BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'

Subject: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 10:14 AM

Hrothgar tells a very funny but also really scary STORY about all the things he did, while injured, BEFORE he went to the hospital. Do you have a story to share, about what you or someone else did/said because they thought they didn't really need some help?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 12:01 PM

When I was a Boy Scout (yes, I was! I was also an altar boy!) the troop was "contracted" to a farmer to hack corn and high weeds out of his soybeans (don't ask, and it was along time ago). For this, we would each receive a year's subscription to "Boy's Life" magazine and the troop would make some money.

It was also the ONLY time we were authorized to have and use sheath knives. Those without sheath knives were issued corn knives -- a heavy bladed short machete sort of thing.

I was cutting corn and weeds in a row next to Tom. I had a sheath knife, he a corn knife. I turned to my left, hacking as a clump of something and felt a tug at the leg of my jeans. Tom had been hacking to his left, too -- the row where I was.

I looked down and said to Tom, "Hey, you cut my pants!"

He had an odd look on his face and said, "That's not all I cut." And he yelled for first aid.

Looking down again, I noticed blood soaking my pants leg. A *lot* of blood. What I noticed particularily was that it wasn't spurting or bright red and frothy, so an artery hadn't been cut.

I asked Tom to help me walk to the first aid/break station. About a half mile on, we were met by the Scoutmaster and his helpers and I was piggy-backed the rest of the way. Tom came along, and when he got to the station he fainted.

The Scoutmaster had been a medic in WWII and he patched me up. It was a clean, but deep cut and I'd lost about a pint of blood. No problems from it, but the scar is on the outside of my right leg just above the knee. Unfortunately, it's not in a place where I can say, "Ya see this baby? Let me tell ya about..." in a bar, or at least the sort of bar I'd go into.

Tom was fine, and when he grew up he went bad and became a lawyer. The rest of the troop thought I was going to die, and keep telling Tom he'd killed me or at least tried to chop off my leg. They did think that stumbling along for a half-mile while my shoes and socks soaked up blood was "pretty neat."

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: JennyO
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 12:15 PM

I have broken both my ankles and my wrist since 1989.

In 1989, I broke my left ankle while ice-skating. I hobbled around for the next half hour, telling everyone around that I thought I had just sprained it. When I finally went to the doctor, I was quite surprised to find it was broken.

In 1999, I was standing on a chair in the backyard trying to reach a high branch (a former flatmate had made off with the ladder when he left) when the chair tipped and I fell, tangling my right ankle around the metal legs. This time I had to crawl across the backyard on hands and knees (not very nice on the concrete path), up 4 steps and in to the phone to ring my son. Fortunately he was home. By the time he got there, I had managed to sit on a lounge chair with my leg up on a cushion. This time I was pretty sure it was broken.

In 2001, I tripped at the top of 3 steps in an asphalt playground and landed on my left wrist at the bottom, smashing it badly. This time I was in no doubt at all that it was broken. Still I managed to sit on the ground and make a couple of calls on my mobile phone.
My wrist is still not right - I will probably have to have a bone graft in a couple of months - meanwhile I have been learning to play the mandolin, and so far so good (cross fingers).

I tend to be very calm in emergencies. If I cut a finger, I just press something - a tissue or another finger hard up against it, and wander around looking for a bandaid. The sight of blood never worries me either.

I just really hope there aren't any more breaks!

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 02:42 PM

'Way up in the riding ring, my horse's girth strap broke while I was, apparently, cantering her in tight figure eights. They tell me that I caught the horse, gathered up the saddle, draped it on her, and walked her all the long way back to the stableyard, about a half mile. They say I explained that it was not her fault-- she had previously dumped me on the trail, purposely, many, many times-- and that they should not discipline her this time. Although they say they thought I was making pretty good sense, they tell me I suggested that perhaps an ambulance had better be called, and I would not be talked out of it. I came to myself much later that night, in the hospital, endlessly reading and re-reading a note my frustrated mother and sister had left, explaining to me what had happened..... because I had asked them to 'splain it to me numerous times, and after each retelling I said, "Oh. Hm! .... What happened, why I am I in the hospital?" It wasn't until morning that the words in the note began to stick, and I could sort out whether I had already read both sides of the note without turning it over to start again. They tell me I'd been pretty entertaining when they brought me in, too. Cooperative, and not nasty, but using a lot of truly colorful language! :~) I have no memory of that experience, myself, or the other events of the day, or the night before, leading up to the fall.

Later that year, having already had several other nasty falls from nasty horses, and having had a variety of concussions from them, did I hesitate one day to climb up on a wobbly milk crate to mount a horse in the stableyard while there all by my lonesome?

Of course not! And of course the crate wobbled at the wrong moment and I went flying crash-boom onto my head.

I came to some time later, grateful that the gate to the driveway (straight shot to the road) had been closed, so the mare was happily nibbling grass under the fence, keeping me company till I could rouse myself to take off her saddle, etc.

Ooops!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 04:58 PM

Well, there was that time in the Peace Corps back in Ethiopia in the 1960's. I was having a nice lunch with Mary, one of the other volunteers in the village of Emdeber. Among other things she had prepared a garden salad, having previously rinsed the greens in diluted iodine as we'd been instructed by the Peace Corps staff. It did give the salad an odd flavor but we knew that any nasty bacteria would be dead. After lunch I returned to my science classroom and was about half way through the lesson when I felt an irrestible urge to demonstrate the vomit. I hastily told the students to copy everything I had written on the chalkboard and that I would be right back. Which I was after filling a basin in the science lab next door with lunch and perhaps breakfast. By the time I returned to the classroom the students were looking a little concerned but I bravely carried on and then dragged myself home. Mary said she was very sorry, and also very sick, and that she must have made the iodine rinse too strong.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 06:52 PM

Not exactly what you asked for, but sort of similar—

My college roommate, George, belonged to a family that owned a summer home on an island in Lake of the Woods, Ontario. Every year of his life, he had spent the summer there. At the end of one school year, he was quite eager to get there (he also had a girlfriend in Kenora) so he prepared to drive up there for the first time alone, driving the family station wagon and towing a boat. It's about 800 miles from Chicago, but he was determined to make it in one day. On the last leg of the journey, late at night on a lonely road between International Falls, Minnesota, and Kenora, Ontario, he fell asleep at the wheel and drove off the road. Miraculously, he was unhurt, but both the car and the boat were totaled. He got out, surveyed the damage, and determined that the car wasn't drivable. He looked around and saw that there was nothing but woods and lakes for miles around, no way to call for help, and it was pointless to try to hitchhike since there was no other traffic that time of night. What else could he do? He crawled back in the car and went to sleep!

In the morning he was awakened from a sound sleep by a truck driver rapping frantically on the car window, hoping he wasn't dead!

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 06:54 PM

A hundred years ago, when I was younger, I used to do a LOT of backcountry backpacking in the Olympic Mountains of Washington State, U.S.A. I usually went into the mountains in the middle of September when the kids and teachers were back in school and I had the place to myself. I'd usually go solo and stay in for 12 - 15 days at a time.

This one trip was a real adventure. The second morning up the trail I climbed a high tree to suspend a food bag high above the ground so the bears couldn't get at it. This was my food supply for the last five days, when I circled to this spot on my way out. I was standing on a moss covered tree trunk angled about 45 degrees when my feet slipped.

The next thing I knew I was waking up and I was cold from my waist down. I'd fallen and landed in a creek. Every part of my body hurt real bad. It took me two hours to drag myself out of the creek to where my pack was laying.

I knew I was going to die. There was no doubt about it. I still vividly remember thinking,"Well, O.K., I'm gonna' die, but this is such a beautiful place to go." I was not at all frightened. But I knew I had to go further on up the mountain.

The whole purpose of this hike was to say farewell to a dear friend that had passed away earlier that year. And this particuliar hike was one that he and I had done together several times.

So I lightend my pack, took off my pant's belt, and strapped it around my chest and cinched it up as tight as I could. Then I started up the trail again. I figgure that I'd been unconcious for a couple of hours, judging by the sun.

About dark I got to my goal, which was Elk Lake. I threw my gear on the ground, walked to lake, caught a trout on my first cast, released it and said fairwell to my friend. Then I laid under my tent as a tarp.

About two that morning, I was hurting real bad but decided I would try to get myself out of there. I left all my gear on the trail, except my water jug, and started hiking down. I hiked from three in the morning until two in the afternoon, without seeing anyone, the park was closed for the Winter. At two, I ran into a ranger who was going in to close up a couple of backwood stations. He offered to help me out, but I said No, I don't dare stop. He radioed ahead, and two more rangers met me a mile from the trailhead.

I made it back home with 6 broken ribs and a couple of blisters. This is all true. Before anyone starts to chastise me for making backcountry mistakes, let me simply say that I probably know them all. Let me also say that I have since enjoyed many long, solo hikes, and hopefully I will be able to do so again. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Joybell
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 06:56 PM

I got bitten by a highly venemous snake - not its fault, entirely mine- and I apologised to it at the time. I applied the necessary first aid and rang the nearest hospital which was an hour away on a good day. The answer I got was a horrified voice saying "Oh no! now I'll have nighmares for a week! I'm so scared of snakes!" I spent a good five minutes reassuring this country-born young lady - and me a escapee from the big city. We drove to the hospital where everyone from the cleaning staff to the doctors asked if they could look at me. Nothing much happened except that I had to keep saying how alright I was, and they went away after a while dissapointed. I was alright though so my story doesn't really rate with the others.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 07:36 PM

One of my college teachers was an arrogant smartass that I didn't like very much. When final exams were coming up, he told the class, "Anyone tries to get out of taking this test had better have a broken arm."

The night before the final, tensions were high in my dorm, and a fight broke out. Before I knew what was happening, my best friend George (see above) was on the floor and his adversary, who had attacked him, had him down on the floor and was choking him. Without thinking, I clouted the assailant on the back of the head with my fist. Not a good strategy! In seconds, the fight was broken up by the intervention of some other friends. Neither of the original combatants was hurt, but I had broken my hand! (Fifth metacarpal, to be exact.)

From the pain and the immediate swelling, I knew something was broken. Coincidentally, I had broken one of my wrist bones almost exactly a year earlier (the navicular, that time). I knew from experience that the college health service was closed that time of night, and I had no idea where else I could get help, or whether immediate help would have made any difference. So I took two aspirins and decided it could wait till morning.

The final exam had been scheduled for 8 a.m. Since I had waited all night, I figured waiting another hour wouldn't make much difference, so I went ahead and took the final exam. It was my right hand, and I was right-handed. I worked right through the pain. I said nothing to the professor until the test was over. Then, as I handed him the exam, I said, "Well, I don't have a broken arm, but I do have a broken hand." I showed him my swollen hand. He just stared at me speechless. I walked out. I went straight from the classroom to the health service. I don't think I ever talked to that professor again.

As it turns out, I aced the course.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Sorcha
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 07:42 PM

I don't think I've ever done this. Our son has, numerous times....but I hope I'm smarter than that.......

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 07:53 PM

Sorcha ... are you sure that didn't misspell "smarter?" Bob

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 07:56 PM

Luckily, I've only broken my left thumb and two toes... Unluckily, I've had bad genies and spent an entire year in a polio ward and didn't walk fir another year. It's now arthritis and muscle pain but, hey, I ain't no clutz... Okay, I lied... I hurt myself every day... I slice myself.... smash fingers, stub toes, trip over cats and phone cords, run into low tree branhes, get lots of splinters, get lost at night trying to find the bathromm usually endin' up with unexplainable bruises, etc....

But..... no broken ribs....

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 08:26 PM

No major stories here. I was pitching, friends were batting and catching. Guy caught the ball and tossed it back to me. It was a nice, easy lob, so I just caught it in my right, non-gloved hand. It was SUCH and easy catch that I didn't make an effort to open my hand thoroughtly, and the ball caught my pinkie. Ow.

Went to the emergency room. I just asked "I hurt my hand, but I can move everything and it's not that painful, so it's probably not broken, right?" The nurse agreed. Said it was up to me if I wanted to be seen, so I left. This was on Sunday. I'd tape it up, and made sure I did a REAL good job for the volleyball game on Wed. First solid hit and I realized there was something seriously damaged in there. I took myself out of the game and when it was over, I went to the ER, where they told me "it probably isn't broken." It was.

Now, do we want to talk about how OTHER PEOPLE do that "Quit whinin' and get on with it!" stuff? Like when someone blows out their anterior cruciate ligament (knee) in a practice and people are pissed because you can't get off the floor? It gets worse. The doctor in charge of making a decision to refer me to an orthopedic guy told me there was nothing wrong. I was transferred, had a different doc refer me and ended up having reconstructive surgery.

Morons abound. Sometimes they have medical degrees, and sometimes they're me.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 08:33 PM

Hmmmm? Perhaps the problems increase by degrees! (sorry ... sort of) Bob

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 08:35 PM

Bob, you're the heart of diploma-C.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 08:36 PM

I'm a careful guy who almost never gets hurt...a couple sprains, and a couple cuts that needed 2-3 stiches in 60 years....but I had a friend who told a story about her mother: (the story took 30-40 minutes to tell..I shorten it here!)

seems Mom was gardening...with a pitchfork (the kind with thin, round tines)..and managed to shove one of the tines through her foot...right through the shoe. Well, she stood there, then tried to hobble to the house and found it wasn't easy...then spent 10 minutes getting up courage to pull the thing OUT...then went inside and...called the doctor? No...took off the shoe, sock and washed her foot...then changed clothes...then cleaned up the blood in the bathroom...then put ON new socks, then called her daughter (my friend)...THEN drove herself to the hospital. (There were many details about all this that I have forgotten and left out, but we were all laughing till the tears ran at the recounting of this, as we KNEW Mom and how meticulous and fastidious she was, and KNEW how she wouldn't want the emergency room to see her in gardening clothes with...horrors! BLOOD.. on her! Nor would she want to leave her bathroom spotted!)
she was patched, shot for tetanus, and released and all was eventually ok...but I suspect it is well that she didn't have Deckman's experience, or Susan's ..or she'd never have gotten clean enough to have survived!

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Deckman
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 09:54 PM

Three days before I got married (the first time) I fell three stories after walking backwards through a chimney hole in a house my Father and I were building. I managed to break my fall by grabbing the studs on the lower two stories. I landed on the concrete slab that was waiting for the brick mason to build the fireplace upon. As I lay there, I remembered that my skillsaw went down with me. I rolled over just as this heavy "Black and Decker" saw hit the concrete. The blade was still spinning.

I got up, bleeding a bit, no skin on my fingers, and shrapnel all over my face from the saw, and went home. I think I said something like ... "SHUCKS!" I didn't go back to work until two weeks after the wedding. I would add that I didn't get out of bed for those two weeks, but if I did, I'm sure that someone would make a smart assed comment, so I won't add that comment!. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: JennyO
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 10:12 PM

You would think that two broken ankles and a broken wrist would be enough for one person, but no, I have remembered another one. What Jeri said reminded me - because it was a perfect example of OTHER people making light of something I knew was serious.

It was back in 1978, in another lifetime - the fact that I had forgotten about it shows just how much I have wanted to put this period of my life in the past. I was getting to the worst stage of an abusive marriage. We were living with two small children in a caravan with a lean-to annexe on 50 acres with the road a couple of kilometers away and another half hour's drive from civilization.

A stupid argument (they were always stupid) escalated into violence and my jaw got caught between his fist and the ground. I could tell it was broken - apart from the swelling I could feel something moving around.

But he, and his parents who also lived on the property, made light of it - he kept saying he couldn't believe it was broken because he hadn't hit me THAT hard - and they said they'd take me to hospital the next day and that I should "sleep on it". When I finally did get there, an X ray confirmed it was indeed broken.

So I packed up the car and the children and drove to Sydney (6 to 7 hours drive) with it still broken. In Sydney it was X rayed again and two breaks were found, which meant a piece had been floating around loose, which was exactly what it had felt like.

After 6 weeks at my mother's with my jaw wired up, I "stupidly" went back to him. It was another 7 years and several more separations before we finally broke up for the last time.

Is it any wonder I want to forget this part of my life? Looking at it now, it seems like a bad movie - or somebody else's life. I have heard statistics that only 5% of women ever escape abusive marriages, so that makes me one of the 5% - something to be quite proud of, in my opinion.

So I could beat myself up for being stupid enough to stay in it as long as I did, although it didn't seem so at the time, or I could move on and enjoy the great life I have made for myself now, and that is what I am doing. And I really am fine now.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 10:18 PM

I was just a young tad, and one summer day I came home to find my mother missing. The only evidence was a very chewed-up shoe that looked like one of hers, a power mower still in the yard, and the car gone.

She arrived home later.

Seems like she was mowing the grass and, while holding onto the handle of the power mower, stretched back to pull out a weed. She pulled the mower over her left foot, laying it open to halfway down her foot.

Fortunately, the neighbor lady had seen what had happened and while Mom stood there, ran and got some towels to wrap Mom's foot in. Then she drove her to the hospital for 148 stitches (the blade wasn't sharp, the wound was very ragged). All of this would be bad enough, but Mom went inside to put hose on her uninjured leg and to wash up before going to the ER!

We weren't permitted to use a power mower for three years after that....

How to make Mom's hair grow grayer, Part CXLVI:

Go to work on a Sunday afternoon, open a glass bottle of Coke with a ring-type opener, have the bottle neck break and slice open your thumb. From the Emergency Room, call home and say, "Hi, Mom. Guess where I am?" "(laughingly) Hospital Emergency Room!" "Right! But I'm...Mom! How did you get here to the ER so fast?"

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: LadyJean
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 10:19 PM

I was on my way from the laundry room to my apartment to start on the dishes. I slipped on a ramp I had been down, (I worked this out in the hospital.) ten thousand times. I was a bit shook up, and my left elbow hurt. I figured I'd dislocated it, and tried to wiggle it back into place.
I had a broken the elbow in several places, hitting the floor. It is now held together by nine screws. There was also some nerve damage, caused, I suspect by me trying to fix my dislocated elbow.
My laundry spent the weekend in the washing machine, and my dishes spent the weekend in the sink. They smelled worse than the laundry, but it was a near thing.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 10:40 PM

I was riding my motorbike home from the Qld Uni one rainy day, when I tried to turn a corner in some loose gravel in front of the Regatta Hotel. The right hander after the left habder that leads into the big loop.

When I stopped sliding, and watching the horrified face of the lady driver behind me - who stopped in time - I noticed that I had come to a rest in fornt of three police cars on their way back for change of shift.

The nice policeman came up to me and asked three questions:

1) Are you OK?

2) Have you been drinking?

3) Can you still ride?

Answers:

1) I think so....

2) No - (I had one beer over a period of a few hours before)...

3) I think so....

so they happily dragged the bike over to the side of the road and put it on the side stand and vannished in three puffs of smoke (it was change of shift you know!)...

I was having a little difficulty walking, but I felt less stunned, so I tried to kick start the bike, and discovered that the right foot didn't seem to have any power...

Fortunately the road was on a slight downhill slope, so I clutch started the bike, and rode about 5 miles to my mother's place where I was staying at the time. Getting the leather boot off was when I realised that something was not quite right...

She got me to RBH just before the X-ray closed for the night (this would have been about 1978) and it was confirmed after some hours that the ankle was broken. I won't go into the interesting things that happened there while I was waiting, such as the drug crazed guy with the knife, or anything else like that... but those TV ER shows are often pretty tame :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 11:01 PM

I was washing Cuisinart parts when the phone rang. After the call, I grabbed a few things out of the water including a very sharp blade. It cut my fingertip right to the bone and bled for days but I refused to go to the hospital. Eventually the cut healed but I have a scar and a numb finger tip. Not nearly as dramatic as catching trout with a broken rib.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 09:24 AM

Bob's story about his fall at a construction site has unleased my repressed memory of one of my several construction accidents. Don't try this at home, please.

I was part of a team rebuilding a beautiful old house in Portland-East. It was toward the end of the day, everyone else had gone home and I was doing some final clean-up in the attic where we had built a couple of new rooms and a new access stairs. I'd forgotten about the old trapdoor in the corner buried under some old newspapers and sure enough I fell through it! Luckily I caught myself on the edges before disappearing completely down. Unluckily there was a rust nail on one edge that went into my wrist, and my feet had plunged through the nice new ceiling below. Well, I managed to haul myself back up, wrap my wrist in duct tape, and drive to the emergency room which was only 5 minutes away where they were amazed that I hadn't done more damage to my wrist. The next morning I got to the construction site early and repatched the ceiling before the rest of the crew arrived!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Deckman
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 09:35 AM

Interesting story Charlie. Of all the construction accidents I've had, and witnessed, it's falls that are the most dangerous. That's part of the reason I became "The Deck Man." I much prefer falling off a ground level deck than a roof! Bob

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 10:06 AM

Hardi's youngest brother took quite a long header off a ladder when his foot missed the rung, as a roofer. His crew called in the ambulance, so we can't call him a wuss-- he was out cold! Them boys has hard heads-- no damage, thankfully.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 10:29 AM

I went to a folk dance one Saturday night and during a "Strip the Willow" I thought that someone had kicked me hard in the right heel. I finished the dance, but was limping badly although it didn't hurt in the way that a sprain would. I limped throughout the Sunday and also the the Monday when I was at work. Although not in great pain, my ankle felt strange - rather as though the ground was sloping at a funny angle.

On the Tuesday there was quite a bit of swelling, so I went to the local hospital A&E dept - feeling that I was probably wasting their time. The doctor about a minute to diagnose that I had broken my achilles tendon - "How did you do it ?", he asked. When I told him "Folk Dancing" he found it incredibly funny as did everyone else, including a nurse who was in a well known folk song group ("the Dead Sea Surfers"). Even when I was being wheeled along into the operating theatre, the sugeon was having a chuckle over my notes.

Considering that I spent a week in hospital, 3 months in a plaster cast, followed by about six months physio and it was at least a year before I could walk and run without a limp - I DIDN'T FIND IT AT ALL FUNNY.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: HuwG
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 11:14 AM

If I will play silly games ...

Playing rugby one day against Old Aldwinians (NE Manchester, UK), I charged down an attempted clearance kick. I was close enough for the boot to catch me, rather than the ball. After another ten minutes play, my hand was a bloated purple balloon.

I came off the field, changed and showered awkwardly, and then drove myself to nearby Tameside General Hospital. Please bear in mind that this car did not have automatic transmission. I could change gear only on straight stretches of road, taking my one good hand off the wheel. This was a built-up area, busy with pedestrians and traffic. Any 'Catters who may be in the Police (Constabulary, not Sting's pop group), please be forgiving. I won't be doing anything quite as daft again.

At Casualty Reception, I discovered that I was hallucinating. The room was full of people in the full finery of a wedding; clawhammer coats, top hats, etc. Only on closer inspection was it apparent that the brims of the top hats had been torn off in an attempt to ram the hats over the wearers' ears, lapels were hanging on by a thread, bloody noses and black eyes were common accessories, and the bride's mother was crying with something more than the joy of seeing one's daughter wedded. One of the casualty nurses told me, during the endless wait to have X-rays taken, that some jilted ex-boyfriend had created a scene at the reception, and the various drunken uncles of both bride's and groom's families had joined in, impartially and with gusto. Normal for Tameside, apparently.

The upshot was that I had fractured both the ulna and radius, at the distal end (i.e. nearest to the wrist). Oddly, almost every severe injury I have suffered has been to the same arm. Over thirty years, I have broken almost everything in it from clavicle (collar bone), humerus (not very funny in this case), to three of the fingers. There are only some metacarpals and minor bones in the wrist to go. I am still skiing, cash and job situation permitting. Watch this space ...

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 11:26 AM

I was working in the Arts Theatre (Amateur) and had been working all weekend for the bumpin and set build (being one of the lighting crew, you only got to your fun bit after the damn set was built!) and was working on the hang and patch. Getting ready for some technical rehearsal stuff - "Clear the stage"

I went to fold up the 12 foot ladder to move it - then I folded up!

Ya see, this guy had left half a Besser Brick (about equivalent to 6 or 8 house bricks) on top of the ladder top step cause he was too short to reach the lighting bar with the fittings....

They said I went down like a pole-axed hobbit.

But the way I saw it was all in slow motion....

I felt a bit dizzy - I thought I have been working hard for days and now I feel a leeeetle bit tired, I'll sit down... I say down slowly and carefully - I feel more tired than that, I'll lie down .... :-)

They got me in a car, and we made it to the RBH - as the guy was stitching up my eyebrow he asked what day it was - I didn't know - he looked worried - so I explained that I had been working round the clock inside a darkened theatre and I didn't know exactly what day it was, but had seen a newspaper a bit earlier on and I thought I remembered what date it was...

They made me go home for a couple of days...
~~~~~

This was the same guy who on a later show got me to go up the steel ladder with a pair of pliars to get the broken socket out of the (hard wired) auditorum FOH light fitting (not one of the pluggable show lights).

"It's OK" he said, "I switched off the power."

ZAP! (obviously the wrong switch) - right thru the throat (affects my singing a bit even 30 years later!)

I reckon I did good pretty acrobatics to controll the fall so as to miss the stack of flourescent tubes, and the stairway. and the railing, and the concrete pot plants and the ladder which fell out from under me while I was hanging on a beam so as I could reach the light fitting ... :-)

Never trusted those who claimed they knew what they were doing aftre that...

Years later I studied to be a Workplace Safety Officer...

:-)

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 11:27 AM

HuwG-

If you'd like to try another arm just fly down to Oz, there's a different pattern for accidents there.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Micca
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 11:38 AM

I was on a climbing trip to the Lake District (UK) years ago and late on Saturday after a days rock climbing we were walking home over wet grass, I slipped and put my left hand down to stop myself rolling down the steepish slope. I felt a sharp pain in my wrist and our first Aid person said " sprained", That evening ,in the pub a Doctor( experienced in expedition climbing trips, had been to the Himalayas and the Caucusus etc)agreed,"its a bad sprain, keep it strapped until you get home then rest it for a coupla weeks" Well i got home Sunday evening, but on Monday had a bad cold and went to see my Doctor on Tuesday morning, he noticed the elastic bandage showing below my sleeve and asked about it. He suggested" purely as a precaution" I went to the local A&E for an Xray. the doctor there was leaving after his shift to go sking in Austria and was making a lot of bad jokes about Mountaineering injuries etc. He came in after examining the Xray almost wetting himself laughing and said" you silly prat, you have been walking around for 3 days with a broken wrist" he promptly put my arm in plaster from knuckles to elbow for 6 weeks!!!!. I told him I was going to Cornwall in 2 weeks on a walking and camping trip, he said "shouldnt be any problem so long as you are careful and keep it dry" and I did too

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: JennyO
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 11:58 AM

Yes, when I think about it. Charley is right. My injuries have been fairly symmetrical - left ankle, right ankle, left wrist.......... wait a minute, I have no plans whatsoever to break my right wrist, not even for the sake of being symmetrical. Sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 01:45 PM

Just about two hours ago....

We were installing the barbed wire in the Reference area (part of a display, normally we don't need barbed wire) when one of the coils snapped back and caught me right in the center of the forehead. Yes, it bled. And as much as I wanted to get on with it, the staff insisted that I go for a tetanus shot.

I did. Probably for the best. But now you can say that you actually know of someone who was injured while stringing barbed wire in a library.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 01:59 PM

oH bARBED WIRE, i FORGOT!

Damn Capslock!

Well, just take my word for it: stringing/stretching it by hand is a bad idea.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: LilyFestre
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 03:23 PM

I was riding my bicyle down Main Street. I was riding along the right hand side of the road as the town had recently decreed that NO MORE BICYCLES OR SKATEBOARDS ON THE SIDEWALKS. I was going with traffic....cruising right along. I rode by an open parking space in front of the local bank when I went FLYING over the handle bars of my 10-speed. Turns out that a motorcycle wanted that parking space and was in a bit of a hurry. He had caught the back wheel of my bike with his front tire. I was 15 years old and mortified that I was sitting there on the ground with tears streaming down my face, traffic had stopped and folks were running to see if I was okay. I insisted I was and then I tried to stand up. Yeah...right.   I really did need help and was grateful that there were people kind enough to do just that.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 03:55 PM

My buddy Howard has a bad back - either from an auto accident or a war injury, I don't know. (never asked) Anyhow, as those of you with bad backs know, they will go out without prior warning. He told me he was in the middle of water-sealing the bird bath when it felt like somebody whacked him in the spine with a sledgehammer. As a result, he was drenched in Thompson's Water Seal, and had to visit the chiropractor that way.

I told him to take up yoga.

I'm sure the last time I hurt my foot, I should have gone to the doctor. I probably broke something. But I figured they were going to take my money to tell me to stay off of it, which I could do for myself, and did.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 05:14 PM

Rapaire-

I'm disappointed in you. I was waiting for the punchline, where you hold your hand to your bleeding forehead and shout "How barbaric!"

Speedy recovery,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 06:04 PM

Ah, bicycles!

Don't be messing around and have your brother grab the handlebars of the bike you're riding. The asphalt street is MUCH harder than your front teeth. And don't pick up said teeth and walk home, drop them in your mother's hand (while there is company, no less) and say, "Here."

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 07:37 PM

I actually rode 'round a blind corner on my bicycle as a kid, and hit a tree and went right over the handlebars into the tree...but, as I said above, nothing much ever happens to me, even though I used to climb every tree in sight! I don't think I was even scratched. Gee,I hate besmirching this tragic thread with tales of how I DON'T get hurt....what are you injury prone folks doing?

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 08:27 PM

You climb the trees while bicycle riding??? That's a new one on me, Bill!

`S~

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 08:33 PM

well, my mother suspected I did, I think!.."be careful...get down from there...watch that car..." I never did give her the satisfaction of saying "I told you so!"

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: LilyFestre
Date: 17 Oct 03 - 07:28 PM

My husband used to play soccer as a teenager. On this occassion, he fell, hurting his wrist. He said it was so painful that he passed out. The attending medical folks diagnosed a bad sprain. He was told to take it easy....nothing strenuous. Above all, they told him to have it checked out if he was in pain or if the swelling did not go down.   That night, because he was *FINE*, he packed up his camping gear and loaded a canoe onto his car for a little mid-quarter fishing trip (no matter that school was still in session!!!). He paddled around the lake, set up camp, did lots of fly fishing and three days later decided to have his wrist checked out at the hospital as the swelling had only increased. They admitted him immediately and sent him to surgery where he almost lost his hand. Today, he has about a 7 inch scar above his wrist where his wrist is held together with steel rods. *shaking my head* This is the same man who once called me on the phone and said, "Honey, do we still have insurance?" LOL Some things never change!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: rangeroger
Date: 17 Oct 03 - 08:09 PM

The ads at the bottom of this thread are a little diconcerting. "Benchmade at Knifeworks" and "Cold Steel Knives on Sale".

rr

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Oct 03 - 08:30 PM

Many years ago when we were building a cold bin to store vegetables over the winter, my younger brother who was about four at the time decided to try and slide down the blade of a freshly sharpened buck saw, slicing his knee badly enough to require stitches.

Years later I was trying to dam up a swampy area to make a small pond, and felling a couple of trees to form the top of the dam. One of the trees hung or lodged in the brances of a nearby tree. Remembering movies of South Sea natives using machetes to cut foot notches in palm trees to enable them to climb to the top and get fruit or nuts, I began cutting notches in the trunk of the tree with an axe, intending to cut it free where it was lodged, and thouroughly forgetting that newly freed end of the tree, with me on it, would fall much faster than I would had I only jumped off the opposing tree. As good (?) luck would have I only managed to cut three notches before the axe rebounded from the tree and struck me in the knee, requiring a week or so in the hospital trying to stop the various infections I had contracted from the swamp water.

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 23 Nov 03 - 11:38 PM

Not nearly as dramatic as the other stories on this thread, but as a graphic designer, I've had my share of injuries involving x-acto knives. Thing is, when you're trimming a piece of art and you forget/don't notice that a fingertip (or 2 or 3) are hanging over the edge of the ruler, the *first* thing you think is, "Oh ****, did I get any blood on the artwork?" Priorities, doncha know...

Cheers,

YY

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Willie-O
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 08:47 AM

Yeah, YY, I trimmed the side of my finger off pretty neatly with a utility knife a few years ago. Fortunately, on my left hand index finger, it is noticeable thinner than the right, and I can play them jazz chords now! Fortunately it was a brand new blade, nice and clean. (I am not, though, planning to make the rest of my chording fingers match.) Talk about a lot of blood. I drove myself 10 mi to the health centre. Took the knife along, it still had the former side of my finger stuck to it. I showed it to the nurse and she just sort of guffawed and said "We're not putting that back on!"   Instead we finger-wrestled for over an hour before the bleeding stopped.

Falls from ground level decks can be hazardous too Bob...A few years back I was working on a job that wasn't particularly well-sequenced. We had framed the deck but hadn't boarded it, but were already installing the soffit above it, which of course entailed standing on loose boards, or better yet, on a stepping-stool set on loose boards. Inevitably a board tipped and I found my leg suddenly through the joists, at a very peculiar angle (think it was wrapped around the step-stool) and my ankle hurt like hell.

I sat down to compose myself. "Walk it off", one of my co-workers advised helpfully. Hah. Major sprain and minor fracture, three weeks of crutches.

While I was recuperating, I went to a jam in my neighbour's back pasture where they have a campout every year. Driving my minivan on the bush road, I found a teenager lying on the ground, with a puzzled friend standing beside him. This sounds stupid, but the poor kid had been running barefoot and stubbed his toe, and the intense pain had put him into a near-unconscious state of shock. I got out, crutches and all, loaded him into the back of the van, (those big sliding doors are great for emergencies) and delivered him to the campsite for first aid. One of my least likely times to be able to play ambulance driver/attendant...

I have worked on a lot of roofs and high places without roofs, never fallen except out of a sleeping loft in my cabin. (A very disorienting experience.) I sort of helped someone else to fall off a garage roof we were sheeting--I had stacked three sheets of plywood on the rafters, preparing to nail them down, and he foolishly walked on them--the top sheet slid off the roof and he rode it down like a magic carpet with no harm done.

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 08:50 AM

Oh boy. Last weekend I was at the house we've bought and decided to go out to the backyard and take the ugly, damned wire off the stump of the old satellite dish. The weather was a snow/rain mix.

Out the back door, down the steps. REALLY down the steps.

In addition to other things, the previous owners had painted the steps with glossy paint. In a snow/rain mix this makes these steps slicker'n oiled snot.

I didn't fall. I did some sort of arabesque, missed a couple of steps, and caught the railing with my left hand. (By the way, I was wearing lugged sole hiking shoes.)

That was Saturday. On Monday I went to the doctor as I couldn't raise my left arm above shoulder level without pain. Diagnosis: badly, badly strained deltoids, where they connect at the shoulder joint, and "why you didn't tear them I don't know."

So I'm on Vioxx and ice and rest for another week and I haven't been able to do the moving of stuff that I wanted to.

Oh, yeah. I did remove the ugly wires and things. They're in the trash. And I plan to fix the slick steps as soon as I can.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Melani
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 01:27 PM

Several times I have sliced a finger with sharp knives and not had time to go to ER and have it stitched. I find that five or six bandaids at once, changed frequently, will usually stop the bleeding in an hour or so.

I fell while skiing two years ago, twisting my knee when the ski got caught under about a foot of new snow. The loud screams brought my daughter running (or skiing), and I managed to extricate my foot. The pain pretty much stopped then, so I tried another run. Bad idea. I now wear an elastic brace full time.

Several years back, when my daughter was eleven, she and Daddy were skiing in a wilderness area near Lake Tahoe, and stayed overnight at a Sierra Club hut, where they were the only tenants. When they left the next morning, Daddy managed to slam the door on his little finger, cutting off part of the tip with the sharp edge of the door jamb. Sarah wrapped it up, and then they skiied several miles back to the trailhead, and drove to the local hospital to get it tended. When they came out of ER, he found that he had left the headlights on and had to jump-start the car. When they got home that night, they were both laughing hysterically, telling me the story. Sarah was especially charmed at the idea that when the next person opened the door of the ski hut, a piece of Daddy's finger would fall out.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 01:45 PM

I was skiing a Mount Tremblant in Quebec some years back (many years back!), taking the last run of a ski school course. In the process of skiing along a not-to-difficult trail I did something wrong -- crossed my tips, something, and took a header. I tumbled three or four times, and when I stopped I couldn't see.

The instructor had seen me fall and skied back. By then I'd cleaned the snow from my glasses (everything had gone white!), and he asked me if I was okay. I did a quick assessment -- arms, legs, head moveable, hey, the was BLOOD I just spit! Big glob of BLOOD! I replied, "No."

He came over and assessed the damage from the outside and asked if my high school had had "football, I mean soccer." "Yes." "It's not worse than a soccer hurt." Which could, of course, be anyone of a number of things.

I thought I'd lost more teeth, but no, it was just a split lip. I finished the run on shakey legs, but that evening, when everyone else was drinking rum, I drank water.

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 05:10 PM

Looks like we may have another potential story in
Finger Pain in the Left Hand

Subject: RE: BS: 'No, Really, I'm Sure I'll Be Fine!'
From: Melani
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 05:46 PM

I almost forgot one: it happened to a jeweler friend, who grew up near the Kingman Mines in Arizona. His father had some petrified logs on his land, so my friend had cut and polished a slice to make himself a really outstanding agate-topped coffee table. He built the wooden table, and then was going to glue the petrified wood slice to the wooden top. He spread one side with what amounts to super-strong crazy glue--and then absent-mindedly leaned on it, palm down, the way you lean on a table-top. Then he realized what he had done. His wife had to drive him to the emergency room with a 50-pound slab of agate crazy-glued to the palm of his hand.