Midnight Sledding & Dislocations...

So I had a midnight sledding night last night. First one of the season. Had a reasonable turnout...about 10 or so. For the most part was a typical fun sledding night as always...except for one new fun addition---injuries! Yes, we had our first injury last night. Right off the bat in fact....first hill we started down. Now this is probably the steepest hill of the entire thing, even steeper than the first big one. But as we all flew down the hill on our sleds (like the cool breeze of a YORK peppermint patty!), one of our sledding newbies...Marty, crashed off the side, did some flips, and dislocated his shoulder! Fun times... So of course we all rushed up to him once realizing he was hurt. Poor Marty was in agonizing pain, but Matthias tried to get it to reset back into place. He had the right procedure, but it just wouldn't go. After giving Marty a breather, his pain levels were still through the roof, so I decided to give it one more try to reset it myself before resigning to dope him up with drugs from my first aid kit. I took a few more minutes to get the muscles to relax, and as I was rotating the arm back up....I pushed gently on the ball of his shoulder socket....and POP! I suddenly felt it pop right back into place...followed by an immediate & loud sigh of relief from Marty. =)

Okay, so I feel bad for Marty and his pain, but that aside....it was great! I've never gotten to reset a dislocated shoulder before and have always wondered whether it really pops back into as drastically as they show in the movies and whether it really is that huge a relief for the person's pain once it does....Yep, it is! I think I should have been a medic, cause that kind of stuff excites me. Thanks Marty for helping me learn exactly how to reset a shoulder....

Marty felt a lot better, but was still pretty sore, so when a snowcat came by, we flagged him down and asked if he could give Marty a ride back to the parking lot so he wouldn't have to sled the mile or so back out. So in the end, it all worked out pretty well and was a good sledding night with a little added adventure bonus (at Marty's expense, but hey....). Good times....can't wait til next month's sledding trip!