Also glad that you are ok. Lucky you didn't do internal injuries. You can
do some nasty damage to your internal organs, by tearing them loose, or tearing
items like your liver, spleen, pancreas, etc. If you had been wearing your harness, would you still be dangling from the tree ?
I was hunting in Florida years ago, in a place called Brown's Farm. It used to be a tomato farm, and bell peppers, cucumbers, and so forth. Well it is all over grown, and has been for 40 or fifty or more years. It is a state management area now. Anyway, the primary soil is muck. Which is like peat. Well I am black powder hunting, and on foot, when out in the open, I see this nice twelve foot wooden ladder. Not more than fifty yards, there is a nice little myrtle bush head, so I get the idea to put the ladder in the myrtle bush head, and have a nice little stand, in a nice area. Well, I tote the ladder there, set it up stomp the steps, and back braces, into the muck to stabilize it, and climb up. Well, it was great, had a grey fox walk within ten feet of me, and several does. so for an hour or so, all is fine. I am watching all around me, when, I get the feeling something is not right, other than being half asleep, I discovered that there was a distinct tilt to the ladder! Not only was there a tilt, but it was still tilting!
Well since I was sitting on the top of the ladder, I couldn't quickly step down to a lower level to fall, so as you said everything was in slow motion, well this actually was! as I reached a level almost horizontal, I jumped off the ladder, and hit the muck, with my knees slightly bent, and then fell forward, and my TC Hawken went barrel first about a foot into the muck!
I was only jarred a bit. Then had to take the primmer cap off, and use the ramrod to get all the muck out of the barrel, plus some raps on the barrel against the ladder. Then checked with the ram rod, with the line I had scored around it, that the bullet depth was still where it should be, reassembled my rifle, put the cap back on, and was ready to hunt...... somewhere else. So I set the ladder up near the outside of the myrtle head, so the owner, would know where it was, and trudged back to my truck for lunch, and re planning I was lucky, I wasn't fully asleep. Anyway, my friends knew I was at Brown's farm, but not where, so by the time anyone decided to come looking, it would be dark, and I would be carried off by mosquitoes big enough to stand flat footed, and take uninvited liberties, of a turkey, so to speak. I hit hard enough to cause me to check myself slowly. Could have been worse, could have hit one of the broken myrtle limbs, and broken, or jabbed something. But the harness does have it's place. But I have wondered how do you get down if you do fall, or your ladder is no longer where it was? I know some units have a safety cord, that lets you down slowly. But then you have to buy another unit. But that is cheaper, than the hospital, and therapy!
I hope you continue to feel better. But it would not be a bad idea to get checked out anyway. Money well spent.
Wayne
