Sunday, February 21, 2010

Jonny's Gimp Shoulder

A couple of weeks ago we went night boarding. We like to go on Wednesday nights because its 2 for 1. We went up with Jonny's cousin Derek and his wife, Nicole. About halfway through the night we stopped in the lodge for some food. The guys went back out and Nicole and I stayed in the lodge to finish our hot chocolate and warm up a little more. We were just about ready to go back out to meet the boys when they walked back in the lodge. Derek told me that my husband needed to go to the hospital. Then Jonny walked in behind him holding his shoulder. (they've played this mean trick on me before one time- telling me Derek broke his leg, so I wasn't sure if I should believe them). But when I realized he was serious when I saw how much pain he was in. He thought he broke his collar bone at first, but then we got his coat off and after seeing how much he could move it we realized nothing was broken. So we went down to the ski patrol to have them look at it. They put it in a temporary sling with ice and told us to go to insta-care and get it x-rayed.
So we headed back down the mountain to an insta-care by our house. The first one we went to didn't accept our insurance, so we hurried to another one. We walked in about 5 minutes before they were supposed to close- I'm sure they were thrilled to see us. After some x-rays and having the Dr. check it, they told him he had an AC separation. As far as I understand- when he reached out to catch himself he pulled/partially tore the ligament that goes between your clavicle and shoulder-causing the bones to separate (or something like that). There isn't much you can do but wait for it to heal. So once again they sent him out with a sling and pain pills. I think he was pretty lucky it wasn't any worse. He hit his head pretty hard but luckily had a helmet on. He's learned to appreciate a healthy shoulder, he gets frustrated when he can't do normal things without pain. It is slowly getting better though. He was really upset because it was 3 days before we were going on a cruise!! It was another reminder about how life can change in an instant and how we need to be grateful for our functioning bodies. :)