Shoulder: Revolver: Lodged Deep

The ball flattened itself against the shoulder socket and welded there, and no probe alive can cut it free without ruining what's left. The doctor closes his bag slow and talks about the arm the way you'd talk about a lame horse.

• Arm strapped to your chest, useless, for 7 days
• Grinding lead-on-bone pain with every heartbeat, dulled only by laudanum
• /me stares at the ceiling, jaw working, as the doctor talks in a low voice
• The lead stays; the joint may set stiff around it for good

Recovery 7 days strapped and dosed under a doctor before you learn what the arm will ever be again.·Doctor, urgently

The ball drove deep and flattened against the shoulder blade like a coin on a rail. The extraction takes the doctor an hour, two probes, and a pair of forceps he has to lean on.

• Wound cut wider for the extraction, a dozen stitches and 6 days in a sling
• Deep bone bruise ache that laudanum only files the edges off

Recovery 6 days with a doctor's care after the digging, 10 if you let just anyone carve on you.·Doctor, urgently

The ball wandered off its own path somewhere inside and the doctor hunts it by feel, a steel probe walking through your shoulder while you count the ceiling boards. He finds it on the fourth pass.

• An hour on the table, awake for all of it, shaking hands the rest of the night
• Shoulder slung 5 days, probing channel packed and dressed daily
• Cold sweats whenever you hear steel touch a metal tray

Recovery 5 days of daily dressing with a doctor, 9 if the channel closes dirty.·Doctor required

The ball carried a wad of your shirt in ahead of it and sat down on top of it. The doctor brings out the lead easy enough, it's the wool he digs for, thread by thread, because one left behind means gangrene.

• Wound kept open and wicked for 5 days so it drains, dressing changed twice a day, no bathing that shoulder
• Fever watch every evening: any red streaks and you ride for the doctor
• /me sniffs at the dressing and tries to pretend they weren't checking

Recovery 5 days if the doctor got every thread, 9 fevered ones and worse talk if he didn't.·Doctor required

The classic scene, and you're the star: three fingers of whiskey, a belt to bite, and forceps chasing a ball two knuckles deep in your shoulder. It comes out flat as a button and twice as ugly.

• Extraction wound stitched and slung 4 days, no shooting or heavy lifting on that side
• You keep the flattened ball; it turns up in your pocket at strange hours
• /me turns the flattened slug over in their fingers by firelight

Recovery 4 days with a doctor's care, 7 if a friend with a knife did the honors.·Doctor required

The doctor goes still halfway through the extraction and works the next minute in silence. Out comes the ball, and only then does he tell you it was resting a half inch from the artery, close enough to feel it tick.

• Absolute rest for the arm for 4 days, any tearing inside and you bleed where no tourniquet reaches
• Wound checked daily for the hot swell of hidden bleeding
• Sudden urge to sit down every time you think about it

Recovery 4 careful days under a doctor's eye, 7 if you gamble without one.·Doctor required

The ball sits against the shoulder blade where you can feel it grate like a stone in a boot every time the arm swings. Two days of that music before the doctor can cut it out proper.

• A grinding click in the shoulder with every reach until extraction, then 3 days slung
• Cannot sleep on that side for 4 days
• /me freezes mid-reach as something shifts and grinds inside the shoulder

Recovery 4 days all told with a doctor's timely knife, 7 aching ones if you put the cutting off.·Doctor required

The ball came out, but not politely, the doctor had to open the channel wide to chase it, and the cure left a bigger hole than the crime. Packed with carbolic gauze and bound tight.

• Extraction site packed and re-dressed daily for 4 days
• A crater scar in the making that will pull when the weather turns
• Arm slung 3 days, tender to the touch for a week

Recovery 4 days with a doctor's dressing, 7 and a worse scar without.·Doctor required

The ball lodged shallow against gristle and popped free on the doctor's second pull, sudden as a cork. The relief buckles your knees more than the shot did.

• Small extraction wound stitched, arm slung 2 days
• Shoulder tender and bruised deep for 4 days

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's stitching, 5 if you tough it out.·Doctor advised

Lodged in the thick of the deltoid, out in a quarter hour of honest digging. The doctor drops the ball in your palm still warm and tells you to buy a better class of enemy.

• Arm slung 3 days, no rifle to that shoulder
• A flattened slug on your watch chain if you want it
• /me holds the pulled ball up to the lamp, squinting at the shape of it

Recovery 3 days with a doctor, 5 if you let it heal around bar-room surgery.·Doctor advised

The ball spent its temper on your coat and stopped a thumb's depth into the shoulder muscle. Ten minutes of digging, one long howl, and it's rattling in a tin cup.

• Wound packed 2 days, slung 2 days
• Deep bruise the size of a saucer blooming purple by morning

Recovery 3 days with a proper cleaning, 4 doing it yourself in a mirror.·Doctor advised

The deltoid caught the ball like a fist closing around it, no bone, no cord, just meat gripping lead. The extraction is short and mean, and you feel every grain of it.

• No lifting or shooting with that arm for 3 days
• A knot in the muscle you can feel for a week after

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's work, 5 stiff ones without.·Doctor advised

Ball out, wound flushed, teeth still set: a textbook extraction with nothing worse than a channel that needs keeping clean. The carbolic sting is a small tax on good luck.

• Dressing changed daily for 3 days, arm favored throughout
• Everything you own smells faintly of carbolic for days

Recovery 3 days with a doctor's flushing, 5 if you skip the carbolic and trust whiskey.·Doctor advised

You feel it before the doctor does: a hard pea under the skin at the back of the shoulder where the spent ball fetched up. One shallow cut and it's out, neat as a splinter.

• A single stitched nick, tender for 2 days
• Bragging rights: shot in the shoulder and the skin refused it an exit

Recovery 2 days either way; the cut to fetch it out was smaller than the wound.·Doctor advised

The ball arrived tired, too far, too old a load, too much coat in the way. It sits in the first inch of muscle sulking, and comes out with tweezers and one sharp word.

• Sore lump of a bruise for 2 days
• /me flicks the spent ball across the table like a gambling chip

Recovery 2 days, treated or not; the ball did most of its dying before it reached you.·No doctor needed

Lodged a finger's depth in the meat, shallow enough that a steady friend with a clean knife and a steadier stomach gets it out by lantern light.

• Small wound bound tight for 2 days
• A new respect for your friend's hands, or a new grudge

Recovery 2 days with any halfway clean care, 3 if the lantern surgery was sloppy.·No doctor needed

The ball sits so obliging that the doctor has it out in one pull, before you've finished inhaling to scream. He charges you for the whole visit anyway.

• A plug-sized wound dressed for 2 days
• Faint click of forceps in your dreams for a night

Recovery 2 days and a bar tab; the extraction was the easiest part of your week.·No doctor needed

The ball met your suspender buckle first and lost the argument, wobbling on into the skin with barely the strength to lodge. It sits half-proud of the flesh, gleaming.

• Plucked out with fingers, a bruise and a nick, tender for a day
• The bent buckle rides in your pocket as a lucky piece

Recovery A day, if you can call it recovering.·No doctor needed

You look down and the ball is looking back, lodged in the very mouth of the wound, half out already like it lost its nerve. Tweezers, a hiss, done.

• Shallow nick cleaned and plastered, tender a day
• A perfectly round souvenir with your name almost on it

Recovery A day either way; the wound is barely deeper than the ball was wide.·No doctor needed

The ball skated along the flat of your shoulder blade under the skin, rode the bone like a toboggan, and stopped at your collar where the doctor pushes it out with one thumb. He wants to write it up for a journal; you want a drink.

• A long red welt over the shoulder blade, sore a few hours
• The unmarked ball on your watch chain, smoothest lead anyone's ever pulled
• /me rolls the ball along the bar top, letting it wobble to a stop

Recovery By morning it's a story; by evening it's a better one.·No doctor needed