I took a bad spill skiing on Feb. 4, 2012 at Squaw Valley in Tahoe. It had been a pretty terrible season, weather-wise, and there was very little snow on the ground. What snow there was had clearly melted, frozen, and melted again, so everything was hard, bare, rutted out and shiny. Coming into a lift line I went over a small thumb-size tree stump and flew in the air, coming down on my right armpit with my arm extended. I tore tendons in my shoulder, tore the labrum 3/4 off, broke the top of the humerus, contused several ribs, broke a bone in my hand and sprained my thumb. Ouch!
I've probably never hurt myself so badly and taken so long to recover. For the first three months afterwards I had trouble sleeping. Breathing when lying on my side was hard because of the ribs contusions, and my throbbing shoulder would wake me up in the middle of the night.
Day after day, though, things got better. As soon as I started doing Yoga again, even though I couldn't do anywhere everything I wanted, I felt better. I slept better, I was actually getting exercise and tension relief, and my mood improved. I then turned things into a game to see what positions and stretches I could get away with, or how I might alter them to protect my injuries but push as far as possible.
Years later, it feels like I'm still recovering, and many care practitioners have told me that shoulder injuries are very tricky and can flare up in unexpected ways for years.
The time while injured allowed me to get more reading done, and to pray and reflect more, to be more still, to be more grateful for the things I normally take for granted (like ribs, free breathing, being able to hang up a shirt, pull on socks, wipe, etc.).
