[Rhodes22-list] Ouch, That Hurt!

[Roger Pihlaja]

Hi Everybody,

This morning, there were thunderstorms in the forecast.  The night before, my wife & I had ridden on our 10' inflatable sport dingy to a restaurant about 3 miles down the lake & back.  We had gotten back after dark & the inflatable was still tied to our dock.  I went down to our beach to pull the inflatable up onto the custom made storage rack I built for it on our beach.  This storage rack is my own design, made from pressure treated lumber & boat trailer rollers.  The inflatable self launches off of it & 1-man retrieval is almost as easy, except for today.  I reached down & grabbed the inflatable's bow lifting handle with my left hand & started pulling the bow up onto the 1st set of guide rollers, an operation I've done literally hundreds of times before.  I didn't even pull very hard, but something went seriously crooked this time because I felt a "snap - pop" deep inside my left elbow, followed by a searing pain up the outside of my forearm from the elbow almost to the wrist!  I dropped the bow lifting handle & instinctively bent the elbow.  As I did so, I felt the elbow joint shift internally & go "pop" again.  It turned out I had dislocated my left elbow joint & then popped it back into place myself!  The inflatable was starting to float away, so I grabbed the bow line with my right hand & pulled it back.  I was able to pull the inflatable up onto the storage rack with just my right arm.  I didn't bother locking it down or putting the mooring cover on it.  The swelling & pain were already starting in my left arm.  I made a splint out of my day planner book & drove myself to the MidMichigan Medical Center Emergency Room, about 20 miles away.  The X-rays showed the joint was back in place, but I can't support the weight of my forearm & any sort of rotation of the forearm really hurts.  The hand, wrist, & fingers seem to be OK.  I'm currently typing this 1-handed as my left arm is in a splint.  The hospital has me on a heavy dose of ibuprofen to control the inflammation & industrial strength pain killers so I can sleep.

This is really stupid!  I just got back from backpacking on Isle Royale, where I spent 8 days clambering over rocks with a heavy backpack, without a scratch.  Now, I dislocate my elbow on my own beach pulling our inflatable onto the storage rack?

Roger Pihlaja
S/VS. Dynamic Equilibrium