Guten Tag

Last night, Mona from Freienhagen, Germany, called. She mentioned that my blogging has been laking of late. So, Mona, Guten Tag. Wie gehts?

Today is the last day of regular classes. I have two lectures today: Physiology (human reproduction) and Microbiology (continuing immunology). My Anatomy class, which normally follows Microbiology, is an optional lab. As the weather outside is frightful and at my house, the fire is so delightful, I must go, I must go, I must go. Actually, the weather guy said that after 3 pm today, we are expecting crazy snow. Okay, he didn't actually say "Crazy Snow." I don't believe "Crazy Snow" is a proper meterological term, so I am paraphrasing here.

This coming Wednesday, day after tomorrow, is my final exam day for Microbiology and Anatomy. Friday will be the day for Physiology. I'm confident that I will do well in all of my classes. I currently have an A in each class and expect to maintain my grade. I still have a bit more studying to do on HIV and the endocrine system. Other than that, I'm not too stressed.

I still have chapters to write for my novel. I requested an extension to the end of December and they graciously agreed. Once exams are finished, I have to focus on my fictional world.

Still to come is my knee surgery. That's on the 27th of this month. So, techincally, I don't have to the end of the month to finish my chapters. I really only have until Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I informed my husband that I am ignoring holiday decorations this year. As I am the one who decorates and put everything away once the holiday has been celebrated, I decided that after surgery I will not be too interested in wrestling decorations in a full leg brace and medicated. I think he was a bit disappointed, but he didn't protest to much. I'm thinking that I'll get a live poinsettia and it will be our tree. That way clean up will consist of tossing a dead plant. It's festive and easy clean up. Ho, ho, ho, in the trash it will go. Although, I DID get out my fabulous Christmas bear last night. The cats are fascinated by it.

This morning, I am meeting my girlfriends for an All You Can Eat pancake breakfast. The price is right....$2.00. YeeeeHaw!

Tschuss.

Turns out, Nacy's Grade Was Better

After continued inquiries into the scores of the tossed exam, I discovered that Nancy had done better than I. She earned herself a 72%.

The next exam on the heart was much better. I earned myself a 98%. Much more appropriate and reflective of my awesome study skills. It's true, I am a super study nerd.

The results of the micro test weren't as good as I had thought. I thought I had done better than a 92%, but I'll take the A, no matter.

Today is my anatomy exam on circulatory, lymph and respiration systems. I'm feeling confident about the material. Hopefully, he doesn't bring in some question from way out in left field.

There isn't much time left in the semester. Frankly, the only class that I'm ready to be finished with it physiology. I could study anatomy every day. I like it. Micro just grosses me out. I've learned too much about nasty communicable diseases. Thank God I have a functional immune system. Even then, there are some virulent creepy crawlies out there that can still do some major damage even with a high speed immune system. And to think.....people continue to practice poor hygiene. Yikes.

The Tossed Exam

Last Friday, I took a physiology exam that covered muscles.

When I walked into the classroom, I was extremely confident that I knew the material. Unfortunately, as I read the questions, I began to wonder if I had studied the correct chapters. Shoot, the correct text book, for that matter.

Let's just say the test was...in a word...RUDE.

Other students were just as numb as I was. One student actually approached the instructor and advised, "You didn't teach us any of this stuff."

To which the instructor replied, "I hope you were able to reason it out well."

I was sick to my stomach with anxiety. Come Monday morning, I didn't even want to know my score.

The instructor walked into the room and announced that the exam would be thrown out for everyone. Apparently, the scores were horrific.

Curious, I inquired into my score. It was brutal......68%

Of my peers, it was the high score.

There were lots of 50-somethings. One girl earned herself a 22%.

A 22%! There is no coming back from that. She said she should be embarassed, but it was just too ridiculous to be anything but funny.

With the test scores tossed, my grade still stands very comfortably at an A.

Official Results Are In

The Radiologist Report is clear. My knee is completely DORKED!

My tibia does have a fracture right near the epicondyle. Both my femur and my tibia have contusions which are significant enough to warrant a delay in the reconstructive surgery for my ACL, which apparently has completely disappeared. Although it would be possible to comfortably live without an ACL, provided that I did not need to move side to side or pivot, I have to have my replaced. Normally, the meniscus would be able to compensate for the lack of the ACL, however, my meniscus suffered damage and would deteriorate rapidly causing me to have that surgically repaired in the not so distant future. So, the surgeon will harvest a tendon from my gracilis muscle to reconstruct my ACL.

In the meantime, I must do physical therapy to prepare for the surgery. Additionally, physical therapy must be conducted postop in order to get my leg and knee functioning again. Surgery is scheduled for December 27th.

The biggest bummer about the whole situation is that I cannot ride my horse. CRAP!

Non-Rider at the Trail Ride

Last Saturday, Oakmont Farm hosted a group trail ride for the boarders. As I have this crappy knee situation, I couldn't ride, but that didn't stop me from visiting with my girl, Kadance. I even talked my extremely patient husband into coming and taking some pictures.


Kadance is a very loving horse. She seeks out attention and loves to be rubbed on her throat. There is a particular spot on her throat that she loves more than any other. You can obviously tell by her expression when I rubbed it. If a horse could get its back leg going like a dog does when the sweet spot was scratched, she would have been kicking like crazy.

Physiology Grades Are Back on Track

The exam on nerve cell conduction....96%. Sweet!

So, How Bad Is It?

Today was the follow up appointment for my knee. Unfortunately, I have hurt myself more than I had suspected. During the past week, my knee has gotten to feel much better. Every now and then, I move it in a particular way that reminds me that I hurt myself. The message is loud and clear.

Stairs are not my friend and my knee does get tired quickly.

It's no wonder. The Doctor said I have done some damage to my MCL. Actually, he said I have torn my MCL, probably have done damage to my meniscus and probably have injured my ACL as well. Isn't that just nice.

Now, all I have to do is wait for an MRI for clarification of damage. How about this? If I have torn my MCL, meniscus and ACL , then I'll be having surgery. If I have torn my MCL and injured my meniscus, then maybe surgery, depending on the amount of damage. If I have only torn my MCL, then I'll be in the bionic brace for up to 6 months.

CRAP!

I really don't think I have done worrisome damage to my ACL. There is probably some damage to my meniscus, but I'm hoping there isn't. I have resigned myself to accepting that I have injured my MCL.

I know this because, there was a chart on the wall in the doctor's office that illustrated knee injury with a fellow swimming using the frog kick. So, I tried it. YIKES! It really hurt. No knee rotation for me.

The worst and most sad news about the whole situation is that I can't ride horses for a while. BooHoohoooo.

Eeewww, Crappy Score.

Well, I got back my physiology exam, which covered the cell membrane.

When I turned it in, I told the instructor that I had either done well or really bad. I hoped that I would at least come away with a B.

I did. I got an 88%. My overall grade is still an A.

The test today covered nerves. Hmmm. I'll be pleased with a B on that one.

Next week, muscles. Hopefully, I'll get back on the A-train with that one.

What Happened to Kelly?

When I visited my sister for the Daniel Stewart clinic, a conversation about the trials and tribulations of me came up. My sister suggested that I have a column on the Oakmont Farm website entitled "What Happened to Kelly?" Well, pooh, I thought. Yes, exciting things do happen to me and yes, they usually involve some sort of animal, but I don't think I need to have a column focusing my adventures.

I have my own personal blog.

So, this is what happened earlier this week.

I was at Oakmont practicing with Blue for the filming of the second portion of my Parelli Level 1 test. I decided to work on mounting while Blue stood still. I had done the saddling portion and began working on bareback mounting.

Okay, so there I was...one foot on the mounting block and the other foot on Blue's back. Things were okay for a few seconds, then she decided she would play "hide your heiny." Basically, she began to scoot her behind around and away from me. In my precarious position, I was slowly being "wishboned." Had she stopped after two or three steps, I would have been fine, but no. She took several steps and eventually, I fell.

As I was falling, I thought to myself, "I really don't want to land on the mounting block. That would really be a bad thing." I leaned away from the mounting block and ended up hitting the arena floor. My right knee connected with the ground and I heard a distinct crunching sound.

Let me say this...It really hurt. To add insult to my situation, Vanessa had just dumped a big bucket of water in the arena and naturally, I landed in the wet spot. So, there I am rolling around in wet arena dirt holding my knee and trying not to vomit. I didn't even care that I was getting really dirty, that's how bad it hurt.

Eventually, the nausea subsided and the pain calmed down. Blue just stood there looking at me with her head down. Clearly, she was asking me, "What are you doing down there?"

"Thanks alot, Blue," I said to her and made my first attempt to stand.

Yikes! It hurt, but I was able to stand and sort of walk, okay, hobble. I knew I had hurt myself and there would be no way I would be able to teach the two horseback riding lessons I had scheduled for later that afternoon.

With lessons cancelled, I drove home. Good thing I was driving the truck. It's an automatic.

At home, the pain just got worse.

During the night, I had to get up to pee. The pain was very intense and I was seriously struggling to walk. My nonsympathetic husband suggested that I crawl.

By 2:00 am, I knew I would not be attending school Wednesday morning. That really chaps my behind. But, there was no way around it. Off to the clinic.

At the clinic, my first examination yielded a trip to orthopedics. Orthopedics ordered an X-ray. X-rays revealed no broken bones, possible bruising. Further manipulation of the knee resulted in lots and lots of hurting. The initial diagnosis was a possible tear to the MCL, grade 2. Treatment options would consist of a hinged brace and crutches. Medications: Tylenol 3 and Ibuprofen. Follow up in a week to determine possible injury to the ACL.

Meanwhile, I have to keep my knee elevated and I can't ride Blue. No horseback riding. That means filming is out for the weekend. CRAP. I guess it's a good thing this test isn't on a deadline.

Today is Friday. My knee is much better and I really don't think surgery will be warranted. The brace is extremely helpful and the crutches are bothersome.

My husband, well, he keeps saying that he won't take care of me if I "Christopher Reeve" myself on this horse. He pointed out that my mother's condo is not wheelchair friendly.

Baby Steps

Yesterday was an AMAZING day. Not only did I get to give tours at Red Barn Farm, but I also went out to Oakmont. That's a great thing, but the most AMAZING thing happened while I was out at Oakmont.

I had intended to ride Blue, but she was to have a lesson later, so I was told to ride Flame. Well, on my way to get Flame, I changed my mind and decided to play with Kadance. I brought her into the arena and made a big decision.

I went way out on a limb and decided that I was going to ride her.

And...I did!

She was very calm about the whole experience. It was really no big deal to her at all. I was far more nervous and excited than she was. All she wanted to do was explore the new items in the arena.

I am thrilled! I rode my girl for the VERY FIRST TIME!!

Assorted Clinic Pictures

Here is Audrey and Red rocking around the jump course.

This is me riding around. At this moment, I am concentrating so hard. Stryder is simply doing his thing.

More riding.

Here I am about to do something that I have only done once before and that was about 2 minutes before this attempt. Luckily, I didn't fall off.

After all was said and done, there was time for relaxing. From left to right: me, Daniel Stewart, and Donna. If you look closely, you'll see an outline of a saddlebred on her shirt.

Audrey and Daniel Stewart. Notice he is signing her book for the third time. Pretty soon, she'll have to insert more pages. I wish she would just go train with him.

Audrey and Red Jumping

Audrey and Red Making a Sharp Turn

Riding Right in Oklahoma

This past weekend, I went to Oklahoma to visit my family and to participate in my second riding clinic with Daniel Stewart.

The clinic was great and Daniel Stewart is such a nice man. He always has encouraging things to say. This best part is that I know I am a very basic beginner and even though he is a coach for the Olympic Team, he still provided individual attention to me. No matter how poorly or how well a rider rides, he always points out a positive. In my case, he complemented my positive attitude. That's me -- Have a coke and a smile!

Anyway, I did learn bunches as did my friend, Donna. She boards and rides at Oakmont with me. She loves saddlebreds. I give her a hard time about those giraffe horses and she accepts that I like big butts. My girl's butt is significantly bigger that her horse's. Anyway....back to the topic.

So, there I was...way, way outside my comfort zone attempting to canter. I've only purposefully asked for a canter maybe three times. And that was about a week ago. So, Daniel Stewart told me to ask for a canter and I did. My sister's horse, Stryder, complied and we were off to the races, so to speak, right directly into the wall. Yikes. I bailed. Ka-Blam!

Dang it. I had really hoped NOT to fall off this time. Every time I have ridden Stryder, I have ended up in the dirt. Luckily, this time was less sever that the previous times. No major bruising and no concussion. Only a wrenched finger and a big time head ache.

All in all, I am tickled to have attended the clinic. It is such a privilege to get to work with a big time horse person. He'll be back in July "08. Even though we will be moving to Missouri around the exact same time, I am going to do my best to move mountains to be able to attend.

My niece, Audrey, did extremely well. That young lady has such a great relationship with her horse. She looked amazing. I asked her when she might be moving to Spain to train with Daniel Stewart full-time. She said she has no desire to do that. All she wants to do is ride and train. Keep it simple and love what your doing.

I can definitely understand that. Right now, my ultimate long term goal is to do a flying lead change. Short term, I just want to saddle my horse and ride her without an issue. She's been doing so well. Vanessa, her trainer, has made major improvements with Kadance. I have progressed from simply wanting to pick up her feet to completing basic ground games without a temper tantrum. By spring, I hope to be doing light saddle work.

On another note...this morning I woke up being able to correctly identify the precise location of all those muscles in my own body that I had to identify on the anatomy learning models for my exam last Friday. I know this based on how sore they are. Trust me when I say the sternocleidomastoid muscle gets a work out when you slam the back of your head to the ground when falling from a horse.

More Points for Me

This past Friday, I took two exams. The first one was in my Physiology class and covered metabolism. I thought I did pretty well. There was only one area where I was concerned. When I read the question, I actually said out loud, "What?" I wondered to myself where that question had come from because it certainly was not in my notes.

The second exam was in Anatomy and covered muscle systems; the function, structure and names of the muscles of the body. There were a couple of questions on the written portion that caused me to stop and think. The practical portion was cake and pie (piece of cake and easy as pie).

So, today scores came back. Physiology...95%. Anatomy...102%. Right now, I'm working on straight A's. Frankly, I rock!

Big Bull

Next to Oakmont farm, there is a pasture that is home to several bulls. The hang out doing nothing but eating, sleeping, pooping and peeing. No big deal, right? Well, I find them to be intimidating and I won't even approach the fence. These pictures are taken from the safety of my truck. I'm just too frightened to find out how they would react if I were to approach the fence.

Life Lessons

I got this as an email several days ago. I thought it was pretty dang accurate.

You have to click on it for a larger image.

Test Results

The test scores on the Physiology test covering homeostasis and biofeedback loops were revealed. I did well. Not as well as I would have liked, but a 94% is nothing to sneeze at.

Last Friday, we had a test covering DNA and RNA and the central dogma of biology. I can honestly say that I owe my score completely to my Microbiology instructor. I earned myself a BIG, FAT 100 PERCENT!
Yeah, that's right.

I am an overachieving study nerd...and PROUD of it!

Play Time With Kadance

At the barn where I keep my girl, Kadance, a Parelli instructor, Jenny Vaught, came to teach a 3-hour clinic.

She demonstrated that by holding your horse's tongue, it is possible to forgo using a twitch. Being able to reach inside my horse's mouth and grab her tongue with confidence was worth the price of admission.

We played the 7 games with our horses and learned a few new ones. As Kadance isn't ready to be ridden (she's too young), I opted to switch horses for the riding portion of the clinic. I rode Blue.

Blue is a competitive horse. When it came time for cantering, Blue was going to canter whether I wanted her to or not. As I am not ready for cantering yet, I practiced my Pushing Passenger when she "raced" the other horses in the cloverleaf.

When I found out that Jenny lives in Springfield, Missouri, I was delighted. I came home that evening and told my husband that I really wanted Springfield to be put at the top of our preference list for our next job assignment. He was willing, but protested, saying that he has never made a career choice based upon an animal, much less a horse. My husband is a patient man. I remind him every day that he loves me.

Initial results are in

As you know, I'm back in school. I've decided to apply to the nursing program at Kansas City Community College. To prepare for the actual application to the program, I have to complete a few courses that I didn't have with my bachelor degree. Even though I do have more science courses that a typical sociology degree seeker, I didn't have enough. So, I am currently taking Human Anatomy and Lab, Human Physiology and Microbiology.

The first exam in Physiology covered basic Chemistry principles; electrons, valence shells and types of bonding. I did well. I got a 95%. The second test was this past Friday. I think I did well. I'll put it like this, either I did very well or did extremely poorly. I'll find out tomorrow.

My first Anatomy exam was not as difficult as it could have been, but it still was challenging. I barely squeaked an A. I got a 90%. That combined with all of the pop quiz scores has brought my overall grad down to an 89%. Crap. Hopefully, with the coming exams, I can raise my average.
We did have an exam this past Friday. It was both written and hands-on. I think I did well. At least I know I did well on the practical part. The multiple choice part, well, I know I missed at least 2, more than likely, I missed more than that. I'll find out tomorrow.

My first Microbiology test was this past Wednesday. I did well. When I left the class, I knew I had missed two. It was confirmed on Friday. I only missed those two. I got a perfect 50 of 50 on the essay, short answer portion. YAY! I am very pleased with my 96%.

I'll have to transfer schools next summer when we moved to Missouri. I have come to learn that nursing programs mostly consider Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, Biology and Chemistry grades when accepting students. Well, my undergrad Chemistry grade from 1987/88 is only a C. I say "only." I busted my butt in that class. I'm thrilled with the C. That was from having taken it a second time, too. I had to have a year of Chemistry. I got a C then an F. When I took it again, I was lucky to get the C. Hopefully, my later undergrad grades and my new course grades will more than overcompensate for the less than stellar performance.