Jose you made the right call. And your Buddie climbing in pain with a torn rotator cuff will understand soon enough. If he pushes that 'till surgery is required he'll be out of action for 6 months and if he pushes that too hard too fast he'll be pretty much done climbing hard for good.
Some end their career early, some have major surgery.
A friend of mine who is a climbing guide recently had to have surgery on his shoulder. His surgeon, who was also a climbing friend of his, said no climbing for 1 year. For anyone that would suck but for a climbing guide that would suck bigtime
The injury was traumatic, as opposed to degenerative, making the repair more successful as the Doctor did not have to resect a bunch of inflamed diseased tissue. I was out climbing easy stuff and doing peaks in 6 months, but it took a year to be back at full strength.
Oh, I think the type of skiing Shortimer is talking about above involves being pulled across the surface of a lake at high speed...
I hear you dude. Shattered a kneecap myself and ruined a lot of the accesory stuff... and put myself out of action for around two years by trying to come back too quickly. A tough lesson but a good one to learn.