The bruised ribs...

I should have explained a little more.  Didn't mean to alarm anyone!  (Sorry for that)

A week ago, it was icy out.  I'd been stepping carefully and tentatively all day on that ice, in the cold, getting chores done while wary of where I stepped. 

Last chore of the day, close the chickens in their coop.  The timer for the light was off by a half hour, and the chicken water bowl was empty, so I stepped up into the coop which I don't normally do except in the morning.  Stepping down, with half-full water bucket in hand and flashlight not yet turned on, my boot slipped on black ice.  

I came down hard, the back of my ribcage hitting the door-way, the water bucket sloshing all over.  I swore...

It hurt, but there was barely a red mark.  I was able to get up and walk into the house.  Dinner was served.  The normal routine could be followed, with more soreness than usual...

The bruise took about 3 days to start to show.  There were a few "clicks" during the next few days, if I moved wrong in bed or reached over my head to plug in a light in the barn.  Pain if I coughed.  

My breathing was fine except for a cold.  I did call the doc's office. 

 

Yesterday (when I typed the blog), it had been 6 days, and I was supposed to go to the doctor's if it still hurt as badly.  Thursday morning, I woke up feeling stiff but not sore.

It wasn't until wrangling the slightly sick pig that the bruised area hurt again.  She and her sister are fighters, and even though Jeff held tightly on to them, it was my job to heft them up, give them the shots, and heft them up and over a different fence to bed them on dry straw for last night.  It hurt again after than, like a pulled muscle.

This morning, again, it feels more stiff than sore.  

So, I think it's fine.  Thanks to everyone who is concerned!!!  I mean that.  I am monitoring whether it continues to hurt or was just aggravated by hauling and hoisting the 50 pound butterball of a pig.  

Barring another fall on the ice (which is almost all melted now, giving way to sucking mud...gross!), I can function and am getting back under way with the normal chores here, and not just the bare minimum.

I sold a pig this morning.  $200 cash is waiting to be put in the bank account.  This is the one that could have gone 4 weeks ago, but the rescheduling was for today.

Another should leave this afternoon, this one an even trade for one of Rose's babies (born after I sold her to my friend last October)

The two Kune-AGH that were supposed to leave yesterday need an evaluation yet this morning, to see whether I call the vet to come out for the congestion, or if they are just fine.  

And Bessie is supposed to leave tomorrow.  I have photos of her last day with the calf, but....phone is not cooperating.  I'll post those later.  

I don't (for myself) have an ACTUAL diagnosis of bruised ribs, just the feeling that there is some deep tissue bruising from the fall last week, and it is still in the healing process.

 

Laura