Have you been injured?

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samssamantha

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I have injured myself in a bicycling accident. I have a fractured right elbow, and I am right handed. As I have been out of work, and surfing this site I began to wonder if anyone else has been in this predictament. This also happens to be a matter I am to address in my business plan.
I am putting this on the "Pro Partner" list.
 
For what it's worth yes, I broke my right arm falling from horse. I am right handed too. No insurance. Needed to work for financial and tempermental reasons. I found that I could do almost everything that I needed to do with technical adjustments. Even inpainting! I did have some help from wonderful contract workers, but I'm pretty bull headed and carried on pretty well as per usual in work and home, even down to cooking and cleaning.

Rebecca
 
When I had my first shop, I slipped and fell on my right thumb, and tore the tendon right off the bone. I'm also right-handed. And I was my only employee. Had surgery and in a cast for nearly 3 months. You learn very fast to be left-handed. Today I'm both!

And this Spring I had 2 total hip replacement surgeries and came right back to work the next week after each one. You just find a way through it all, and do the best you can. No-one said it's easy, but it can be done, as Rebecca attested to. In our cases, it must be done...or, at least for me, would've probably lost the shop. Not an option.

The gift? (I've learned to look for the gift in all circumstances, no matter what)... I learned to ask for help...and then accept it when it was offered.

I hope you're feeling better soon. Sucks, though, doesn't it?
 
About 10 years ago, while I was trying to open a carton with a box cutter, I sliced through the tendon on my left thumb. I bled onto an unglazed mat, of course.

I wrapped the wound and drove to the emergency room where they sutured the tendon, but because it had retracted, the now, new tendon is shorter, so I cannot completely flex my left thumb anymore.

Since I am right-handed, most of the work in the shop could still be done, but my left hand had a splint on it, so I could no longer stretch needle work. I had to hire a customer to come in once a week for six weeks to do that.
 
I start PT next week. June 17 ruptured my achilles. Surgery a week later, 10 weeks on crutches non-weight bearing.

BUT, I'm walking now! yeah!
 
About 7-8 years ago I cut my left inside forearm with a utility knife. Needed about 10 stitches. Couldn't grab with my left hand for a couple days, so I did what I could that didn't require holding and lifting anything with my left hand. Thank God I'm right handed, so I could still do other stuff. I cut mats and frames, but couldn't put them together to lift them up. Got back to normal soon enough so it wasn't too bad.
 
These are some great stories. A few years ago working alone, as I was my only employee, I was changing a flouresant light tube and trying to get it into those little groves in the light fixture I broke the tube and nicely put the bulb through my left index finger (nice huh?). I was still able to work just fine but more recently I developed tennis elbow in my right dominant arm, bad news. Good news is that I have sereral employees and could have them do the stuff I couldn't. All is well now. I hope you heal quickly and are able to make it through.
 
You are not seriously asking me this question, are you?

Besides the multiple foot and toe breaks and dislocations, (framing on crutches--not fun!) there have been multiple semi-serious cuts. Thought I'd cut my thumb off once, (papercutters are sharp!)but it only was cut a little into the bone and it was put back together nicely.

The worst hand injury was from supporting a 32x40 lite of glass in the middle as I lay it down on the matted print....evidently there was a slight fissure in the glass as it collapsed and filleted the flesh from my palm. I DO have a scar from that one and couldn't use my right hand for about 6 weeks.

Someone put a matblade into the straightline matcutter upside down once and it came out and sliced neatly up my forefinger through the tendon. Out of commission again for about 6 weeks and took over a year of therapy to regain most use of it. Still hurts.


However, all of this is minor compared to what many of you have gone through. I can't imagine hip replacements!

(the only serious accident was a head on car collision---I don't remember anything about it though)
 
Oh Barb, I found it hard to read your post! Brrrr.

What a tough bunch we are :)

Val is so right, there are lessons in everything. I found that I sorely needed to learn patience - that was the reason I fell off horse, and the aftermath slowed me down wayyyy past my comfort level. It was actually a good thing.

Another good thing I discovered from having to walk very very slowly for a couple of weeks as my hip healed from the fall. I discovered all of the other people that have to move very slowly too - old, or young and disabled, dumpster divers etc. It was a whole sub-culture that I didn't know about before, and lot of silent but heartfelt good will passed between us all.

That being said, I hope everyone heals ASAP!

Rebecca
 
Well, This is a lovely thread

Well, This is a lovely thread! When the guy I bought my Jyden Chopper from reached out to shake my hand I noticed the first inch of his first finger on his right hand was missing ( and at a curious angle). I didn't ask... didn't want to know...
 
Frankidadio said:
Well, This is a lovely thread! When the guy I bought my Jyden Chopper from reached out to shake my hand I noticed the first inch of his first finger on his right hand was missing ( and at a curious angle). I didn't ask... didn't want to know...
Click to expand...

That's why God invented those guard plates! I wonder how many framers/ex-framers are missing parts of their digits...I mean, fingers? Let's have a show of hands (heh-heh!):faintthud:
 
Rebecca said:
I discovered all of the other people that have to move very slowly too - old, or young and disabled, dumpster divers etc. It was a whole sub-culture that I didn't know about before, and lot of silent but heartfelt good will passed between us all.

Rebecca
Click to expand...

Isn't that the truth! I am alot more sympathetic to those around us who live in pain constantly, thanks to having a couple of minor boo-boos. We've all been inconvenienced from time to time by a cut or break, but nothing like those who live in constant back pain or arthritis, just to name a couple. Believe me, I thank God I am so lucky!
 
danny boy said:
Hanna. Tell us how the eye in the hand thing happened. We are just dying to know?
Click to expand...

I don't know about Hanna's, but in the Society of Picture Framers and Concervators International that hand is in the lower right corner of the blazen. It's as old as Egypt and is basically "Eye/Hand coordination". As well as "What the eye precieves the hand can achieve."

Barb, Barb, Barb.... I had no idea my twin was in the same business.

right down to getting smacked by a vehicle.

As for the "clear plastic guards" on the chopper... every last one of the "chopper-cisums" I have seen... was due to those idiot pieces of drek. Everyone was trying to hold down a small chop and wiggled because their hand was stretched over thos things.
Few get razor cuts, because they know they are sharp.
Its the MAT that will get you every time. :fire:
 
Well my knees went weak reading quite a few of these. I appreciate the good wishes. I realize, we just keep on going don't we?
 
Baer--I've paid attention to at least some of your accounts of your accident and I know yours was much worse for you. Also, I escaped foot surgery! (a miracle, by my doc's account)

Hanna,
I laughed when I saw "Don't bleed on the mat!" How true, how true.
 
Christmas rush order. Table saw with moulding attachment. Tired. Distracted.

Tried to avoid bleding on my wife's freshly-made Christmas cookies. Called 119 and wondered why I got a recording. 911 worked better. (Unable to speak in complete sentences.) Two ambulances services were in the middle of turf war. The first one arrived quickly, stabilized me and stopped the bleeding. Then we waiting for the second one to arrive and actually take me to the ER . . .

. . . in the hospital where my wife was working in the ICU and about to finish her shift. They called to tell her that I was downstairs. "Why is he here to pick me up? I drove my own car today."

"He's not here to pick you up."

My part-time helper (a local college student) rescheduled her semester finals to work full time, keep the shop open and finish up the Christmas orders, thereby winning (at least in MY mind) the most valuable employee EVER award.

My father, 73 at the time, came down and cut and joined frames.

I sold the table saw for next-to-nothing, bought a shaper and made some drastic adjustments to my finger-picking style on the guitar.

Oh, and the orthopedic surgeon tried to sign me up to sell Amway.

Never did find the rest of that finger.
 
Ron Eggers said:
Oh, and the orthopedic surgeon tried to sign me up to sell Amway.
Click to expand...

Get Out! :mad:
That is shameless!

Ron, I wondered if you would share that story. I know I have been distracted and overtired while working with my saw and it wouldn't take much to take off a finger, or worse. We can't respect these tools we work with enough!

(btw sam, I found the grumble while I was laid up with a broken foot....beware. In a situation like that, it is easy to become addicted).
 
Barb, It's funny how the memory is. I remember getting hit and waiting for the police, and the cop being a jerk all the while my three witnesses were still freezing and needed a tow... cop wouldn't listen.
I remember driving down to Reno and taping plastic over the passenger window of my truck and that faster than 37mph the whole truck shook so bad it would wander all over the road [the frame was bent 3.75"].

I remember starting up Donner summit and thinking it was going to be a long cold night getting back to San Jose 150 miles away or so. And I remember the snow falling.

I don't remember that the pass was "Chains required", or getting home, or unloading the valuables out of the truck, or driving to the hospital, or getting rushed to surgery.
I do remember waking up late the next day and my doctor quietly reading and sitting with me. My roommate was sleeping in the other chair.
I looked at James [my doc] and said "thanks for pulling me off the asphalt" and slipped back into the coma.

Through all the surgeries, hundreds of pounds of ice packs to save my life, and an amazing doc and friend and a room mate who brought me the best tasting scorched mac & cheese....

The Grumble would have been a very good thing. I spent a lot of time "frozen" [trying not to move the body] in front of the computer when my body wasn't packed in ice so I could sleep in front of the TV. The TV was on 24/7 with the sound just high enough for me to hear as back ground, and the pictures to give the eyes some exercise, but I had no idea what I was watching, what was on, or what time of day or even what day it was.
My room mate wandered in with food [?] and made me eat, then helped me to the bathroom and once a week showered me down. She even had to brush my teeth.

And let me tell you, that is some kind of weird.

Several frame shops had my home phone and they seemed to rotate checking up on me.
One even brought me some home made soup a few times, all the way from Sacramento, 85 miles away.

I've framed in crutches many times, even a wheel chair for a while, an I gotta tell you, that boot [Darth Vader] was the greatest thing to come along. The foot still hurts some, I don't walk correctly but I'm in matching shoes now... [Crocks are sooooo forgiving] so the cut and scrapes, I'll take.... as long as I can keep framing, it's a good day.:thumbsup:
 
sam'ssamantha said:
Well my knees went weak reading quite a few of these. I appreciate the good wishes. I realize, we just keep on going don't we?
Click to expand...

Yep...just a bunch of Energizer Bunnies...covered in band-aids!

Speaking of matboard paper cuts (owowow!), guess what I finally remembered to get? Super Glue! "Don't bleed on the mat!Don't bleed on the mat!!"

Baer, we're glad you survived that. It just wouldn't be the same around here without you!
 
I cut the tip/side of my left index finger off with a rotary cutter making quilt blocks. Just sliced it clean off. It took a bit to figure out what the funny looking piece of skin colored stuff was laying on my fabric. Then I started bleeding like crazy. It wouldn't stop...... I patched it up, called to my husband who got me ice, put me in the recliner, make me ice tea, proped my arm up so I could hold it over my head... There was no reason to go to ER since there was nothing to sew to. It hurt so bad.

My daughter came home from college sick and I took her to the doctor the next day. I had him look at my finger. He gasped a little and said, "I didn't expect it to be so big. But one thing, it's a good clean cut." He bandaged it with gauze and tape and more gauze to keep it from hurting so bad when it smacked it on everything.

He didn't put anything over the wound so the gauze stuck to the wound. The gauze started to unwind and I could feel it twist and pull the threads stuck in the wound.

My son was on crutches, my daughter was sick and I had my hand bandaged... I was setting at my son's basketball game. My son's doctor saw me from across the gym. He came over and asked, "What in the world happened now?" I told him. I felt like I had cheated on him since I hadn't seen him for the finger but we got my daughter in to see who ever was available at the time. lol

I laughed and said, "We're going to have that new wing at the hospital named after us yet." He said, "You have a good start." Son had just been in the hospital twice in the last three months.....

Any way, it hurt so bad. I went home after the game knowing I had to get the threads from the gauze out of the scab. So I had saline solution and a small bowl soaked my gauzey finger. I carefully washed the threads with the saline and cut the gauze with my very sharp tiny thread clipping scissors used for needle work. It hurt sooo had. My husband thought he was going to pass out watching. I finally told him to leave the room.

After 30 minutes of soaking, snipping, pulling (very gently) with tweezers I had all the threads off. And it was bleeding hard again.

I bandaged it with bandaids and neosporin.

The next day I shut it in the door. It bled, of course, again for three days.

The area is still very sensitive. My finger nail grew back so it's not crocked looking as I thought it would be. The area looks mostly like a small blister without the bubbled up skin. I did NO framing until it healed. And helping my son ice his ankle was nearly impossible with one hand, two ziploc bags of ice and an ace bandage...

That was around Christmas time.

Once I dropped a full jar of Miracle Whip on my foot -- back in the day when it came in glass jars. Broke three toes, big toe and next two. Talk about PAIN! Fortunately the jar did NOT break! Was not framing at the time. Worked at the newspaper. Got lots of attention and sympathy.
 
Ow, Rosalyn, you're talking about pulling the gauze out reminded me of another incident several years ago:

My shop was built onto my house, a very old one, with the only heat being a wood stove. One night I packed it full of dried oak for the night and woke up later and the stove was glowing red! I'd forgotten to dampen it down. I reached forward to turn it down. It was dark and I had my contacts out and tripped on a basket of walnuts I'd set next to the stove to dry out....tripped and went face-first into the stove, but caught myself with my right arm instead. ZZZZT, just like that, my upper arm was toast. Literally, black, burnt, 3rd degree toast.

At the ER they picked all the burnt stuff (me) off, covered it in burn cream and wrapped it up in gauze...talk about sticking!, and for several weeks I had to change the dressing daily, and, with a scrub brush "debrade" it. Childbirth felt better.

Since it was my arm and not my hand (and thankfully, not my face!), it wasn't so hard to continue framing. I have a nice reminder on my arm today...and I never pick walnuts anymore, and don't have a woodstove anymore either. I'd forgotten about that...now I remember why.
 
Val, OUCH!

To this day I cringe when I use the rotary cutter. It was long time before I would pick it up. I used scissors for everything for a while (but I've cut my self seriously with scirrors too). I'm extremely careful. I've read many tips about gluing plexy strips and such on top of the clear quilting rulers for finger guards. Some rulers come with the guards now. I have a plexy stick that is 1/4" square to mark 1/4" seam allowance. I never use it. I'm going to go glue it to one of my rulers right now. While I'm thinking about it.
 
30 years ago (when I was an internal auditor for Montgomery Wards) I arrived at a store and went to retrieve my bag from the back seat of the car......... I heard my back CRACK ... and all I could do was feel the pain going down my right leg........

Somehow I destroyed 2 discs during the process. Every attempt to make a step was PAIN. I went to my doctor, an MD, and all he would do was give me some meds and sent me home. That was the last time I have been to a MD. I now go to an ostiopath (DO).

To this day, if I attempt to carry more that 10-20 pounds for any distance, I am in trouble.
 
Preschool: My Mother was airing out a mattress by supporting it on the ends with kitchen chairs. I jumped in the middle, the chairs came together, one hit me above the eye....stitches.

Skydiving: Landed through some trees and sprained an ankle....crutches.

Racquetball: Sprained ankle....crutches.
Pulled groin muscle......crutches.

Line Dancing: Pulled something in my knee.....crutches.
Heart's electrical system short circuited (third degree heart block)......pacemaker. (Does that count as an injury?)
 
Don't ya just love burns Val... Was welding in a field as a high tension line crew was cutting out an old run near us. Well, they dropped the wrong wire.

It came rolling itself up toward us like a slow freight train. As it rolled up in an 8' tall coil, it was lighting the alfalfa stubble. My buddy yelled "look out" and I looked up straight into it saying "what?".

An hour later I woke up in the hospital and could only see this giant eye. The doc was scraping out the char in my face. The scars on my forehead and cheek only show up in the morning...
At Vegas, if you're real nice, you can feel the knife scars on my forehead from playing pool in rough country. ;)

Barb.. 2 weeks first round, about a week each for the next 5 surgeries except when they lost my right lung [phrenic nerve went to sleep and the gas exchange dropped to 84 with only 240ml on the blow test. I think the medical term was "one very ***** up puppy"], and out-patient for the last 4 surgeries.

My one and only goal that first year was to be able to walk around the block .38 miles in a 24 hour period.

At two years the state arbitration doctor, after 6 hours of exam from top to soles started the report: "After extensive testing and exam, I found Mr Charlton to be in fair condition for a man of 76; but at a chronological age of 36, it's amazing he is alive."

And I ripped out 3 sets of twenty-fur push-ups this morning for the trainers. And I didn't even know they made those Popsicles any more ....:p
 
Nothing to do with framing but.....

Pretty new at doing the phones, overtime, early evening....Had to go up the pole, getting to be dusk, no climbing alone rule after dark, judgement call...not quite dark yet, if I am quick I can hook it up and then do the inside stuff. Put on the gaffs and all the other gear and headed up the pole. Next thing I knew I was looking at the sky, very concious of my descent, looked in the window of the house as I went by, no one, looked at the little corner store, no one, apartment building.....no one...And then thought, now who is going to call the ambulance? Then I landed back first at right angles on a white picket fence. As I lay there stunned I remember thinking that it should hurt more than it did. Managed to get up, checked myself over and then looked at the pole. Figured if I didn't go back up immediately I probably would never climb again! Second time up I found where my hooks had hit a nail that some kind person had put in the pole to secure their garage sale sign....grrrr.
Next day my elbow was really sore! Thats it!

Did it once more on hooks but that time I was only 6 feet off the ground and landed on my feet.

In 2001 I was working in a warehouse, had my large extension ladder up to the roof of an inner building and was pulling some gear off the roof. Coming down.....Well the last step was a doozy!
My ankle on my left foot bent funny. Picture the sole of the foot pointing at the ankle of the other foot. Managed to grab a table before the lights went out (don't know how long, probably not to long). Came to and grabbed my cell phone to call my dispatcher. Told her I needed help.....Bosses came, drove me home, by that time I was giddy, refused the hospital/doctor offer. Just went and laid down on the couch. When my wife came home the first thing she said was why are you home......why are your boots on the couch......you aren't OK are you? When she took off my boot my ankle was the size of a grapefruit. ExRays and examinations showed no broken bones. Doc said it would have been better if I had broken it! I did not go back to work for 4 months......that drove me crazy(er). Then light duties for quite a while. Physio for 3 months 3 times a week 2 hours a day and I almost have no limp...Physiotherapist thought I was nuts, but I was determined to get as much back as I could! Still flairs up sometimes.....
But hey, 2 years later I did the West Coast Trail!

This summer, new to us boat. Loading it onto the trailer after the first outing, my right thumb got in the way of the transom tie downs.....Emergency....When my doc took out the stitches (first time he say it) he calmly asked me if I would have been able to do my work without my thumb....Still have a funny sensativity there.

Picture framing....Guess I haven't done enough to do anything that a bandaid won't hold together...

Hope all you wounded feel better.

James
 
Generally have been pretty lucky ...

Chasing a girl when we were both under the influence ... broke an ankle (still gives me the occasional twinge 30 years later!)

Crewing on an 86' maxi sailboat ... broke a rib

Sailing various boats ... bumps and bruises

Riding motorcycles ... numerous cuts and bruises

Driving cars ... been rear ended several times, whiplash

Navigating on car rallies in the UK ... various crashes, bumps, bruises

Walking past the front of my car ... ripped open my calf muscle on the front plate

Passenger in a car (a long time before seatbelts were invented) ... smashed windshield with my head, injured L5 vertebrae, still a problem 50 years later!

Many many moons ago, being a trifle too amorous with my new girlfriend ... bruises (she turned out to be an aikido black belt)

Framing ... so far only minor things like shards of glass in fingers!
 
Newspaper boy - no injuries

23 years in the army - including 11 tours of Ulster - over 8 years active service in some very nasty areas - No injuries (bar a dislocated pinky playing volleyball)

Framing - lots of injuries - non serious but one resulted in my only ever hospital visit!
 
I broke my pun

Val said:
When I had my first shop, I slipped and fell on my right thumb, and tore the tendon right off the bone. I'm also right-handed. And I was my only employee. Had surgery and in a cast for nearly 3 months. You learn very fast to be left-handed. Today I'm both!

And this Spring I had 2 total hip replacement surgeries and came right back to work the next week after each one. You just find a way through it all, and do the best you can. No-one said it's easy, but it can be done, as Rebecca attested to. In our cases, it must be done...or, at least for me, would've probably lost the shop. Not an option.

The gift? (I've learned to look for the gift in all circumstances, no matter what)... I learned to ask for help...and then accept it when it was offered.

I hope you're feeling better soon. Sucks, though, doesn't it?
Click to expand...

I can't lay off this, Val and I certainly admire your gumption as well as your signature line. I would like to paraphrase it - perhaps a dangerous venture -
as this: "The hipbone will never replace backbone..."

Riddle:party:
 
Making a wish!

riddlearts said:
I can't lay off this, Val and I certainly admire your gumption as well as your signature line. I would like to paraphrase it - perhaps a dangerous venture -
as this: "The hipbone will never replace backbone..."

Riddle:party:
Click to expand...

Oh No, now that's funny!! On the other hand, it sends chills through my...uh...backbones! Heaven forbid having to have anything else replaced after my knee this Christmas!!
 
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