This has not been a fine week for my right elbow.
My first instance of elbow dislocation happened while attempting a slide into third base during a kickball game. Immediately knew it was out upon impact and rolled around hoping it would find it’s way back into place on it’s own.
Upon laying on my back and announcing “I’m hurt bad”, I could clearly see that the bottom bone of my elbow was clearly out of place. Upon rising I began to think of anything that could help me try to get it back into place.
I decided that the soccer goal post would be worth and shot, and it helped me to knock it back into place! I was able to continue playing, minus fielding and pitching and would go to Urgent Care afterwards to make sure that it was in place and there wasn’t too much ligament damage as well.
Let me say that the folks at Atlantic Care Urgent Care in Somers Point were great! They were so kind and polite, I felt like a dear aunt was taking care of me. They x-rayed me and all seemed well.
Two nights later I was hanging out with the Honey Badgers on the boardwalk. We played some mini-golf which seemed fine on the still sore elbow. I was being extra cautious the whole time.
On my last putt on the last hole, I accidentally leaned against the wall with my right arm. As my bad luck would have it, my stupid elbow caved in and a different bone was not out of place in my elbow. This one hurt very, very bad and I paced around the boardwalk until I could gather myself and decide what to do.
After some attempts of putting it back in myself , I knew it was futile and a trip to the emergency was in order. Sadly I parked all the way on Bay Ave. so my journey back to my car was quite a treck. I was in pure survival mode, pretty much crossing streets with barely looking to get there ASAP. While passing a group of teenagers, I gave them the most evil of stares just in case they had any intentions of messing with my wounded self.
Getting into and out of the car was pretty tough, but I was able to and then drove myself to Shore Memorial. I ran into a friend with her three year old in the ER. I really hope everything went well for them, they’re so nice and I can only imagine how tough  such a situation can be for a parent.
Once I got admitted I was x-rayed right away. This was pretty tough, with things our of place I couldn’t do much if any bending for the x-rays. I joked with the guy and he was really nice about everything.
When the doctor finally arrived he invited me to view the x-rays with him which I thought was really cool of him. I realized that he was in a grade below me in school, and he really took good care of me the rest of the night. Unfortunately the top bone somehow had gotten misplaced beneath the bottom bone in the elbow. He’d never seen this before, the x-ray was comical in a sick twisted way.
He made several attempts at refraction of the elbow. Each attempt hurt like hell, but I knew he meant well. They offered pain killers each time, but I declined thinking that I could weather this storm then drive myself home instead of having to bother someone so late at night for a ride.
After numerous failed attempts another doctor came in help out. I knew that I was in for some crazy stuff at this point, I could tell that they were excited with the challenge my elbow had been presenting them.
Well good cop doctor held my tricep and elbow area while bad cop doctor pulled and twisted on my forearm as hard as he could. I had to press down with my right leg with all my might and pin my shoulders back as well if we were to have any chance with this.
When my wrist would get turned around the pushed toward me, well that was the most painful thing I’d ever endured. We had to give it a few shots to finally get it to fall back in, with me taking a 10 second or so break to crack a joke and refocus for the next excruciating attempt.
When someone announced, “I think it’s in!”, I immediately attempted to move around. Right away I knew it was and was thrilled. Give high-fives with my functioning arm (not a good idea but I was so excited).
Through this whole ordeal, I was silent and so focused on ignoring pain (which was bountiful). I was asked if I was on drugs numerous times throughout the night due to my lack of reaction to my discomfort. Not sure why, but I’ve never been one to complain much. I did give a few grunts and a growl here and there toward the end when everything was out of place though.
They gave me a splint to keep my elbow out of trouble until I can see a specialist in a few days.
Pretty crazy stuff, and not something I would wish upon anyone!