Injuries... how have they changed your life with firearms?

They have not perfected artificial elbow joints at this time. After getting one you still have limited movement.

It is just like wrists, however they are getting better each day.

Delmar said:

Lost my right leg because of my military service, and because I like to bird hunt, it put a cramp in my style for a time. I learned old guys like old dogs...we might take a bit getting there but we can still get the job done

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Thanks Delmar.

My left shoulder gives me some pain at times after it got bruised up by the seat belt in a vehicle accident a few years ago.

Shooting a pump shotgun actually makes it feel better .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Ran my main hand through a roller-press back in '96, split the finger bones lengthwise, exploded my middle and ring finger's soft tissues like grapes under a hammer. stopped at the heavy silver ring I wore, or it would have gone to the wrist. nothing Docs could do but push it back together and immobilize.

My Off Hand is on a shoulder socket that was only held on by 2 cm of tissue for about 9 years (92-01) Nothing showed on X-rays, people thought I was just a whiner because my arm would fall out of the socket by 6 inches and bounce back up a few times a day, and as I "looked fine" externally.... "Why the heck are you making that annoying noise" was about the height of concern from others.

I found out the year a doctor went in to tighten the socket (in what was supposed to be a minor scope-job). Nothing on MRI, but they were horrified to find out what was really wrong with me Mid surgery, especially after a year of HARD pre-surgery Physical therapy had shredded what was left. took them 4 hours to reset the OR with me under general anesthesia, to open me like a holiday turkey and pin what was left together.

Educate yourself, be your own advocate, know the risks, don't completely ignore the pain, and be selfish. It's your body and there is no Manufacturer's Warranty.

If I had the temerity when I was younger to tell the doctors to "stuff it! something's terribly wrong in there!!" I'd still be able to properly shoulder a rifle. Just can't extend the forward arm for more than a few seconds.

Watch out for the pain meds though, the rare times I've been on them, I've always found it better to take only the edge off, as reducing your discomfort chemically also reduces your resistance to real pain when it does come. I also get sick as a dog with opiates in my system, call that added incentive to avoid them in my case.

Keep practicing with your off hand though even when the arm heals. You never know what life may bring.

You would think that after all these years they could fix a disk properly, but it's hit and miss, and after a decade it stresses the ones above and below. I have had laminectomy surgery at NY Hospital, "for special surgery" , and they gave me another 10 pain free yrs, but in 1999, it came roaring back with herniated disks on all 3 levels, so it is impossible "according to every doctor I have seen", to fix all 3. All they can do is use shots and epidurals, 'which really do nothing". Most folks who opt for the titanium rods and screws, end up with more problems than they first had, and about 80% have to remove them at some point.
I use inversion, braces, and exercise to help combat the pain, but when holding a pistol, my hand sometimes shakes. It can vary from nothing, to enough to make shooting for accuracy impossible.

+1 on the pain med statement. I have constant pain. The last meds I was on was a strong dose of Fentanyl via a patch. After 6 months of being on that one I decided NO MORE. I quit cold turkey. I went through a difficult 3 week stretch. PT was really rough taking nothing. But I never asked my therapist where I was again .

I just turned 35 yesterday so God willing I've got lots of time to learn new shooting techniques. Bc I really suck shooting handguns one handed weak handed.

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With the greatest heart and humility, I'll say you have it within you to be the greatest single-hand shooter you've ever seen. It's going to be hard. But it's yours if you want it.

I was on neurontin for a while. Neurontin was originally designed to treat epileptic seizures, then it was discovered that it worked for the pain of shingles and then for long term pain.

It actually works well, is a non-narcotic, nor is it a drug that can cause folks to lift their eye-brows that you take. Very low doses of first gen anti-depressants work for long term pain, just like they help a person quit smoking. Lyrica also can help control pain.

I don't use any narcotic for long term pain control for a couple reasons. Mainly I don't want anyone to say anything since I have my toys, also I have allergies to the synthetics and I am afraid that I will run out of stuff for them to use when the next surgery comes. I have had so many surgeries and a peculiar quirk of anatomy that a lot of the anesthesia drugs don't work. 4 times they didn't with 2 of them having me tell them I was feeling it on the table.

thanks Sam, I've been working on it

I tried Neurontin about 15 yrs ago, and it did nothing for me., those Fentanyl patches are terrible, also, if you are in a tropical climate and have hair on your body, they are just a nightmare also you aren't supposed to get them wet, try that in FL. It's all the same with pain meds, they work in the beginning, and after a few months they stop working plus they are socially taboo, aside from causing other health problems. The only way to use them is when you have no other choice. There is a topical pain killer that is not a narcotic, it is "lidocaine patch", like the dentist uses, when he is going to numb you for a shot. They have a high co-pay, but if you contact your insurance company, you can get them for free. They just numb the area that you put them on.
They are the best thing I have found, "and by accident", while talking to my doctor he mentioned them, gave me a sample, then wrote me a prescription, but they were about 10 dollars each. I found a place that pays for them for $20 dollars a month, they will also pay for any other medications you take , even diabetic supply's, BP medication etc, it's called Prescription Hope, and is worth looking into if you are getting hit with copays that are off the wall.
Feel free to use them as all they require is your doctors prescription and a letter from him, if it helps one person it's worth it. It's bad enough to have a problem without worrying about paying half your income on co-pays.

If you sweat a lot with the fentanyl patch that can also cause you to od on it.

I tried Neurontin about 15 yrs ago, and it did nothing for me

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Yup...same here...it did nothing at all for me.
.

Well I'm already plotting my path to continue shooting. A chair for the trap range and switching to benchrest from pistol. Going more indoor for pistol as I can sit in my walker to shoot and push buttons to move the target. Its not as much fun as shooting outdoors and shooting USPSA but I'm still going to the range and that's what counts.

My back goes out about every 3 months and my right ankle has 80% of the cartlige gone and I have ostro arthritis in both feet. Some days I feel and get around great and others I am using a cane. After reading this tread I know I am not alone.

My issues come from car wreak in 06 and 30+ years of running to keep in shape plus HS football and playing basketball till I was 32 when I blew out my right ankle.

Neurontin dang near killed me. I took one and my heart basically started beating about 5 times a minute for about 20 minutes. I laid on the floor and couldn't get my head up. My wife thought I was asleep so she didn't call 911. I came through it though but never again.

Fentanyl patches are something that can give you a 3 day dose in about an hour. My friend was on that stuff for a long time and it was stoned out for a few hours then nothing for a few days until the next patch. I wouldn't take that for any reason.

There are some people who need pain killers (the real stuff) but the government is cracking down because of the pill mill operations in Kentucky and Ohio and especially Florida. Too many kids have died because doctors wrote scripts for any wannabe junkie that came in their office. As a result people really need the stuff can't get it.

BTW I got cartilage damage in both knees when I was 12 and had juvenile arthritis. I also was in a car wreck that banged up my knees even worse. Now they are pure osteoarthritis where it isn't just bone on bone. I broke my ankle twice and didn't even know I had done it the first time until an x-ray the second time showed it. I also broke 8 fingers playing football in school not to mention getting a bruised kidney which never really heals right. I was in a car that rammed a telephone pole (about 30" thick) which nearly threw me through a windshield but just hurt my neck instead. I have a neck injury, a back injury from a job I had, fibromyalgia, trigeminal neuralgia (the most painful condition known to man - also known as the "suicide disease"), carpal tunnel in both hands, rheumatoid arthitis,and nerve damage in the front of my stomach (which travels down the leg) from a surgery I had for cancer. I had stage 3 cancer at one time (in the ureter and had spread to my surrounding lymph nodes) for which they gave me massive doses of chemo (because I basically had zero chance of living) added onto the massive chemical exposure I got from working in a toxic waste dump (didn't know that's what it was at the time of course). That chemical damage caused me all sorts of problems like muscle spasms, convulsions, etc. etc..

I don't mean to be just complaining here. I just wanted people to know they can survive a lot and they can come back to have a decent life for a while at least. When you get older it might catch up with you again but for a long time it's possible to go right on with things. My doctor called me a medical marvel for having so many things go wrong and living through it.

It's gotten to the point that I can't walk more than about 30 yards at a time without stopping to ease the pain in my back. I've been trapped being too far away from my car where it took me hours to get back because I plain couldn't walk.

But even with all this I managed to block out most of the pain for a long time. I rode centuries (100 mile rides) on my bike while I had these things. I got where I could climb hills all day long and I'm talking straight up and straight down almost. And I learned to improve my shooting from a bench a great deal by nothing but practice and lots of it. I have to admit that my problems have pretty much overtaken me now but I fought it long and hard. It's not that I have some special courage or anything. In fact it's more a fear of never being able to do anything that drove me to do things anyway despite the pain.

And of course it's always possible to be even worse off than I am. And my luck I will learn just how.

I was on fentanyl patches for 6-8 months. Day 2 was the strongest for me. Sounds like your friend did not have a good seal. I would add tape over mine bc if air can get in it doesn't really work.

Trust me, if you have it on right you are stoned 24/7.

Cee Zee, It's all good and It's not complaining. There is a vast difference between a discussion about human endurance, and "oh poor me".

Many of us would drag ourselves along by our lips rather than go to a doctor and admit we broke our feet. (and end up making it worse in the process)

My Pop's arm pain turned out to be Multiple Myeloma, right after beating Prostate cancer, and he's 7 years into a 20-month prognosis. (Thank you OHSU, Kaiser, and Thalidomide)

We still get out shooting whenever the ammo presents itself, and he still works the Nagant, the Argentine Mauser, and the Arisaka through the fibromyagia.

Its not so much of an injury as it is a condition. I was diagnosed with stage 3 cance just before newyears eve and started chemo shortly thereafter. I found out the hardway that i do not withstand repeated heavy recoil from my deer rifle or my bigger varmint rifle ( a 30.06 and 243 respectively) Things have improved a little but not back to normal yet.

Arthritis means the big Magnums I love aren't any fun to shoot any more. I've stepped down to less-powerful calibers or handloads, and most of my rifles are going to eventually wind up wearing fancy recoil pads. Not much I can do about the pistols, though.

I was weak as water in the middle of my chemo treatments limpingbear. It can get better. I couldn't walk 100 yards to save my life in those days but after I was done with the treatments I got on a bike and started out riding about 100 yards at a time. I built up to riding 100 miles at a time because I wanted my strength back. Don't get discouraged friend. You can do it.

As for fentanyl my friend didn't really have the problem as much as some do. They have talked about pulling it off the market because of that problem. That's what my friend said anyway. I'm no expert. I think his doctor told him that and switched him to something else.

I've already gone with recoil pads on my 12 ga. shotguns and my 30.06. And that's as high as I go. I really don't have a need for anything bigger anyway but just shooting the 30.06 25 times or so will cause problems with my neck.

All I can say, guys, is, keep moving! Literally, recognize the fine line between exercising the injured parts and reinjuring them, and keep your activities as close to that as possible.

I'm not a doctor or a therapist, but as someone who has sustained some fairly serious injuries and will sustain more in my chosen occupation, I have learned that the only way to maintain mobility is to work at it, and work through the pain. It is natural to favor an injured body part in order to minimize pain, but you have to fight this. You have to learn your body, and learn how far you can push it without doing more damage. If you don't, muscles will weaken, joints and ligaments will deteriorate and tendons will shorten. This is especially true of injured parts; My wife had a serious necrotizing infection in here wrist, required surgical debridement. She was a weenie about moving it because it hurt, and that favoring caused her tendons to shorten during the healing process. Fast forward almost three years, she has virtually no flexion in that wrist. Meanwhile, this time last year, I had a bout of septic bursitis in my right knee, which also required an incision and debridement, as well as keeping the wound open for several weeks. It hurt like hell to walk on it, but I knew what would happen if I didn't keep it in motion. Today, I have full range of motion and, other than some discomfort from the bursa sack never really returning to normal, I have no restricted motion or pain issues. Two years earlier, I seriously injured my right shoulder at the gym. Same deal; I paid careful attention to what my body was telling me, and made sure that I did everything I could with that arm just short of the excruciating pain that indicated I was causing more damage. Took about a year and a half, but again, I now have full motion and very little pain. Many other similar stories checker my past, including car and motorcycle accidents.

And no, I'm not that young. Almost 32 now.

Obviously there are some injuries from which one can never 100% recover, but it is amazing how many people suffer from chronic pain and reduced mobility when they could have avoided it (partially or completely) by properly exercising.

So, don't ignore your doctors completely, but listen to your own body more. Grit your teeth and push it to the very limits; just don't go past them. You'll be glad you did later.

I got a hernia packing a deer out, went to the Dr. who argued that it wasn't a hernia, but rather a tumor on a an inguinal nerve. Having had a total of 3 previous floor hernia's, I told him I was certain it was simply another hernia in the floor. So when he presented me with the surgery paper work authorizing the procedure, he wrote it up that if I in fact I had a hernia, he wouldn't do a nerve exploration. According to the medical records and his verbal confirmation, he found the hernia in the floor, repaired it, and then went on to explore the nerves in the inguinal region, up the left side of my penis, and in my left testicle, and re-do a 20 yr. old vasectomy.

All said and done, I spent the next 7 yrs. in a wheel chair, my wife and I have absolutely zero love life, if you know what I mean, and I had to give up my stellar career, and I'm now permanently disabled and barely able to walk.

When the attorney's got their medical experts involved they discovered he had altered the records. So the end result was a law suit and my life as I knew it has been pretty much destroyed. I had a total of 5 surgical procedures over the course of 2 yrs. to try and repair some of the damage, including the femoral artery that was tangled in a mass of sutures, that almost cost me my life. I now have no feeling in a wide spread region that involved the two primary inguinal nerve groups he played with, and severe pain in the areas I do have feeling. I don't blame the hunt or me packing the animal out, but I do blame an irresponsible physician 100%.

But at least I can still reload and shoot, and even hunt, as long as I have someone with me to take care of the physical work.

GS

I adjusted my stance after I blew out my knee (snapped my ACL in half) to the point where I favor a leg when shooting.

Delmar - thanks for your service. MUCH respect. What birds do you hunt? We do a lot of snipe & quail here in FL. I miss pheasants.