Roller hockey is dangerous

Last night at about 1:00 am, my son woke me when he came home from his roller hockey game. He told me he got hit with a by a puck and his shoulder was KILLING him. He told me that he was hit by an 80 MPH slap shot from the top player in the league. I got up to take a look at it and saw a cut and red mark over his right collar bone. It wasn't swollen, but hurt a lot. He said he wanted to go to the doctor in the morning and have it looked at. I gave him a couple 800mg ibuprofen and an ice pack. He went to sleep and slept until 12:30 this afternoon. I heard him talking on his cell phone, so I thought those were good signs. Maybe it's not so bad after all.

When he hung up the phone I knocked on his door and went into his room. He was not in good shape. His shoulder was KILLING him even more than last night. I helped him get dress and took him to the emergency room. I told them I thought his shoulder was broken. I thought that would get him in quicker as he really was in a lot of pain. Any movement at all sent sharp pains through his shoulder. That didn't matter, because it took about an hour to see the triage nurse and another 30 minutes to give them his insurance card so they would take him into the ER.

That being done they took him right in to what they call Fast Track. This treatment area is off of the regular emergency room. I assumed he'd get fast attention and I was right. They told us to sit down and someone would be right us. I don't think we waited more than a couple of minutes before we were taken to an area for him to be seen. Less than a minute later a nurse came over and gave him a preliminary check. She went over and got the PA who came right over to check him out.

The PA pulled and tugged, poked and prodded and He said he didn't feel anything out of place. So it was more likely just a severe muscle bruise to a muscle that seems to connect everything in his right shoulder and that side of the neck. They would be taking x rays, but if the came back negative as he expected, then with a sling, pain killers, muscle relaxers and anti inflammatories, he would be feeling much, much better in less than a week.

That was a relief, because if anything was broken, it would be six to eight weeks before he'd be able to even use his arm. He is assistant produce manager in the busiest Stop & Shop super market on Long Island and lifting heavy boxes and crates of produce is something he does most of the day.

We waited for about 20 minutes and then we were taken to x ray. That took about 15 minutes. When he came out of the x ray room, he told me that his collar bone was broken. He saw the x ray and it was a clean break in two. FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! We went back to the ER and waited about 20 minute for the PA to get free. I told him it was a broken collar bone. His answer was, "I'm not surprised." WTF! He was certain it was just muscle damage earlier, but now he's "not surprised". What a dick!

Here's a picture of pretty much what my son's collar bone looks like. This is a left collar bone break, but you'll get the idea.

Now what do we do? The PA said they will put his arm in a sling and we are to call a orthopedic surgeon tomorrow for an appointment. He will decide what the treatment will be, but that they usually don't reset the collar bone and just let it heal the way it is.

He was right before about the muscle damage, so he must be right. With PA's record so far, my guess is the neurosurgeon will reset the collar bone with surgery and a pin. Ya, right.

It's now five hours later and the pain killers and anti inflammatories are doing their job. My son ate the pizza for dinner, four slices, and has been up and around. Now he's in bed and hopefully will rest as comfortable as he can tonight.