An experienced horse owner and rider, Ellie was having her last riding lesson of the year on May 27 when she took a tumble off her horse, Pearl. She hit the ground hard and began screaming in pain.
He reaction was completely appropriate because Ellie sustained a bad injury – breaking the end of her humorous bone in her arm and severely damaging the nerve. It was clear she’d require surgery and the Innisfail hospital sent her to the Alberta Children’s Hospital where she had emergency orthopedic surgery at 1 a.m.
Dr. Elaine Joughin operated on her arm, repairing the serious fracture with plates and screws. She repaired the nerve, as well, but it would take months to heal and for Ellie to be able to use her hand properly. In fact, she only began using her arm again in October. While in hospital, it was harder than usual to control her pain – she cried out in agony for the first couple of days as her team struggled to get her pain under control. Interestingly enough, it was not drugs that controlled her pain.
It turns out that music was the best medicine for Ellie.
On her third day in hospital, Ellie met Sarah the music therapist who came into her room and played guitar, sang and even taught her helpful breathing exercises to help comfort herself. Ellie is a big music lover, and plays guitar and ukulele herself, so she really connected with Sarah. It almost made her forget that she was missing her Grade 6 camp with her two best friends. Almost – but not quite. Once she was discharged, Ellie began a long summer of recovery. Horse and bike riding were replaced with physiotherapy twice a week.
The good news is that on Feb. 11, Ellie will have surgery to have all the hardware in her arm removed, which she is both excited and, understandably, nervous about. While she’s had a tough go with her arm, both Ellie and her mom, Lisa, will always remember how great it was having Sarah come and play music for them. Ellie calmed right down – the whole collective blood pressure of her hospital room lowered when Sarah would play. She provided nice moments in a week that wasn’t very nice.
Ellie got back on that horse in September and is doing great. Another silver lining of her injury for Ellie is that she is a big country music fan – and especially of Paul Brandt – so she is very excited to meet him and talk about music therapy.
The Alberta Children’s Hospital has two talented music therapists on staff and the program is made possible by community support.