Your life could end or change in the blink of an eye

[Brad_bb]

About three weeks ago, I made a 3 hour run to my place with my truck(F350 dually) and trailer to load up and move some stuff.  I got in the bed to remove my gooseneck ball and chain hold downs. The trailer has two C channel rails that come off the trailer at 45° and meet and are welded to the tongue.  Well It had been raining and the C channels were wet.  I stepped off my tailgate to step onto the C channel and my feets slipped on the wet and went right out from under me and everything went into slow motion.  I knew what was coming and tensed my body in anticipation of the impact.  I fell from standing on the tailgate with my lower back landing on the C channel.  Once on the ground I sat there, in pain, trying to catch my breath and had to ask myself "Did I just break my back, am I paralyzed?"  As I sat there I could still feel my legs and could move a bit, but I was afraid of going into shock.  I was sweating and I didn't know if it was the humidity or if it was shock.  I agonizingly made my way to the drivers door and got in.  It was still running with the air on. I sat there for at least 10 minutes or more trying to collect myself and evaluate.  I made a cell phone call to let someone know what had happened just in case.  In the end I had not broken my back but crushed the muscle just to the left of my spine.  Not sure if I broke a short rib.  I had pain when my lungs were fully inflated.  I'm much better now and back to working.  It was scary and happened so fast. 

[LIL]

Hope you're still taking it easy.  Glad you're here to tell your tale.  Take it easy out there. 

LIL

[thecfarm]

Not a good thing.  :(  I knew someone that got hurt bad when that happened.

[Roxie]

It certainly changes your perspective. 

Glad you were lucky. 

[Chuck White]

A fall can definitely change your life in a hurry!

Glad it turned out OK Brad.

[aigheadish]

Yikes! Glad you're ok!

[Lostinmn]

Glad you are recovering!  

Great reminder that even those that are general careful and safety oriented can still have accidents.  I have had similar incidents over the years and really makes me stop and appreciate things in life we often take for granted.  A temporary injury can make really make you aware of even the simple joy of being able to freely walk around or do daily actives we typically don't even think about, once they are hampered.  

Keep healing up and enjoy good health when you can!

[WV Sawmiller]

Brad,

   Don't do that! We'd sure miss your posts here. I am glad you seem to be mostly okay and hope it is just bruises and sprains you ended up with. It is amazing how quickly and how bad you can get hurt on simple everyday things. And in my case, I find it hurts more and takes longer to recover. Stay safe, stay well.

[Sixacresand]

Brad, evidently God needs you be healthy and active a while longer.  

[samandothers]

That's just plain scary!  The title and start to the post let me know it was not good.Glad  you are ok, for the most part. Sorry you are in pain.  Hope you get back to 100% soon! 

[Hilltop366]

If it is a place you need to step you should get some expanded metal welded on there.

Take care.

[JJ]

I did a similar thing while loading a boat while standing on trailer rails to keep my feet dry.   Cracked a rib that hurt for several months.

Now I just get into the water, much safer.

I hope it heals quick -watch out for sneezes.

         JJ

[John S]

Yes, bad things can happen in a split second.  A price we pay for working around heavy equipment.  A large walnut log nearly toppled my LT40 last Tuesday.
Glad you are okay, be safe.

[HemlockKing]

As someone that lives with pretty bad back pain, when I read your lower back landed on the steel channel I cringed a bit from
Imaging the pain I know I would feel if I had that happen. Glad you're okay, you did the right thing by not trying to move around immediately, slowly making sure nothing is broken

[Stephen1]

I'm glad your Okay Brad.
I worked on the RR for 40 years and we operated on a demerit point system, similiar to our Drivers license. Stepping on the rail while walking across the tracks was good for 15 demerit points if the boss saw you. It was an easy slip ,metal, moisture is very slippery. 
It just reminded me to order some grit pads for where I  get in and out of my bobcat, as they have warn off. 

[John Mc]

Glad you are OK. That sort of thing is scary: You sit there wondering whether movign is going to cause further damage.

I partially dislocated 2 ribs about a month ago (both in front and in back). I thought I had broken a rib, but my physical therapist wife said "no way, you'd be in a lot more pain, and probably would have more trouble breathing." She was right. A couple of visits to the chiropractor and they were back in place, though sore for a while.

[47sawdust]

Brad,
I had a similar,but not as serious, experience late last fall.
Your post title is on the money.Things can get sideways real quick with bad consequences.
Good luck with your recovery.

[peakbagger]

I had minor side effect from a Covid shot a few months ago, unfortunately it happened while driving 60 MPH with the cruise control on. I passed out/fell asleep and ended up in the ditch on the other side of the road. Luckily I plowed along through underbrush before running into a high spot in the ditch. No air bags and had my seat belt on and walked out of it with minor side effects. The car was literally 2 days old and was totaled. It definitely changes ones attitude. 

[Don P]

I goofy footed hopping out of the bobcat a few weeks ago, the slow motion thing really kicks in in one of those ignoseconds. I was staring at the bucket and heading for it but somehow flapped hard enough to clear the metal. Sorry you hit it, that stuff ain't got no give. Talking to Dad a couple of weeks ago after Mom fell and broke her hip he said "there is a 4 letter word here that begins with F", what's that Dad? "Fall!" I try very hard to not multitask at all, be right there, right now, hard to do.

[Wudman]

Had a nephew fall off a stepladder a few days ago.  He caught ribs on the corner of a 700 gallon rainwater tank.  Broke a few and punctured a lung.  Decided to go to the emergency room 3 days after the fact, when he was hurting and didn't bruise.  A rib had gotten a lung.

Wud

[firefighter ontheside]

Scary Brad.  Glad you weren't hurt worse.  I fell off the back of my truck last year and landed on my back.  Knocked the breath out of my for a while, but that was all.  

[jimbarry]

...  I'm much better now and back to working.  It was scary and happened so fast.

Good to hear you are up and moving again. Life indeed can be changed/gone in a blink.

[Bradm]

Just reading that made me cringe.

Young guy in my church had a bad fall 2 weeks ago.  50ish feet down a silo ladder after opening an access panel and got overwhelmed by gases.  He survived (back home after 3 days with a broken skull) and figured that he caught every rung on the way down.  The Lord was looking after him that day and gave a good reminder to the rest of us.

[dgdrls]

Brad_bb

Oh man!!  I'm glad you're OK. 

 I've gone flying uncontrolled off a porch and landed flat on my back.
I know the feeling and know how scary it is when your trying to
go through a mental reset and check to make certain stuff still works.

Take care

D

[Jeff]

Thank you for the reminder Brad and glad you are mending.

[farmfromkansas]

Have a neighbor whose wife works at a nursing home in Lindsborg.  He tells me to be very careful, because at this age one of those events can put you in the nursing home for the rest of your life.  There are younger guys than me in there.  And his wife hurt her back trying to roll over those guys, they get so big from laying there doing nothing, and they still have their appetite from their working days.  Everybody be careful!  Brad is young enough to dodge this bullet, but some of us not.

[red]

I just brought back an old post from 2007 when member HIYA fell from a ladder and had major head trauma . . it ended his Life 
We have had many members injured on Ladders . . the faster you go up the faster you come down 

[metalspinner]

I'm glad to hear you are on the mend, Brad. 
That slow motion, in response air thing happened to me a couple years ago too. 
I was standing on my tandem axel trailer and went to step off onto the ground. I used one of the wheels as a step off. Unfortunately, that wheel was not in contact with the ground and it spun me right into the air! Landed right in my back. And I just laid there for a few minutes making sure I wasn't dead. 

[WDH]

I got hurt bad this Spring.  It can happen in a flash, like one from a mixture of gasoline mixed with diesel fuel  .  

[mike_belben]

Few years back I got a summer time call to deliver firewood to an elderly customer who needed it carried down a steep hill to a creekside firepit behind the house.  Desperate for the whopping $50 to put milk in the fridge that day, i said okay.  Had it loaded in the trailer and was standing ontop the loose thrown wood pile tugging up a handtruck with a wood crate id made and attached to it so as to triple capacity. .  Well this was a vertical/horizontal handcart and the telescoping tubes had been rusted together for years with no pin.  


I was pulling with all i had, full squat, when the handle separated and i found myself about 3 feet higher than the wood pile knowing i was in perfect alignment to take the tongue and jack in the spine.  It was exactly how you would attempt a backflip and i knew it might be over in the single frame view of that handle coming out.  Next frame was the look of terror in my boys face while were looking eye to eye, and somehow i had the time to mentally process a lot of things as my feet got much higher than my head.   

i twisted in the air and saw it was gonna be a faceplant on the tongue so i flung my right arm in front of my face.  All 200 lbs of me landed on that arm and that arm crashed onto a single steel 2x4 tongue, head down feet up, then i still had one more flop to get to earth. 


I expected my arm to just dangle but after some screaming and panting it was still attached.  Henry was crying his eyes out. I could barely shift that stupid roadranger to get there and it was a lot of trips down the hill but he got his wood and i got our milk.  I can still feel the big knob where the bone knit, just below the elbow.  

It never really got back to 100% but im glad to be alive.