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Did You Know... (#1) if you fall on black ice you can dislocate your shoulder?

This morning I awoke at my normal hour, stepped out onto my driveway slid 15 feet and instantly realized that I had but three choices:

  1. Continue sliding until I slid down the steep part of my driveway some 200 feet into the roadway or
  2. Fall backwards and crack my head, potentially leaving an artistic but unpleasant blood blot at the top of my driveway or
  3. Fall forward in an athletic and graceful tumble

Needless to say, I chose option three; put my arms out in front, forgot to roll and won a free ride in our town ambulance. I was then rewarded with 10 hours in the emergency room, four hours in the operating room and will now be doing my tip of the day using dictation software.

Published 10 December 2007 09:45 PM by jesseliberty

Comments

# Did You Know... (#1) if you fall on black ice you can dislocate your shoulder? - Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek said on 10 December, 2007 10:47 PM

Pingback from  Did You Know... (#1) if you fall on black ice you can dislocate your shoulder? - Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek

# wireplay said on 10 December, 2007 11:41 PM

Get well. I live in Colorado and have slipped a number of times on my old driveway. Your blog is great so I expect we'll all go to new heights of Silverlight awareness, in combination with your pain medication ;-]

# Test said on 10 December, 2007 11:42 PM

This morning I awoke at my normal hour stepped out onto my driveway slid 15 feet and instantly realized

# rjstinyc said on 11 December, 2007 01:28 AM

Jesse,

That is horrible!! I have seen #2 in person without the blood art and let me tell you it scared the "&@# out of me.

Long live voice recognition for those injured on ice.

On another note ... does Microsoft have a android dog named Byte on its campus?  I dreamed this one up last night.

Get Well,

Richard

# DARK-BG said on 11 December, 2007 07:17 AM

Wow seems like in the US there is snow for the first time :D In bulgaria it is normal to slip 3 times every day :D to slide at least 3 times in the winter with the car cause the company that should clean the snow and left some salt on the road is not doing that enough faster when it is needed.So if you want extreme experiences such a driver ready to knock your head cause you`ve crossed his way , nice homless dogs , World rally Championship drivers on the street , Formula 1 on the Highway and DTM series on the mountains ways come to bulgaria realy nice place and alot of other extreme things that you can see every day :P

# tgrand said on 11 December, 2007 09:57 AM

My driveway was completely iced over yesterday morning and I slid down the entire thing while trying to free my ice-encased car.  Somehow I managed to keep my balance.  Sorry to hear you were not so lucky. :(

# chrishay_uk said on 11 December, 2007 12:13 PM

Get Well Jesse,

Many years ago, I had a similar decision whilst learning to Rollerblade down a large hill on a main road with an empty dry dock at the bottom.

I made the same choice you made and broke my wrist.

# BenHayat said on 11 December, 2007 12:41 PM

Jesse, I pray that the injury is minor and will not lead into any issues. Get well soon!

..Ben

# WynApse said on 11 December, 2007 01:56 PM

Ice ... we get that in Phoenix from the freezer compartment of the refrigerator... we still had a window open all night in the house last night!

On a serious note: hope you get well soon, Jesse, that doesn't sound like a fun way to begin the day!

# BenHayat said on 11 December, 2007 07:14 PM

So Jesse, what's the damage? What happened? Is it serious?

..Ben

# jesseliberty said on 11 December, 2007 08:05 PM

I didn't mean to inflict my personal little saga on you all. But here it is...

I stepped out onto my driveway, and immediately began to slide like I was on a skating rink. As I said above, I chose to fall forward, but I forgot to relax my arms, next thing I knew I was on my back, unable to move.

I called my wife who was stuck in the ice in the car, lower on the driveway;  she called an ambulance. After a while I could roll onto my right side, and so I crawled out of the driveway to avoid being run over, and slumped in my garage door. The ambulance couldn't come up the driveway so the town sanded my driveway and I was on my way to the ER.

After a few hours, the doctor decided what he would like to do is pop my dislocated shoulder back in place, which sounded like a world of fun. On the second attempt, hey presto! It worked.

They took me to x-ray where the technician told me to crawl onto the table, thereby popping my shoulder back out! After a few more attempts, they decided to send me to the 0.R. for general anesthesia and they popped it back in.

After a CAT scan, they sent me home in a sling, thus I am typing this using dictation software, and assuming nothing is broken (in my arm, not the software), I'll be off to a presentation in Florida on Friday, and then on to see Mickey Mouse at Disney World.

So: much ado about nothing.

I think however, that with blogs and the communities we've created, it simply is no longer true that on the Internet "nobody knows you're a dog," and I very much appreciate your concern.

-jesse

# jesseliberty said on 15 December, 2007 09:32 PM

Quick follow-up for those of you who are curious.

Turned out that I wasn't quite as lucky as I hoped, and there is a significant fracture, and so surgery is scheduled for December 20.

However, I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful upper arm orthopedic surgeon who does not anticipate any significant issues in the surgery or the recovery.

With any luck at all you'll see no interruption in my presence here or on my blog, videos will continue to appear, and I'm planning on attending and speaking at Code Mash in January.

I very much appreciate all of your kind words and good wishes, and I look forward to returning to focusing on technical issues as soon as I emerge from the fog of painkillers.

Thanks again.

Jesse (Silverlight Klutz) Liberty

# Shawn Weisfeld [MVP] said on 16 December, 2007 10:42 AM

Our original plan for Day of Silverlight was to have Jesse Liberty from the Silverlight product team

# jesseliberty said on 28 December, 2007 02:26 PM

Postoperative update.

For those of you who are curious: I had arthroscopic surgery on my shoulder, which was entirely successful, and now one week later, things are healing nicely. I am back at work half-time, and will be increasing my hours over the coming weeks.

My next scheduled event, is at Code Mash, (http://www.codemash.org/) where I have two presentations and at least one informal session scheduled, and my doctor sees no reason I won't be able to attend.

Have an incredibly happy new year, and thanks for your kind wishes through this ordeal.

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