Injuries that caused change in your life

[breakingtime91]

I have posted on here before that this year was a little rough for my dominant hand. I tripped over my dog and landed awkwardly. I thought I just jammed my pinky and continued life as normal. Turns out I had actually fractured the bone at the last joint, resulting in a mallet finger injury. This took two surgeries to fix and almost 4 months of wearing a splint 24-7. I never thought that a pinky injury would cause such a headache. I have barely used my right hand, besides at work to write or type, and am now just getting into occupational therapy. The injury happened in September and I had my first surgery beginning of October

This injury led to a lot of changes in my life, mostly diet, working out, and shooting. For diet, I quit drinking anything but water and coffee. I was a big drinker and quiting led to me dropping twenty pounds and I focused on just being healthy. I feel absolutely amazing, healthiest I've been in a long time. I couldn't lift anything with my right hand so I strictly focused on cardio, legs, and abs. This was a nice break from lifting to be honest, I have lifted weights for 15 years and taking part of the year to do different stuff or just relax was wonderful. Shooting, simply fell to the way side. I carried a gun still, left handed, and understood my limitations. I dry fired and kept up my competency but didn't really push anything..


Now that I am in occupational therapy and doing rehab, I am able to start shooting and lifting. Weight lifting is going well, no pain but my right hand is really weak. On the grip test I did my left hand scored a 87 and my right a 43, so lots of work to do. Working with the therapy putty and doing the exercises prescribed has been very productive. As far as shooting, my OT is a shooter and she said I will most likely need to find the most ergonomic grip I can to take stress off the joint of my pinky. Glocks, as of right now, are extremely uncomfortable in dry fire. So that led me to the p30, and I'm evaluating it. So far there is a lot less irritation with the spider man grip, tucks the pinky right in.


Such a weird/small injury that threw a huge wrench in my day to day hobbies and life. Anyone else have something similar?

[blues]

I don't pay them any mind once I get past the point of recovering. I've torn a biceps capsule. Have rotator cuff issues. Have nerve damage in a few fingers from injuries, some blade related. Broke both bones in my right forearm. Tore tendons in a couple of fingers. Have permanent issues with one.

As soon as I can resume working out, or sports, or various teams at work...I put it in the rear view mirror.

I try not to dwell on what I can't do or can't do as well as I once could.

I've no doubt that you'll come back stronger from overcoming any setback. I think it's who you are.

[Stephanie B]

Yeah, but SLTT I don't care to discuss in public-searchable areas.

[HeavyDuty]

Same.

[fatdog]

A bunch, but in terms of just shooting, a big one was neck surgery just after the turn of the century that caused nerve stretching that caused me to lose all strength in my dominant hand and become a NDH only shooter for about 4 months until the nerves recovered and enough strength returned. I have @Mas to thank for being prepared for that one. He had made my LFI 2 or maybe it was 3 class bring a weak side holster and run a whole day with it in class only shooting NDH all day, and I got his point that it could happen to me, it sure did, and I was happy to have the gear and enough skill to carry on for a while at a time I felt more vulnerable on top of that. I will never neglect my NDH shooting practice. There is some on every single range trip.

Another injury/surgery put me out of all major caliber rifles or shotguns, this time forever. My shoulder mounted long gun world shifted completely to extreme light recoil things like rimfire and 5.7x28 rifles since that is all that the new shooting positions I have to use will tolerate.

I hope your recovery continues to progress.

[Mas]

A bunch, but in terms of just shooting, a big one was neck surgery just after the turn of the century that caused nerve stretching that caused me to lose all strength in my dominant hand and become a NDH only shooter for about 4 months until the nerves recovered and enough strength returned. I have @Mas to thank for being prepared for that one. He had made my LFI 2 or maybe it was 3 class bring a weak side holster and run a whole day with it in class only shooting NDH all day, and I got his point that it could happen to me, it sure did, and I was happy to have the gear and enough skill to carry on for a while at a time I felt more vulnerable on top of that. I will never neglect my NDH shooting practice. There is some on every single range trip.

Another injury/surgery put me out of all major caliber rifles or shotguns, this time forever. My shoulder mounted long gun world shifted completely to extreme light recoil things like rimfire and 5.7x28 rifles since that is all that the new shooting positions I have to use will tolerate.

I hope your recovery continues to progress.

That's why we do it, brother. Glad it worked for you.

[lwt16]

Does C19 pneumonia hospitalizations count?

If so, I went from gasping for breath nearly going on a ventilator to getting healthier than I’ve been in years. Hitting the local trails in the morning for a 15 miler with a couple of thousand feet of elevation change.

One of the hardest things I’ve ever done physically. Never thought I’d be so weak it took three breaks to make a bed. Putting the trash can on the road would wipe me out and my O2 would crash to the 80s.

Smell is about 80 percent back. Other than that, I’m back stronger, faster, and better cardio-wise than 10 years ago.

Regards.

[mizer67]

I had an immobilized shoulder on my dominant side following an injury.

Made shooting nigh impossible, as I couldn't raise my up to eye level. Lots of physical therapy and I have most of the movement back. I don't think about it much anymore, but I won't be throwing a football again like when I was young.

That being said, it gave me time to devote to other things. I exercised a lot more, changed my diet, lost some weight and found joy in other pursuits where I wasn't as limited.

[Wake27]

Honestly, yours is a lot more positive than mine and what I expected when I opened the thread. The two that affected me the most don’t sound like much, but the timing, way they were handled by the Army, and effect on my potential career was disastrous for me. I’ve spent thousands of dollars out of pocket over the last six years trying to recover physically, mentally, and emotionally and it’s still a struggle.

It doesn’t sound like you’re having major issues with it, but I’ve been meaning to make a thread about my positive experiences working with Katie at Precision Edge Performance about some of the mental and emotional struggles that can come from injury. If you or anyone else start heading down that path and I haven’t gotten around to making the thread yet, I’d happily discuss further in PM.


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[GJM]

I think your perception of a significant injury changes as you get older. Things that kill you are very significant, other things are less significant.