I hope she recovers quickly---ouch on her description of her injury! I'm sure not going to speculate how long her healing will take as we all heal differently. I just hope she takes her time so she doesn't re-injure herself. I also noticed that she wasn't doing every single exercise in the recent Lives and IIRC she mentioned her shoulder at one point. She is incredibly strong and it's remarkable that she hasn't faced a lengthy injury in the past although she may have prior to the beginning of Live and didn't share it since she didn't have to!
Cathe is a brand, so I suspect that putting in substitute instructors may not have been something she has wanted to do, but my heavens she deserves a rest now and again that isn't injury related! I wonder if she also wouldn't want to subject a substitute to harsh and nasty comments like she has gotten over the years. I can only imagine what people would say if someone else was the lead for a Live workout! Pure speculation, of course. I would welcome someone who is already an instructor at her gym to give it a try, but I sure wouldn't want to do it---my skin isn't thin enough.
Yes, people pay for her streaming service but the cost is very reasonable IMHO compared to some of the other options out there, and she now has well over 400 Live releases to choose from so if she doesn't do new ones occasionally I'm okay with it. And yes, she can be brutal as a coach---it seems she makes the class do more reps when she isn't doing them!
bzar, it sometimes does seem that the freak things are the "straw that breaks the camel's back" in terms of injury! It sure was the case with your friend and Cathe!