I have a friend that is a local barrel racer. Over the
years she has taken some bumps to the head (like most of us). But this
spring while she was sitting on her horse outside of the gate at a show, a rider
and horse ran into her, knocking her and her horse over. A month or
so later she started suffering from severe headaches. They became worse
and worse, and she made a few trips to the ER, just to be sent back home with
some meds. She went to the University of Tennessee hospital and
after some tests they discovered she has a blood mass in her head. It is a
large mass running from the forehead to the base of the skull (like a
mohawk). They found this the first few days of July and she spent
all of July in the hospital, trying to reduce the swelling. They ended up
putting a tub in from the base of the skull, down the spine, and through to the
stomach area to drain. There has been very little reduction in the
swelling and they say it may take up to a year for all swelling to go
down. Although she is home she suffers from severe headaches many days and
is nauseous a lot of the time. They check quite often for permanent damage
done to her vision from the pressure and she is now suffering from
seizures. She has lost a lot of weight and her muscles are
atrophying. She has given up hope of ever riding again because she
is told that another bump to the head would probably cause her to have a
stroke. But right now would be very happy to just have her "old
life" back again. The doctors say that this could be from one
incident or cumulative. So, even if we "think" we didn't get
hurt, did we? Anyway.. it doesn't even have to be your horse
that causes the accident, it could be someone elses.
