Calf & Shin: Rifle: Lodged Deep

The round struck your shinbone square and stopped there, the bone gone to gravel around a mushroomed slug. The doctor picks lead and bone from the wreck by lamplight, and what he can't rebuild he splints and prays over, the words if it festers hang in the room like smoke.

• Splinted rigid and bedbound 3 days, then carried or crutched through day 7
• Fever-watch every evening; red streaks mean the saw conversation happens fast
• The shin sets thick and crooked, a rolling hitch in your walk that strangers notice forever after
• /me stares at the splint, thumbing fever-sweat from his lip, listening for the doctor's step.

Recovery 7 days abed with a surgeon and a hard road after; without one, the rot takes the vote.·Doctor, urgently

The round cracked the bone and stopped against it, and every pass of the forceps brings out bone slivers before it ever touches lead. It takes the doctor an hour, a basin of carbolic water gone pink, and every curse you own.

• Extraction wound left partly open to drain for 3 days, dressings twice daily, teeth gritted both times
• Below-knee splint and crutch for 4-5 days
• /me flinches at the tick of each splinter dropped in the basin, losing count on purpose.

Recovery 6 days with a patient surgeon; without one this wound does not forgive.·Doctor required

The doctor holds it up when it finally comes: a rifle round folded near double from striking your shinbone, which took a crack for its trouble. Getting it out of the hard muscle it wedged into was carpentry more than surgery.

• Splinted 4 days for the cracked bone; a crutch beyond arm's reach is a planning failure
• Deep extraction cut stitched over the bullet channel, no boot top on that leg for 4 days
• The bent slug on your watch chain draws a whistle from anyone who knows rifles

Recovery 5-6 days splinted under care, and a mean crooked ache for weeks if you rush it.·Doctor required

The round drove in deep behind the shinbone and the doctor's probe finds it, loses it, finds it again, then he sits back and says not tonight. You sleep with lead in your leg and a fever building, and the second attempt in the morning is the one that works.

• Two surgeries in two days, bandaged, drained, and wrung out; bedrest through day 3
• Low fever between the attempts; laudanum measured out by the spoon
• No weight past a hobble for 4 days after the second cut

Recovery 6 days riding on the doctor's second-morning success; unthinkable without one.·Doctor required

The round tunneled deep and crossways, and the doctor works a full hour by lamplight, probe, forceps, two fingers, and finally the grating slide of lead giving up its grip. You feel it let go all the way to your teeth.

• Long stitched incision alongside the entry hole; dressed daily for 4 days
• Heavy limp 3 days; walk-never-run through day 5
• /me still hears the grate of forceps on lead when the room goes quiet, and reaches for the bottle.

Recovery 5 days with silk and carbolic, 7 raw ones without.·Doctor required

The lead comes out in ten minutes; the bone chips it knocked loose take the rest of the evening. The doctor hunts each sliver by feel, and every one he misses would have been a fever with your name on it.

• Wound kept open and wicked for 2 days so missed fragments can announce themselves
• Splinted light for 3 days; stairs taken sideways, one at a time
• Limp through day 5; no jumping down from anything taller than a boot

Recovery 5 days if the hunt was thorough, a festering week if it wasn't.·Doctor required

The round buried itself dead-center in the thick of the calf and the muscle clamped around it like a fist around a coin. The doctor has to fight the leg's own strength for every inch, and you supply the sound effects.

• The whole calf feels beaten flat after the extraction, deep bruise-ache for 3 days
• Cramps seize the muscle at night for 2-3 nights; a hot brick wrapped in wool helps
• Limp 3 days, no sprinting or climbing through day 5

Recovery 4-5 days rested and kneaded loose, 7 if you work it stubborn.·Doctor required

The doctor slides a porcelain-tipped probe down the channel until it clicks, checks the tip for the gray kiss of lead, and goes in on that one bearing. One clean cut, one long pull, and the round is ringing in the basin before your prayer is finished.

• Probe-and-cut wound stitched neat, dressed daily, no boot chafing it for 3 days
• Limp 3 days; the deep track aches in cold morning air
• /me mutters the tail end of a prayer as the basin rings, then laughs shaky.

Recovery 4 days with the stitches holding, 6 without.·Doctor required

An evening on the table, a lamp turned high, and a rifle round lifted out of your calf muscle in one careful pull. It sat shallower than anyone guessed, spent through brush before it ever found you.

• Stitched extraction cut; keep it dry and dressed for 3 days
• Steady limp 2 days; no running through day 3

Recovery 3 days tended, 5 sore ones solo.·Doctor advised

The round came through a wagon board before it reached you, and arrived too tired to find bone, it sat down in the muscle like a stone in mud. The extraction is quick; the deep stone-bruise it leaves is the part you'll remember.

• Deep bruise stiffens the calf for 3 days; the first steps each morning are wooden
• Small stitched cut over the channel, dressed for 2-3 days
• No sprinting or hauling through day 3

Recovery 3 days with care, 5 with only stubbornness.·Doctor advised

One incision, one pull, one clink in the enamel basin, the sound every shot man waits for. The doctor rinses the round and hands it over like change from a dollar.

• Neat stitched cut alongside the entry hole; dressed daily for 2-3 days
• Mild limp 2 days; skip footraces through day 3

Recovery 3 days stitched and clean, 4-5 otherwise.·Doctor advised

The doctor measures it against his hand afterward: two fingers deep into the calf muscle, straight in, no tumbling, no bone. A short dig as rifle wounds go, which is a sentence only doctors and fools say out loud.

• Extraction site tender to the touch through day 3; boots go on carefully
• Limp 2 days; no hauling or sprinting through day 3

Recovery 3 days with dressing changes, 4-5 without.·Doctor advised

Fired from so far off the crack arrived after the hit, the round had barely enough left to bury itself shallow in the calf. It comes out at the first camp with more ceremony than difficulty.

• Shallow extraction wound; washed nightly and kept covered for 2-3 days
• Slight hitch in your stride for 2 days

Recovery 2-3 days kept clean, 4 if it's ignored.·Doctor advised

The round was near spent when it found you and parked in the fat of the calf, barely past the skin. A doctor's tweezers have it out in the time it takes to pour two whiskeys, yours and his.

• Small plastered nick; stings in bathwater for 2 days
• Full walking today; be kind to it on stairs for a day

Recovery 1-2 days, either way.·No doctor needed

The round came off a rock sideways and slapped into your calf tumbling and tired, lodging crooked just under the hide. It leaves a nastier bruise than hole, a purple handprint around a splinter of lead.

• Wide shallow bruise for 3-4 days; the extraction itself is a needle's work
• /me digs the misshapen scrap of lead from a pocket to settle a bar argument about ricochets.

Recovery 2 days for the nick; the bruise fades on its own schedule.·No doctor needed

It sits so shallow the doctor doesn't bother sitting down, braces the calf, goes in with fine forceps, and plucks the spent round out like a tick off a hound. He charges you half price and full mockery.

• One small dressed nick; tender to the trouser seam for a day or two
• No limp worth performing by tomorrow

Recovery 1-2 days. The mockery lasts longer.·No doctor needed

From that range the round barely made it through the skin, what you mostly have is a magnificent deep bruise with a little lead seed at its center. Squeezed out the same evening; the colors stay on to entertain you.

• Bruise runs blue to green to yellow over 4-5 days, tender at the center for 2
• Faint hitch when the boot seam presses it, gone in a day

Recovery A day or two of soreness; the bruise is a slow sunset.·No doctor needed

At the very end of its reach, the round split the skin and stopped, sitting in the shallow cut like a coin in a purse, you can see the gray gleam when you look down. Fingernails alone could have it out.

• Shallow split under one plaster; stings for a day
• The round, barely marked, makes a fine pocket piece

Recovery A day. Wash, cover, done.·No doctor needed

Somebody shot at you from another county, and by the time the round arrived it had the muscle of a thrown pebble, it stuck in your boot-chafed hide like a burr and hung there. You flick it loose and keep walking.

• A welt and a scratch, gone shy in 2 days
• /me flicks the spent round off his calf, catches it, and pockets the insult.

Recovery A day, treated with nothing but soap.·No doctor needed

The doctor braces for a battle and finds the round lying in the seam between two muscles, cradled like an egg in a nest, one pull and it's out whole, not a chip of bone, not a torn fiber worth the name. He swears across two whiskeys he'll write it up for a journal, and you walk to supper the same night.

• One small stitched cut; walking by evening, gentle on it for a day
• The unmarked round and the doctor's astonishment make the story tell itself
• /me sets the perfect, unflattened round upright on the table like a tiny trophy.

Recovery A day of tenderness, a permanent place in the doctor's repertoire.·No doctor needed