Well, I really did it this time. I managed to take a two minute, "I'll just take care of that now" situation and turn it into an injury that will keep me unable to work for several months. As part of my job as facility manager I spend a great deal of time working on a beautiful Queen Anne Victorian that our church owns and is restoring. This Thursday I was painting some railing pieces in the basement so that they would be ready to reinstall on the front porch on Saturday. When I finished I was heading back to the main office building to check in and grab my wallet since I was hungry and ready for lunch. As I walked across the driveway/parking area behind the house I noticed that the tar paper that had recently been hung was blowing free and could use a few staples to reattach it. This tar paper was on a section of wall that ran parallel to the cellar steps. The cellar steps had been enclosed, but as we have prepared for a new stair tower and lift for the back of the house we removed the enclosure. Worried that rainwater would find its way into the basement, we came up with a temporary cover for the stairs to divert the rain away from the cellar door. Our temporary solution was to take two walk boards (12 foot 2x10s) and lean them from the driveway against the house. There was a nice 2 inch lip at just the right spot above the doorway to give a nice slope for the walk boards. On those we laid a piece of 1/4 inch ply to create a temporary roof to divert rainwater from getting into the stairwell and under the door. A partial cinder block to keep the plywood from blowing away completed this set up. Simple solution that worked quite well, but was never intended to hold any weight.
So here I was with the need to staple the tar paper down and seeing the walk board and temporary roof as the "perfect" place to stand to accomplish my task. I knew that this was a bad idea, but thought its only going to take me a few seconds to complete this. Surely it could hold me.....wrong!
So I tentatively headed up the plank listening and feeling for problems and began stapling the tar paper back in place. I finished and put a few more staples in "for good measure" when I thought I heard a crack over the MP3 player that I was listening to. As I reached to pause the music to verify what I had heard there was a horrible splitting sound and I felt the whole rig
beneath my feet give way and felt myself falling into the stairwell from about 3 feet above the top of the opening. My right knee made contact with the brick wall before anything else and I felt a sickening pop before crashing down into the stairwell on top of plywood walk boards and cinder block. My initial thought was that my knee was dislocated and would need to be popped back in place as had happened with my left knee 2 years ago. Oh how I wish that was all that had happened.
I opened my phone to call for help and saw a missed call from Danielle, so I hit "send" and explained my predicament. She said she was on her way and would take me to the hospital. I tried to move, got nauseous and thought I might pass out. I decided to call the office in case I lost consciousness and to let Adela know that I would be leaving. I asked her to come sit with me while I waited for D. When she saw my predicament and realized I couldn't get out of the hole she made the wise decision to call 911. The paramedics and EMTs splinted my leg and it took 4 or 5 of them to get me out of the stairwell and loaded into the ambulance. My first ambulance ride. No sirens, really bumpy and quite painful.
I was placed on the "fast track" in the ER, and anxiously awaited the offer of pain meds. Someone came to take me to the x-ray lab and Danielle spoke up for me and said that there was no way I could handle the movement that they would do in x-ray without some pain meds. CC a great nurse practitioner gave me 2 pills and a shot of anti-inflammatory in my hip before x-ray and I never would have made it without them.
Diagnosis - plateau fracture(s) of the tibia that needs 7-10 days worth of swelling reduction before an operation to rebuild the bone can be done.
Danielle, Mom, Dad, Bill and Heather all hanging out with me and/or in the waiting room for hours before being told, your leg is broken, go home elevate it and put ice on it. We'll do something next week! Crazy.
So here I was with the need to staple the tar paper down and seeing the walk board and temporary roof as the "perfect" place to stand to accomplish my task. I knew that this was a bad idea, but thought its only going to take me a few seconds to complete this. Surely it could hold me.....wrong!
So I tentatively headed up the plank listening and feeling for problems and began stapling the tar paper back in place. I finished and put a few more staples in "for good measure" when I thought I heard a crack over the MP3 player that I was listening to. As I reached to pause the music to verify what I had heard there was a horrible splitting sound and I felt the whole rig
beneath my feet give way and felt myself falling into the stairwell from about 3 feet above the top of the opening. My right knee made contact with the brick wall before anything else and I felt a sickening pop before crashing down into the stairwell on top of plywood walk boards and cinder block. My initial thought was that my knee was dislocated and would need to be popped back in place as had happened with my left knee 2 years ago. Oh how I wish that was all that had happened.
I opened my phone to call for help and saw a missed call from Danielle, so I hit "send" and explained my predicament. She said she was on her way and would take me to the hospital. I tried to move, got nauseous and thought I might pass out. I decided to call the office in case I lost consciousness and to let Adela know that I would be leaving. I asked her to come sit with me while I waited for D. When she saw my predicament and realized I couldn't get out of the hole she made the wise decision to call 911. The paramedics and EMTs splinted my leg and it took 4 or 5 of them to get me out of the stairwell and loaded into the ambulance. My first ambulance ride. No sirens, really bumpy and quite painful.
I was placed on the "fast track" in the ER, and anxiously awaited the offer of pain meds. Someone came to take me to the x-ray lab and Danielle spoke up for me and said that there was no way I could handle the movement that they would do in x-ray without some pain meds. CC a great nurse practitioner gave me 2 pills and a shot of anti-inflammatory in my hip before x-ray and I never would have made it without them.
Diagnosis - plateau fracture(s) of the tibia that needs 7-10 days worth of swelling reduction before an operation to rebuild the bone can be done.
Danielle, Mom, Dad, Bill and Heather all hanging out with me and/or in the waiting room for hours before being told, your leg is broken, go home elevate it and put ice on it. We'll do something next week! Crazy.
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