ouch

This hurts.

If you read my facebook posts you know I dislocated my shoulder playing hockey the other night. It was almost instantaneous, I ran into an opposing player and bounced off. My right arm, clutching my stick, twisted and popped. By the time I hit the ice I couldn't move my arm at all and knew I was screwed.

It was all my fault, I was trying to make a play and I'd blown it. I was also immediately upset. I'm supposed to help coach kid's hockey. My friends are relying on me to help at work. My family relies on me at home. My timing could not have been worse.

I was helped to my skates, it hurt to breathe and I wanted to vomit. I tried moving my arm around but it was agony. A few minutes later I went to the locker room to....very....slowly....change out of the hockey equipment. I also tried to lean into the wall and pop my shoulder back. Nuh-uh, no dice. By then, I knew I was gonna need to hit an ER so I called Carol (who freaked, this was not her first hockey-related ER trip). Changing was OK until I had to button up my jeans, that was interesting. As was wheeling my bag to the door.

By the time Carol arrived I was miserably slumped in the chilly lobby, hunched over like Quasimodo and generally feeling awful. Some of my teammates (Al and Ken, thanks guys) helped get my equipment in the truck, I think Ken offered to carry me and I should've let him just to see if he could do it but he's playing ice hockey with two bulging discs in his back. Brian grabbed the sticks I'd left behind on the bench. Again, thanks guys.

Off we went to the hospital. Old Gunpowder Road in Laurel has about 100,000 potholes. On on of 'em, my elbow smacked the arm rest and, well, ouch.

The ER folks at Howard County General were great. They tried to pull my arm into place without meds but that didn't work. The meds helped me to relax enough for x-rays, which were negative, so the docs came in to pull my shoulder back into place. He put his foot into my armpit and pulled, I felt and heard it pop.

But then it popped back out. Rinse and repeat. After a few tries they put me in a sling and told me not to shower until I could see an Orthopedic surgeon. ewwwww.

Well, that happens today. Yesterday was painfully uneventful, even when I took the oxycodone. I don't really love pain pills, they dull the pain a bit but leave me sleepy and fuzzy-brained. I took a couple to sleep, that was about it. I'm betting that the words "arthroscopic surgery" are in my future, but I'm not too worried- the folks 'round here tend to help pick me up when I'm down. I'll be back out there in no time.