River_Lizard
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2012
- Messages
- 378
So 3 weeks ago I was climbing into my friend's boat to get the serial number and model of his VHF for him (he was in TX) the trailer has tandems and a heavy gauge fender, so I figured I'd just step on the fender and climb into the boat by the captain's chair. I grabbed the hand railing on the side of the boat and stepped up on the fender, got both feet up there and reached for his Bimini top that was folded up but angles up at a 45 degree behind the captain's chair. Well between letting go of the hand rail and gripping the bimini my two feet decided to leave the fender!! I fell straight down and my stomach hit the hand rail and of course next my rib cage catch the hand railing and was supporting my whole body weight once it stopped my downward motion! But was it done? Nope, next before I could grab something my body decided to start rolling off the hand rail which meant it rolled from under my ribs across my lower rib and finally allowed my body to fall to the ground. I can't begin to explain the sound or the pain of it. The grinding noise of my rib rolling off the hand rail was bad enough but the pain soon took a lead!!
I stumbled into the house from the back forty where the boat was just in case I went down for the count, wanted to try to let my wife know what happened. Made it to the house by now the pain seemed to level off so I took a few advil and finished getting the information for my friend (this time climbing into the boat from the tongue of the trailer and over the bow, which I should have done in the first place).
Cut to the afternoon, things started going down hill about 4 hours later, the pain was unbelievable, had my wife wrap a bandage around my midsection and took 6 more advil. By 5 pm I could hardly breath without severe pain so I headed to Patients First. About 5 x-rays later and a scrpt for pain killers and they told me to stay home from work a day. They also didn't have someone on staff that could read x-rays and that they'd have someone call me tomorrow about them. So I get home around 7:45 pm and attempt to lay down.....no go, even with pain killers I can't lay flat without severe pain in my whole mid-section. I end up sleeping in a recliner in the semi-upright position for the night.
Next morning we get a call from PF about the x-rays, they can't see any broken or cracked ribs BUT they see a dark spot up by my shoulder that concerns them. By this time I didn't want to hear any more so I handed the phone to my wife who discussed the results and what was going to happen. CT scan... 2 days later!!
In the meantime, the pain is not getting any better and 3 days I road trip to Wisconsin to pickup my Crestliner...this isn't looked too good.
Get a call from the hospital.....first stages of COPD. Crap.....that's just what I wanted to hear!! My wife is looking at it like at least they caught it early. Little does she know it's a slow death for a person who gets this. When I worked in the homecare field I saw a lot of COPDers and at different stages of it. It's not the way I want to go at all.
Anyway....back to the ribs, to this day if I cough I still have pain in my left rib section but it's about half as painful as when it happened. The more I don't do anything, the better I start feeling, but that's torture for me and my wife knows it. She's caught me a half dozen times outside doing stuff and blew a gasket and marched my butt back into the house!! :facepalm:
What we've figured out on our own is, I've got a torn muscle between the last rib and my stomach area. My wife did a internet search for what would be the best method of healing it. Rest....oh she just loved to tell me that too!!
Today is probably the best I've felt in 3 weeks but I still have pain when I cough or attempt to sleep laying down.
This accident kicked my A....usually I'm pretty limber and can take an accident and bounce back within' about 30 minutes but this one did it's number on me, not only with it but having found out the other issue too. Got appointment next month of the COPD.. I'm hoping the hospital made a mistake and they're wrong!!
It's heck gettin' old! :redface:
I stumbled into the house from the back forty where the boat was just in case I went down for the count, wanted to try to let my wife know what happened. Made it to the house by now the pain seemed to level off so I took a few advil and finished getting the information for my friend (this time climbing into the boat from the tongue of the trailer and over the bow, which I should have done in the first place).
Cut to the afternoon, things started going down hill about 4 hours later, the pain was unbelievable, had my wife wrap a bandage around my midsection and took 6 more advil. By 5 pm I could hardly breath without severe pain so I headed to Patients First. About 5 x-rays later and a scrpt for pain killers and they told me to stay home from work a day. They also didn't have someone on staff that could read x-rays and that they'd have someone call me tomorrow about them. So I get home around 7:45 pm and attempt to lay down.....no go, even with pain killers I can't lay flat without severe pain in my whole mid-section. I end up sleeping in a recliner in the semi-upright position for the night.
Next morning we get a call from PF about the x-rays, they can't see any broken or cracked ribs BUT they see a dark spot up by my shoulder that concerns them. By this time I didn't want to hear any more so I handed the phone to my wife who discussed the results and what was going to happen. CT scan... 2 days later!!
In the meantime, the pain is not getting any better and 3 days I road trip to Wisconsin to pickup my Crestliner...this isn't looked too good.
Get a call from the hospital.....first stages of COPD. Crap.....that's just what I wanted to hear!! My wife is looking at it like at least they caught it early. Little does she know it's a slow death for a person who gets this. When I worked in the homecare field I saw a lot of COPDers and at different stages of it. It's not the way I want to go at all.
Anyway....back to the ribs, to this day if I cough I still have pain in my left rib section but it's about half as painful as when it happened. The more I don't do anything, the better I start feeling, but that's torture for me and my wife knows it. She's caught me a half dozen times outside doing stuff and blew a gasket and marched my butt back into the house!! :facepalm:
What we've figured out on our own is, I've got a torn muscle between the last rib and my stomach area. My wife did a internet search for what would be the best method of healing it. Rest....oh she just loved to tell me that too!!
Today is probably the best I've felt in 3 weeks but I still have pain when I cough or attempt to sleep laying down.
This accident kicked my A....usually I'm pretty limber and can take an accident and bounce back within' about 30 minutes but this one did it's number on me, not only with it but having found out the other issue too. Got appointment next month of the COPD.. I'm hoping the hospital made a mistake and they're wrong!!
It's heck gettin' old! :redface:
