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July 29, 2013 6:19 pm  #1


Johns shoulder

John was invalided (sp?) home from Afghanistan due to a presumably serious wound to his shouder.  And yet, he shows no sign of loss of range of motion, no residual pain (other than his leg - which still shows up time to time).  No doubt he's gone through plenty of physical therapy. He was probably discharged once he had finished that.
How long has he been out of the military before meeting up with Sherlock?

It seems that the writers having set the scene have completely dropped the issue.


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You people all have to learn
This world is going to burn
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July 29, 2013 6:20 pm  #2


Re: Johns shoulder

I'm guessing not long, since he was looking for somewhere to live...


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Dean - "I'm not happy about it. But I got to move on. So I'm gonna keep doing what we do...while I still can. And I'd like you to be there with me."

Sam - "I'm your brother, Dean, if you ever need to talk about anything with anybody, you got someone right here next to you."


 

July 29, 2013 6:44 pm  #3


Re: Johns shoulder

How long does it usually take for such a wound to heal? I'm not an expert but I don't think Moftiss would miss such a thing.

Last edited by Mary Me (July 29, 2013 6:46 pm)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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July 29, 2013 6:57 pm  #4


Re: Johns shoulder


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Dean - "I'm not happy about it. But I got to move on. So I'm gonna keep doing what we do...while I still can. And I'd like you to be there with me."

Sam - "I'm your brother, Dean, if you ever need to talk about anything with anybody, you got someone right here next to you."


 

July 29, 2013 7:29 pm  #5


Re: Johns shoulder

So he would have either not come directly home from Afghanistan or they overlooked that detail. Interesting how detailed the medical consequences of the wound are treated in many fanfics while in the series they concentrate on the psychosomatic problems with the leg. There is also the question if the tremor in his hand was just PTSD-induced or also connected with the shoulder injury. 


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"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 

July 29, 2013 7:32 pm  #6


Re: Johns shoulder

It's possible, maybe nerve damage or something...


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Dean - "I'm not happy about it. But I got to move on. So I'm gonna keep doing what we do...while I still can. And I'd like you to be there with me."

Sam - "I'm your brother, Dean, if you ever need to talk about anything with anybody, you got someone right here next to you."


 

July 29, 2013 7:47 pm  #7


Re: Johns shoulder

Depends on where you are shot.  If you are shot in the joint, the damage to the bones, ligaments, blood vessels, etc. can be pretty extensive and require multiple surgeries, rehab and probably mean that the joint would never be 100% again.  If you are shot in the torso next to the joint, it could hit ribs, the clavicle, the scapula or worse...the arteries and veins running through that area.  If the subclavian artery is hit, someone would bleed out very quickly, so you don't want to get hit there.  Of course, if the bullet hits bone, it can ricochet or splinter apart, causing all sorts of damage.


__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
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July 30, 2013 10:25 am  #8


Re: Johns shoulder

Maybe it was "only" a flesh wound and he was discharged due to his PTSD and the psychosomatic problems.
I have always wonderd about the fact, that Sherlock deduced John being in Afghanistan (among other things) because of his tanned skin. If John was seriously wounded, he would have had a long recovery period, very likely in GB, and thereby his skin would regain a normal colour. So his departure from Afghanistan could not be that long ago bevor they met in St. Barts.


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"221B Baker Street."
 

July 31, 2013 6:03 am  #9


Re: Johns shoulder

It is a nod to canon.


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Don't make people into heroes John. Heroes don't exist and if they did I wouldn't be one of them.
 

July 31, 2013 5:58 pm  #10


Re: Johns shoulder

true, ACD never bothered to remember where Watson was injured.  I still think that it should be referenced in some way.


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Beware of dragons for you are crunchy and go well with ketchup

Dr. Horribles sing along blog
You people all have to learn
This world is going to burn
Burn
(yeah, it’s two r’s. H, O, R, R, yeah right.)
Burn
 
     Thread Starter
 

December 6, 2015 4:10 am  #11


Re: Johns shoulder

I agree.

As for the seriousness of his shoulder injury, don't forget that John told Sherlock that he didn't have to imagine what his last words would be if he'd been murdered and was facing his last few seconds of life.  It's clear that he had lived it.  Also, his shoulder injury and its aftermath was serious enough to get him invalided from the army.  So it was by no means merely a flesh wound and neither was the aftermath a minor issue, since the injury nearly ended his life and ended up getting him a medical discharge.  According to wellingtongoose's tumblr and LiveJournal articles, developing PTSD isn't grounds for a medical discharge, and neither are psychosomatic complaints.
.
 

Last edited by kgreen20 (August 17, 2016 12:26 am)

 

December 6, 2015 10:58 am  #12


Re: Johns shoulder

Also,it was brought up in a fanfic I read (and not in the show), that because of the tremors, he would no longer be able to work as a surgeon. Hence why he takes general GP work, and not anything more demanding (which would fit his qualifications better).


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December 6, 2015 11:09 am  #13


Re: Johns shoulder

Possibly a psychological assessment may also have ruled him out as a surgeon.
Or, he maybe chose himself to not have that kind of stress.
It seems to me that the first job opportunities that came up, he took.


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December 6, 2015 2:00 pm  #14


Re: Johns shoulder

I just want John to take his shirt off in S4 so we can see the scar.    


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Proud President and Founder of the OSAJ.  
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"Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not".
 -Vaclav Havel 
"Life is full of wonder, Love is never wrong."   Melissa Ethridge

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December 6, 2015 2:29 pm  #15


Re: Johns shoulder

Why?


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December 6, 2015 2:44 pm  #16


Re: Johns shoulder

He wouldn't be able to just go into GP work, though, unless he'd qualified as a GP.   If he could work as a civilian GP, then surely he could have worked as an army GP rather than being discharged? 

 

December 6, 2015 4:33 pm  #17


Re: Johns shoulder

Perhaps the bullet wound itself was not so serious, but bleeding out in the middle of the desert, in addition to the panicked attempt to staunch the bleeding by (I assume) Murray would have potentially brought all sorts of infections into the open wound. In which case, the bullet wound itself wouldn't have damaged him too badly, but to have been invalided home afterwards implies that it was infected and he got very sick as a result, requiring medical treatment elsewhere or leaving him in a state of exhaustion so much that he could not continue to fight. 
ACD's Watson caught typhoid fever in the hospital, which was the reason for his resulting weakened state and, thereafter, his discharge. Perhaps John's wound was so gravely infected that he had to be discharged, or he caught something in the base hospital as well. 


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December 6, 2015 5:37 pm  #18


Re: Johns shoulder

Liberty wrote:

He wouldn't be able to just go into GP work, though, unless he'd qualified as a GP.   If he could work as a civilian GP, then surely he could have worked as an army GP rather than being discharged? 

Wouldn't you have to be a GP to be surgeon, though? I thought surgeon was kind of like a specialst, with GP as the basis education.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"We'll live on starlight and crime scenes" - wordstrings


Team Hudders!
 
 

December 6, 2015 5:42 pm  #19


Re: Johns shoulder

No, being a GP is a specialism in itself...
Some GPs do minor surgery..
I didn't know they had GPs in the army.
But John would possibly be qualified enough to do locum and maybe after so much locum work, taken on full time?
Or maybe he did a bit of GP work, before specialising, so he could go on to be an army doc.


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December 6, 2015 9:28 pm  #20


Re: Johns shoulder

besleybean wrote:

Why?

Two reasons.

1.  I consider John's scar a symbol of his brokenness before he met Sherlock.  A physical reminder of what was taken away from him when he was discharged from the army.  I think it would be a very emotional to have a scene of John taking off his shirt and looking at his scar in the mirror as he remembers everything that being with Sherlock means to him.

2.  Martin is hot and I want him to take off his shirt so that I can gaze upon his loveliness.    


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Proud President and Founder of the OSAJ.  
Honorary German  
"Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not".
 -Vaclav Havel 
"Life is full of wonder, Love is never wrong."   Melissa Ethridge

I ship it harder than Mrs. Hudson.
    
 
 

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