Well, Hello there!

It’s been a while (years) since we’ve last talked!  And I’m glad to be back. 

I’ve spent the past 6 years in Victoria, BC, where my Sweetie (of 19 years this summer!) and I bought our very first modest home, 5 minutes from the ocean shore, surrounded by birds, seals, otters, and a bustling artsy neighbourhood.  We are doing well!  But boy do we have some catching up to do!

I temporarily stopped offering sessions for a few years.  Initially, I was giving myself a break because even though I started my psychic business spending most of every Sunday doing sessions, at that time I was working part-time.  When we moved to Victoria I switched to a full time job yet I didn’t scale back my session schedule at all, and guess what?  I burned out!  Shocker!  So I scheduled myself a few months break.

And then that break turned into six months – and I was doing really well.  I was able to focus on my health and made enough progress that I was also able to return to horseback riding!  My very favourite sport in the world!  I even started lessons with an excellent coach and leased a lovely mare, who I rode twice a week.

In December 2023 the unexpected happened, as it does sometimes in life.  I fell off that lovely mare during a lesson.  I was going quite fast, and she was 16 hands tall – pretty big for a horse!  I was so surprised to find myself in the air.  I was used to riding western, and as other western riders will tell you, your horse would have to be pretty determined to get you off a western saddle.  

But I was not riding western, I was learning a new discipline – dressage!  I love dressage, working towards the old cavalry battle maneuvers of 1000 years ago, building precision skill and finding balance in riding as I never had before.  I was a confident rider thanks to riding western, so when I lost my stirrup while cantering in a circle I wasn’t even worried – I was sure I’d be able to pick it up again… and then I was in the air.

“This will be fine” I thought to myself as I felt my body rotate in the air.  Riders fall all the time.  It’s a part of riding. 

It was not fine. 

I landed on my lumbar and broke my back.  And that day determined my life for the next two years. 

My poor Sweetie actually saw me fall, it was the first time she came to watch one of my lessons, so she was there to ride in the ambulance with me, she was there when the CT scan tech commented “yeah, it’s definitely broken it’s the worst I’ve ever seen.”  She is amazing and I’m forever grateful for the absolute rock solid support she gave. 

I am grateful for my neurosurgeon who operated two days later to fuse my spine with cadaver bone and titanium, so I could walk again – left leg fully numb, but obeying commands. 

I am grateful for my second physiotherapist who was able to help me when the first one couldn’t.  Two years later I’m still working with him regularly – but I won’t jump ahead!

A few months after my surgery I developed a new back pain, returned to the hospital for an MRI and was shown that one of the screws in my hardware had failed, which is a rare but not unknown complication.  So I had to heal with all of my upper body weight being directed unevenly to one side of my pelvis, and it’s no surprise I developed an SI joint injury with all that unbalanced force.

All that time I had to fight for my mobility.  I was in pain every day, and my best hope for recovery was to manage my pain well enough that movement was possible, and then work with my physio to ensure I developed all of my stabilizing muscles, rebuilding a fragile scaffolding to support my halting ambulation. 

It was a very difficult first year, and my friends including one who I know is reading this now really helped to see me though, sending me daily text messages, making plans, being encouraging. 

Four months after the fall I could walk without a walker, but it was painful.  One year after the accident my bones finally started to fuse and the pain was greatly reduced!  1.5 years later I was finally off all pain medication!  The donated bone and my own bone all grew together, and eventually took the stress off of the broken hardware which will exists as a relic in my body and on airport metal detector imaging for the rest of my life. 

Last summer I returned to swimming in the ocean, and discovered the frigid water gave me total pain relief for days.  Two years after the fall I have returned to most of the activities I love – and I made the difficult decision to continue to love horses but across a fence.  I returned to my old barn and visited some sweet horses of friends, but found my body was too anxious and vulnerable-feeling, and I thought, “this is optional, I don’t actually have to return to riding.” 

Any horse person will relate to how hard that decision can be, and it seems like it’s more common for horse people to just continue to ride against medical advice.  In my case, I’ll give them treats and pets, but my riding days are past, and I’m fine with that.  I worked so hard to get my life and mobility back, the risk of riding isn’t worth it. 

It has now been 2 years and 6 months since the fall, and I’m in better physical shape now than I was when I was riding.  I’ve continued to figure out some health mysteries and my most recent bloodwork has shown my inflammation markers are negligible for the first time in 15 years!  Overtly and covertly, my health is moving in the right direction, and I think I’m finally in a balanced sustainable groove in my new life. 

Which means I now have the physical and mental energy to start accepting session appointments again!

It’s been so long! 

I will only be offering one session per month right now, I may offer more if I find I have the capacity, and if there is enough demand. 

But! I do have some vacation coming up and I would love to offer some extra sessions in the first week of July, as I know some of you reading this have been waiting for YEARS!

I hope to talk to you soon! CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR SESSION NOW!