Grizzly Bear: Bite: Arm & Shoulder

The jaws closed over your shoulder and the joint went like a barrel under a wagon wheel, you heard the crunch through your own skull. The doctor gets the bones roughly home with two men holding you down, then says the words nobody wants: the arm may never rise past your belt again.

• Arm bound to your chest, dead weight, for 7 days, one-handed at everything, and it's the wrong hand
• Grinding ache in the shoulder that laudanum only quiets, never kills
• Fever watch on the deep punctures, crushed flesh goes to gangrene fast, and gangrene means the bonesaw
• /me stands with the bound arm cradled, learning to do everything backwards

Recovery 7 days bound under a doctor's daily eye, and the shoulder gives its final answer in its own season·Doctor, urgently

Both bones of your forearm broke in the bite like kindling over a knee, and the teeth left weeping holes on either side of the break. Setting it is a two-man job done to the sound of your own teeth grinding on a leather strap; the splint goes over sutured punctures, which pleases nobody.

• Forearm splinted and slung, no gun, no rope, no reins in that hand for 7 days
• Tooth punctures under the splint must be checked daily for heat and stink
• /me carries the splinted arm like a parcel, fingers swollen fat above the wrap

Recovery 7 days splinted with a doctor watching the punctures, far worse if the break sours untended·Doctor, urgently

The shake wrenched your shoulder clean out of its socket while the teeth held the meat of it. A doctor put it back with a boot in your armpit and a count that only went to two, and now the whole works, joint, punctures and pride, sits in a sling.

• Arm slung tight for 6 days, no lifting, no throwing, no catching yourself when you stumble
• Deep punctures around the shoulder cap, packed and dressed morning and night
• The joint aches before rain now, and you're told that part might visit for years

Recovery 6 days slung under a doctor's care, 10 loose and lame without·Doctor required

It held your upper arm and chewed, the way a dog worries a bone, and the muscle is pulped between punctures though the bone held. The arm hangs at your side, obedient as a sack of meal, and the doctor talks about crushed flesh going bad if it isn't watched close.

• Arm hangs useless, it lifts to the waist and no higher for 5 days
• Rows of deep punctures above the elbow, kept open to drain the first 2 days
• Fever watch morning and night; pulped muscle sours quicker than cut

Recovery 5 days drained and dressed by a doctor, 9 and a gamble on gangrene without·Doctor required

Four teeth met through the meat of your forearm, in the top and out the bottom, and the holes must be kept open to drain or they will close over the dirt and fester. Weeping wounds, wet bandages and a hand too swollen to make a fist.

• Punctures kept draining for 2 days before they're allowed to close, bandages changed twice daily
• Grip at half strength for 4 days; the gun hand shakes on the draw
• /me flexes the swollen hand slow, watching the fingers refuse the last inch

Recovery 4 days of drain-and-dress with a doctor, 8 and a hot arm if they close dirty·Doctor required

Nothing broke that a doctor can name, but the crush caught a nerve somewhere and the arm has gone stupid, pins and needles to the fingertips and a grip that drops coffee cups. The feeling comes back, you are told, the way spring comes back: eventually, and in patches.

• Numb, clumsy arm, no fine work, no firearms, no trusting it with anything breakable for 4 days
• Pins and needles wake you at night when you lie on it
• Bruised tooth-marks in a ring around the upper arm, going every color of a sunset

Recovery 4 days for the feeling to creep back, 7 if you keep insulting it with work·Doctor required

You twisted as it shook you and saved the bones at the cost of the elbow, which is sprained deep and swollen tight as a waterskin. Tooth punctures dot the forearm below it, shallow but dirty.

• Elbow splinted straight for 4 days, the arm neither bends for food nor straightens for work
• Punctures on the forearm washed with carbolic and plastered

Recovery 4 days splinted and sensible, 7 if you keep bending what shouldn't bend·Doctor required

A clean bite, if there is such a thing, deep punctures both sides of the forearm, bone bruised but whole, muscle torn enough to matter. Carbolic in the holes hurts worse than the teeth did, which the doctor cheerfully tells you means it's working.

• Forearm bandaged wrist to elbow, half-grip only for 3 days, no rope work
• Deep bruise-ache in the bones when the weather leans cold
• Punctures silk-stitched where they gape, plastered where they don't

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's carbolic, 6 with fever odds on whiskey alone·Doctor required

The jaws closed but the coat and muscle spared the bone, what is left is a bruise that wraps the arm like a sleeve and four punctures no deeper than a bootnail. The whole limb goes purple-yellow inside a day, spectacular and survivable.

• Arm bruised in a full ring, tender to every bump and lean for 3 days
• Four small punctures washed and plastered; keep them clean, punctures hold grudges

Recovery 3 days tender, faded by 5·Doctor advised

It had your sleeve and half your arm and it shook you off your feet, and the wrenching did more harm than the teeth. Strained shoulder, strained wrist, punctures like a snake's kiss, and a memory of your own boots leaving the ground.

• Shoulder and wrist strapped, lifting and throwing stay light for 3 days
• Shallow punctures on the upper arm under a plaster
• /me rolls the shoulder gingerly, wincing at the top of the circle

Recovery 3 days strapped up, 5 working through it·Doctor advised

Deep bruising and one honest puncture near the elbow bought you a sling and a week of small humiliations, buttons, boots and saddle cinches all turned two-handed jobs done with one. The wound is clean; the arm just wants leaving alone.

• Arm slung for 2 days, then stiff and careful for 2 more
• One puncture by the elbow, dressed daily and healing honest

Recovery 2 days slung, 4 til the arm forgives you, add 2 to both without a proper cleaning·Doctor advised

The bite caught the meat below the shoulder and left your last two fingers buzzing like a struck fence wire. Feeling wanders back over the days, but for now the hand fumbles cards, coins and the small hooks of living.

• Last two fingers numb and foolish for 3 days, fine work suffers, shooting's fair but reloading's slow
• Puncture bruise below the shoulder, plastered and tender

Recovery 3 days for the buzzing to fade, 5 if you sleep on it wrong·Doctor advised

The teeth came through coat, shirt and the top layer of you, a row of shallow punctures up the forearm like a seamstress gone mad. Bloody out of all proportion to the depth, which you discover only after the panic burns off.

• Forearm plastered in a row of small dressings for 2 days
• Blood-soaked sleeve you can't quite bring yourself to wash

Recovery 2 days under plasters, 4 if punctures are left to their own devices·Doctor advised

It mouthed your arm the way a dog mouths a stick it hasn't decided about, and dropped it when the shot went off. Tooth-shaped bruises, no blood, and a whole night of turning the arm in the firelight marveling.

• Ring of tooth-bruises above the wrist, tender for 2 days
• /me pushes the sleeve up to show the bruise-ring, dark as plums

Recovery 2 days of tenderness, gone by 3·No doctor needed

The teeth went through the heavy coat sleeve and just barely found you, two nicks and a scrape where four killers should have been. The coat sleeve looks like it lost a knife fight.

• Two small nicks on the forearm, washed with whiskey and forgotten in a day or 2
• Coat sleeve holed clean through in four places, you poke a finger through them when you tell it

Recovery A day or 2, all told·No doctor needed

Your thick leather cuff took the bite meant for the wrist and held, barely, you pulled a dented arm out of a ruined cuff and counted your fingers twice. The bruise beneath is deep but the skin never parted.

• Wrist bruised under the ruined cuff, stiff for 2 days
• The cuff, tooth-holed and flattened, rides on your belt as a conversation starter

Recovery 2 days of stiffness·No doctor needed

You tore your arm out of its mouth a heartbeat before the jaws set, and the teeth raked skin instead of taking meat. Long shallow scrapes from elbow to wrist, dramatic as war paint and about as deep.

• Raked scrapes down the forearm, stinging under a wash of whiskey for a day or 2
• /me shows the raked forearm to anyone who doubts the story

Recovery A day or 2 of stinging·No doctor needed

The jaws snapped shut on the loose fold of your coat sleeve and you slid your arm out of it like a letter out of an envelope. The bear kept the sleeve. You kept the arm, and both of you seemed briefly surprised by the arrangement.

• A scraped elbow from the yank, gone by tomorrow
• One coat now short a sleeve, you wear it anyway, and it does the storytelling

Recovery By morning·No doctor needed

You shoved the rifle up crossways as the jaws came down, and it bit the stock instead of your arm, you felt the crack travel through the wood into your teeth. It flung the gun into the brush and lost interest in the rest of you.

• Jarred wrists and a bone-deep hum in both hands for a few hours
• Rifle stock scarred with a full set of grizzly tooth-marks, worth more now than the day you bought it
• /me runs a thumb along the tooth-dents in the stock, letting the wood tell it

Recovery A few hours' shaking, then just the story·No doctor needed

The jaws closed on your forearm and every man who has heard the story since agrees you should have lost it, but in the half-second before the crush, your horse screamed, the bear flinched, and you pulled the arm out from between four fence-post teeth wearing nothing worse than a red pressure line. By nightfall even that was gone. You keep the shirt with the four neat tears in the sleeve, and you have stopped telling it to people who call you a liar.

• A fading pressure line around the forearm, gone by morning
• Four neat tooth-tears in the sleeve, framed by unbroken skin
• A grizzly's mouth measured your arm and gave it back, the story is yours forever

Recovery One glass of something strong·No doctor needed