Went out to the paintball fields after one heck of a storm overnight. I drizzled half the day and had 6" of water and mud on most of the site...but we played on!
It was so humid out that even double paned goggles were fogging up. I could hardly make out figures in the grass. Ball seemed to be flying weird as well. I think I scored four hits the entire day.
The first scenario was a fort battle. I got a pair of 12 yr olds within 50 ft of the opposing fort. Nobody even knew we were there. All they had to do was sprint up and touch the wall for the win. Instead...all they wanted to do was argue over who was going to run out and do it. After a couple minutes, I mumbled something not very fitting for children and took off myself. The defenders were oblivious to our presence and I should have just casually strolled up to the fort.
But nooooooooooo, for some reason my brain just won't let me do that. Instead, I go full battle charge, gun a'blazin!
I get to the levy 10 ft in front and hit the wet clay. My feet go backwards and I start to go down. All I see is tangled exposed oak roots and I brace for impact. I took the brunt of it on the upper arm and managed to smash the side of my head into some smaller roots and mud. I plugged the end of my barrel with mud. I manage to stand back up and squeeze off a couple shots as I try to ice-skate up the mud embankment. The guy in the fort window looked a bit shocked to see someone there, but my spray of yellow mud did little to neutralize the target. A half inch of mud in the barrel has a way of doing that.
I of course got popped and was out. As I walked off the field, I noticed my left hand was aching and I couldn't move my index finger very well. Over the next 20 min it began to swell significantly. It still moved in all the directions it was supposed to, and not in any direction it wasn't supposed to, so it passed the initial triage test. Regardless, I decided to call it an early day and only played another 4 or 5 hours before heading home to work in the garage another couple hours. I then decided it might be wise to put a little ice on it.
I never realized just how much I use my left index finger until today at work. I did a bit of google searching for knuckle injuries...because if it's on the internet, it has to be true, right? I did a couple movement tests, isolating each of the ligament groups on the two fingers. Everything was fine until I held the index finger towards the thumb with my opposite hand and tried to move my finger back towards the middle finger. After I picked myself up off the floor and got over the nausea from pain, the diagnosis was painfully clear.
My fingers must have done the splits when I did the face plant onto the root bundle. I don't even remember hitting the hand. All joking aside, I saw what I was about to crash into and I was just worried about ribs, arms and neck. I tucked my head down along my arm and folded it up to cover the important areas. I figured my upper arm against the chest was the best option. Still f-ing hurt! I think my wife has some sort of radar for stupid injuries...and muddy paintball clothes in the washing machine.
...and of course....a pic. Just a wee bit swollen compared to the other hand:
