02/19/08, 11:05pm…Windchill day
Friday, February 19th, 2010February 19th, 11:05pm: Sorry for the delay in getting this updated, there’s just not enough hours these days to fit in everything that we need to it seems. Wind Chill was really tired today, his 16 hour stand apparently took its toll but man that little guy has stamina. He did his best to keep standing tonight but after those 16 hours! Whew. At 11am today he slowly lowered himself down by his front legs and then lowered the rest of himself – which is good, I was worried he would let himself get wiped out and just let his legs crumble under him. From there he rested all day. He sleeps or lays completely still a lot of the time, slowly munching. Much of his muscle strength, and in fact the muscles themselves will need to be rebuilt and strengthened. He generally needs one of us to help push him up onto his chest and then prop him up with hay bales. At a little after 6pm this evening the volunteers gathered to help him up, it took two tries in the sling. He understands very well what we’re doing so cooperates and as soon as he’s in a position to help he does. Now that we’re sure he’s safe standing, moving around a little and then lowering himself we can remove the sling after he’s been raised. It is an amazing site to see him standing by himself. He’s quietly proud of himself I think. He loves being on his feet, viewing things as a horse should – proudly standing.
Even tired he still has some spunk, when one of ‘his staff’ (in this case Lori Dalbec, who with her daughter Ashley have become regulars with him) didn’t move hay to the little prince’s reach in a timely fashion Wind Chill made sure to reach out the leg the experts were pretty sure wasn’t going to work again and put it on her leg where she could hold his hoof. Lori and Ashley’s shift leads into friend and neighbor Karen Severson’s shift – Karen can tell you the meaning of cold, having sat with him lots of nights, including some that I hadn’t learned how to keep the coffee and hot water hot enough. Yet she never complains. I’ve been hesitant to name the volunteers who are helping in his care and slow recovery because inevitably I will forget one or ten people and it in no way reflects that they haven’t been an important part of his care, it’s more the result of I’m a guy and forget things pretty much the moment I walk out the door. I’ll try to get better at making a note of who is helping or maybe putting up a list on the Wind Chill Updates page because without these unsung, selfless heroes there’s no way we could be doing it all. People have asked about sleep, I think when Wind Chill is safely, securely past a point of worrying and watching close things will begin to return to a less wearing routine. Right now we’re still watching him closely because of his low weight, weighing around 400-450 or so pounds when he should be around 750 and monitoring for any signs of internal organ issues. One thing that we have to be very careful of when lifting him in the sling is his paper-thin skin. Within the sling we put blankets that allow for some movement in the sling and protect his delicate skin which could very easily tear if we aren’t cautious. He has surprisingly few sores from being on his sides so long, those sores he does have we put ointment on while he’s standing.
I guess tomorrow I’ll be on Fox News at 10:40am, on a segment called “Happening Now.” I’m blonde haired, blue eyed, I blush, I stutter my way through public speaking and this little goofball has me doing interviews for him. I’m sure he gets a kick out of knowing he’s making my life difficult. When he’s better, he gets to do his own interviews – I’ll even drive him. But this time he has to get in the trailer himself. Funny, that was intended to be humor and it made me tear up. So did looking at pictures of him from just a week ago. I can still hear the echoes of his whinnying across that pasture. That still breaks my heart. I guess not enough time has passed, and I’ve had nowhere near enough sleep to put some distance between that experience and now. I hope I never have to see a horse in that position again. But I guess if that kind of call comes in again, I have more stalls in the barn, some great volunteers and friends and I’ve learned to make pretty good coffee. I have to be honest though, I’m beginning to suspect that surviving on coffee, cigars and ibuprofen may not be as healthy as it sounds. Gotta do one last check here pretty quick plus Wind Chill needs to send some notes back to some kids that wrote him. Thank you so much for the prayers guys.
