I was walking up to a customer's house with their tv on a dolly. We are in the midst of a mini ice storm so the sidewalks were already treacherous (I had slipped twice already). I rounded a corner and while my right leg was in the air, my left slipped out from under me. I fell sideways, - forearm first on the sidewalk. That wouldn't have been too bad if the next thing to land (on the side of my elbow no less) hadn't been my rib cage. Basically all of my 220lbs landed on the left side of my rib cage.
I found myself grunting for a reason i didn't understand at first - one of those "I know this will hurt but it doesn't quite yet" moments. However, that quickly faded as I realized that I had shocked by diaphragm and was unable to inhale. Good times. I spend about 1 min bent over on the ground trying to catch my breath. Fortunately for me, it was pitch black and no one was around to help.
Spent another min or two to compose myself and painfully pushed the dolly to the guy's door, rang the bell and let him carry it inside while I held my side. Then I walked very slowly and carefully back to the truck and climbed in. On the unendingly long trip back to the store I noticed that by upper and lower back hurt as well as my shoulder. It hurt to turn sideways, inhale or exhale deeply.
Got back to the store and filled out the accident report and had my wife come and pick me up. Now for better or worse, due to the really bad road conditions I am not going to the doctor's until tomorrow once the roads are salted (not like they'll be able to due much about my bruised or cracked ribs anyway but i digress)
In the mean time I have to avoid sitting up or down leaning sideways, laughing, coughing, (god help me if I have to sneeze) laying down, picking ANYTHING heavy up (and "heavy" has been changed to mean >4lbs)
But on the positive side, looks like I will have some company paid vacation time....
I found myself grunting for a reason i didn't understand at first - one of those "I know this will hurt but it doesn't quite yet" moments. However, that quickly faded as I realized that I had shocked by diaphragm and was unable to inhale. Good times. I spend about 1 min bent over on the ground trying to catch my breath. Fortunately for me, it was pitch black and no one was around to help.
Spent another min or two to compose myself and painfully pushed the dolly to the guy's door, rang the bell and let him carry it inside while I held my side. Then I walked very slowly and carefully back to the truck and climbed in. On the unendingly long trip back to the store I noticed that by upper and lower back hurt as well as my shoulder. It hurt to turn sideways, inhale or exhale deeply.
Got back to the store and filled out the accident report and had my wife come and pick me up. Now for better or worse, due to the really bad road conditions I am not going to the doctor's until tomorrow once the roads are salted (not like they'll be able to due much about my bruised or cracked ribs anyway but i digress)
In the mean time I have to avoid sitting up or down leaning sideways, laughing, coughing, (god help me if I have to sneeze) laying down, picking ANYTHING heavy up (and "heavy" has been changed to mean >4lbs)
But on the positive side, looks like I will have some company paid vacation time....
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