I don't know anatomy

Back then medicine was'nt really very well advanced, and most injuries to the arm would mess it up long term, if they survived.

Even something relatively simple like a broken arm, if it isn't set by someone who knows what their doing will give the person trouble for the rest of their life.

The thing you have to be careful of here is not to make the injury too minor, but to make it too damaging. If the injury involves a lot of bleeding, or large open cuts the mortality rate becomes 70-80%. Gangrene, infection, blood loss, you're going to run into all of those things.

Broken anything or cuts of any kind were fatal a lot back then-- no antibiotics, no penacillin, no decent medical practice-- just trepanation, but they could set an arm-- Your ignorance would probably be the same as theirs. Remember, they didn't know what any of that stuff was called either. Have someone make a poltice of boneset-- an herb. Some old village woman would find the herbs. Look at herbalism. Some of it actually works. It was all they had at the time. Shakespeare, though poetic, is a great insight into how renn doctors and herbalists behaved. He has some good examples of herbalists.

Just having a dislocated shoulder would be enough to have difficulty. A strained rotator cuff, damaged shoulder or neck muscles. They wouldn't have the contraptions we do now days and splitting wood and carrying it would be enough to injure a person. A sword fight, being thrown from a horse....take your pick.

Elven_Fforestydd said:

I have a problem. I want my MC to get injured in a way that would cause him difficulty using an arm. Enough that it would not be used very often. I don't know enough about how muscles and the body work to know how to do this. The story would be set in a medieval / Renaissance world. Any thoughts would be great.

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How long does the injury have to last?

Short-term, a sprained wrist or dislocated shoulder, broken thumb

Medium term, a fractured forearm or broken collar bone.

Long-term, ripped ligaments in the shoulder.

Elven_Fforestydd said:

I want it to be around a medium to long injury. At first it would be extremely difficult to use but he might regain some use. Also I was wondering what be an interesting way to do it in a battle with out using the old cliches. This MC would have no battle experince though. Just wondering.

and thanks for the suggestions, I completely forgot about the no hospitels

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Sword blow to the shield. The shock alone could break bones. There's also horses running around that could easily break things if they kicked. Being ran over by a cart carrying wounded soldiers wouldn't be cliche at all, also not very dramatic.

There were "hospitals", but they were more horrible places where you went to die, it was very rare for anyone to survive.

I've been dealing with a shoulder injury for months. with modern treatments and physical therapy, I'm just now getting the full use back. If your character was hit with a club, or, if you want to be more dramatic, a sword, in the shoulder, his arm would be out of commission for years, possibly the rest of his life.
Less dramatic, he could fall from a horse or a wagon, but that sounds too dull for fiction, unless it's backstory.

RJK said:

I've been dealing with a shoulder injury for months. with modern treatments and physical therapy, I'm just now getting the full use back. If your character was hit with a club, or, if you want to be more dramatic, a sword, in the shoulder, his arm would be out of commission for years, possibly the rest of his life.
Less dramatic, he could fall from a horse or a wagon, but that sounds too dull for fiction, unless it's backstory.

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The fall from a horse would be excellent and fits the storyline and era... I came off a horse (jumping) and messed up my shoulder (it's fine now) but you'd have a lot of leeway with an injury of this nature.

When your life flashes before your eyes, when you find yourself scrambling for a hold while suspended in mid air, when you hit the ground in any number of painful twisting, bouncing, smashing ways, and when you've been dragged as well, from getting caught up in the reins or stirrup, you'll not find 'unplanned dismounts' to be dull at all. Getting trampled is also a very real issue in certain situations. One gal online showed pictures of her helmet after her horse smashed it (yes, it was still on her head- at least initially!). You couldn't have taken a bat and recreated the mashed disaster that was that helmet. The girl didn't even get a concussion, but she'd be very dead had it not been for that helmet and a bit of luck saving the rest of her body.

And I see it's been at least partially covered, but think bones, tendons, joints, and/or nerves. These are all key to keeping your arm functioning happily. You can search for nerve damage in this forum and get lots of 'hits'

It's good to know how your character has been wounded, even if he doesn't understand it completely himself. I like the way that the about.com pages on physical therapy explain common injuries in simple terms.

There has also been some interesting research on medieval battlefield medicine published in just the last few years. It turns out that many European doctors knew more than we credit them for. Piers D. Mitchell's book Medicine in the Crusades is a good place to start. You may also want to track down a copy of Blood Red Roses, which is about the archaeology of a fifteenth-century mass grave from the Battle of Towton. The skeletons in the grave showed that some of the soldiers had previously survived incredible wounds.

Elven_Fforestydd said:

I want it to be around a medium to long injury. At first it would be extremely difficult to use but he might regain some use. Also I was wondering what be an interesting way to do it in a battle with out using the old cliches. This MC would have no battle experince though. Just wondering.

and thanks for the suggestions, I completely forgot about the no hospitels

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Medium to long-term ... break his collar bone AND mess up his shoulder muscles. He can fall off his horse and get stepped on by a war horse.