Owie.
We took the kids up to Tahoe last weekend so that they could learn how much fun snow is. Ria was... not enthusiastic ("what's this cold stuff? My hands are COLD and WET! WAAAAAAAAAAH!") but Iain had a great time. He loved sledding (especially on the saucers) and had a good time in the kids ski class we put him in. He managed to go all the way down the tiny little slope they were using (really tiny - basically a fenced-off area near the lodge, with a conveyer belt to get them up the slope, such as it was). He wanted to be outside as much as possible, playing on the mountains of snow at the edge of the condo parking lot.
I got to do a half-day of snowboarding, which was fun, except that about two minutes into the first run, I caught my toe-edge and slammed down HARD chest-first into the snow - said snow being (since this is spring) very dense and somewhat hard. My right arm was caught between my chest and the snow, and knocked the wind out of me. I was pretty sore, but kept going. It's now 5 days later, and I'm pretty sure I cracked a rib - my chest still hurts when I breathe deeply, there are still sore spots, and it hurts at the injury site when I press on my breastbone. That last sign is indicative of a broken rib, according to the medical information I found on the Internet (and when has that ever steered anyone wrong? Never, I say!). Also according to the fine Internet medical textbook (you too can be an instant doctor, able to diagnose any ailment!) the treatment for a cracked rib (as long as it's not actually poking out of your skin or into your lung) is: nothing. Take some painkillers, if it hurts when you do X then don't do X, and wait 6 weeks. They don't even tape/bandage your ribs these days. So that's my plan.
I got to do a half-day of snowboarding, which was fun, except that about two minutes into the first run, I caught my toe-edge and slammed down HARD chest-first into the snow - said snow being (since this is spring) very dense and somewhat hard. My right arm was caught between my chest and the snow, and knocked the wind out of me. I was pretty sore, but kept going. It's now 5 days later, and I'm pretty sure I cracked a rib - my chest still hurts when I breathe deeply, there are still sore spots, and it hurts at the injury site when I press on my breastbone. That last sign is indicative of a broken rib, according to the medical information I found on the Internet (and when has that ever steered anyone wrong? Never, I say!). Also according to the fine Internet medical textbook (you too can be an instant doctor, able to diagnose any ailment!) the treatment for a cracked rib (as long as it's not actually poking out of your skin or into your lung) is: nothing. Take some painkillers, if it hurts when you do X then don't do X, and wait 6 weeks. They don't even tape/bandage your ribs these days. So that's my plan.