Foot: Revolver: Lodged Deep

The ball drove into the cluster of small bones at your midfoot and wedged fast in the joint between them, past any probe's reach. The doctor can take the foot clean, or leave the lead to poison the joint until the foot fuses into a dead, aching block, and he tells you neither road comes back.

• Bedridden 7 days on morphine, foot swollen tight as a drum and the ankle beyond it
• /me sweats through the sheets while the doctor turns the probe by lamplight one last time
• Either ending is carried for life: a wooden foot or a fused one

Recovery 7 days under a doctor's constant care whichever way you choose; alone, the joint festers and the fever wins·Doctor, urgently

The ball mushroomed flat against your tarsal bones and stuck there like a coin pressed into dough. The doctor cuts down to the bone by lamplight and levers it loose with forceps, and it comes away with chips of you stuck to it.

• No weight on the foot for 5 days; carried, crutched or bedbound
• Incision packed open to drain for 3 days before it is stitched
• Bone chips work up through the skin for days after, sharp as gravel

Recovery 6 days under a doctor's daily care, and no honest way to tough this one out·Doctor, urgently

The first doctor probed an hour, swore, and packed the wound with the ball still in it. It festered overnight, and the second sitting opens the track wider, this time the forceps come back gripping lead, and the whole camp hears your opinion of it.

• A day of fever and a red-streaked foot between the two probings
• Off the foot 4 days; wound left open to drain 2 more
• /me lies with the leg propped on a saddle, watching red streaks spread like map roads

Recovery 5 days once the lead is finally out, 9 and a gangrene scare if nobody digs again·Doctor, urgently

The ball burrowed up under your arch and lodged against the cords that work the toes, every touch of the probe makes them jump like a hanged man's dance. The doctor cuts in from the sole to reach it, and the sole forgives nothing.

• Foot takes no weight at all for 4 days, the cut is where you stand
• Toes twitch and cramp on their own for 2 days after the extraction
• A stiff, deep scar in the arch that aches on long rides

Recovery 5 days with the sole wound tended daily, 10 if you keep walking it open·Doctor required

The ball sits deep in the meat of your midfoot, and there is nothing for it but the old way: whiskey for you, carbolic for the steel, and the probe walking the channel until it clicks on lead. On the third pass the forceps close, and the doctor drops the flattened ball into a tin cup like a collection coin.

• Half a day lost to the table; off the foot for the rest of it
• Limp on a cane for 3 days; wound checked daily for heat
• /me flinches at the click of metal on metal from across the room for days after

Recovery 4 days with a doctor's aftercare, 7 stubborn days without·Doctor required

The forceps come out gripping the ball, and behind it, a soaked grey wad of sock wool the lead dragged in with it. The doctor holds both up to the lamp and tells you the wool would have killed you long before the lead did.

• Wound flushed with carbolic until it runs clean; you feel every drop
• Off the foot 2 days, limping 2 more
• A low fever the first night, broken by morning

Recovery 4 days tended clean, 8 and a festering track if the wool had stayed·Doctor required

The probe grates on something hard between two metatarsals, lead, not bone, and shallow enough to reach. One small cut, one long minute of forceps, and the ball comes free with a wet pop you will hear in your sleep.

• Limp for 3 days; the space between the bones bruises black
• One silk stitch and a lint pad strapped over the instep

Recovery 3 days with a doctor, 6 if you dig it out yourself with a skinning knife·Doctor required

The ball buried itself in the thick pad of your heel and sat there like a stone in a loaf. The doctor cuts in from the side where the skin is thin and shells it out whole, smooth and heavy in his palm.

• Heel takes no weight for 3 days, tiptoe and cane
• Deep ache in the heel each cold morning for a week
• /me crosses the room on the toes of one boot, cane clicking, like a man on thin ice

Recovery 4 days off the heel with care, 6 without·Doctor required

The ball spent its last strength on your boot and slid to a stop just under the skin of your instep, you can see its shape, a marble under a blanket. The doctor lances the skin and squeezes it out like a plum stone.

• One shallow cut, two stitches, a bruise the size of a dollar
• Sore inside a boot for 2 days

Recovery 2 days with the cut kept clean, 4 without·Doctor advised

The ball lodged shallow in the muscle along your foot's outer edge, a hard lump you can roll under a thumb. A short cut, a pinch of forceps, and out it comes before your cigarette burns down.

• Limp lightly for 2 days; the stitch pulls when the foot flexes
• A bruise around the cut, blue-black and tender

Recovery 2 days tended, 4 if the cut is left dirty·Doctor advised

The ball sits snug against bone, deep under the arch, doing no mischief where it lies. The doctor weighs the probe in his hand and sets it down, digging would wreck more than it saves, he says, so the lead stays, and every rain from now on you will know the weather before the clouds do.

• Wound mouth heals shut in 3 days; the limp fades with it
• A deep, weather-wise ache in the arch, worst in cold and wet
• Doctors who feel the lump will always ask about it

Recovery 3 days for the track to close under care, 5 alone, the ball itself never leaves·Doctor advised

The ball clipped your spur strap and lost its manners before it reached you, lodging shallow in the flesh below the ankle knob. The doctor flicks it out with the small forceps and hands you back a bent strap and a bent ball.

• Tender to lace a boot over for 2 days
• A bruise from strap and ball both, blue as gun steel

Recovery 2 days, half that if you keep it clean·Doctor advised

The ball sits just under the muscle sheath on top of your foot, easy as a splinter in a thumb. One cut, one pinch of the forceps, one stitch, the doctor barely looks up from his coffee.

• Walk careful for 2 days; the stitch itches worse than the wound hurts
• The flattened ball returned to you in a twist of paper

Recovery 2 days with the dressing on, 3 without·Doctor advised

The ball was nearly spent when it found you, it sits under the skin of your foot like a pea, and the doctor pops it out through a cut the length of a fingernail. More blood came from your cursing than the wound.

• A plaster and a bruise; tender for a day
• Boot rubs the spot until the scab hardens

Recovery A day or 2, no more·No doctor needed

A ricochet off the water trough, tumbling and tired, it stuck a fingernail deep in the top of your foot, standing proud like a nail half-driven. You could have pulled it with your teeth; tweezers did it politer.

• A puncture no wider than a pencil; sore to flex for a day
• /me plucks the spent ball free and holds it up to the light, unimpressed

Recovery A day, washed and plastered·No doctor needed

The ball punched through the boot's upper and stopped half in the leather, half in your skin, undecided. You pull the boot off and the ball comes with it, leaving a bleeding dimple no deeper than a bootlace hook.

• A shallow, bruised divot on the instep, plastered for a day
• Boot hole whistles in the wind until patched

Recovery A day of sting, then only the itch·No doctor needed

The ball rattled off a fence rail first and barely bit you, catching in the skin at your foot's edge like a burr in a sock. It fell out into your hand when you pressed the skin, flat as a button.

• A blood blister and a scratch, gone in days
• Sock stained; pride mostly intact

Recovery A few hours of smart, a day of tenderness·No doctor needed

You feel the punch, you sit down hard, you cut the lace with shaking hands, and find the ball sunk in the boot's wool lining, its nose just kissing your skin. A stone-bruise where it pressed, and not one drop of blood.

• A deep bruise atop the foot, tender in a boot for 2 days
• /me shakes the boot upside down and the ball drops into the dust

Recovery A day for the bruise to settle·No doctor needed

The spent ball dropped down inside your boot shaft and settled under your arch, hot as a stove lid, while you hopped and swore and clawed at the laces. A scalded stripe across the sole of your foot is the whole of the butcher's bill.

• A burn welt across the arch, greased with lard for a day
• You check your boot tops for a week whenever guns go off

Recovery A day of tender walking, then just a peeling stripe·No doctor needed

The ball buried itself in the stacked leather of your boot heel and stopped a finger's width beneath your flesh, dead as a doornail. That night you pry it out with a knife, flat as a poker chip, and drill it for a watch-chain fob before the story is even done being told.

• Not a scratch on you, the heel took the whole affair
• A lead fob on your watch chain and first call on every bar story
• /me turns the flattened ball on its chain, letting the lamplight catch it

Recovery Nothing to mend but the boot heel·No doctor needed