@lilypaws, ouch. Your poor daughter. Spraining her ankle as dismounting the horse is bad enough, but to have it stepped on must've really hurt. I'm sure both she and the horse were spooked. @jenniferhunter just recently went through surgery after being thrown from a horse. I'm sure she can commiserate. I wish her (and you) all the best for the surgery tomorrow.

@lilypaws I certainly will pray for her surgery. Will you post an update?

@lilypaws Oh, I am so sorry about your daughter. That is a terrible injury and will be a long recovery. Having a horse step on you makes the injury worse. I had my horse step on my foot once, and I pulled my foot out immediately before he got all his weight on it, and I was just bruised just from that. I took a couple months to stop hurting. I fractured and dislocated/sprained my ankle falling off another horse at a gallop that spooked while riding trails. I presume that my injury happened by catching my toe on the ground when I landed at high speed in a grassy field, and it probably caused a twisting motion. I also had 2 surgeries, the first cleaned up the wound from the compound fracture of the fibula, and got the bone back inside, and placed a fixator cage to stabilize the ankle. I was on a trail riding trip at the time and was sent home and needed to find another surgeon to fix the ankle. The second surgery set the bones with plates and screws. My tibia was shattered on the front and the "knob" was sheared off the inside of it and the fibula was broken. It was also dislocated. This is a very painful injury and the best thing is to just rest with the leg elevated. After the bones fuse back together, the sprain of ligaments still needs to heal. That is where I am right now. I have begun weight bearing and walking and need to do that for my doctor tomorrow. I have a lace up ankle brace that supports and protects the sprain and I wear it to avoid twisting my ankle which would re-injure the ankle. I am working with a physical therapist to get back strength and range of motion and to try to walk correctly. It affects the entire leg because the muscles atrophy from non use and my entire leg is smaller than the other after 3 months of not walking. Now my hip flexors are so tight from sitting that I am having trouble standing up straight which affects my pelvis and back. This is what I work on in physical therapy.

At the beginning of all this, I was wiped out and just wanted to sleep. Every time I had to get up, it was painful and exhausting. I weaned off the pain meds pretty soon. They just nauseated me, and then you take meds for nausea. Ice helped a lot with elevating to help reduce swelling pressure and pain. I am sure your daughter will appreciate your support even when you can't be there. I went through my first surgery alone far from home after an hour long ride in an ambulance. After that, it was all I could do not to toss my cookies. I could hardly eat and keep food down. I did better after taking half pills of pain meds and I tried to spread them out a much as possible. I wasn't very interested in company because I felt so lousy and it took 2 days before I could figure out how to navigate stairs and use a walker. That was so painful every time my foot was lowered as it just increased the swelling pressure.

When I had my second surgery, I discussed the nausea issues, and they put an anti-nausea patch behind my ear before I went into surgery. That worked like a charm. I also had a nerve block injection after surgery that took pain away for a day or 2. It worked so well that I had no feeling at all in my foot and my toes felt like rubber and dead weight. When pain returned, I needed pain meds, but I was careful and I alternated between the hydrocodone and the ibuprofin. I also had daily aspirin to prevent blood clots which are a risk after any surgery and because of being sedentary for a long time. They told me it would be 3 months before I recovered enough to begin walking again and that is right. Walking correctly with proper alignment is going to take longer as will rebuilding muscle.

Hi @lilypaws,

I was wondering how your daughter is doing since her surgery. If you are comfortable doing so, can you post an update?