CATCHING UP WITH CORNISH (DECEMBER 4)

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Camping at the beach ... the kind of down time we all would like to enjoy at this of year ... but for Jasmine Cornish it is also a welcome change of scenery as she continues her rehabilitation after suffering a broken back (amongst other injuries) in a fall at the trials at Beaudesert on November 8. Here, nearly two months after the incident, in HRO’s latest edition of ‘Catching Up With Cornish’, Jasmine Cornish provides us with the latest update on her current situation.

“Everything is improving. It is just a waiting game.

“The real good news is that my eyesight which was a bit of a problem early on is now completely back to normal.” (Cornish suffered a fractured eye-socket in the fall).

“It just took a bit over a good three weeks for my brain to recover from the hard hit, but, yeah, thankfully, that’s all back to normal now.

“My movement is fair. A lot of people tell me they can’t tell ... that they can’t believe ... I’ve had a broken back.

“I guess I’m hiding it ... trying to put it in the back of my mind and acting like I don’t have a broken back, so I don’t focus on the negative ... but, at the same time, I’m not being foolish about it. Definitely not!

“I’m obviously not lifting anything heavy and I’m avoiding putting any strain on my back.

“The doctor hasn’t set any particular limits on what I can and can’t do. He just said I can do what I think I am capable of doing ... so, yeah, I’m following doctor’s orders.

“Some people, seeing me out there, have joked, ‘ha ha, so, are you going to be riding trackwork tomorrow,’ but, no, I definitely can’t imagine myself getting on a horse at this stage ... but, everything ... the day-to-day life on the ground ... I can do as normal.

“While the vision and that part of it is really good, it is just taking a long time for the back pain to go away.

‘I don’t feel the pain as much when I distract myself by doing stuff and keeping myself busy ... that is without doing too much.

“The worst pain is at night when I’m lying down on my back and trying to rest. That’s when it hurts the most.

“I do get some sleep, but there was a stage when some nights were pretty awful.

“I am taking Nurofen ... I’m only on Nurofen now. Earlier, I did try once to see if I could perhaps start to wean myself off it, but it was awful. That’s when I woke up in the morning and I could barely move ... so I wasn’t going to try that again at that stage.

That situation has also improved a little bit now. I’m still taking Nurofen. Some days I can go a full day without it and then I have Nurofen at night so I can try to have a good sleep.

‘So, the back pain is still there ... but it is improving. I am getting more movement every day and building that muscle back, but there are times when it is really sore.

“That’s just part of the process, I guess. The better I get, the more I can move around. The more I move around the more muscle I can build back, but it does get sore sometimes along the way. It’s all part of the healing.

“At the start I would have expected it to be a lot better by now, but I’ve just got to remind myself that I did break my back and that healing process has to play out ... and I have accepted that.

“As far as building muscle back up goes, they haven’t given me a program or anything like that to follow at this stage.

“The other good thing is that I can go out and see the horses now. I actually went to the race-meetings at Beaudesert the last two weeks.

“The first time I pretty much spent most of the time in the jockey’s room with the girls. It was definitely good being back at the races.

“I do get asked a lot ‘are you missing’ it? Yes, of course, I’m missing it, but I don’t like to think about it like that.

“If I think about it all the time it would obviously get me down, so I try not to think about missing it and rather focus on the fact that I’m lucky to be here to do what I can do ... and just stay with positive.

“I’ve got a big session coming up with the doctors at the end of the month. It will be very interesting to hear what they have to say. I haven’t really had many doctor’s calls, because, as I said, it’s mostly just a big waiting game ... and we’ll find out more in that visit at the end of the month.

“For now, it’ s just so good ... kicking back and relaxing at the beach.

“Happy new year everyone!”

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