Mustang Saga

(Bear with me, this does become horse related...)

I'd like to launch directly into a tirade of bad words, but I'll control myself. Wouldn't really help anyway.

Today I went to the chiropractor and he wasn't there (they do primarily walk-ins, not so much appointments), he wouldn't be back until Tuesday! He told me not to miss going in twice this week! So I was mad. I started dwelling on how I really thought his diagnosis was incorrect (mainly because I want to be FINE) and decided to drop by the doctor. They have a great walk-in ReadyCare doohickey. Saw a PA, he checked me all out, made me move weird ways, was surprised at my lack of a pain reaction to the things he was doing, but said he thought it sounded like a disk too. Did x-rays. When he came back in, he said, "Well, I can tell from this that you're one hard-working gal, and you have a high pain threshold." (I had mentioned my daily life included moving hay bales, and we stacked 13 tons this year. High pain threshold=not good in this case.) My back is a huge mess. He said I have degenerative joint disease. Bone spurs, remodeling of vertabrae, bone chips floating, bone chip re-attached. !@*&!. See, I didn't cuss... I think this must have been going on for a long time, because, yeah, I do work hard NOW, but not before we bought this place, which was only 3 years ago. The reattached bone fragment was probably 15 or so years old, he said. Probably our bad car accident, but who knows.

The online article I read said it is also called osteoarthritis and can be brought on by rheumatoid arthritis, which runs in the family as well. And my mom has this same degenerative joint disease, only worse.

So... Up in flames go my hoof trimming plans. I was still considering going to the school, and my mom said she'd help pay for it, but it's really not cost-effective to spend the money on it when I'll only be trimming my horses. And I'm going to have a lot of medical bills. I guess I need to find a new dream. I really don't want to though! I REALLY don't want to. I wonder, if I went, and kept a small client base, if my back could take it. I love trimming hooves! But I don't want to be crippled.