and I wanted to pack our trailer FULL of ottbs because of how gorgeous they all were. We're talking big and strong and elegant horses that somehow all had really nice confirmation. I have never wiped that much drool from my face before. Louie was all the way at the end of the barn. He was right next to a horse that looked just like him and at first I wasn't super sure which one was him. (Turns out that was his brother!!) Dan pulled Louie out of the stall and walked him around a little bit. I noticed a few things right off the bat. This horse was most definitely NOT 16hh. I wasn't sure how tall he was but I think the last time they sticked him was when he was 2! Second thing I noticed, this horse has sooo much energy. He pretty much burst out of the stall and had a nice few minutes of bucking and rearing and striking and just general rambunctious playing that was considerably more intimidating since he was way bigger than I expected him to be. 

In that moment I was like oh god, what have I just gotten myself into. But I've dealt with crazy boys before and I knew he would chill out with some time away from the track to just be a horse (okay I seriously hoped!! It's hard to be confident when you've taken a hiatus from horses for a several years to live in a massive city piled on an island and your first new horse back is a huge, crazy, and built like a tree trunk).

Dan kept telling me "oh he's a lover he just needs you to tell him to knock it off sometimes" (okay 100% true now that I know Louie!). I had a very nice mix of emotions including: terror, excitement and exhaustion. In reality I wasn't all that worried. Watching this goofy horse run around in a little circle and buck all I could see was so much potential. This horse really needs a job!! He's going crazy sitting in a stall and being hand walked. 

We parked the trailer and headed to our hotel. We left Idaho around 4AM and at this point it was around 7PM Idaho time. We had been on the road for so long and the only thing in the world we wanted was food and a bed. We get to the hotel and start to check in when the lady at the desk asks for our ID's. Okay, no problem! Just kidding it was a problem!!! Apparently someone under 21 couldn't stay in a hotel without an older member of their family. This was a problem because although I was safe because I was 21, Jannae on the other hand was only 18 therefore making us staying together in the hotel a HUGE problem. We tried everything! We explained why we were here and we told them they could talk to her parents and they weren't having any of it. 

We were so done. So over it. Please don't judge too harshly for our next actions as we just wanted to get a few hours of sleep before leaving at 3AM to wrap the new pony and get on the road. 

I had Jannae park around back of the last hotel we could possibly find and I ran around the front and asked for a hotel room for just myself. This plan worked pretty well except that I kept answering the questions with WE!! 

Desk lady: "You need to be out by 10AM" 

Me: "Oh yeah no problem. We'll be out way earlier than that. I mean me and the horse I'm picking up here... not another person... uh" 

She definitely looked at me pretty weird but just went with it. We quickly found out that this was possibly the sketchiest hotel in all of america. And by that I mean there were a whole lot of ladies being picked up off the corner and brought here right in front of us. We basically unpacked the entire truck to make sure it didn't get broken into. This included a huge Yeti cooler that weighed a million pounds. Unfortunately, our room was on the second floor so we struggled to get it up the slippery wet stairs. You know when you've just had the longest day of your life and you're so done that you start laughing hysterically because if you don't you'll probably cry or scream or punch someone in the face? That is exactly where Jannae and I were. 

We made it to the room and were way too tired to go get dinner (also didn't want to be murdered or something) so we had a wonderful dinner of Dr. Pepper and salt and vinegar Pringles. We also turned the tv on but the volume was broken?? It was so quiet (wasn't going to work with the nature of our neighbors... if you know what I mean...) and then all of a sudden it would be super loud! 

I was on the side of the bed closest to the door (which wasn't super sturdy tbh) and I remember clearly saying "Great, so when a murderer breaks in I get to die first!!". But we made it through the short night and were off to the races! (hehe get it. #sorrynotsorry). That's when the next few problems arose. We had to get all of the stuff back down to the truck which included the Yeti cooler that was a bagillion pounds. Also this cooler literally had the smallest handles in the world and the stairs were super slick. Jannae went first down the stairs with half of the cooler and I followed. I slipped and fell on my butt and accidentally dropped the cooler right on top of Jannae!! I was laughing SO hard (I don't think she was). Once we got to the truck we saw that the right mirror on the truck had been smashed. Someone clearly either took a baseball bat to it or side swiped it with their car because all the electrical equipment was torn out and laying on the ground. Super!!! First stop, Walmart for duct tape. 

We finally got it taped back on and got to the track. We got all the paperwork done and Louie was officially mine!!! We got him wrapped and put in the trailer with no problems and we were off! 

We had flexible plans including an extra day incase we needed to stop half way through to give everyone a rest but Louie wasn't about that. When we were driving he was spectacular! When we stopped all hell broke loose in the trailer and he kicked the absolute shit out of the walls. So we tried our best to take the shortest possible stops - only to use the bathroom and to offer him water and check on him and such. Jannae ended up driving for the first 6 hours straight because I didn't want to drive over Donner Pass ha! and I drove the last 8 or so until we got into Meridian. The drive went really well aside from having to unroll the window to push the duct tape back down onto the mirror!! 

We followed a truck and trailer all the way through Donner Pass. She clearly knew what she was doing and had driven this with a trailer many times because she knew it like the back of her hand. Every turn was perfectly planned out and every car she passed she knew exactly when to do it so she would go flying off a cliff. We decided to make her our buddy. We were so grateful that she got us through the mountain safely. Once we were in Nevada she pulled off and we waved and she waved back and it was a really nice moment where we all bonded I feel. 

A few hours later after we stopped for gas we're back on the road and we see a truck and trailer ahead of us. We were stuck in this middle ground where we didn't want to go 30 mph but we also didn't want to go 90 so it was hard to find a buddy. We figured we catch up to the rig and see if they qualified to be our buddy or not depending on how they were driving. It ended up being the same lady that took us all the way through Donner Pass!! She was the best. She had a really nice truck and trailer and had USEF stickers on her trailer and she had a cute dog. We debated just following her home and seeing if she would adopt us.

We did get to one point where the next city was really far away and the both of us were in the unfortunate position of 'about to wet your pants'. This is when we really became friends. This is how I knew I could trust Jannae when my accident happened not to laugh at me but to hold me hand and be with me through all the really embarrassing and painful things. We weren't going to make it, man. We ended up doing the campers squat pee in between the truck and the trailer under the gooseneck on the side of a highway. I still laugh out loud about doing that (don't act like you've never been there!!). 

Finally we made it home!! 

Not 16hh...

It was like 50° and this poor kid was freezing! 

That's how I got my Louie horse!! Stay tuned for the next chapter about when I got to the barn the next day and Louie couldn't walk and his legs were shaped like an elephants! 

2016 the best and worst year.

2016 has been a huge rollercoaster. So many things happened that I didn't expect. I started the year working in New York and trying to finish my degree; certain that New York was where I was supposed to be. I'm ending 2016 in Idaho with two horses and a whole lot of metal in my leg. 

I thought I had it all in New York. I lived in a wonderful apartment with my best friend in the whole world with my two other best friends living right down stairs. The music in New York is incredible and I got to see some of my idols (Mccoy Tyner!!) and the way some of that music made me feel is irreplaceable. I have so much love for jazz. 

I also picked up so pretty nasty habits like treating my body like garbage and smoking! (Actually started smoking in like 2013 but I finally quit in 2016!) 

I started seeing how unhappy I was with school and how it made me hate jazz. I hated playing music and I hated going to school and I realized the only reason I was in New York was because of friends. My anxiety got so out of control that I couldn't leave my house, I was in danger of causing really serious problems with my heart, and I genuinely didn't want to live anymore. That's when I knew I needed a change. I flew back to Idaho within the week to spend some time fishing and in the mountains. I needed some time to clear my head and get some medical help. 

Originally I had planned for this trip to be a week. Every time I had a flight to go back home to New York I would get to the airport and check in and go through security and get to my gate and then turn around and walk out of the airport. I don't know why but I just couldn't go back to New York. I couldn't force myself to. 

That's when Pancho came back into my life. I had sold him when I was in college and I frankly never thought I would see him again. That's when I found out that Jannae had Pancho. Jannae and I didn't get along. At all. Not one little bit. We hated each other. As soon as I found out she had him back I was like "oh hayyyy Jannae". No really, I messaged her immediately asking to buy him back. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to do with him yet so she didn't give me an answer but she let me come see him often (and we ended up becoming best friends somewhere in here too). Finally she offered him back to me and my decision was made about where my life was headed. I needed Pancho back in my life. 

I felt a huge sense of relief because so many prayers I had were answered in that moment. I knew what I was going to do. I needed to go back to New York, pack my stuff, and move back to Idaho. And that's what I did. 

My sister, Kate, and I spend 3 days straight in a fully packed car driving from Manhattan to Boise, Idaho. It was a really long 3 days but I look back on it now and I had a really good time with my sister. We laughed, we cried, we sang, we danced, and we ate all the food.

Once in Idaho I settled into my new normal. I quit smoking, I started training for a half marathon (that was supposed to be the beginning of October but I broke my leg instead lol) I rode 3 or 4 horses a day, I got a job. Everything was going really well and I was finally happy and healthy. 

I was finally stable enough in my life (financially and health wise) that I was ready to start looking for a new horse. This was a big deal because this meant I was committing to a baby horse potentially for the rest of his life. I was so excited to be solid in that decision. I realized just how much I needed horses and eventing in my life. I don't know how I went 4 years without. I looked for months to find a new horse and I just couldn't find anything I was in love with. Then Jannae sent me an ad to this  retiring racehorse in California as a joke. A JOKE. But... I fell in love with him and he ended up being exactly what I was looking for so next thing I knew we were in a packed truck and trailer going to pick him up! (Already started working on the blog post about how I got him in detail because it's pretty funny and awesome). So September 11th I brought my baby home! 

Unfortunately, the second day he was home Louie was magically SUPER broken. We're talking can't walk even a step. Initial diagnosis was some sort of SI injury. We did acupuncture and electric stimulation and chiropractic work every 3 days. He would get better and then worse, consistently. He was on stall rest and being hand walked twice a day. This all made for a very very unhappy racehorse. Since he had last raced only a couple weeks before I picked him up he was definitely still in racehorse mode. We did everything we possibly could for him. We even ended up x-raying his legs, which were clean. Then we saw a massive abscess forming in his foot. Took care of that appropriately and it blew out both the front of his hoof and through his heel so that thing was huge. Ever since then he's been completely sound. Ended up he probably had some nasty bone bruising which caused him to compensate with his back causing the pain in his back and it all kind of concluded with a nasty abscess. 

This horse went from being my prelim prospect to being called kibble (so annoying) and then back to being a serious prospect again. It was definitely a rollercoaster with him and I cried a lot about it and I prayed every single day that he would heal. Thank God for prayers answered. 

In the middle of dealing with Louie being broken I went out and shattered my femur, which we all know about (and if you don't go read my first blog post). 

I lost everything. 

I was working 3 jobs to afford all of Louies vet expenses. I had plans. I bought a car and I was on my way to buying a new $3,000 saddle and poof. All of it was gone just like that. I lost two of my jobs for good and my stable everyday job involved standing for 6 hours at a time so there was no way I could do that job either. I was sitting in a hospital bed and I didn't know how I was going to pay for board or food or vet care or farrier care for either of my horses plus a car payment and student loan payments. I felt like the biggest failure. I felt like I was the worst person in the world because I've always been an advocate for if you can't take care of your horses the way they should be you shouldn't have horses. Thankfully family and friends have been helping me immensely and both of my boys have been taken care of impeccably. I'm still not working but I think I will get the okay to soon and I'll be back on my way to being independent which will be soooo nice. I've never liked asking for help and to need the amount of help that I did (and still do!) was devastating to me.   

It's now been 13 weeks since my accident and I am walking without a walker or crutches and have ridden both of my boys twice! I'm doing extensive physical therapy (including once a week with an amazing rider who is helping me on the riding side of recovery!! Which I am so grateful for) and I am way further along in the recovery process than anyone expected. 

Ultimately I can't help but be so thankful for everything that has happened. The injury I sustained is the worst that has ever happened to me and probably one of the worst things that has ever happened to me in my life but I am even grateful for that in so many ways. I have gained incredible people and friends and I've experienced so many different things and I've made major life decisions and I wouldn't change any of it.

2016 was the greatest worst year of my life.  

The Wreck

So here it is. Here is the story of how I shattered my femur into a million little pieces (actually like 5 pieces). The story you've all been waiting for!!

It all started with a simple trail ride in the Eagle foothills. A well known trail that's ridden often. I was with my barn owner, a friend of the barn, and my best friend, Jannae. I was riding the Pancho (who was throughly confused why there were no cross-country jumps in sight) and everything was going great and we were all having an absolute blast together.

Right after this super fun gallop session we all had we came to this nice clearing with a bunch of tires lined up (finally x-country looking things!). Of course, being an eventer and being with my superstar eventing horse I had to jump the tires. It was great, my pony rocks and we had a ton of fun playing around. I'm walking around these cement blocks to go jump them again when I paused momentarily to tell Jannae something. I have no idea what it was now but that slight pause I did was a horrible mistake. Jannae was borrowing a friends horse who ended up being a friesian stallion. None of us are idiots so we were all keeping our distance. I was probably 20 feet from the stallion when I stopped and next thing I know this stallion is right next to me trying to establish dominance on my gelding. I still can't figure out how this stallion covered that ground so fast. My trusty steed Pancho saw this coming and was like "oh hell no, we're getting outta here!". This would have all been fine considering Pancho is an ex-racehorse and is pretty dang fast and I trust him with my life but unfortunately, we were trapped between a stallions front feet coming at us from above and a snow barrier that looked like this one.

Snow Barrier

This was the point where I knew we were in serious trouble. The next part is kinda a blur for me, I think my brain shut it out of my memory so I don't have to relive the moment over and over like I do with the rest of this accident. I'm not sure if the stallion knocked me off and then pinned my leg on the cement or if both horses came down on me but all I know is I landed on the cement snow barrier and slid down into the space between it and another barrier with my right leg twisted severely to the left. To be honest, as I was hitting the cement time slowed down for me and all I could think was "I just broke my neck".

When I finally realized what had happened I had to find Pancho. I had to know if he was okay. I had no idea what kind of impact he had taken in the fall. I thought for sure he had broken his leg on the cement block but when I looked up he was galloping away into the hills with my barn owner chasing after him!!

Barn owner Steve always there to help.

At that point I tried to get up to go get my horse and I couldn't move my legs. I put my head back down on the dirt and I prayed. I have never felt God more present in my life than in the moment after my prayers when the rush of excruciating pain hit my leg. As much as it hurt I was so thankful that I could feel my legs because that meant that I wasn't paralyzed. In that moment I didn't care what was wrong with me, I knew I would make it through and I knew I would ride again.

This is when the shock sank in!! How fun! My thigh was about twice the size as normal and I felt the most pain just below my hip so in my mind I fully convinced myself that I had just dislocated my hip and I just needed someone to pop it back in and I would be good to go! That was the only was I was able to slightly hold it together and not pass out. We were about 30 minutes into our ride when the accident happened so barn owner Steve grabbed Pancho and took off for help. With no reception he had to take his horse and Pancho back to the trailers before he could call for an ambulance. So I was left with Jannae, an 18 year old kid to look over me.

I took one look at her face and thought for sure she was going to pass out or cry or something but she pulled it together and started asking me questions to check for a head injury while holding my hand and putting a slight amount of pressure on my leg to help ease the muscle spasms. It ended up being (I think) around 40 minutes before the ambulance found me which doesn't sound that long but let me tell you, each and every minute of that felt like hours to me. I'm pretty sure I asked Jannae every 30 seconds if she could see them yet. The pain I felt was blinding. It was so intense that it's incredible that I didn't pass out. My whole body was shaking violently but every few minutes everything would relax - no shaking, no muscle spasms - and I would close my eyes and weigh the pros and cons of just giving in and falling out of consciousness. I'm pretty sure every time my body went limp like this Jannae thought I was dying because she kept making me open my eyes.

This was the first time in my life that I genuinely thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to lay in the foothills and die. As the time passed and still no ambulance had arrived I started to lose it. The rush of adrenaline and shock was wearing off and I was in so much pain. I was trying not to scream so we decided to listen to disney music? Not sure how that was thought of but it helped and I sang along to disney music (or screamed in tune, not sure) until the ambulance arrived. I remember being told they could see the ambulance and every ounce of strength in me washed away. I remember crying, screaming and laughing all at the same time because I was so happy that help had arrived. Little did I know that was just the beginning of what was to come.

I'm not really sure how many people were there but there were a ton of them. First an atv showed up and they began to asses the situation. Then several fire trucks, a few emergency vehicles, and an ambulance. They were all talking at the same time and asking me questions and poking me with needles and all I cared about was how Pancho was going to get home. I had bought a pair of brand spankin new Piper breeches and this trail ride was the very first time I had ridden in them so of course they had to cut a huge hole in them where my hip was (even after yelling about them and forcing Jannae to promise me she wouldn't let them cut them)(but I have a mom who is great with a sewing machine so I thought it would be okay).

 Once I was stabilized and had some pain meds pumped into me it was time to get me into the ambulance. The big problem here was that I was folded like a pretzel in a foot of space in between two cement barriers. They tried to unfold my leg but that wasn't really an option so they had to drag me out. I couldn't figure out why they couldn't just pop my hip back into the socket already!! I clamped my teeth down and they pulled me out and scooped me up in a scoop stretcher - dirt and sticks and rocks along with me. Then we drove about 5 miles an hour on the super bumpy dirt road because the bumping of my leg was too painful to go any faster, even with the max amount of pain meds (sorry ambulance driver that I was screaming). Jannae rode with me in the ambulance but wasn't allowed in the back with me so I kept yelling to make sure she was still there. The paramedic taking care of me was super nice, I think he had two kids or something I don't know - can't really remember.

The paramedics asked me what hospital I wanted to go to which I thought was super dumb because I thought the answer was clear, the closest one!! (That ended up not being the best choice because the hospital I was taken to wasn't equipped for an orthopedic surgery as extensive as mine and I had to be transferred). I was moved from stretcher to bed to CT-Scan table back to bed to an X-Ray table back to bed. Each time I was moved I couldn't contain the scream that came from my mouth even though I tried. I really didn't want to be that person in the hospital screaming but I honestly couldn't stand the pain. Also this was when they finally cut my new piper breeches all the way off and I was so upset I cried harder over that than anything else so far. (Jannae bought me a new pair though so she's awesome)

I still just assumed my hip was dislocated and thought I would be walking out fine once they popped it back in so I didn't want to call my family. The CT-Scan came back and the doctor came in the room just apologizing and shaking his head and telling me we needed to do X-Rays so I finally called my mom. Take note that my mom was in Colorado taking care of business there and my dad was here in Idaho. I just called her to ask if I should tell my dad lol! My poor dad doesn't do well when his kids are in pain so I didn't want to put him through having to watch them pop it back in. I finally called my dad and he rushed to the hospital to be by my side just in time for the doctor to bring me my X-Rays. That's when the doctor said it was very sever Subtrochanteric? fracture with 5 fractures of my femur bone including one that split the bone half way down my leg and I needed to be transferred to an orthopedic surgeon right away.

So into another ambulance we went! (Jannae got to ride with me in the back this time and I was so drugged that I pretty much just gave this poor 20 year old kid who was my paramedic a bunch of crap the whole time). We arrived at another hospital and had some more fun! First order of business, peeing. Yeah, I know gross. They wanted to put a catheter in and I was definitely NOT about that. I decided to pee in a bedpan instead. Let me tell you, that was a horrible decision because it was extremely painful to have my lower body lifted up and then I had to try and pee (ever tried peeing laying down while in immense amounts of pain because it's not easy) (I kept thinking waterfalls and rivers and streams and oceans!!). And then on top of that they put a catheter in anyways so... just go with the catheter people, trust me. 

I was scheduled for surgery in a few hours so they had to set my leg and put it in traction for the night. The doctors asked my dad to step outside (not of the room, of the ambulance bay - outside) so he couldn't hear me because they knew it would be really bad. They set my leg and it's just like how it is in the movies. I never thought a noise like that could come from me. Apparently even my poor dad heard it outside and it traumatized him too! Then they put me in traction. They basically strapped a weight to my lower leg and hung it off the end of the bed so my leg was forced down straight instead of being folded up on the left side like it had been for the last several hours. Then I went to surgery! My dad was as solid as a rock, it was amazing! I can't imagine how hard that must have been for him. Doctors prepped me and I had about a million people come talk to me about what was happening and all I care about was that I had a cone head and then I was out like a light. 

When I woke up I found out that my mom and my sister had packed up and drove all the way from Colorado straight to my hospital room over night and while I was in surgery. My whole family was there when I woke up, I was so happy to see them all, especially since 12 hours earlier I thought I'd never see them again. 

They originally told me it was either going to be a plate and screws or a titanium rod pounded into my femur bone and they ended up having to do both. 

I don't remember much about the week I spend in the hospital aside from a few key things. 

First - Kate and Jannae took turns sleeping in my hospital bed with me because I didn't want to be alone. And when my leg hurt too bad for them to be with me in bed they pulled up this super uncomfortable chair thing next to my bed so I could still hold onto them if I needed. They both also helped me wash my face and brush my teeth and such. They were the real MVPs for taking care of me along with my mommy who was there the whole time as well. 

Second - Learning to walk with a walker was a bitch! (excuse my french). Also learning how to use the bathroom was horrible. I used this little portable potty for the first few days and had to have a whole lot of help from nurses so basically I now hove a whole ton of respect for anyone in the health care field. It takes a certain type of person to wipe another persons butt... just saying. So thank you to every nurse out there! 

Third - bandage changes as about as much fun as you'd think they are. 

I had 55 staples yay!... Then 6 days after surgery, I got to go home. These are a couple pictures of my leg over the next two weeks until I got my staples out. 

And then I finally got my staples out!! Graduated to butterfly stitches. 

Here is what my incisions and X-Rays currently look like 

So there it is. That's how I shattered my femur. 0 out of 10 I DO NOT RECOMMEND. Would not date. Abort mission. Turn back now! I will add blog posts as I make progress of my rode to recovery.