I'm 35 years old and have been a gamer my whole life. My first experience was the Odyssey 400, a D-cell powered home Pong machine from 1979. I've owned every system ever made (oddly except a PS2, but including a Neo-Geo AND 3DO) and even worked for Aladdin's Castle at one point (that's an old Arcade chain for the bulk of you reading this born after about 1995!).
Obviously I had to play the latest, greatest game released: Assassins Creed 3. I played it pretty much non-stop from its midnight release. Great story, great gameplay, and a solid "completion" (maybe?) to the numbered trilogy.
I finished the single player story later in the day Sunday 11/4. Being quite satisfied with my accomplishment I made my way into my kitchen to make dinner. Steak & a baked potato, a stereotypical American dinner. Thinking back it tasted pretty good...
I cleaned up then kicked back on my couch, content to fall asleep watching Sunday night football. However sometime around the 3rd quarter I noticed something very wrong. Both my upper arms started to hurt, and shortly after that I lost the ability to use either of them. Think elephant trunk...I could use my hands & wrists, but my arms as a whole just swung.
I made my way to my local emergency room. I tried to explain my situation to the doctor there, but oddly he wouldn't believe me. I didn't fall, didn't get into a fight, no car accident, & could use my hands just fine. According to him I was pretending, there only to try to get some pain killers or something. There were no tests or x-rays, just a tox screen for illegal substances (clean I might add). Then he literally had me removed from the ER to outside (by then it was 2 am) until I could arrange a ride home.
I spent Monday at my mom's house. Was all this in my head? Did I sleep funny on them? Did I not notice my injuries until the adrenaline from a power gaming session wore off? Two days later & I was still hurting, still no functionality in either arm, and now I had developed a huge throbbing bruise from my left shoulder to my elbow.
It's now Wednesday 11/7 and I'm finally sitting in my doctor's office. He's asking me why I can't move my arms. Seriously? Eight years of higher education and he's asking ME why I can't do what I came to him to find out? I left his office with a referral to a neurologist, a prescription for blood work, & nothing more.
November 14th. It's now been ten full days after this all started. The neurologist appointment has come and gone with more high cost tests ordered, but still no diagnosis. This is ridiculous. I'm in serious pain. There has been no recovery of function. In fact my arms feel even worse. Time to make a trip to a different emergency room.
I've finally found a doctor with half a brain in his head. A few simple x-rays later and I'm being transferred to a larger hospital a city away. Those pictures would show that I've been walking around for AT LEAST 10 days with two dislocated shoulders, the left one being fractured. Five and a half hours of surgery, a titanium plate, & 13 screws later, I've started down the long winding road to recovery.
It's been a month since this whole ordeal began. My arms are in matching immobilizers. Yesterday was my first trip to physical therapy, where I'll be three days a week for the foreseeable future. If there's a good thing to come out of all this it's that I'll have a LOT of time to catch up on the backlog of games I've gotten from PS+ on my Vita & PS3. I'm pretty upbeat about my whole situation though. You see I found out my hands are perfectly spaced to hold a game controller!
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Greg Etopio
