Crazy injury - to the bucket dad!

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Oct 1, 2014
2,219
113
USA
I ruptured my bicep tendon last year alligator wrestling while skydiving in a squirrel suit. ;-) Kidding obviously, I was casually moving a landscaping rock (correction, the rock didn't move and my body weight caused the tendon to snap. Out of all the crazy stuff I've done and been injured doing this injury and the way it happened pisses me off the most...just lame. I had to push on the Doc to schedule surgery ASAP (which has been recommended here and I agree) and while I have decent range of motion back now it still (17 months later) just isn't the same.
Other than some shin bruises from catching DD on the rare occasions that my other DD wasn't available I escaped that chore in decent shape .
 
May 17, 2018
14
3
I did something very similar to my elbow(glove hand). It feels like I am being stabbed with an ice pic. I went to ortho and said it is just tendinitis. So I switched catching hands! Same thing happened in my throwing elbow 3 years ago. Tore UCL but the pain was tendinitis. Eventually went away.
 
Aug 1, 2019
962
93
MN
Things I learned on a bucket:

1. Clear plastic buckets shatter. The colored ones don't.
2. Keep the dirt in front of the plate higher than the plate to avoid that surprise hop off the lip.
3. Keep several balls right behind you so you don't have to make a highlight reel stretch to save every ball.
4. Shots to the shin hurt some when it happens. They throb about four days later, and that's for another three days.
5. I can keep a poker face even though inside I'm screaming like a stuck pig.
6. Keep several balls right behind you so you don't have to make a highlight reel stretch to save every ball.
7. Sometimes it's just easier to lift the leg and let the pitch go by than try to reach down and fight it in the dirt. I got pretty good at that, so I probably looked a little like this:

Airplane Russian Squat Dance.gifAirplane Russian Squat Dance 2.gif

Almost as handsome, but don't call me Shirley.
 
Feb 18, 2014
348
28
Her pitching coach put a rubber maid garbage can to simulate a batter and she threw a bit too inside. It deflected off the can, went around my glove and got me i the mouth. Split my lip lengthwise where it got me in the teeth. 8 stitches and a lump in my lip as a result. All I remember is seeing the pitch come in, then being face down on the turf. When I came out of the bathroom her pitching coach had taken my place on the bucket. If anything it helped her get over her fear of hitting a batter, that is nothing compared to hitting dad in the face. She finished her lesson and went on to do her hitting lesson while grandma came to take me to get stitches.

I also learned my lesson to not sit too far forward on the bucket. Those lousy indoor fields with the rubber pellet floors cause the ball to get extra bounce. Sitting back will let the ball hit the lip of the bucket instead of your sensitive parts. Critical when it comes to a girl that throws a natural drop ball.
 
Last edited:
May 15, 2019
56
8
Mine came in batting practice. Found out I had left a gap about the size of a softball between the pitching machine and the screen. Found the gap when my DD hit a low line drive through it and straight into my shin. Two months later and I still have knot on my shin and my DD still laughs about the "dance" I did when I got hit.
 
Feb 3, 2016
502
43
You must have injured your biceps tendon before this and you just finished it off. I tore my biceps tendon picking up a 300 pound door by myself, luckily partial tear no surgery. You would be surprised at the crazy injuries people get from normal activities. I perform anesthesia at Orthopaedic surgery centers and i ask patients to make up a great story on how their injury occurred before i ask how it really happened.
My only injury to date from catching my daughter is a lost Big toe nail when a drop ball found my foot. I layed on the ground for couple minutes then went inside to pull the entire nail off. It finally started to grow back after a month.
I hope you heal quickly!
So my injury kept me from practicing with my DD for a while. I was on two rounds of Levaquin antibiotics and a simple move of a cooler in my backyard snapped my biceps tendon like a twizzler.

Huge pop and I knew if I stopped mowing the lawn I'd never finish it. I couldn't pick up a bottle of water after I entered my house.

I was going out of town and didn't get Surgery until 2+ weeks later. It sucked Flying to Florida for softball and was miserable trying to haul my luggage softball stuff with one good arm.

Had to pay someone to mow my lawn for the remainder of the year. So the drill used to drill the hole to reattach it was .312" and it will never be right again and still bothering me.
4e34b41023d2a27e74bce3e055b82809.jpg


Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
Jan 8, 2019
664
93
I was going out of town and didn't get Surgery until 2+ weeks later. It sucked Flying to Florida for softball and was miserable trying to haul my luggage softball stuff with one good arm.

I was told that after about a week, the surgery starts to get very difficult, and in the ~4 week and over range may not happen! So, I can imagine that it was not much fun! I always wonder if it is about to snap again when mine starts to ache, and the fun is when it aches on both sides of the bone.

There are a couple of videos of the surgery on YouTube. It's pretty gnarly.
 
Feb 3, 2016
502
43
I was told that after about a week, the surgery starts to get very difficult, and in the ~4 week and over range may not happen! So, I can imagine that it was not much fun! I always wonder if it is about to snap again when mine starts to ache, and the fun is when it aches on both sides of the bone.

There are a couple of videos of the surgery on YouTube. It's pretty gnarly.
Yeah the surgical center should've bumped a recheck patient and got me in for emergency surgery. The surgeon wasn't happy and apologized for the mistake.
I guess the body starts absorbing the tendon and depending on the size of the tendon and location of the tear are factors that contribute to the success of the surgery.
Since my tendon diameter was just short of 3x the average tendon size it wasn't as time sensitive as most people.

My daughter will never take Levaquin... Ever!

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
Jan 8, 2019
664
93
Yeah the surgical center should've bumped a recheck patient and got me in for emergency surgery. The surgeon wasn't happy and apologized for the mistake.
I guess the body starts absorbing the tendon and depending on the size of the tendon and location of the tear are factors that contribute to the success of the surgery.
Since my tendon diameter was just short of 3x the average tendon size it wasn't as time sensitive as most people.

My daughter will never take Levaquin... Ever!

I'd say you got a lucky break, but...

Yeah, that stuff sounds messed up! Crazy when the side effects have the potential to outweigh the benefits!
 
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
Things I learned on a bucket:

1. Clear plastic buckets shatter. The colored ones don't.
2. Keep the dirt in front of the plate higher than the plate to avoid that surprise hop off the lip.
3. Keep several balls right behind you so you don't have to make a highlight reel stretch to save every ball.
4. Shots to the shin hurt some when it happens. They throb about four days later, and that's for another three days.
5. I can keep a poker face even though inside I'm screaming like a stuck pig.
6. Keep several balls right behind you so you don't have to make a highlight reel stretch to save every ball.
7. Sometimes it's just easier to lift the leg and let the pitch go by than try to reach down and fight it in the dirt. I got pretty good at that, so I probably looked a little like this:

View attachment 15639View attachment 15640

Almost as handsome, but don't call me Shirley.


Exactly. I thought this was just common sense but apparently not.

Don't try to catch every ball. Have a net/fence behind you and learn to lift your leg so the low & outside and low & inside pitches harmlessly go by you into the net.

There are a few 12U bucket dads whose daughters pitch about 40 mph and have one pitch (fasdtball) and they show up in full gear to sit on the bucket. Always makes me chuckle inside.
 

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