today i was walking the dog on a beautiful spring day on a flat gravel road i’ve walked thousands if times before. suddenly my left foot slid on a pebble and down i went onto my outstretched left hand, then onto my left shoulder. i removed a patch of skin larger than a quarter from my palm, but the main issue was the immediate realization that my shoulder was not all it should be anymore.
er eval revealed a crack in the humeral neck and head without displacement. i can’t move it enough to figure out if my rotator cuff tendons, lovingly repaired a decade ago, are still intact. i really hope it’s just a fx, as i dread possible repeat surgical intervention. i should learn more this coming week at ortho f/u.
meanwhile, one handed typing is a pita.
retirement is definitely not going as planned. ortho will be the 8th specialist i’ve had to see since i stopped working.
opioids for significant acute/malignant pain are not forbidden, i just put the mrs in charge of them, use them only briefly, and stay plugged into my support for my recovery. i’ve needed opioids a few times since 1990 when i got clean, and that approach has been successful.
Awwwww, Doc. I’m really sorry. Heal quickly and get good news.
My mother’s getting up there in years, and – though doing relatively well – definitely mentions how much of her free time is filled with doctor visits and how often she and her friends “do organ recital.”
But … after your famous plane crash … I’m guessing lots of things look rather pedestrian [no pun intended] in comparison.
I once slipped and fell in the rain and went right onto my outstretched left palm. I didn’t go to ER because I thought it was a sprain, until after a couple of weeks of not getting better, when I found out it was a punch(?) fracture of some bone(s) in the wrist and it was too late to set it. Fortunately, physical therapy brought it back to about 98% normal usability.
My point in relating this story is that I was on my way at the time to the office Christmas party (back when they used to be a big night out, so a looooong time ago) and on hearing of my mishap, my boss told me I need to learn how to fall better. 30 minutes after I fell, while I was still in considerable pain. Now, I liked that boss, but that was always one black mark against her.
Anyway, QtM, I hope your recovery is swift and complete.
I did the exact same thing while out for a run late October 2021 (a memorable day!)
Immediate result: a month of terrible sleep (like sleeping in coach on a red-eye to London).
Longer-term result: Two months of PT
Longest-term result: forbidden by my wife to ever run on city streets again.
I had my Go-Pro on at the time, and I watched it with my wife. She laughed at the quiet stream of foul language that happened immediately after the event. She said “you had better not show that to anyone at church!”
I also discovered just how many people were raised by wolves. Going to the gym, young men would let the door slam in my face. Going to get coffee women who had more important things to do would push past me to open the door and let it slam in my face.
I had to travel out West for a death in the family while I was still in a sling, and every single person on that plane bumped into my injured arm in the aisle without apologizing.
This was a humbling experience, and I fully sympathize with you!
I had tripped over some crazy high curb that surrounded the crosswalk like sides of a canyon. I fell to the side, and put my hand out, which instantly flipped my whole arm outward to the stops and cracked the ball at the shoulder joint in 3 places, thankfully non-displaced like yours.
Funny thing is, I was wearing wrist guards, after previous falls, and I think the slick fabric on the sidewalk made my arm flip out with more vigor. Had there been meat and bone to provide traction perhaps I would have gotten away with a bad case of road rash.
ETA: Full function returned after several months. I can touch the ceiling with all fingers at once, just like my other arm. I can stand at proper “parade rest” (one of the last things to return). From time to time I do some strange movement that hurts and reminds me of the old injury.
Could have been a boxer’s fracture? but that is in the hand below the 5 th knuckle.
Ah. Apparently scaphoid fractures, infamous for mal-union and being missed on X ray if there is not a specific view to look for it, has been called “puncher’s fracture”. I learned that just now! That is in the wrist.
Actually so far I do fall well … on my relatively longer runs I sometimes don’t pick up my feet high enough and sometimes trip on an uneven bit of sidewalk. It is very embarrassing and the dogs seem to roll their eyes at me when it happens, but I so far have landed well. What I really want to do is learn how to fall and miss the ground! It’s the second part that presents some difficulty. (Douglas Adams reference)
Seriously QtM this is not what you need while dealing with other medical crud. Not fair.
