Funny, one day I was reading an article in the Farmers Weekly about the level of farming accidents rising dramatically this year, indeed the HSE have said farming fatalities have doubled this year so far compared to last.
Then 10 days ago whilst looking after the family farm for a couple of weeks I looked at the weather forecast and wanted to get the remaining barley straw under cover before forecasted rain arrived. With straw prices being low I sent the chaps home at 5.30 to avoid any overtime leaving the last 30 round bales for me to load and haul back to the farm before going out to dinner with my wife.
All was going well until I was hitching the trailer with 8 bales on board and then I managed, through rushing and not doing things as I should and cutting corners, to drop the tow bar on my right foot, probably about 3 tonnes of weight. And all I was wearing on my feet were a pair of deck shoes!
How bloody stupid did I feel!
The next problem being I was ½ a mile from the house and no mobile, so I finished hitching the trailer, had a quick peek in my shoe, not nice, and then drove back the house where Debbie ran me to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, plastic supermarket bag wrapped around my foot to stop the red stuff staining the carpets in the car!
It could have been a lot worse, I have 3 broken toes, 4 fractures in total, I will only have 9 toenails to trim from now on and I am looking forward to the swelling going down as a foot the size of a small football makes walking hard! Work will have to do without me for a week or so until the swelling and stitches are in the past. If the hook had hit a couple of inches to the left or further up the foot it could have been far worse.
I have to say the staff at A&E in Exeter were great, I was seen very quickly, probably as I was making a mess of their nice clean floor, both doctors and nurses could not have been kinder. (Trouble is they and my local hospital will not give me a set of crutches and it is a pain getting around at the moment).
We obviously did not make it to dinner that night, my birthday treat as it happened. We had booked the New Angel in Dartmouth hoping to bump into John Burton-Race. Debbie called to cancel and they offered a table for 2 nights later which we did make. They were great, table in the corner away from my foot being knocked by passer bys and a stool ready for me put my foot up with a free bottle of wine thrown in. (Food was pretty good too!)
So, anyone working with machinery or in a dangerous environment….More Haste, Less Speed, it really is true!
Jerry
(Must check out steel toe capped deck shoes one of these days)
ouch!!! that must have hurt! :'( :'(
What a great restaurant moving your reservation etc... very good service.
Guarantee if you did have your safety boots on etc... you would have dropped it on your hand instead.
I do not need to operate heavy machinery to hurt myself - once broke my hand changing a duvet cover! I am so accident prone! ;D
Yeouch Jerry, that literally made my toes curl!
Hope you are soon striding around again! DP
BTW do you have a local red cross? Ours (beofre it got knocked down to put up a block of flats!) used to hire out crutches, zimmer frames and the like.
How easily accidents can happen, do hope you go on ok. Missing toenail nothing to worry about, I had both nails removed from my big toes (ingrowing toenails) about 3years ago only trouble is one of them has about a quarter of nail growing again!! Looks unsightly, obviously the surgeon didn.t apply the chemicals properly. DP is quite right the Red Cross are very good. I once borrowed a wheelchair for husband for a month (while his was being made) and on returning it they just asked for a donation. Best wishes for speedy recovery. Lorna.
Ouch poor Jerry! here's to a speedy recovery. Good on the restaurant. Hope you managed to enjoy your birthday belatedly. Are the hospital trying to encourage you to keep the foot/leg in use to avoid muscle wastage and physio?
And Daisymay - couldn't help but laugh at the way you broke your hand.
(I know I shouldn't laugh at people hurting themselves - Mr Aqui wasn't too happy yesterday when the garden bench collapsed as he sat on it and I just stood there laughing - I'm sorry - but it did look funny - it was more the way he just sat there on the flattened bench! He was ok. The plants behind him were a little squashed.)
Hope you feel better soon, and it all heals up okay. Don't forget the physio once you're healed
Quote from: aquilegia on August 30, 2005, 16:21:39
And Daisymay - couldn't help but laugh at the way you broke your hand.
laugh away, everyone else does! I have been quite good recently, no major injuries - touch wood etc..... ;D I also broke my foot changing a cd and it was so stupid no one believed me it hurt as much as I said it did >:(, took me till next day to persuade some one to take me to casualty, boy did they feel guilty! Dad chaffeured me everywhere for weeks ;D
Ouch Jerry, sounds like it was very painful. Hope you feel better soon, big cyber hug to make you feel better :)
:o Ouch! Jerry :o 3 tonnes of weight ??? it's a wonder you didn't sever them toes let alone break em. :(
Happy healing, tread carefully. ;D
Reminds me of the rather mad rock climber I knew years ago. He was working in a hotel in Snowdonia, and had his day off on thursdays. He couldn't always get someone to climb with in the week, so he used to go soloing, ie climbing alone. Nothing wrong with that; I've done enough of it in my time. But the one thing you don't do is solo something you might fall off. Being a bit mad, he had to do Black Spring solo. That's a climb which is actually quite easy apart from a few feet, which is covered in black slime from a spring, hence the name. You can certainly fall off that, and of course he did. He felt himself going and jumped for the one pice of green grass he could see in the big boulder field 200 feet below, and landed just right. If you get it right you can jump from a great height and walk away, I've done it myself, but 200 feet is a long way, and the slope there is rather steep. He broke both ankles badly. He then crawled to the road and tried to hitch a lift to the hospital in Bangor, but nobody stopped. So he drove himself the 12 miles there.
I hope your foot heals soon, and if I were you I'd get some steel toe caps!
I once sprained my thumb opening a window. Not agonising, but as I was working in a pub at the time it was very embarassing, as I couldn't open a bottle, use a corkscrew, or indeed a door handle. Amazing how useful thumbs are :)
OW OW OW :'(
I broke my foot once falling down a flight of stairs while running between platforms for a train. (Going down two at a time then two and a half... which obviously didn't work.). Missed the train too. Never went to casualty as it was late on Sunday and I'd have had to walk miles (student days). That hurt enough for one lifetime so I have a lot of sympathy for your much worse break, Jerry - take it easy!
moonbells
Ow Jerry you poor thing. Know about farming accidents. My Dad stood up under a plough, not pretty. His friend lost half a foot in a bailer, his other friend fell into a grain silo, ended up in hosp for 6 months...very dangerous, be careful as I'm sure you will!! Lovely restaurant though, and glad you got your meal!! Lottie
Ouch Jerry :o Have just been reading about your misfortune - poor you, I found myself living every painful moment you must have gone through :o I do hope you are not out of action for too long.
I never leave home without my mobile - as, now you have unfortunately found out, anything can happen ::) Glad you enjoyed your meal :) Take care :)
Yes, I have just recently been persuaded to acquire a mobile, and now realise just how essential it can be . . .
Derekthefox :D
Sorry to hear about your accident Jerry :( Farms must be the most dangerous places, after one's own kitchen :) I hope you're on the mend now :)
I dropped a huge paving slab on my foot (whilst wearing slippers - don't ask) and that was bad enough. It went right on the bit overthe arch of my foot with a deafening crunch noise but no broken bones at all. Incredibly lucky in that respect but the resultant bruising hurt for yonks.
Hope you are back on you feet really soon and thatyou are nit inconvenienced by it too much.
:( :(
Ooooh how painful!! Glad you are on the mend. Have recently been reminded that housework is an extreme sport too...one of my workmates did her back in unplugging the hoover...a warning to us all!! ;D
SNAP Katy - I twisted my back while hoovering the bedroom a couple of days ago :o so I am hobbling around at the moment :(
Thanks all.
Slowly on th mend, most of the stiches are now out and the swelling has nearly gone.
I can now get my foot into a pair of flip flops and have managed to get my hands on some crutches so more mobile. I have even managed to dig some spuds at the allotments!
A couple more hospital appointments to come but give it 4 weeks and I should be back to 100% fitness I hope.
Jerry