Thursday, March 20, 2008

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.

12 comments:

Mariposa said...

Oh my...usually the first thing is to get an Xray before saying everything is okay...and why not let your son stay in the hospital right away for the treatment...the Xray just bothered me. It looked scary! I hope everything will be ok with your son!

Samantha Alice said...

Poor Baby-BT! Why a neurosurgeon and not on orthopedist? Well, with you around, I know you'll make sure he gets the best care. And THANK GOODNESS he has insurance!!!

*sending healing vibes, but no hugs, 'cuz they'd hurt*

BTExpress said...

Thank y'all

Sam - I wrote the wrong word and fixed it, thanks.

lime said...

holy #@#%!@#$%&*!!!!! owowowowowowFUCKowowowowowow!!!!!

i hope they are giving him the best painkillers available! i am having some seriously bad flashbacks of when my arm resembled that collarbone!

hope he gets the best doc available too. dayum! i think i need to go look for some vicodin now.

best wishes for his healing and recovery

gab said...

Ohhh poor baby...HUGS and I'll be careful not to injure is shoulder!Or even touch it.
I hate going to ER's they take forever and lots o times they really dont know what they are talking about! TRUELY.

TUG said...

Well, it's probably too late now. I wish I would have read this earlier. But to sling a broken clavicle all you need is two cravat type pieces of cloth about 2 inches in width.

With one, tie it so it makes a complete circle so that it fits very loosely around the broken side (like a tank top sleeve). Just slide it up his arm.

With the other, you do the same thing but on the opposite side. Instead of sliding it up the arm, actually tie it through the other circle cravat and then around his good shoulder. You should end up with an X across his back. As you cinch up the slack it will pull his shoulders back which will relieve the tension from the broken bone. He should feel some pretty immediate relief like this. The setup the doctor gives will just be a fancy version of this.

Once done, sling the bad arm to his chest in order to reduce movement of the broken side.

Next time, call me!!!

Sexy Duet said...

Ouch, that looks really painful - just as well he has you to take care of him!

Tug sounds like the man you need around in a medical emergency.

Hope he is back in one piece again soon.

Ms SD

Cosima said...

Aiya! That looks very painful indeed. Wishing your son a speedy recovery!

barman said...

Unbelievable. I only ended up with a fractured wrist once and I lived through it over night and made the emergency room trip in the next day. I can not even imagine how much more painful that must be. I hope all goes well with treatment.

Happy Easter to you Tony or just have a wonderful weekend if you do not celebrate it.

TUG said...

Ha, I almost didn't read your email because I thought it was spam! It was different than the other email I have for you.

Good luck!

Tara Tainton said...

I didn't know roller hockey existed, but even the NAME of it sounds dangerous! :(

Monogram Queen said...

So sorry Brian got hurt. It sucks to go to the ER. I have to say when Madisonw as mauled by that dog though we had no waits at all. It was hop-skip-jump.
Wishing him a fast recovery!