Did something dumb today.

[WV Sawmiller]

I think a wheelie bar should be added to the training wheels.   ;D

Speed was not a factor. In this case I ran up on a rock on a slope and it teetered the wrong way. In fact, if I could have gotten traction and powered on through I might not have turned over.

Ljohn,

  Don't even talk about sneezing or coughing or hiccups. I have tried a time or two to clear my throat and it is not for the faint of heart.

   We did stop and we got a weighted electric heat pad on the way home from the ER. I can't swear it is helping but it sure feels a lot better -until I move. :

[Magicman]

Back in the day, broken rib(s) patients wore a corset.  My broken ribs episode was the result of falling off of and being run over by a trailer loaded with firewood.  If we had been going slower I would have been crushed instead of bounced over.  12 & 15 year olds thinking that we were cats with 9 lives. 

[Ljohnsaw]

Ljohn, Don't even talk about sneezing or coughing or hiccups.

I inherited a "condition" from my mom.  I'll have sneezing fits where I'll sneeze between 10 and 30 times in 5 minutes or less.  That happened a couple times during recovery.  The only thing that has ever hurt worse was root canal that the pain killer didn't work!

[aigheadish]

I cracked a rib in a coughing fit like last year or something, still have a bit of trepidation about coughing sometimes. I've read that having a pillow near by to grab and hug when you have to cough helps, so I tried and for whatever reason it does indeed seem to help. I would also attempt to kind of hold everything together (corset style as mentioned above) and that seemed to help too but the pillow seemed to work the best. 

[caveman]

Howard, I became more empathetic when I learned you broke your ribs.  Six or seven years ago, I was doing somethings DUMM.  I said somethings because it involved horses, "free" Zebu cattle (spawn of Satan) and a lariat.  Anyway, after loading 50 plus head of these diminutive savage beasts and several hours later on a Sunday night, I walked next door to check on my folks and possibly get some sympathy.  I remember asking my mother how long I could expect my ribs to hurt when I breathed (she broke some in a bicycle wreck years ago).  Her reply was six weeks.  I was trying to figure out how to hold my breath that long.

IJohnsaw, I also have frequent sneezing fits.  This condition makes having cracked ribs an experience most would rather avoid.  WV, I hope your convalescence is as quick and painless as possible.

[doc henderson]

It was found that the rib brace increases the pneumonia complication.  you can use a sense pillow to "splint" the area for a cough.  cough and deep breathing help prevent stuff building up and increasing chance for pneumonia.  think of the heart pillow they give open heart surgery patients after surgery.  slow deep breaths or incentive spirometry help but may cause coughing.  pneumonia and pneumothorax (collapsed lung) are your worries now.  consider the nerve block if you have a pain doc around.

[Magicman]

Thanks doc for the explanation about why a corset is no longer used.  I'm kinda glad that they were used when I was 12yo.  

[newoodguy78]

I've broke or cracked ribs twice it's absolutely awful. First time I flipped a skid steer over backwards, piledriving myyself into the top of the cab.  That was the day before thanksgiving and I couldn't take a deep breath or cough without pain until mid February. Sneezing or laughing would just about bring involuntary tears to my eyes. Second time I was bear hugging a tire trying to put a plug in the backside pulling it towards myself and felt it crack. Took about a month for that one to get halfway back to normal.
I hope you heal up quick. Its certainly not fun.

[SawyerTed]

The details of caveman's story sound like they would make for excellent entertainment around a bonfire at a Project or Pig Roast.  

[doc henderson]

worst pain should be the first two weeks,  6 weeks to heal depending on how distracted they are.  i have dx. bruised ribs based on no x-ray finding, but pt. coughed and was back in 2 hours with sob and increased pain.  then could see the fx. and small pneumothorax.  may have minor pain for months, but not usual.  lots of narcotics, can also increase chance of pneumonia.  If you are old, risk goes up.  over 75 and two rib fx, may get you in the hospital for a few days.  Please bring all rib fx. x-rays to the pig roast as suggested, it will add to the presentation.    

[SawyerTed]

My tractor and I escaped without lasting damage but, other than the hand of The Almighty, it could have been different.

I have a light grading job to correct a drainage problem in my side yard.  Several weeks ago I used the turning plow to redirect water as a preliminary effort.  I wanted to see how it worked prior to completing the grading.  

Today I thought I would refine things a bit.  Where the turning plow had rolled the sod over, I thought I would use the bucket on the tractor to push it down the hill.  

When I pushed it down the hill all was good, except I underestimated the amount of material.  I rotated the bucket and lifted it, it was full and had pushed a pile of dirt and sod in front of it.  

Here is where it went wrong, I continued forward, ran up on to the pile of excess dirt and sod with the left tires.  I'm on a slope in two directions, in front of me and to the right.  

As you can imagine the tractor pitched to the right.  I did have the presence of mind to turn to the right and accelerate slightly.  

But the tractor teetered there for a very long moment before bouncing back on all four tires.  

I've come close to turning a tractor over a time or two.  This one was as close as I've come.  I do not know why that tractor isn't on its side.  It should have been. 

For the safety minded, ROPS in place and in good condition and I wear my seatbelt as a habit.

So no damage and no injury to anything but the shorts I was wearing.  

[firefighter ontheside]

Yikes you guys.  Quit trying to out-do each other.  

[beenthere]

Suspect when  you turned downhill it was slow to react due to the uphill wheel not having traction. Need the presence of mind to apply the uphill wheel brake a tad to restrict it from just spinning with no ground contact, and that will switch power/traction to the downhill side wheel and move to the direction you turned. 
Glad you came out okay. Don't believe the "shorts" thing happened. It is just a saying. 

[Resonator]

Glad you stayed "Shiney side up" (old saying).  ;)
I've stood my tractor up on 2 wheels more than once, and even had it on 1 wheel once pulling a tree. After that one I had to stop and give myself a safety lecture. :

[rusticretreater]

More than once I have been carrying a log in my grapple and found a wheel of my small tractor off the ground on uneven terrain.  So I carry the logs as low as I can and with the grapple tilted back toward the driver to lessen the leverage the log has.  Yay for 4 wheel drive.

[Wlmedley]

Decided to cut a pretty big white oak today that got damaged by a brush pile fire and is dying.Notched it and started cut on backside.Before I could get wedges in it pinched my bar.As usual it turned into a all day job.Just spent $130 dollars on saw a few months ago from my last escapade.Went and got a ladder straps,chains,cables,come a long after trying to jack it over with one of those tall farm jacks which I bent.Got a cable around it about 12' up and stretched it over to a large stump and started cranking come a long.Saw came loose and I breathed a sigh of relief.Pulled all I could stand and drove every wedge I had in backside.Was getting late,shoulder hurting so I did something I normally would never do.I picked up and when to the house.Tree is still standing.Maybe I'll get lucky and a strong north wind will take it on over but I doubt it.What a fellow will do for entertainment  :'(

[caveman]

The details of caveman's story sound like they would make for excellent entertainment around a bonfire at a Project or Pig Roast.  

I plan to be at Jake's.  WDH and I talked about traveling to a pig roast together, but I still plan to make it up there after I retire.  I am at the point of writing minus, plus or neutral on the calendar after each workday to help me determine if I'll retire after this year.  
The characters in the zebu story are me, Daniel the intern, his wife the nurse, Douglass the coworker, Dennis the 70 something year old cowboy, Houston the 6' 4" ABAC student and employee of the guy (Rob) who was giving us the cattle, 54 cattle, Clyde the cur dog and a few horses.  

[SawyerTed]

It's cows and horses, what could possibly go wrong?   :D

[Crossroads]

You may get lucky and have it on the ground come daylight. When I was falling timber, I had a hemlock set back on me at the end of the day before I could get a wedge in it. There I was stuck and no way to get out. I removed the power head from the bar and stashed it out of reach of the tree. I packed a spare bar and chain in with me the next day in order to knock it over with another tree. To my surprise, in the the morning, it was on the ground right where I faced it to go. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. 

[Wlmedley]

Tree still standing this morning.Wasn't going to fool with it today being it's Thanksgiving but my DIL said she would cook this year and give me a break.Dinner's not till 4:00 so I cooked breakfast and headed out.Hooked up a second cable ran it through a snatch block and hooked another come a long on another tree off to the side.Pulled pretty hard but when it came down it came down fast.Probably good thing it didn't come down yesterday because like a fool I was in fall zone where I was pulling thinking it would break over slow and I would have time to get out of the way.Getting to old to take those kind of risks.Need to make a note to myself.Howard, I hope you heal up quickly.I've never cracked any ribs and hope I never do.

 

 

  

[WV Sawmiller]

WLMedley,

 Glad to see that monster on the ground and nothing wiggling under it. I once cut a big poplar that pinned down an old pregnant nanny goat. I had checked before cutting it nothing was in the area but she walked up while I was sawing. When I spotted her under it I ran over and cut it off her and she had no serious or permanent injuries and delivered and raised a healthy pair of kids a couple months later.

   A couple of lessons learned or reminders from this incident is that if you have broken ribs or major surgery where they cut open a lot of muscle (I am thinking back to being medivaced from Afghanistan to Dubai and having my gall bladder removed and a cyst removed from my kidney leaving a 6" incision to heal which is the closest I can relate to this) is that pillows are your friends. They can be great to take pressure off and support sore areas to keep them from sagging or stretching or such.

   Another lesson is your diet. Plan ahead about what you eat and drink. In my case I have had less appetite so I have been eating less and moving around a lot less which means the pipes don't get rattled around as much or the food mix shaken up as much as normal and, possibly combined with the meds - I don't know if 800 mg Ibuprophen is just a mixture of cheese, peanut butter and bananas squeezed into a pill - the plumbing tends to get clogged up. There are other things that hurt besides coughing, hiccups, sneezing and burping. : Be sure you drink plenty of water and fresh fruit juices (Grape and prune juice are good selection), eat plenty of high fiber and shy away from any foods that act like mini-beavers swimming around damming up all the culverts and drainage in your body.

  Fortunately when I had my gall bladder and kidney surgery before I was in an area with plenty of high fiber Arabic, Indian and Pakistani foods that I liked like Hummus, Ful, Daal, etc. so I never realized how helpful they were for my recovery.

[Southside]

I can kinda sorta punch a hole in a rope and throw it, did manage to catch one today actually, I am not going to make the PBR anytime soon as a mounted bull fighter, but it never occurred to me to throw a tree to catch errant livestock.

That could really add a new dimension to the rodeo. Stihl could advertise for chaps, instead of mutton bustin kids could swing a thinning saw. It just might work.  :D

[Wlmedley]

A fellow I used to work with years ago told a tale about cutting a tree down on his wife.The way he told it he was cutting a tree and his wife went over and stood by his truck thinking that would be the safest place to be.Evidently it wasn't because the tree fell across the bed of his truck pinning her somewhere between truck and the ground.She set in giving him a good tongue lashing and he told her if she didn't shut up he wasn't going to cut it off of her.I asked did she get hurt and he said it only broke her arm  :-\

[Prizl tha Chizl]

Haven't run the D17 since the last snow this spring, so "Elvis" Chalmers needed a little extra juice to pop. Finally, after work, in the dark and rain, he decided to catch. In my excitement I ignored the first three clanging sounds, and raised the loader, ready to drive out of the holes he'd sunk into over the summer before the ground freezes, (tomorrow night, low of 14.)

Turns out, those noises were somebody's  winter stash of hickory nuts bouncing back and forth between the fan and the... 

[Old Greenhorn]

 :D :D :D
Well told and written. :D Hope that radiator is OK.