Dislocated Shoulder
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
The Incident:
Monday afternoon, shop closed at 4pm as usual and I hoped on my bike to ride back home. Had I known that I was about to get a dislocated shoulder I would have done things quite differently!
Off I ride towards my parents-in-law place, riding the same way I always do. At one stage I had to move from the road to the footpath, so I did so in the same place I always do and wasn’t expecting anything different to happen.
Apparently there must have been a small rock or something slippery on the road as my bike just slipped right out from under me, sending me flying over the handlebars head first towards the pavement. Fortunately I was able to tuck my head in and did a commando-style roll over my right shoulder rather than landed flat on my face. Like a cat I found myself straight away on my feet with some slight pains here and there, however thought nothing serious of it. So I picked my bike up, straightened up the handlebar and continued walking on my way. I felt to see if it was a dislocated shoulder, but I could feel that the ball was in place therefore everything was ok.
After pushing on for about 500 metres I was forced to give in to the pain. I realesed something had happened, but knew that it wasn’t a dislocated shoulder. My thoughts led me to think either a chipped bone or fracture.
The Results
Once I got home I tried taking my hoodie off to see just what was going on. I think I managed to move my arm 5 or 6 cms up the sleeve before the pain got the better of me. My wife insisted that we get it checked out and by this stage I had to agree. So we rushed off to the local medical centre before they closed to try get an x-ray and a diagnosis.
Let me tell you this..shoulder pain is HELL! The whole trip I kept telling my wife to be more careful as EVERY bump in the road shot more pain up my arm. Finally we went in to the doctor, he looked at my shoulder, touched it here and there and sent me off for an x-ray. Both right and left side were x-rayed so he could compare the results.
This picture here is NOT my x-ray, it is an example I found online of the same damage done to me. That bone sticking upwards is what moved about 1 cm from it’s position, but it’s enough to cause serious pain! I couldn’t shower last night, I couldn’t sleep properly because I couldn’t roll over. I can’t do anything with my right arm currently and the heaviest object I can hold is my phone. I’ve been given 3 weeks off work to rest, but I don’t think my shoulder will be back to 100% for at least another 2-3 months MINIMUM. Oh well, that’s the joy of a dislocated shoulder!
The good news is that because I was on my way home from work so it is classified as a work injury, meaning I get paid to rest and recovery, and also gain valuable hours to learn and write more blogs here at Empower.
That’s me for this blog. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs.