Friday, January 17, 2020 11:15 PM

A dislocated shoulder wont stop me!

in Health and Medicine by MegaBearsFan
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Snowboarding is a dangerous sport. A couple years ago, I almost broke my neck in a fall. I fell face-first so hard that my goggles were crushed. I was lucky to have escaped that fall with only a bloody nose, broken goggles, and maybe a very mild concussion. That incident inspired me to buy a helmet -- something my partner had been telling me to do for years.

I once face-planted so hard, I crushed my goggles.

My luck ran out a week ago, and I finally suffered a serious injury. Thankfully, it wasn't a broken neck. I dislocated my right shoulder.

I wish that I could say that I dislocated it while trying to do a jump flip or grinding a rail. I'm not nearly that good of a snowboarder. Despite having been doing this for years, I still struggle with simple things like turning and carving. But that wasn't even how I fell. Nope. I fell and dislocated my shoulder while getting off the lift. Worse yet, it was the lift on the bunny hill.

Now, in my defense, that lift chair is really low to the ground, and it isn't easy to stand up off of it. We were riding with our kid, who was skiing on her own, without an instructor, for the first time. I was using my arm to push myself off the chair. I slipped, and the board started to slide out from under me. Instead of falling back onto the chair, I fell on the ground in front of the chair. But my arm was still on the chair.

My partner had to drive me down the mountain to the hospital, where the doctor had me "re-introduce" my shoulder on my own -- no pain-killers.

I dislocated my shoulder while snowboarding. It was quite painful.

So now my arm is in a sling. It doesn't hurt (other than a little soreness and swelling), but I'm not supposed to move the arm much because of the risk that it might fall back out of socket. I'll be seeing an orthopedic specialist in a few days to determine how bad the damage is, if it's healing correctly, and what the recovery will entail. I'm expecting at least several weeks of healing in this sling, and probably some physical therapy to restore strength and range of motion. I really hope that I don't end up needing surgery.

Lucky for me, I was already proficient with a trackball mouse

In the meantime, I'm going to try not to let a dislocated shoulder stop me from enjoying my hobbies. Lucky for me, I've been using a trackball mouse for my gaming laptops for about ten years now. That means I'm already proficient with a trackball mouse, which can be held in the hand and used without needing arm movement or a solid, level surface on which to move the mouse. I've always found a trackball mouse to be very handy for a laptop. Even though it isn't as precise as a regular mouse (I switched to the desktop mouse when I played Doom, for instance), it can be used virtually anywhere, and so is very convenient for a portable laptop or tablet.

I've been using a trackball mouse for years, which makes it easier
for me to continue to use a computer while my arm is in a sling.

As such, I am still able to use a computer. Typing is a lot slower, since I have to peck around the keyboard with just my left hand, so blogging and coding have taken a dramatic hit. But with the trackball mouse, I can game just fine, and can also find my way around Adobe Premiere. So my readers and YouTube viewers can still look forward to seeing new content. I'm hard at work on the gameplay breakdown of Maximum Football 2019 versus Axis Football 2019. In fact, an early preview clip of that video was released to my Patreon supporters earlier this week. My blof readers can also check out that preview here.

I'm also working on Civ VI strategies. My Patrons can also expect to see a preview of the next guide in the coming week or so.

More Switch games?

Holding a console controller is a little bit of a different story though. I can hold a PlayStation controller, but I have to hold it at a strange angle in order to avoid moving my arm too much. Doing so is uncomfortable, and so I probably wont be playing much on my PS4.

It looks like finishing Death Stranding and starting Jedi Fallen Order will have to wait a few more weeks. That's right, I reviewed Death Stranding without having actually finished its campaign. So sue me. Hey! It's a long game! Instead, maybe I'll spend the next few weekends on the Switch. Its two, separate joycons should be much easier (and more comfortable) for me to hold. Perhaps this will finally give me an excuse to sit down and play Breath of the Wild, which has been sitting around for two years.

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Welcome to Mega Bears Fan's blog, and thanks for visiting! This blog is mostly dedicated to game reviews, strategies, and analysis of my favorite games. I also talk about my other interests, like football, science and technology, movies, and so on. Feel free to read more about the blog.

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