Oh, I hadn't even considered broken legs--my tentative idea was musket ball or pistol shot to the thigh, only a flesh wound, but made worse than it needs to be when Injuree and Comforter decide to go ahead and dig it out (I think they could've safely left it in, since it seems 19th century soldiers often carried around stray bits of ammunition in their old wounds that would occasionally ache or work their way out, but my characters don't know anything about medicine and would just guess), and the wound gets infected. I'm just not sure that's a severe enough wound for my purposes, or OTOH that if it was badly infected enough to keep him laid up, that Injuree could avoid gangrene or similar permanently damaging ickiness. Because he can't be permanently damaged until much later in the plot, when I need a way to get him out of the army.

Okay, as long as people with compound fractures and/or flesh-eating bacteria aren't having gymnastic sex scenes, you get a pass from me.

I admit, I know very little about (a) what a person would do, medically, in 1810 and (b) what the result would be. There is a bit of (seemingly plausible) surgery on a bullet would in Master and Commander that you might consult, just to get a feel for how it works.

I can't think that all wound infections resulted in gangrene, death or permanent disability. We get over respiratory infections all the time. Surely there's a book on this sort of thing, but I don't know what it is.

Nutty is much with the realism when it comes to ficcish injuries.

t has fond memories of discussions of electrolyte imbalances and other results of torture during the beta process for "Written on a Thumbnail">

I can't think that all wound infections resulted in gangrene, death or permanent disability.

Yep, especially given that the character in question is in his 20's and in good health. I just don't know how to strike a realistic medical balance between "can't go anywhere just yet", which is necessary for the plot, with, "oh, but he heals well and everything is fine."

Maybe he sprains an ankle after all--he could still get the injury while they're trying to evade a French patrol, so I wouldn't have to lose that scene.

has fond memories of discussions of electrolyte imbalances and other results of torture during the beta process for "Written on a Thumbnail"

That was So! Much! Fun! I think it must be the kind of fun demolitions-people have, planning how to blow up a building.

Fun, yeah, although I was by that point too lazy to implement a lot of your suggestions. Not to mention that I still needed the poor schmuck on his feet and snarky for the Great Escape. Alien stimulants were used to gloss over a lot of my errors. Yay for science fiction, which allows us to cheat! *g*

There used to be a Yahoo list peopled by nurses and the occasional insomniac resident which existed for the express purpose of discussing plausible injuries/illnesses to be applied to fanfic characters.

It's still fairly active, it looks like: Fanfic Med. I joined a while back, but went no-mail last year and haven't checked back in yonks. I used to lurk there quite a bit and chortle at the kind of scenarios people come up with (I'm in medicine, yet there were tons of stuff that left me scratching my head.) The answers to the queries are usually pretty decent, but folks still get some stuff wrong, as can be expected.

musket ball or pistol shot to the thigh, only a flesh wound, but made worse than it needs to be when Injuree and Comforter decide to go ahead and dig it out

Yeah, this is feasible as something that could lay the person up with a nasty infection with fevers, delirium, etc. for a few weeks, and from which one can recover without losing the limb unless the infection is severe. The wound would have to be a fairly recent one though. Old bullet wounds/schrapnels *can* cause late infection, but that would usually manifest as an indolent infection like osteomyelitis instead of acute febrile illness.

On erika's query: what Nutty said.

edited because 'would' and 'wound' are not the same things.

I can't believe those same people wouldn't answer your question, Susan... you should join up!

Maybe he sprains an ankle after all

Nah. Someone who leaves the army because of a sprain looks like a sissy. I like the "infected wound from imprecise removal of a musket ball' idea much better.

And I am so completely gleeful that a list exists for such questions.

Nah. Someone who leaves the army because of a sprain looks like a sissy. I like the "infected wound from imprecise removal of a musket ball' idea much better.

The injury that makes him leave the army comes much, much later in the story, and I've already figured out the perfect battle for it to happen in. The one I'm trying to figure out currently is just a temporary thing to get him alone with the heroine for long enough that something can happen between them.