I had just entered the terminal to take the tender to our cruise ship. The rest of the gang were ahead of me because my lower back was giving me grief and putting me in slo-mo.

I noticed that my ID holder, which had my driver’s license, a credit card, and a large fraction of our travel cash was not in my pockets. I checked again – still missing. I guessed that it must’ve fallen out in the taxi that we’d just left.

I looked back and saw that the taxi was still there, but the driver was getting into it for his next adventure. I ran like the dickens to get to him before he left.

I’m not a runner and got about 3 or 4 strides in before I tripped over my own feet and went down. I threw my hands forward to avoid doing a faceplant. As I hit the floor, my right shoulder felt a very painful popping/cracking.

A helpful stranger got me to my feet and asked me if I needed assistance. I did my usual “no, no, I’m fine” despite not being fine at all.

The good news: as I got up, I found my ID holder in a previously unchecked pocket.

The bad news: I was pretty sure that my right shoulder was <unkind word> beyond all recognition.

If I tried to use any of my right shoulder muscles, I’d get more pain than movement. If I tried to move my lower arm, I’d get a “page not found” message. I mean I could feel it ok, but it wasn’t moving.

I made my way to the tender. The rest of the gang were already up on the second level but I wasn’t up to going up there. Pam tried to call me to join them, but I wasn’t up to shouting the whole sorry saga over the noise of the crowd/engines/everything.

Pam came by and I gave her my sad story.

The tender sauntered back to the ship extra slow mode. There was hardly any breeze and we were packed in pretty tightly. Between that and the pain, I was starting to get nauseous – kinda like when orthostatic syncope kicks my a55.

Pam politely shooed folks away from us (“he’s gonna blow!”) so that I could lie down and the spell went away without incident. I stayed put until it was time to get on the ship.

We were waiting for the other passengers to get off before trying to get moving. One lady who’d been watching all this asked if we’d like it if she asked the crew to help. We agreed and soon the crew cleared a path for us and we were on our way to the ship’s medical center.

The X-rays showed 3 fractures in my right upper arm but no actual shoulder damage. They put me in a sling, gave me some pain meds, and scheduled a meeting with an orthopedic something for a consultation.

At the moment it looks like no surgery is needed, but I’m gonna be in a sling for a while.