by Tiburon » Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:17 am
Two words: Mandibular dislocation.
In my competitiveroller hockey days back in '96 (had a tryout with the RHI's (pro) Philadelphia Bulldogs, and also played ice hockey and dek (ball) hockey at a high level), I was playing in a PICKUP game (ironic, eh?), and I decided to drop back on defense after scoring like 6 goals.
Puck ends up behind the net, and I do my best Brian Leetch impersonation, swinging behind the net--I deke around one guy, skate past a second, and as I come up across the center (red) line, I see two defensemen fairly close together and decide to split them (because I'm a showboat).
I pull the old Mighty Ducks triple deke, only at top speed, and I turn one guy practically out of his shorts and the second guy starts to fall as I shift to go between them. He picks up his skate to catch his balance and I hit his leg knee high and launched up into the air and landed chin/face first on the concrete floor. Out cold.
I wake up (from what I'm told a minute or so later) in a puddle of blood and feel for my teeth. I can feel them touching my hand, but have no feeling in my face (side effect of being forcibly knocked out)--so they're there--good. I then feel a shooting pain up the right side of my face and run my hand up my jaw, where I feel a lump, which turned out to be the root of my jawbone where it comes into the skull at the TMJ (temporo-mandibular joint). It's displaced about 3/4 inch to the right, so that it's sticking out almost as far as my ear.
Off to the hospital I go. I've got about a 25-stitch cut, and I've lost a decent amount of blood. So, they're stitching me up, and in the middle, the ER maxillofacial surgeon (who was shocked that my jaw wasn't broken) says to me, "Just take a deep breath..." I do, and he grabs my chin and the inside of my mouth and FORCIBLY relocates my jaw.
It hurt so bad I passed out. When I was revived with ammonia inhalants, I came up swinging--when he calmed me down, he resumed stitching me up. Did I mention that because the cut was so deep, they couldn't use lidocaine because of the risk of tissue damage?
So, mandibular dislocation--the most pain I've ever experienced in my life.