Arrow: Arm & Hand

The arrowhead went in above the wrist and carved through the cords that close your hand. The doctor lays the forearm open by lamplight, finds nerve and tendon cut clean, and marries the ends with silk more in hope than certainty. He is honest about it: the wound will close, but whether those fingers ever answer you again is a question no man alive can promise on. The hand lies on the table like it belongs to someone else.

• The right hand carries nothing, grips nothing, signs nothing for 3 weeks minimum, arm bound to the chest
• No firearms, no reins, no rope work with the right arm until a doctor says otherwise
• Fingers curl only halfway on their best day, buttons and buckles need the other hand or a friend
• /me holds the bound right arm against the chest, the fingers slack and still below the wrapping

Recovery Weeks of binding, then months of working the fingers, if they wake at all only their owner can say.·Doctor, urgently

The head clipped the artery on the thumb side of your wrist and your sleeve filled like a wineskin. Someone's belt above the elbow bought you the ride in, and the doctor did the rest with a probe, a ligature of silk, and a hot iron you will smell in your sleep for a while. You kept the blood you had left, but only barely, and the room still tilts when you stand too fast.

• Weak and white from blood loss, no riding faster than a walk and no heavy work for 6 days
• The left wrist bound tight over the burn, kept dry and raised above the heart when resting
• Any hard knock to the wrist risks the ligature, no roping, no fistfights, no hauling for a week
• /me stands slow with a hand on the wall, waiting out the gray at the edge of things

Recovery The burn scabs in a week, the strength comes back with red meat and rest over two or three.·Doctor, urgently

The arrow took you through the middle of the palm and stood there quivering, pinning your hand open like a moth on a board. Drawing it meant cutting, and the cutting found small bones shoved aside and one of the cords to your fingers frayed near through. The doctor stitches what he can reach, packs the channel with carbolic-soaked lint, and splints the hand open flat, because a palm that heals curled is a claw.

• The right hand splinted flat and open, no closing it around anything for 12 days
• Eating, dressing, and shooting all left-handed until the splint comes off
• The packing changed daily, any red streak up the forearm goes straight to a doctor
• /me carries the splinted right hand palm-up, like an offering nobody wants

Recovery Twelve days splinted open, then slow weeks of squeezing a rag ball to teach the fingers their trade again.·Doctor required

The head was barbed and it did not come back the way it went in. The doctor took a breath, pushed it on through the meat of your forearm until steel showed on the far side, snipped the barbs, and drew the shaft out clean. Two holes now instead of one, both burned with carbolic, both packed, and an arm that feels like it argued with a threshing machine.

• The left forearm wrapped over two packed wounds, no lifting more than a coffee pot with it for 8 days
• Packing pulled and changed each day, fever or foul smell means a doctor at once
• No long guns, the left arm cannot cradle a stock or hold a barrel steady
• /me favors the left arm, keeping it bent and close like something borrowed and breakable

Recovery Both holes granulate closed inside two weeks if the fever stays away.·Doctor required

It went through the meat below your elbow and stood out both sides. You snapped the shaft off short with your other hand, which was brave and foolish in equal parts, and rode in white-knuckled with the stub still through you. The doctor eases the rest out along its own path, floods the channel with carbolic, and observes that men who trim their own arrows make more work for everyone.

• The right forearm bound and slung in a kerchief, no gripping heavier than reins at a walk for 6 days
• The wound flushed daily, red streaks or heat in the arm means the doctor before nightfall
• No dealing cards, no writing more than a signature with the right hand this week
• /me rests the slung right arm on the table edge and deals everything with the left

Recovery A week slung and bound, another week soft on it before the arm pulls its weight.·Doctor required

The arrow drove through the web between thumb and forefinger and split the meat of the hand deep toward the wrist. It missed the bones by the grace of small angles, but the muscle that swings your thumb is cut, and the doctor stitches it with fine silk, muttering that a thumb is half the hand and the whole of the trigger.

• The right thumb bound to the hand, no pinching, no hammers, no pistol work for 9 days
• Buttons, matches, and coins are the left hand's problem now
• Stitches kept dry, torn stitches mean the cut heals wide and the thumb heals weak
• /me fumbles a match one-handed, the bound right thumb strapped useless to the palm

Recovery Stitches out in 9 days, the thumb finds its strength again inside a month.·Doctor required

The shaft came away in your hand but the head did not come with it. It sat somewhere in the muscle of your forearm, and the doctor spent a long lamplit hour with probe and forceps chasing it while you chewed a leather strap. He got it, held it up in the light like a pulled tooth, and dropped it in your palm for a keepsake. The digging tore more than the arrow did.

• The left forearm packed and bound where the doctor dug, no load heavier than a hat for 7 days
• The arm stiffens hard by evening, expect to work one-handed after supper
• Dressing changed daily, the wound is wide and infection would find it easy lodging
• /me turns a bent arrowhead over in the palm of the good hand, showing it to anyone who asks

Recovery The dug channel closes slower than a clean one, call it two weeks of daily tending.·Doctor required

Clean through the forearm, and the doctor chose the old way: cut the head off, gripped the shaft, and drew the whole length through, feathers and all. You felt every inch of the fletching travel through your arm and it is not a feeling with a polite name. The channel is straight and the bleeding honest, and he packs it with carbolic lint against the fear that follows every arrow, which is the rot.

• The right forearm bound over entry and exit, no roping, no hauling, no shooting for 6 days
• The arm kept clean and dry, ditch water and stable muck are the enemy now
• Grip fades fast by evening, carry nothing you cannot afford to drop
• /me flexes the right hand slow, watching the fingers answer a half-beat late

Recovery Six days bound, then light use, sound inside a fortnight if it stays clean.·Doctor required

The arrow found the one honest road through a forearm, the gap between the two bones, and took it. In and out, no bone touched, the big cords spared. The doctor irrigates the channel, closes each end with a silk stitch or two, and splints the forearm anyway, because muscle that has been tunneled wants stillness to knit.

• The left forearm splinted and wrapped, no gripping with that hand beyond a loose hold for 5 days
• Reins in the right hand only, and no fast riding while the splint is on
• Splint stays dry, stitches checked on the third day
• /me raps a knuckle on the forearm splint, wearing it like a story that ended well

Recovery Splint off in 5 days, stitches out in 8, the arm honest again inside two weeks.·Doctor required

Through the muscle on the outside of the forearm, missing bone, cords, and anything else that matters. Two small mouths, one either side, each taking a pair of silk stitches. It bleeds honest, it aches plenty, and the doctor calls it the best arrow wound he will see this month.

• The right forearm stitched and wrapped, nothing heavier than a saddle blanket lifted with it for 4 days
• Stitches out in a week, torn stitches earn a wider scar and a longer lecture
• /me rolls the sleeve down careful over the bandaged forearm

Recovery A week to the stitches coming out, ten days to forgetting which arm it was.·Doctor advised

It did not go through, it plowed. The head cut a furrow along the top of your forearm from wrist toward elbow, long as a finger and deep enough to want closing. The doctor draws it shut with a running silk stitch and allows that it will scar handsome, the kind you can roll a sleeve back from in a saloon for years to come.

• The left forearm stitched along its length, no twisting work, no wringing, no rope coils for 5 days
• The seam kept dry and covered, sun and dirt both make for uglier scars
• /me traces a thumb along the bandage line on the forearm, already rehearsing the telling

Recovery Stitches out in 8 days, a pale ridge of scar inside a month.·Doctor advised

The arrow came in at a flat angle and glanced off the back of your hand, splitting the skin across two knuckles and bruising the small bones beneath. The doctor bends each finger in turn, finds them all answering, and binds the two worst together in a leather stall against the swelling he promises is coming.

• Two fingers of the right hand splinted together, no fist, no trigger, no piano for 6 days
• The hand swells by evening, rings come off now or they come off worse later
• /me flexes the unbound fingers of the right hand, counting what still works

Recovery Bound for 6 days, the knuckles sore and proud for a fortnight after.·Doctor advised

It struck the meat below the elbow at the end of its flight, tired, and went in barely past the head. The doctor works it loose the way you would a fence staple, cleans the pocket with whiskey because the carbolic bottle is low, and closes it with a single stitch and a pat on the shoulder.

• The left arm sore at the elbow, no straightening it fully under load for 4 days
• One stitch to keep, out in 6 days if you leave it be
• /me keeps the left arm at a half bend, like a man carrying an invisible bucket

Recovery Sore for 4 days, forgotten in ten, one small scar to show for it.·Doctor advised

The head skimmed the outside of your forearm and peeled a strip of skin the width of a pencil. It burned like a brand and bled freely for the length of a cigarette, then thought better of it. Washed with carbolic water and wrapped, it is more nuisance than wound.

• The right forearm wrapped light, kept out of the dirt and the wash water for 3 days
• Sleeves stick to it, roll them back or suffer
• /me peels the shirt cuff off the graze with a small hiss

Recovery Scabbed by tomorrow, healed thin inside a week.·No doctor needed

The arrow clipped the edge of your wrist bone in passing and left a shallow cut and a knot that swelled fast. Nothing severed, nothing broken, but the joint complains when it turns, and a doctor's glance would not go amiss to be sure the small bones took no insult.

• The left wrist wrapped snug, no bending it under weight for 4 days
• Reins and coffee cups yes, rifles and roping no
• /me turns the left wrist in a slow circle, testing the complaint in it

Recovery The swelling falls inside 4 days, the cut is a scratch in a week.·Doctor advised

The arrow was near spent when it found you and went in less than a knuckle deep before its own weight dragged it back out of the wound. A puncture the size of a pea, cleaned with whiskey on principle, plugged with lint, and honestly not worth the story you are already improving.

• A small dressing on the right forearm, kept clean for 3 days
• The arm aches at the spot when it takes a knock, plan your doorways accordingly
• /me presses two fingers over the small dressing on the forearm, mostly out of habit

Recovery Closed in 3 days, gone in a week but for a freckle of scar.·No doctor needed

It hit flat and skipping, the way a stone takes a pond, and the broadhead slapped the back of your hand rather than cutting it. You wear a bruise like a squashed plum across the tendons and a shallow scratch you would not otherwise have noticed.

• The back of the left hand bruised, gripping is honest work for 3 days
• Gloves fit tight over the swelling, choose the loose pair
• /me works the left glove off slow over the plum-dark bruise

Recovery Ugly for 3 days, yellow by the fifth, gone within ten.·No doctor needed

The arrow passed through your coat sleeve, drew one red line across the skin of your forearm the way a schoolmaster underlines a bad word, and buried itself in the corral post behind you. The coat is ruined at the cuff. You are not.

• A red welt line across the forearm, tender to a thumb for 2 days
• One coat sleeve with two new holes and a story that grows in the telling
• /me pokes a finger through the matched holes in the coat sleeve, whistling low

Recovery The line fades in 2 days, the coat never forgives.·No doctor needed

A flat thock, and the arrow stood buried in the swell of the saddle a finger's width from your hand on the horn. The head drove far enough through the leather to press a bruise into one knuckle, and that is the entire butcher's bill. The horse is more upset about it than you are.

• One knuckle of the right hand bruised, sore for 2 days whenever it knocks wood
• An arrow hole in the saddle swell that every hostler will ask about
• /me rubs one bruised knuckle with a thumb, eyeing the hole in the saddle leather

Recovery The knuckle forgets it in 2 days.·No doctor needed

You threw your hand up on instinct, and the arrow flew clean between your spread fingers, close enough for the fletching to burn a thin line in the web, and pinned your hat brim to the wagon board behind you. A finger's width either way and this is a different table. As it stands, you have a singed hand, a nailed hat, and a story no one will believe until you show them both.

• A thin feather burn in the web of the right hand, stinging for a day
• The hat carries an arrow hole through the brim, worn forward with pride
• The arrow itself is yours by frontier custom, drinks have been bought for less
• /me spreads the right hand wide, showing the thin burn line where the arrow passed through

Recovery The burn line fades in a day or two. The story never will.·No doctor needed