racer69
06/22/2006, 09:14 AM
Well everyone, I am going to share my weekend with you all and hope that everyone is more careful than I. Be careful as the pics are kind of gross.
I went out to Rye Colorado Saturday to help my mother-in-law do some little things around the house. She wanted me to fix her computer, but when I got there she asked if I could get on the roof and fix her swamp cooler. Well I asked her for a ladder, and she said her sister had the extension ladder but had an old 6' step ladder. So I got the step ladder and found a section of the roof that was only about 8' tall, and started to work. Now I have recently had some troubles with my eye surgery, and my depth perception is a little off.
I had been up and down the ladder about four times and was about to get down for the last time. Jodi was holding the ladder, and as I stepped down the couple of feet to the top step I thought I was close to the step. Well thanks to my eyes, I missed the step and preceded to start falling. As most of you know I am a rock climber in my spare time so I was a little prepared and had the best hold on the roof that I could get. As I wall falling, my fingers were finally pulled from the roof. As I went down and hit the ground, I felt a severe pain in my back. I looked up from the ground and saw the t-post.
At this point Jodi was freaking out and screaming for her mother who came running outside. I tried to calm them down so I could get some feel for what had just happened. I reached around to my back and felt blood, at which point Jodi saw the wound. Apparently, as I was coming off the roof, the t-post caught my back and ripped an 8" long and 1-1/2" deep gash in my back about where my kidneys are. This is when things started to get scary.
Jodi and here mom got some bandages and ace wrap and got me bandaged and in the truck for the 35 minute ride to Pueblo and the emergency room. When we got to the ER, they immediately started treating me as a trauma 1, which I do not recommend anyone have to go through. There was about ten people in this room poking needles, pulling the wound, and generally making my life real tough. They did x-rays, and took a cat scan to check for internal injuries. After they were convinced I didn't have any, things calmed down a little, and they decided to stitch me up. They said they wanted to keep me over-night for observations, but I didn't want to, as I had dinner plans that evening. They let me go after about 3-1/2 hours and I did make dinner with my parents for and early fathers day dinner.
Well that was the drama, and here are a couple of pictures. The first is the wound after irrigation and prep for stitches, and the second is the stitches. I took 20 stitches, 10 inside and 10 outside. Everyone Be Careful when working on the roof. I was lucky.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/77107gash1.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/77107gash2.jpg
I went out to Rye Colorado Saturday to help my mother-in-law do some little things around the house. She wanted me to fix her computer, but when I got there she asked if I could get on the roof and fix her swamp cooler. Well I asked her for a ladder, and she said her sister had the extension ladder but had an old 6' step ladder. So I got the step ladder and found a section of the roof that was only about 8' tall, and started to work. Now I have recently had some troubles with my eye surgery, and my depth perception is a little off.
I had been up and down the ladder about four times and was about to get down for the last time. Jodi was holding the ladder, and as I stepped down the couple of feet to the top step I thought I was close to the step. Well thanks to my eyes, I missed the step and preceded to start falling. As most of you know I am a rock climber in my spare time so I was a little prepared and had the best hold on the roof that I could get. As I wall falling, my fingers were finally pulled from the roof. As I went down and hit the ground, I felt a severe pain in my back. I looked up from the ground and saw the t-post.
At this point Jodi was freaking out and screaming for her mother who came running outside. I tried to calm them down so I could get some feel for what had just happened. I reached around to my back and felt blood, at which point Jodi saw the wound. Apparently, as I was coming off the roof, the t-post caught my back and ripped an 8" long and 1-1/2" deep gash in my back about where my kidneys are. This is when things started to get scary.
Jodi and here mom got some bandages and ace wrap and got me bandaged and in the truck for the 35 minute ride to Pueblo and the emergency room. When we got to the ER, they immediately started treating me as a trauma 1, which I do not recommend anyone have to go through. There was about ten people in this room poking needles, pulling the wound, and generally making my life real tough. They did x-rays, and took a cat scan to check for internal injuries. After they were convinced I didn't have any, things calmed down a little, and they decided to stitch me up. They said they wanted to keep me over-night for observations, but I didn't want to, as I had dinner plans that evening. They let me go after about 3-1/2 hours and I did make dinner with my parents for and early fathers day dinner.
Well that was the drama, and here are a couple of pictures. The first is the wound after irrigation and prep for stitches, and the second is the stitches. I took 20 stitches, 10 inside and 10 outside. Everyone Be Careful when working on the roof. I was lucky.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/77107gash1.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/77107gash2.jpg