home improvement injuries

[kareina]

It turns out that we are taking turns getting hurt working around the house. On Wednesday lord_kjar and I finally had time and energy to do some work for the earth cellar project, so we filled in dirt and gravel behind the walls that we had built up before the Medieval Days at Hängnan, and then we moved a few large rocks into the places they will go so that we could concrete them into place the next day. We were nearly done for the day, and decided to move one medium sized rock (read just small enough that he can lift it, so long as he is careful about technique), to the place between the stairs and the door for the earth cellar.

That spot isn't under the large wooden frame we have set up over the wall in progress, so we couldn't use the pulley system that we have been using to move the large stones into place, and, since the rock was that small, it didn't seem worth using the tractor. Therefore he just picked it up and started moving it into place. I asked if he wanted help, but he didn't reply and kept moving.

A few seconds later, as it was nearly where he was going to put it, it slipped out of his gloved hands, fell away from him, bounced off of the large rock it was going to be put next to, and then back towards him, catching the end of the middle finger of his left hand between that rock and the large one on the other side. Luckily, it only bounced off of him and continued its slide into the spot it was being aimed at, so he didn't get caught between the rocks (and he had already been pulling his hands up and away the second it started falling, so it only hit the end of the one finger). Also luckily, nothing was broken, and it looks like he may get to keep the finger nail. We got ice onto it right away, and there was a bit of bleeding from alongside the nail (which is good, because that meant there wasn't a lot of painful swelling under the nail, since the blood had somewhere to go).

It is healing fine, and while he still can't do things like play violin (which requires a fair bit of pressure on exactly that part of that finger), he was able to do other projects around the house today, so long as he was careful not to bump that finger.

So he spent a chunk of today driving tractor and moving stones around. We have finally started building up the flat area near the driveway where we will be putting that new out building we bought last autumn. So he has driven up a fair few large stones to surround the area and hold the dirt in, and then he filled in the area with many scoops of dirt till it looked around large enough and kind of level. Then we carried over the bottom four logs for the shed and laid them more or less into place, putting the ends on piles of stone till we found the right height to make them all level. This gives him a good visual to know how much more dirt needs to be brought up to finish making the under-floor area.

However, in the process it was my turn to hurt myself. Because of his injured hand he was carrying his end of the logs one-handed. They are not small logs, so I needed both hands to hold them against my waist as we walked. Sadly, one of the logs wasn't balanced well for either of us, and started to roll/slip. As a result he lost his one-handed grip and that end fell to the ground, which caused my end to first fall from where I had been holding it against my waist down to my hip, where it landed with sufficient painful force as to make me let go of it and let it fall to the ground.

I fetched one of those little blue ice box things from the freezer, tucked it into the waist band of my trousers, and we finished up the job. It doesn't hurt at all at the moment (three hours later), so long as I don't try to move any muscles connected to the hip. However, I have been fighting off some sort of cold for a couple of days--it hasn't gotten bad enough to be bothersome, but today my body wants to cough a bit, but every time I try the abdominal muscles pull on the bruised area on my hip, and it hurts. I predict that tonight's yoga will be interesting.

However, if all goes well tomorrow, we will be able to do that concreting of those stones that have been waiting patiently for us since Wednesday. If only it weren't so hot...

Comments

[rustmon.livejournal.com]

*HUGS* Heal up quickly! :(

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Is it feeling better already--a good night's sleep, followed by a day of being active seems to have helped.

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

How are you feeling

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Much better! Hmm, has it been that many days since last I posted? Perhaps I should do another one.