Third strike....

[Dionne]

Earlier today mean old Mister Gravity came to visit.

Working on a place that got the 5 hour windstorm from Katrina. Replacing shingles with Master-Rib metal.

Multiple tier elevations and laddders to reach valleys and hips.

It's wet. The ground is saturated. A ladder collapsed.

Everyone is in such a hurry.

The bad part is that I'm the old man. I couldn't hold on from the roof edge. I certainly slowed my fall....but I could not hang.

This marks my 3rd fall since 1975. I walked away from this flight. I'm all done. 54 years of age is a good time to quit the high up stuff.

Y'all be careful.....Ron and Bec

[Frank P]

Earlier today mean old Mister Gravity came to visit.

Working on a place that got the 5 hour windstorm from Katrina. Replacing shingles with Master-Rib metal.

Multiple tier elevations and laddders to reach valleys and hips.

It's wet. The ground is saturated. A ladder collapsed.

Everyone is in such a hurry.

The bad part is that I'm the old man. I couldn't hold on from the roof edge. I certainly slowed my fall....but I could not hang.

This marks my 3rd fall since 1975. I walked away from this flight. I'm all done. 54 years of age is a good time to quit the high up stuff.

Y'all be careful.....Ron and Bec

Been there, done that Dionne... that's why I paid some young dudes to install my fascia and soffet... not that I don't know how, or could do a good job, I just hated the thought of going up and down a three tier scaffold for a week or so... no thanks... at 54 I've retired from the high stuff too...

[timNms]

Hey, you guys have me beat. At 44 (45 next month) I don't climb anything higher than my front steps. My new friend arthritis decided to set up camp in my knees, so climbing is a thing of the past. Heck, my kids laugh at me when I walk down the steps LOL.

Dionne, I'm glad you weren't hurt. I saw my dad take a spill once. We were roofing a house that he'd built. When he started to climb down the ladder, it had been tripped and he went straight down. Fortunately, he was not hurt, although the ground was hard as concrete. He was in his early 50's when that happened. Not too many years later, he was diagnosed with bone cancer. My mom swore that fall had something to do with them finding the cancer. She thought he'd had it prior to that, but that the fall aggrivated it and caused it to spread. He died at a the age of 59.

[Dionne]

Turns out I was injured. Just didn't realize there was a problem until early the next morning. I woke up about 3AM with pain in my lower right leg. Got into the bathroom, looked down and my foot was blue. When I fell my right leg touched down first. All my body weight and tool belt weight along with the momentum of the fall was transfered to my right leg.

A long time ago in a land far, far away I got tagged with shrapnel which caused a compound fracture requiring an open reduction. Apparently the fall caused a blood clot to form where the old injury happened. Which they tell me is a common. Talk about the past coming back to haunt a guy! And I used to complain about ocassional nightmares of being back in the Infantry. HA!

I spent the first night at the Baptist hospital and was then transfered to the VA for another 2 nights. The doctors used an injection called Lovenox which is a blood thinner. The really fun part is that the shot is given into the abdomen. Now I'm taking Coumadin 5 mg (another blood thinner)and I'll be on the stuff from here on out. I have to have blood drawn every week to check the level of Coumadin. The blood clot dissapated rapidly, so I am fortunate.

The bummer is that the doctors were very specific about what I can and cannot do as far as physical activity goes. My contracting days are over. I could start using subs for everything, but thats not really my cup of tea.

So here I sit. Today is decision day. I have several options. I could turn my office into a custom cabinet shop. But there just isn't enough demand for custom high end cabinets in rural Mississippi. Or I could begin traveling. I've had an offer from a friend that owns a company that renovates motels. I would be handling bids and logistics. It's an unusually good offer. The final option is selling out and retiring early.

Isn't it strange how incidents in life take you down different paths?

Y'all be careful.

[Pburgh]

Dionne, what does your wife think?? If she works you're gonna get pretty bored at home after a while. Bids and logistics sounds like an interesting job and something that would involve no labor, all organizational skills and a little travel. Your liability would be so high if you sub'd the work out, wouldn't it?? Then you have to depend on others. Nahhhhhh Good luck to ya.

[MSRobi911]

Hey, you guys have me beat. At 44 (45 next month) I don't climb anything higher than my front steps. My new friend arthritis decided to set up camp in my knees, so climbing is a thing of the past. Heck, my kids laugh at me when I walk down the steps LOL.

Tim old man, hahahahaha, I'm 51 myself so I'm the pot calling the kettle black. I happen to work for a group of 14 Orthopedic Surgeons with offices in Orange Grover, Cedar Lake, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula and Lucedale......Any of them will treat arthritic knees. There are so many things to do for them these days before surgery! They have injections that are called "visco supplementation" one is Synvisc which you get three shots, one per week in the knee(s) bothering you and they have Hyalgan which was five shots, but I think they have cut that down to three too. We have a lot of patients that it has benefited. It simulates the fluid that is supposed to be between your joints in the knee there fore keeping them from making all those grinding and popping sounds and helps the pain go away. Of course it is all according to what is wrong with your knees, if its bone on bone problem you pretty much stuck with putting up with it or total knee replacement (worst case scenario) in a young man of your age. Of course the can do a scope and debride (shave off some of the arthritis) to help make them last a little longer and other things too. One thing is quadriceps strengthening. When you strengthen you quad, it takes the a lot of the pressure off yours knees which helps in the pain part of it and also anti-inflammatories and cortisone injections, etc. etc....can you tell I have worked for Ortho Surgeon for 26 years>? When I first started working they hadn't even thought of doing a "scope". NOW all the surgeons use it in one way or the other, take out gall bladders, appendex, hysterectomies, tubals, all kinds of different thing. About the only think our patients get "cut open for" are when they have a bad break that is really displaced and needs to be fixed internally with plates and screws, etc. and knee or hip replacements shoot they even do rotator cuff repairs with a scope and ACL repairs in the knees with a scope. When I started if you had any kind of knee surgery, even for just a torn ligament you had an 8 to 10 inch scar down the middle of your knee cap, now you get 3 poked holes, most don't even require a stitch, just a steri-strip. (like a butterfly bandage). So much on my Orthopedic Lesson today...rofl

Dionne

I'm sorry you had to undergo that scare with the blood clots, that is one of the worst dangers you can have with any surgery or injury, but especially ones in the lower extremity. Do you have some other kind of problem that is causing you to stay on the Coumadin, usually you can get off of it after a while, but I know some of our patients are on it chronically and if they have surgery they have to stop taking it 3 or 4 days before their surgery and then are put right back on it after the procedure is finished.

I remember that far far away city where they held that thing where you got some shrapnel in ya, I graduated in 1973 so you know I do. Thank goodness they got out right around that time or I would have lost a bunch of friends I am sure. My cousin's husband has PT-SD so bad that if he hears a helicopter he freaks out and runs and hides and start shouting for everybody to take cover....it is soooo sad. Something bad happened to him over there cause he ended up punching out an officer and got kicked out of the army I think it was with a dishonorable discharge. He is one of the nicest guys I know and goes to church every time the door is open and is a deacon, etc.....and he even got his degree in Psychology so that he could better understand himself and evidently they sent him back over there and something happened and he "flashed" and punched the guy out....now he can't even go to the VA. Gets no help from the Government what so ever and Vietnam is what caused his problem! They lived in Biloxi at one time because he and my cousin both worked for the City of Biloxi and their house unfortunately became a training route for helicopters, neighbors would call my cousin at work or other co-workers would call and she would have to go get him and take him home. So they had to move to Orange Groove to get away from the air planes and helicopters caused they freak him out! He won't tell anybody what happened, but it must have been bad!

God Bless you for keeping our country safe! And take care of yourself!

Mary

Well since I have now been up officially for 36 and 1/2 hours straght and can't hit the right keys cause I can't see them and have fallen asleep typing this about 4 times I am going to bed...I was to tired to go to sleep this morning and then every time I laid down the phone range , the door bell range, something happened! So if I made some mistakes, plase forve me, I will fix them tomorrow!
Mary (aka tired a$$ woman!)

[Ixolib]

Isn't it strange how incidents in life take you down different paths?

That may just be the understatement of the year - LOL!! No doubt, Katrina's impact on our lives goes far beyond the obvious.....

Glad you're relatively okay though.

[Dionne]

MsRobi.......this is my second time around on the Coumadin. Three years ago I had a pulmonary embolism. A blood clot came to rest in my lung. At that time the old injury was suspect. I even got a second opinion from a doctor in the private sector. I was advised if another event happened the Coumadin would be a full time med. So this comes as no big surprise.

Your friend with the bad discharge and PTSD has options. Two organizations can help him. The VAO.....Veterans Assistance Office and the VVA.....Vietnam Veterans of America. It is unlikely that he recieved a dishonorable. Sounds more like an other than honorable.

Well folks, the decision has been made. Going to close the doors on my business and leave everything in place. Tomorrow I leave for my first assignment in Jasper, Alabama.

[Frank P]

Good luck Dionne, you ever in this next of the woods look me up...

[Pburgh]

Good luck Dionne!!!