2008

ETS Plus and Emergency MAP
QUICK THINKING, QUICK HEALING
by Jaclin Haynes

Earlier this year, in the dark of winter, on my way to feed the horses, I stepped off the middle step and fell into space. It was a spectacular fall onto concrete. I skidded across the floor and ended up with my lips smashed against the old coffee can I carry the feed in and with my head against the dog door. I was terrified that I had truly injured myself this time. I picked myself up and immediately went inside.

I shakily grabbed the ETS Plus, opened a MAP coning and took stock of my injuries. My knee was throbbing and beginning to swell. My ribs hurt where my elbow had smashed into them. My neck and back muscles were already beginning to tighten up. My thumb and wrist were scraped, purple and already swelling. And my upper lip was ballooning up.

I was so scared I felt like crying. I knew I was going to be sore and stiff enough that it would be almost impossible to care for the horses in the bad weather. (I needed to carry five-gallon buckets of water up the hill for them twice a day.) I worried that I would miss work, as well. What happened was astonishing. Almost immediately upon taking the ETS Plus, the bruised places stopped swelling and actually began clearing up. I became calm. My lip, which I fully expected to balloon up terribly, stopped swelling. Twenty-four hours later there was only a thin blue bruise and a hard lump under the skin — nothing like what you would have expected a smashed lip to look like. There was a bruise on my knee cap, only about the size of a quarter or so. And that very morning, I was able to care for the horses and go to work as if nothing happened!

I had stepped off into space a foot and a half above the concrete floor with no warning, hitting the floor with full force. I should have been soaking in a hot tub, lying around with hot and cold packs on my neck, back, knee and lip for at least a couple of days, maybe longer. I am 54 years old, overweight — not in great physical shape — and I realize not so smart. At least now I turn the lights on if it is still dark when I leave for the barn!