dark + dog + glass door = . . .

[BobL]

Sometimes we forget how certain dangerous situations in the home are.

Early Saturday morning around 2 am I get a really bad attack of night cramps in my lower left leg - the cramps are bad enough to pull a muscle - I even heard it crack! And on top of that the cramp continues. . . . . plus just for fun I also have a flu!

In agony I awaken SWMBO and she stretches my foot and massages my lower leg but it does not seem to help.

Still in nauseating agony, I manage to stand up and apply the optimum forward pressure on my foot. I stand like this for a few minutes to hold the cramp and then I need to pee.

Feeling really sick with the shakes at this stage I hobble/shuffle my way in the dark to the toilet and tripped over the large dog we are dog sitting, and fall head first through an old glass paneled door in our hallway.


The buckled section of metal cross bar is where the bridge of my nose hit and probably saves me from really serious injury.

Here is a close up of the cross bar.


SWMBO, who also has a bad flu, hearing the sound of breaking glass, feeling nauseous - on hands and knees she crawls over to me and when she sees my laying in the door way with bits of glass sticking out of my head. She thinks, "I know first aid I can help", but standing up and helping me out of the doorway and probably seeing all the blood she feels nauseous and she feels like she will pass out so she has to sit down on the floor. I crawl into the bathroom about 2 m away and mange to stand up, turn on the light and sit on the loo, and start to inspect my injuries, wipe away the blood dripping down my face and pull bits of glass out of my head. Fortunately the head cuts are not as bad as they look but I find I have two long cuts on my left arm and hand that will clearly need stitching so a trip to emergency medical care is needed. However, SWMBO will definitely not be driving so I call my son and we head off to Royal Perth Hospital emergency. All this time what hurts the most is the bloody pulled muscle in my left leg and when I hobble into RPH with blood still slowly dripping off my face I must have looked like a right drunken hobo who has had a bad night with the booze and been in street fight or two.

Now to cut to the chase, the sum total of my injuries are, relatively superficial cuts but requiring 26 stitches on 2 places on my left arm/hand. The multiple punctures on my forehead where I pulled bits of glass out, and two badly bruised rakish cuts across the bridge of my nose, have been superglued closed (see there is a WW link here!)

My nose bridge is swelling up quite nicely which should add to the drunken street hobo look.

All I can say I was really lucky that I did not receive a deep puncture or two or hit a major blood vessel. I was definitely saved by that metal cross bar in the door and my now rather painful nose.

The doctors at hospital emergency were amazed I did all this without any alcohol.

Also my leg still hurts more than everything else.

At the first available opportunity that door is gone!

[Pat]

Bob, how is the dog?



Good to hear you are ok, but you may be mistaken for Freddy Kruger

[BobL]

Bob, how is the dog?

The dog is fine - it's a somewhat bewildered full size long haired/rough collie. It's a sweet dog and I do not blame it one bit - it's nervous about being in a new household and it can't seem to find a place to sleep in the house. I was already concerned that I would tread on and injure it during my regular night-time shuffles to the loo - instead . . . . .

Good to hear you are ok, but you may be mistaken for Freddy Kruger

Yeah, next Wednesday I have to represent a national professional association (ie suit and tie) and be a chair of a review panel. Could be an interesting meeting - I'm hoping for a "don't mess with me" appearance, but fear it could be a, "who's the jerk with the busted face".

[Groggy]

Bob, I hope you appreciate how lucky you are. I know of someone who did the same thing many years ago and did not survive it.

I hope you recover quickly.

[BobL]

Bob, I hope you appreciate how lucky you are. I know of someone who did the same thing many years ago and did not survive it.

I hope you recover quickly.

Thanks Groggy and I really do appreciate how luck I was. One of my school mates died when he was accidentally pushed into a large glass door. One small sliver of glass hit a major blood vessel and it was all over in a few minutes.

One of the reasons I'm posting this is as a wake up call for everyone to check all their door glass and make sure it is safety glass.

[Groggy]

I often think of how clever the Japanese are to use paper and screens.

[Rattrap]

Wow Bob, what a comedy of catastrophes! So glad u got off so lightly, take care mate.

[BobL]

Wow Bob, what a comedy of catastrophes! So glad u got off so lightly, take care mate.

I agree - on reflecting about it , it almost has an urban myth air about it!

[Scott]

Cripes Bob, lucky boy. Hope your injuries heal soon and not too much time in the shed is lost

[acmegridley]

I've got a similar problem, left thigh just locks up,muscle gets as hard as,Quack put me on an over the counter product called CrampEze,a natural product, so far so good, fractured a toe the other night getting out of bed so quick collided with the bottom of the bed ,didn't feel much at the time but in the morning foot had swollen, big bruise in area, off to xray ,Yeah ,small fracture across 4th toe.
I sympathise with you

[BobL]

I've got a similar problem, left thigh just locks up,muscle gets as hard as,Quack put me on an over the counter product called CrampEze,a natural product, so far so good,

Thanks for the tip - I'll check it out later today

fractured a toe the other night getting out of bed so quick collided with the bottom of the bed ,didn't feel much at the time but in the morning foot had swollen, big bruise in area, off to xray ,Yeah ,small fracture across 4th toe.
I sympathise with you

Been there and done that too. I've also dropped a length of 2" glav waterpipe on one of my big toes just 30s before I put on my steel caps.

[beer is good]

Hi Bob,
Jeez, you had an adventure!!!

I used to get leg cramps and I was put on magnesium tablets about six years ago - no more cramps.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[Robson Valley]

BobL: Quite frankly, I'm happy that you lived through it to explain what happened.

In McBride at 53N, the sun slides behind the mountains as early as 2:10PM in mid winter.
We average one power failure of uncertain duration, each week. Damn but it is dark when the whole town goes out! It is BLACK. -20C, and a winter snow storm, I'm unhappy (again).

I have a bunch (6?) of little rechargable flashlights with high intensity LEDs which sit in the power points all the time. Power failure? Half a dozen nice bright little lights meant primarily to avoid accidents. The rest of the time, they have a secondary light, just enough to see by. Third, I can pull one out of a power point and really, really turn it on for a very bright light.

Then I go down stairs, start the power inverter in my solar power system. When the display lights up, I plug in my smoldering wood pellet stove, 500 watts of juice and I'm warm to go back to bed. I'm running a Harman P38+ stove and burn 8,000lbs to 10,000lbs pellets per winter.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[ToothFairy]

Eeek.

Thanks for telling the story. We all need the occasional reminder of how dangerous the ordinary home can be - never mind the shed!

- Michael

[Ozkaban]

Gees Bob, that's a bit rough. Hope you're on the mend ok.

Cheers,
Dave