Snowboarding is a dangerous sport. A couple years ago, I almost broke my neck in a fall. I fell face-first so hard that my goggles were crushed. I was lucky to have escaped that fall with only a bloody nose, broken goggles, and maybe a very mild concussion. That incident inspired me to buy a helmet -- something my partner had been telling me to do for years.
I once face-planted so hard, I crushed my goggles.
My luck ran out a week ago, and I finally suffered a serious injury. Thankfully, it wasn't a broken neck. I dislocated my right shoulder.
I wish that I could say that I dislocated it while trying to do a jump flip or grinding a rail. I'm not nearly that good of a snowboarder. Despite having been doing this for years, I still struggle with simple things like turning and carving. But that wasn't even how I fell. Nope. I fell and dislocated my shoulder while getting off the lift. Worse yet, it was the lift on the bunny hill.
Now, in my defense, that lift chair is really low to the ground, and it isn't easy to stand up off of it. We were riding with our kid, who was skiing on her own, without an instructor, for the first time. I was using my arm to push myself off the chair. I slipped, and the board started to slide out from under me. Instead of falling back onto the chair, I fell on the ground in front of the chair. But my arm was still on the chair.
My partner had to drive me down the mountain to the hospital, where the doctor had me "re-introduce" my shoulder on my own -- no pain-killers.
I dislocated my shoulder while snowboarding. It was quite painful.
So now my arm is in a sling. It doesn't hurt (other than a little soreness and swelling), but I'm not supposed to move the arm much because of the risk that it might fall back out of socket. I'll be seeing an orthopedic specialist in a few days to determine how bad the damage is, if it's healing correctly, and what the recovery will entail. I'm expecting at least several weeks of healing in this sling, and probably some physical therapy to restore strength and range of motion. I really hope that I don't end up needing surgery.
...
[More]