My membership in the gimp central club

**spanky** · 01-03-2005, 08:00 AM

Hopefully this will be a short-lived membership... I walked out of my skis on a fairly mellow groomer at Killington on Friday and injured my shoulder. Luckily for my fellow gimpers, the action was caught on video with my helmetcam.

More details... My downhill (right) ski released in the middle of a left turn at a pretty good rate of speed - I felt my toe pop out of the binding right before I hit the snow. I landed on my right arm and hurt my shoulder. I skied the rest of the day but the shoulder really stiffened up that evening. I think it was probably partially dislocated and then popped back in immediately after the fall.

It is quite painful to extened my arm straight in front of me or to the side. I've been icing the shoulder since Friday evening, taking anti-inflams and massaging arnica gel into it a few times a day. Thankfully the pain is not getting worse.

I've uploaded two helmetcam videos of the fall. The first one is the full run from Skyship to just after impact (at a low resolution - 840 KB). The second video is a higher resolution of just the fall (in regular speed and then slow motion - 2.6 MB).

Video 1
Video 2

(Right click, save locally, then view)

Edit: That's Mtn Man skiing in front of me.

**Tyrone Shoelaces** · 01-03-2005, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by spanky

...but the shoulder really stiffened up that evening. I think it was probably partially dislocated and then popped back in immediately after the fall.

might want to get it checked out to make sure you didn't tear your rotator cuff or damage your AC joint.....I did something very similar up at Mt. Hood over the summer. Took a little PT and lots of at home shoulder exercises to get it back to normal.

**spanky** · 01-03-2005, 12:34 PM

Originally Posted by Tyrone Shoelaces

might want to get it checked out to make sure you didn't tear your rotator cuff or damage your AC joint.....I did something very similar up at Mt. Hood over the summer. Took a little PT and lots of at home shoulder exercises to get it back to normal.

Thanks for the advice. I plan on it. My knee doctor (who also specializes in shoulders) is on vacation this week. The other recommended orthopedic in the practice on on vacation till tomorrow. I should hopefully get an appointment then.

**jarfin** · 01-04-2005, 11:51 PM

This past summer I had a slight incident involving drunkeness and and see-saw that resulted in a 3rd degree shoulder separation (AC joint tear). Needless to say i now have a permenant bump and slight loss of range of motion in my left shoulder. I would get it checked out if i were you

**spanky** · 01-06-2005, 05:53 AM

Went to the doctor yesterday. X-rays were fine. Nothing broken. Diagnosis is a slight shoulder sprain. He said he doesn't want me to do any activity with the arm for 3 weeks. I can't let that cut into my ski time - I'll just "take it easy"

**bigtrubs** · 01-08-2005, 08:47 PM

feel your pain. fractured the top of my humerus (aka. broke my shoulder) in august dirt jumping in whistler. percocet, sling for 3 weeks, and I still have hardly any range of motion and it hurts like a mofo every time I huck on my skis...

physio!!!

**spanky** · 01-20-2005, 01:24 PM

Update:

The orthopedic doc finally sent me for an MRI yesterday. The results are in:

Torn supraspinatus (one of the rotator cuff muscles)
Torn Labrum (similar to the meniscus in the knee)

He wants me to see a specialist, but thinks I'll need arthroscopic surgery.

A good website about shoulder injuries: http://uconnsportsmed.uchc.edu/patie...hurts/shoulder

Kind of bummed and now contemplating what to do with the rest of my season. I'll probably ski this weekend and see how it feels.