Yeah, here is Dan's story, not great, but can recover from it. I know @goatram went through a similar ordeal a while back, maybe he can share his experience with Dan and give him some insight??? Maybe others can as well??? Be careful all, just one slip away from alot of pain and alot of time............
"Hey man, catching up with a bunch of folks to update them on my situation. On Labor Day after fishing I was cleaning up the MUGWUMP at dads house while he and my brother cleaned crab and filleted salmon. After turning off the engine for its flush I went to get down to unhook the flusher muffs and start scrubbing. I got over the transom to the swim step, got my right leg on the swim step ladder and went to put my left in the step stool below. That damn stool overturned and sent me head first to the ground with my right leg caught in the swinging ladder. That slowed me down enough that I didn't suffer more than a few bruises and pulled muscles in my upper body, but I really, really fucked up my leg.
My brother said he heard my scream of agony before I started screaming for help and he found me in a heap in the mud puddle below the outdrive with the flusher muffs spraying me down. I could feel the bones moving in my leg. Fortunately Swedish Edmonds is literally right across Hwy 99 from dads and they were able to get me to ER really fast. Swedish was great, no waiting room horror got me in the back fast, assessed me gave me one painkiller that wasn't enough because I asked them not to turn off my brain. Then they gave me morphine.....ummm wow. Never had THAT before. Still in agony but ready for xrays. When the techs start saying things like "wow", "that's definitely broken", " never saw that before " and "oh my god" right in front of you the sense of doom is crushing. When the Dr showed me a pic the knob of my tibia where it makes the lower half if my knee is sheared diagonally across down into my shin with a sharp point at the end. Didn't break the skin thank goodness.
The Dr there says they don't have the staff or facilities to help me so they are sending me off to Providence in Everett after they put a splint on me. The splint process was the WORST. I mean a bazillion times worse than breaking it was! I don't know why I didn't die right there except that morphine must be some sort of dark magic. I spent an awful, awful night at Providence getting cat scanned and waiting for my surgery. Apparently 31 surgeons and assistants worked on me for over 5 hours to put my shredded meniscus back together and install two stainless steel plates and a bunch of screws. One plate runs 2/3rds of the way down my shin and all of it is permanent.
I was just able to get around with a walker well enough to leave Providence yesterday, a week after I arrived. I lost a lot of blood during the surgery and was weak as a kitten. The Dr's were also very concerned about something called compartmentilization where extreme swelling cuts off the nerves and blood vessels so badly I was at serious risk of losing my foot and part of my leg! OMG. I can't put any weight on my bad leg for 12 weeks and I won't know my rehab schedule until after my follow up with a surgeon on the 21st. Basically the rest of coho season is gone, I literally shed tears over missing my beloved Edmonds Coho Derby SnoKing puts on, and came to the conclusion my meds were fucking with me too bad to even think I could be responsible with a firearm even if I could muster the physicality to be a road hunter in a passenger seat. I've shed tears over this too. Big fat crybaby, stupid meds. Stupid accident."
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