Balls and sockets...

I went for my two-hour, full pack walk today, trying to remember and adjust all the straps as instructed. It is a sunny day, for once, in fact the temperature is about 30C and I arrived home with a purple face. I wasn´t walking fast, just maintaining a steady rhythm, but I do tend to overheat easily. Walking in the heat must be good training for the Camino, I´m lucky since I guess everyone doesn´t get that opportunity. My pack was more comfortable, I must admit, although one shoulder did trouble me for the last half hour despite trying different adjustments. Now I am wondering if it could be from an old injury.

More or less fifteen years ago, when I lived in England, I used to go for an annual narrowboat canal holiday with friends. This particular year I had an accident and hurt my shoulder. The boat was in a full lock, waiting for it to empty, when I went to step off the boat onto the lockside. Somehow I missed the side and stepped into space, plunging into the water between the boat and the wall of the lock chamber. Luckily my friends, experienced boaters, saw what had happened and rushed to push the boat away from the side as it was swinging in and going to crush me underwater against the wall. A stone wall and a sixtyfive foot steel hull you don´t mess with. Anyway, they hauled me out when I surfaced and although I noticed one of my arms seemed a bit floppy I was more concerned about my camera, which I had been holding when I went in (a total loss, by the way). My shoulder was a bit sore so I thought I must have wrenched it somehow. I carried on for the final three days of the holiday using an improvised sling. It was only when I got home and a friend insisted on taking me to Casualty that I discovered I had broken the ball of my shoulder ball and socket joint in three places! I guess I must have struck my outstretched arm against the lockside as I went in.

So, could that be the reason for my current aches? The trouble is, after all this time I can´t remember which shoulder it was! I do remember two months of physiotherapy, and being told I´d never be able to raise that arm above shoulder height (not true, it´s fine now), but for the life of me can´t remember whether it was left or right. Hopefully if I keep on tweaking the straps I´ll get it sorted.