Man
Bronko, that sucks big time.
I feel your pain.
Really, I feel your pain.
On December 8th. we had one of those very rare snow days here in S.E. Louisiana. I arrived at the lease around 10 p.m. on the 7th., just as it was starting to mist light rain with a mix of snow. Hit the bunk in my little hooch with the electric heater going. Up at 5 a.m., I peek out the door to five inches of snow over a thin layer of ice covering everything, including my truck.
I'd planned to drive to another section of the lease and sit in a box stand, so decided to start the truck and let it warm up while I dressed and made some coffee. Slipped on sweat pants and a sweat shirt and, with Crocks on my feet headed to the truck (which was parked on a slight grade). Three steps off the deck of my hooch with my keys in my right hand I came to the incline and did exactly the kind of instant flop you described. There was no "OH crap I'm falling" - just
SPLAT.
I landed on my right elbow, which jammed my humerus into the shoulder joint. I really though I'd broken that arm - excruciating pain with no ability to move the arm at all. I lay there in the snow with tears in my eyes trying to stand up, but could not get my act together. One other guy was there that morning in a small camper about 100 yards across the campground. I thought about pressing the panic button on my key fob to get his attention, but did not know where the keys were (it turns out they were still in my right hand, I just couldn't feel them).
I was finally able to roll to my left side, get that arm under me and stand up.
Now here's the dumb thing. The radio said the road home was closed, so I strapped my right arm to my chest and an hour later headed to one of the box stands. Climbed into that sucker with just my left arm and sat in it all day - in pain and without seeing a deer. I'm not sure I could have made a left armed shot anyway. The day ended with beautiful sunset. The picture below is looking out of the box toward a small 1/3 acre food plot I'd watched all day. You don't see a scene like that very often down this way.
X-Rays the next day showed no breaks, cracks or chips. Doc says give it time and if it doesn't start to improve he will do an MRI to see if there's a tear in the joint. As of today I have almost full motion of the shoulder with only moderate pain, but it's weak. At least I can lift a fork and a glass of Scotch.
