Could be a good route name maybe? It smells like gas in my apartment this morning. I think I may have caused a leak when I was tinkering with the wall heater yesterday, trying to sweep the floors and clean the dust. Hopefully I don’t die from it.
OK, my brother just walked in and helped me find the leak. Fixed. No dying of poisonous gases in my sleep. BTW, look at this crazy catch. What a majestic beast! Hopefully they release it back into the wild, and don’t try to fry it up and make chips out of it! Oh, how crazy is this world we live in!
So on Friday I got the MRI (which was like listening to really bad trance music, sort of a redundancy I know, in an open ended coffin) and yesterday my sports med doctor finally called me back after four days of festering… he said he looked at the MRI after a radiology expert, and neither of them found any significant tears in either the labrum or the rotator cuff in any of the images. He said it looked like there was some swelling in certain parts of my shoulder that are usually associated with tendonosis, which is what I thought my right shoulder originally had. He said even though it felt like a rip/tear when it happened, it could have been a subluxation- a quick, subtle, dislocation of my shoulder. A quick popping, or stretching, out and back in. I asked him if maybe he couldn’t see any tear because my arm was at a funny angle during the MRI or maybe the image was blurry because I was moving or something, but he said that the image quality was “pretty decent” and usually the radiology people throw their own two cents into the report if the image quality is bad, and they didn’t have anything to say about it this time. Pretty great news huh?!? I know what you are all thinking: oh that Ethan, such a little melodramatic twerp sometimes. But for serious, I thought I would never be able to lift my arm above my head after it happened, let alone climb sheer rock faces again! It felt pretty bad. More like a ripping or tearing feeling, rather than a popping one. But what do I know, I’m no doctor. Then today (Wednesday, technically yesterday at this point) my doctor calles me again to say an orthopedic surgeon looked at the MRI and thought he saw a slight tear in the Labrum, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense since it’s definitely the area around my rotator cuff that is in pain. I sent a copy of my MRI to a climber who climbs often at jailhouse, who is also a surgeon in Carson City, NV. I am very grateful for this, and eager to hear what he, as someone who see hundreds of patients with similar injuries, and also knows the stress and abuse a climbers body sometimes take and can endure.
So, obviously I’m pretty GDd psyched that I might be getting off the hook a lot easier than I originally thought, possibly without surgery, and possibly with only weeks instead of months of recovery time! Who-Hoo! I know I shouldn’t get my panties all in a bunch quite yet, but I may even be able to make my flight to NZ on April 1st! We’ll see about that, but the chances seem much better that I’ll be back on the rock sooner rather than later.
You always want what you can’t have right? Well, I always get sooo psyched to climb when I’m forced to rest… I re-watch climbing movies that I’ve see ten times already, and try to get a bunch of new ones. Fortunately right now, there are some rad ones to see. Tomorrow I’m going to see the Nor-Cal premier of Pure, a bouldering movie produced by Chuck Fryberger featuring young-gun, Finnish hard man Nalle Hukkataival, and and another friend of mine, highball master Kevin Jorgeson. Looks to be pretty rad. Kevin said it’s bitchen, and taking into account most climbers think less of the movies they are in, this one should be a doosy. I guess Chuck did a good job editing Kevo’s interviews… Another movie I’m psyched to check out is Call it what you want. I’m not gonna write a review about it since for 1) it’s one in te morning, and 2) I haven’t seen it. But I want to so anyone who knows where to order this film, or when it wil be available let me know. This movie looks cool because it has some very dangerous looking climbing in it, which is always exciting to watch, I think a friend of mine, Mason may appear in it for a brief time, and it just looks different than most climbing porn. And of course how I forget the Stonealliance film tour featuring highlights from three kick-ass new climbing flicks created by three gifted, veteran filmmakers. The San Francisco premier is March 18th, so I want everyone to mark their calendars, and tell all their friends to mark their calenders. I don’t know how much of my segment in The Players will be shown during the premier, but I’ll bet my fall and subsequent decking will be shown, and that’ll be well worth the entrance fee!
2009 Stone Alliance Film Tour from Brian Solano on Vimeo.
Its crazy how hard people are pulling down these days! Just go to climbingnarc and see for yourself. I mean, people are f-ing string now! It’s not even funny… people climbing 5.15 and V14 is a weekly occurrence now. 13 year olds are sending 5.14+… people are flashing V12 left and right, and sedning V13 like there is no tomorrow! It depresses me because I feel like I have to be anorexic to ever be that strong, which will never happen because of my complete lack of self control when it comes to food, but it also inspires me to no end to hear about amazing feats of climbing talent.
It’s interesting to note that in climbing, like surfing and snowboarding and may other extreme sports, even though younger and younger prodigies are stepping up to the plate faster and with more consistency and meeting the highest level of difficulty in the sport, but for the most part the guys (and gals now too) who actually raise the bar and set new standards are the ones who are a little older, wiser and with more years of experience under their belts. Is this because once you get to a certain age, and no longer live on the dole, you have to make a nitch for yourself in order to actually make a living in extreme sports? To put a roof over your head, to bring home the fake-in, to actually make a decent living being nothing but a “professional climber” is pretty hard to do, so the people doing it have to raise the bar in some way for the younger generation to follow, while there isnt as much pressure on the younger generation to seek out new challanges that haven’t been sought out yet? Feel free to chime in with your two cents.
I’d also like to make everyone aware of a special event going on this Saturday at the infamous Hueco Tanks, TX. Most of you probably already know, but it’s the 16th (there have really been 16 of them? where the hell have I been, living under a rock or something?) annual Hueco Rock Rodeo sponsored by one of my biggest supporters for the last ten years of my climbing career- FIVETEN. 5.10 has been giving me the most important tools of the trade since I was just a wee little tyke. I think I just wouldn’t know how to climb in any other shoe at this point. This weekend there will be a fury of sending in Hueco, followed by a huge after-party complete with prizes and a raging bonfire, and some drunken debauchery… not always the safest combo, but always the most fun! Sounds like there are a number of sick strong people in Hueco right now that will still be there to compete this weekend, so it should be an impressive show. Wish I could be there to bear witness and do a little thrashing myself (sniffle). No worries, there’s always next year, and best believe I’ll be ready then!… unless I pop a pulley or something.
I was pleasantly surprised to see this caption at the bottom of the ‘departments’ section on page 7 of this month’s beautiful Rock & Ice photo annual- Parting shot: what’s the perfect shot to end the photo issue with? Did you say Ethan Pringe’s Ass”? Good, good. So I guess someone out there thinks I have an ass attractive enough to devote a whole page of R&I to? Right on! I guess I should be slightly disturbed that my behind was the subject of the “parting shot”, but I’m pretty flattered and please that I was part of an image that was a lot less ordinary and conventional than most climbing shots. If you haven’t already, go pick up a copy! It’s tits.
Lastly, I’d like to thank everybody who supported me, called me up, wrote me emails, blooged about me (you know who you are) and just reassured me that I was gonna be alright. Honestly, I was freaked out, and still am a little. I still don’t know exactly what happened to my shoulder, or how long it’s going to take to heal. I do know that you never know the true value of something until you feel like you’ve lost it. Every time I hurt myself and the I’m shown the mortality of my life as a “pro” climber, I’m reminded how much climbing means to me, how much it’s given me, and how much I have to be thankful for that I get to live this blessed, fantasy existence. My motivation for climbing has fluctuated a lot in the last few months, but right now it feels at an all time high. Whenever my body is ready to climb again, so will I. I’ll keep all of you posted on status of my recovery, hopefully with a little more frequency in the coming weeks. Thanks again. Peace out!
Ethan,
Glad to hear you’re doing fine..injuries are real bummers man. I had a sublaxation happen back in Nov when I was in Coopers Rock. No tears from what my Ortho saw and I went to PT for a month before they let me loose. Luckily enough i was able to train for a lil bit before going to Hueco in Jan and had an awesome time…Got back from Hueco, went into the gym..did a dyno finish to a problem and SNAP! there goes my shoulder again..not as bad as the first time, but def. didnt feel right..
That was about a month ago and I’ve been taking it easy on my shoulder though it feels 90% healed. I’ve decided to keep doing my PT exercises at home and I probably will keep at it daily for another 3 months then maybe see where it goes from there…One thing i had to change was my climbing style, which went from dynamic to a more static approach. I know which types of movements i have to avoid and I learned that its probably better to walk away from a problem rather than risk further injury.
Hope you’ll have a speedy recovery man, you’ll be out there crushing again before you know it.
Glad to hear the shoulder injury news is better rather than worse. I found this link http://www.nicros.com/archive/shoulder_injury.cfm while researching my own injury last November. Might shed some light. I definitely know the feeling and deep-inside pain of not being able to lift your arm above shoulder height. It definitely makes you start thinking about shoulder health and complementary weight training. Here’s to your fast recovery!
Glad to hear the prognosis doesn’t look as dire. Giving the body the time it needs to heal after injury has always been the most difficult aspect of climbing for me. You can buy “call it what you want” from posingproductions.com, though it’ll be pricey to ship. Not sure of anyplace in the US you can order it from.
Good luck and get well.
That was some creepy drama post for sure dude!!! but i understand how we feel after a fucked up injury…. some good news are rising so, head up high and keep PSYCHED as always…. you’re lucky after all. cheers
You’re coming to NZ?!
Hey Ethan! I just moved to NZ from Canada and am living in Auckland, it’s awesome… weather is like Squamish but not as hot. What are your plans for when you’re here?
-D
good to read good news!
I had more or less the same exact injury one year ago.
two quick things I can say :
a)You’ll need to work hard on your shoulder, and be patient at the same time. Expect a re-learning experience…
b)Even though your shoulder might never feel as secure as before, it will hurt, you might need to change your climbing style, you will eventually come back to the same shape.
good luck!
hey ethan, the reason im writing you is basically about your shoulder. ive been climbing for 3 years and for the past year or two i have been dealing with a shoulder problem in my left shoulder. when i hit a hold, all i could remember is my shoulder being in the wrong posistion but i held through it. at the time it didn’t seem to cause a prob. but now it feels jacked. anyway when u got your MRI was it actually a mrannograhm i think its called where they put a die in your shoulder? im planning to get this done but wanted to know if you where framiliar with this?