Calf & Shin: Revolver: Lodged Deep

The soft ball flattened itself against your shinbone like a coin on a rail, cracking the bone and burrowing in cloth and all. The doctor probes three times, brings out wool and bone-grit but never the lead, and finally sits back: the ball stays, the wound is souring around it, and the words he uses next are gangrene and saw.

• Bedbound and fevered for 2-3 days while the carbolic war is fought; crutch only through day 7
• The leg keeps a deep hollow scar where the doctor mined for lead
• If the leg is saved you carry the flattened ball against the bone forever, it aches before storms and flinches at any press on the shin
• /me runs a thumb down the shin and stops at the hard lump under the scar, jaw tightening.

Recovery 5-7 days abed with a surgeon fighting the rot; without one, the leg, or more, is forfeit.·Doctor, urgently

The ball sits deep in the thick of the calf and the doctor goes in three times before his forceps finally close on it. By the third pass you've bitten through the leather strap and learned what the bottom of your own voice sounds like.

• Extraction wound gapes wider than the bullet hole, stitched, drained, and dressed twice daily for 4 days
• No weight past a hobble for 3 days; crutch or a friendly shoulder
• /me white-knuckles the table edge as the forceps go in again, boots drumming once against the floor.

Recovery 5 days with drains and clean dressings, a week and a fever without.·Doctor required

The ball glanced off the smaller leg bone, chipped it, and buried itself in the muscle alongside. The doctor brings out the lead, then goes back in for the chips, three sharp little moons of your own bone in the basin.

• Splinted below the knee for 4-5 days to rest the chipped bone
• Deep bruise-ache down the outside of the leg; stairs taken one at a time
• No riding at speed and no jumping down from wagons through day 5

Recovery 5 days splinted under care, 7 rough ones and a grinding ache if you skip the splint.·Doctor required

The ball tunneled up alongside the big vessels behind your shinbone and the doctor works by feel, a porcelain-tipped probe sliding deep while everyone in the room holds their breath. One slip means a flood; it takes an hour, comes out clean, and you age a year on the table.

• Deep channel packed and bound, absolutely no running or hard riding for 4 days, lest it tear a vessel
• Calf too tender to bear a boot top for 3 days; trouser slit and pinned
• Cold sweats when you remember the sound of the probe; the story takes whiskey to tell

Recovery 5 days of enforced quiet with a doctor, 7 nervous ones alone, it wants watching, not toughness.·Doctor required

By lamplight the doctor opens the entry wound wider, follows the channel with two fingers, and pulls the flattened ball out of your calf like a bad tooth. It rings in the enamel basin, and that sound is the sweetest thing you've heard all week.

• Fresh extraction cut atop the bullet hole, stitched, dressed, no boot on that leg for 3 days
• Heavy limp for 3 days; walk-never-run through day 5
• /me tips the misshapen ball out of a vest pocket and sets it spinning on the bar.

Recovery 4 days with stitches and carbolic, 6 sore ones if the wound stays open.·Doctor required

The ball came out easy enough, the trouble was the plug of trouser wool it dragged in ahead of itself, wadded deep in the channel and already turning the flesh angry. The doctor fishes for cloth twice as long as he fished for lead.

• Wound flushed with carbolic morning and night for 3 days, the sting brings tears with no shame in them
• Low fever the first 2 nights; the wound gets watched close for red streaks
• Limp for 3 days, no hard labor on the leg through day 5

Recovery 4 days once every thread is out, 6-7 festering ones if any stayed.·Doctor required

No doctor within a day's ride, so it's your belt between your teeth while a steady-handed friend goes in with a boiled knife and whiskey-washed fingers. The ball comes out on the third try, along with a scream you'll deny making.

• Ragged amateur cut needs a real doctor's stitches within a day or it heals wide and ugly
• Limp hard for 3 days; the leg buckles if you pivot fast, through day 4
• /me spits out the belt, breathing like a bellows, and holds out a shaking palm for the ball.

Recovery 4-5 days if a doctor tidies the mess after, 7 if the camp job is all it gets.·Doctor required

The doctor lays the extracted ball beside his probe and shows you: half an inch deeper and it would have been against the bone with the big vessels for neighbors. As it stands it's a deep dig through solid muscle, bad enough, and lucky beyond deserving.

• Deep muscle wound aches to the ankle; the calf cramps at night for 2-3 nights
• Limp for 3 days; no sprinting, climbing, or dancing through day 5
• Puckered extraction scar that doctors will prod approvingly for years

Recovery 4 days dressed and rested, 6 if you work it too soon.·Doctor required

It sat shallow enough that a knife tip, a whiskey wash, and a friend with steady hands did the job by the fire. Hurt like the devil's own dentistry, but the lead is out and rolling in your palm.

• Fire-side surgery cut wants proper cleaning within a day; whiskey is a start, not a finish
• Limp for 2 days; keep it out of river water and mud through day 3
• /me flips the little lead ball like a coin at the campfire, catching it without looking.

Recovery 3 days kept clean and covered, 5 if the camp job sours.·Doctor advised

The ball's in there, snug in the muscle, and there's nothing for it but to bind the hole and ride the day to a proper doctor with every hoofbeat tapping the lead like a knuckle. It comes out easy on a clean table, the waiting was the wound.

• Every step and hoofbeat until extraction is a dull deep knock in the calf
• After extraction: limp for 2 days, no running through day 3
• Entry scar plus a neat surgical line beside it, a two-part story

Recovery 3 days once it's out, 5-6 aching ones if you put the doctor off.·Doctor advised

You can feel it when you press: a hard little stranger deep in the calf muscle, grumbling with every step but touching nothing vital. The doctor takes it out through one clean cut and charges you extra for the complaining.

• Pressing anywhere near it whitens your knuckles until it's out
• Post-extraction limp for 2 days; no ladders or sprints through day 3

Recovery 3 days with the cut stitched, 5 if you let the wound gape.·Doctor advised

The doctor opens the channel a finger-width, presses the muscle from both sides, and the ball pops out into the basin like a pea from a pod. Shortest surgery of his week, he says, and still the longest minute of yours.

• Single tidy incision, stitched, keep it dry and dressed for 3 days
• Mild limp for 2 days; tender to a boot top through day 3

Recovery 2-3 days stitched, 4 unstitched and grumpy.·Doctor advised

The ball spent itself pushing through your boot top and trouser first, and sat down shallow in the outer muscle like it had lost interest. Getting it out is five bad minutes; keeping the hole clean is the whole rest of the job.

• Small deep-bruised crater once the ball is out; wants a wash and fresh lint daily for 3 days
• Slight hitch in your stride for 2 days
• Checking the wound for heat each evening becomes the day's small ritual

Recovery 3 days kept clean, 4-5 if it's left to crust over dirty.·Doctor advised

It's sitting right there under the skin on the far side of the calf, a marble you can roll with your thumb, it went almost through and ran out of steam at the last layer. The doctor slits the skin over it and it's out before you finish inhaling.

• One small nick over the lump, plastered; the sting fades in a day
• Full walking the same day; skip footraces for a day out of respect

Recovery 1-2 days, treated or not, the skin does the remembering.·No doctor needed

Fired from far enough that the ball arrived tired, punching through trouser and skin and stopping in the first inch of meat. It comes out with tweezers and a wince, flat on one side like a dropped biscuit.

• Shallow divot dressed with a plaster, tender to the boot seam for 2 days
• A bruise the size of a playing card blooms around it by morning

Recovery 2 days either way. The bruise outlasts the hole.·No doctor needed

The ball barely broke the skin and lodged in the fat, and by nightfall a bruise the size of a silver dollar has gone deep blue around the little slit. Anyone with clean fingers and a sewing needle could evict it.

• Deep-blue coin of a bruise that yellows over 3-4 days, a talking point at the bathhouse
• Slight tenderness walking; no real limp after the first evening

Recovery A day or two of soreness; the bruise takes its own sweet week to fade.·No doctor needed

It sat so shallow the doctor didn't bother with instruments, he braced two thumbs, pinched, and squeezed the ball out of your calf the way you'd shell a bean. Undignified, brisk, and done.

• Small angry welt where the ball surrendered; smarts in hot bathwater for 2 days
• No limp worth the name by tomorrow

Recovery A day, maybe two. Dignity takes a little longer.·No doctor needed

The ball punched through your boot top, laid a bruised dent into the meat of the calf, and stopped right there, lodged in the leather with its nose barely through your hide. You cut it free of the boot and keep both as evidence.

• Bruised welt with one broken blister of skin at its center, tender for a day
• The boot sports a lead-plugged hole that every stableboy will ask about

Recovery A day of tenderness; the boot never fully recovers.·No doctor needed

You reach down expecting the worst and find the ball hanging half out of the entry hole, caught by a flap of skin like it lost its nerve at the door. One tug, one sharp word, and you're holding it.

• A slit and a shallow pocket, plastered shut, stings for a day
• /me plucks the ball free between finger and thumb, holds it to the light, unimpressed.

Recovery A day. Wash it, cover it, forget it.·No doctor needed

The ball broke skin, gave up, and slid down inside your boot to rattle around your ankle all through the fight. When you finally sit and pour the boot out, a flattened lead ball rolls across the floor and the whole room goes quiet, then buys you drinks until you can't feel the scratch it left.

• One shallow scratch atop the calf, barely worth a plaster
• The ball, drilled and strung on your watch chain, is worth a free drink in any saloon for a month of Sundays
• /me upends the boot over the table and lets the flattened ball ring against the wood.

Recovery A scratch, healed in a day, retold for a lifetime.·No doctor needed