HISTORY 27

April 16, 2010

Sorry it's been so long since I posted here. I don't even have any excuse, except perhaps my disappointment over not being an alpaca farmer anymore. It turns out that Rick's decision to give it all up was the best decision, because it seems that when the truck ran over me, I broke a vertebra in my spine!

When the physical therapy didn't help my pain or my back after three months, the doctor sent me to a "pain management" specialist, who gave me morphine sulfate for the pain and sent me to a surgeon. The surgeon ordered another MRI of my back and hips, and found that one of the bones in my lower back had been broken and 2 disks were protruding into the area reserved for the spinal cord. This caused a rather serious pinched nerve, which affects both of my hips. The radiologist told me that I wouldn't be able to tell that the problem came from my back instead of from my hips, and I sure couldn't! <grin>

Unfortunately, before I took so much as one of the morphine pills, all my medications were stolen from our house while we were out one day. Rick didn't believe me - after all, we live in the remote wilderness of West Virginia - we're not in the middle of nowhere, but we can see it from here! But later that day, he was walking the dogs through the woods and found the plastic bag I keep my medications in... and my prednisone was still there! All the rest were gone. Unfortunately, while I could get emergency refills on all the other medications, I couldn't get an emergency refill for the morphine... so I was in a great deal of pain for a very long time.

I wore a "jowett" brace for several months - a torture device designed to keep me from bending my spine. But when it was all over, the bone had healed nicely. The disks still protrude toward the spinal cord, and the nerve is still severely pinched, but the bone has healed. While they could do surgery to remove or realign the protruding disks, both the doctor and I think that might be a bit too risky. So I'll just take Alleve or something for the pain in my hips, and I'll be okay.

Oh - the insurance company did send me a nice settlement to keep me from suing Rick. We used the money to pay off the bills we had incurred while getting started in the alpaca business, and it's a great feeling to have them all paid!

So now all that was left was selling Camella and First Lady. While we were waiting to do that, First Lady had a cria whom we named Macariah (Hercules' Granddaughter of mythology - our Macariah is Hercules' daughter, though). The three of them were being agisted with Ernie Kellogg at Double 'O' Good in Virginia, and have been bred to their Black Cloud (Camella) or to Hercules (First Lady). We still hadn't sold them when Ernie asked us to bring the animals home, so Rick arranged to board them with Greg and Terrie Reynolds at Bear Garden Farms in nearby Capon Bridge. Camella has had her cria, and we're calling her Miracle. She's the first golden alpaca I've ever seen, though 'golden' isn't an approved color by AOBA. First Lady was sold by Ernie Kellog, so Bear Garden was agisting Camella and her two crias, Macariah and Miracle.

The three alpacas were finally sold, but we found out at the last minute that Miracle, our little golden girl, had a micron count of 30 - absolute disaster! So we ended up selling her for $9,000 - about half of what we'd hoped to get for her. But she was the last to be sold, so we're out of the alpaca business for good now.

This has been a wonderful experience for us, and I'm glad we did it. Alpacas are wonderful little critters, and I heartily recommend that you get acquainted with a few of them, even if you decide not to get into the alpaca business.

It still wasn't over, though. On March 12 of 2009, I finally went into the hospital to have my spinal bone fixed and the nerve channel opened so my hips won't hurt so much. I went into the hospital on March 12 and woke up on March 26 with all my family gathered about me as if they were sure I was going to die. Even my sister was there! As it turned out, I had developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and couldn't breathe for myself, so the doctors put me on a ventilator. When my breathing eased, they took me off of it. I stayed in the hospital til April 2, when they sent me home with a back brace.

On April 4, I was sent back to the hospital from the ER in Romney. My husband thought something was dreadfully wrong with me and hustled me down to the ER, where they could find nothing wrong. At the last minute, the ER physician decided to do a scan of my lungs to see if I had a lung embolism (blood clot). I did! And I was rushed to Cumberland Memorial Hospital for treatment and care.

I was sent home to stay on April 9 - I was almost a full month in the hospital for a surgery that should have meant only 3-4 days in the hospital! Then there were frequent visits to both the pulmonologist for my lungs and the neurosurgeon for my back. By August of 2010, everyone was happy with my progress and I got sent home with appointments in January of next year.

But then I broke my left foot. I haven't the foggiest idea how that might have happened, but it did, and I got to wear a space boot for several weeks til it healed. I was pretty sad for awhile, too. We had all these lovely fences, pastures that only now were beginning to grow grass, and no alpacas in our fields.

Remember, not every alpaca farmer has the difficulties we've had - in fact, most folks don't. But be sure to start with sufficient capital and more than two alpacas! It's hard to build the herd at the rate of one cria a year, and there will always be unexpected events that may set you back a bit. Learn all you can before you invest. Go to seminars and conventions; get to know the people as well as the animals; be sure you have a veterinarian nearby who, even if s/he doesn't know anything about alpacas now, is willing to learn. You may even have to give your vet the alpaca medical books, or pay for all or part of his visits to the medical seminars held by Dr. David Anderson. It will be worth it, believe me!

We have five pygmy goats now. Five WETHERED pygmy goats - we don't want to raise goats, we just want animals in our pastures, and they're less trouble than any other animal if they're wethered and not raising kids.



October 8, 2010

I just heard today that Lee and Bob Ciszewski, who got out of the alpaca business shortly after we did, also bought goats to keep in their pastures. They bought full size goats, though; we just have the pygmies. So now, if you have questions about alpacas, I recommend that you call Greg and Terrie Reynolds at Bear Garden Farms, LLC, HC 61 Box 117T, Capon Bridge, West Virginia 26711 Phone: 304-856-1502 Cell: 304-839-4401 Skype: wvalpacas Fax: 304-856-1502 Email: wvalpacas@gmail.com

  

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