keep walkways clear!

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rambojoe

Senior Member
Location
phoenix az
Occupation
Wireman
last week I had one of my worst injurys in 19 years. I was rolling up about 100' of steel fish tape- the leading end was in the electric room so I was walking backwards pulling it into the warehouse. the cabinet guys had all of their material on pallets with nice aisles to walk through.
now the first time I was backing up there was a clear shot. im pretty sure a lot of us use the same technique for rolling up long lengths of tape, walking it out so its not going to snag under pallets or doors and such. so I got about half of it rolled up (while walking to the leader) and started backing up again to repeat the process. I did look over my shoulder but just a bit to get some bearing on the aisle. little did I know the millers slid a odd shaped square cabinet (id say 12" by 16" by 10') in the walkway to make room for a base cabinet on a dolley. it was on top of other stuff so this cabinet was at just below knee height. I hit it while backing up (and wearing fully loaded tool bags btw),fell and put out my right hand naturally for some stupid reason. because of the height of the cab and the weight of my bags my hand bent so far back that my finger nails almost touched the top of my forearm.
very much painful. it instantly swelled and had zero range of motion. I did the normal stuff like telling the foreman and made a report. was it my fault? hell yes. and ive only been with them for 2 weeks. to make matters worse they only had till Saturday to finish the job and turn over the keys. we know that crunch time is no time for accidents and such so I was worried sick for letting down the guys on the crew and being perceived as a liability and careless. which I did and was...
anyway I went to the doctor and xrays said nothing was broken although it sure felt that way. I couldn't pick up my tool bag or even turn the key in the car. I showed up next morning at start time and told the boss I'd have to miss at least 4 days to let it heal. of course I faked being ok at the doctor to get my clearance to go back. my girlfriend said my face went pale when she was testing the range...ouch again!
there isn't much purpose to this post except that it gets harder and harder to do the work, watch out for your co workers and not get killed your self.
and those millers never had any idea of the mess they helped create for myself, company and my family. its going to be the small stupid things that will be our undoing- be safe out there
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
May not have broken anything but severe sprain or ligament damage can be painful and needs time to heal.

Also don't know your age but you said after 19 years - so probably starting to get to the age where you don't bounce back as fast as younger people often do.
 

rambojoe

Senior Member
Location
phoenix az
Occupation
Wireman
not a spring chicken kwire! and I thought he was going to put me back on parking lot lights- pulling the #8awg and assembling and mounting the pole lights my first day back :( nope. spent all day on the roof pulling #10 solid to a bunch of Christmas light outlets. its not healed! but the doctor said I was good to go..... right?! like I said this is a new company. and after trying several other "nightmare" companies, I will do anything to stay with them. im so lucky to have found a good outfit so quickly. lots of ice and ibuprofen! :)
 

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
I had a hyper extension injury to my wrist like that about 6 years ago. No broken bones, just what they call "soft tissue damage" to ligaments and tendons. That's almost worse. Ligaments and tendons don't repair themselves. After about 6 weeks when it was still hurting, they did an ultrasound and we could see little strands of broken ligament poking out. Think of a bungee cord with the cover frayed and some of the rubber bands broken. Those little frayed pieces irritated the surrounding tissue. So they went in laparoscopically and gave my ligaments a "haircut". That helped with the pain, but I'm definitely weaker on that wrist now and after 6 years it still hurts sometimes if I sleep on it with my wrist flexed.

Don't mess around with it, if the tendons or ligaments snap, there's not a lot they can do and you are disabled.
 

rambojoe

Senior Member
Location
phoenix az
Occupation
Wireman
well the doctor didnt even check my wrist i hate to say. she sucked. makes me think of wiring up lights or something. wecant do half azzed work but others can. "well some of the lights came on! lets break for lunch". i have some pretty nasty lingering injuries too and im afraid this is just another one. it still shoots pain after work. funny,i asked for a non narcotic script for work and something strong for nightime only because it keeps me up.she said, i kid you not "painkillers are a dangerous street drug and its only for extreme pain". i almost cried. any way,just wanted to share how the "dumb" safety meeting topics are serious and this mess ALMOST left me unable to make a living. still upsets me to no end....watch out for each other out there!
 

GrayHair

Senior Member
Location
Nashville, TN
After a Grade 3 ankle sprain I spent a couple of months on crutches and had a noticeable limp for six months. 30+ years later, I deal with the effects almost every day.
 

rambojoe

Senior Member
Location
phoenix az
Occupation
Wireman
im sorry to hear that. andi have good news and bad news. Im happy to say after very long days of hustling the job is looking good enough that they sent me to the next "hurry up and get it done" job. it was always my plan after this one was done to get another xray of my fore arm because 6" above my wrist the bone HURTS. I was going to give them bs excuse but honesty always pays off. the boss called back and fired me. now I know what your thinking, and you are way wrong. just pretend im the best jw you hired in a long time (mostly because I see the clowns they are hiring). this is slightly unfair but.... I called my previous foreman and he did say he was already pissed- I think other guys called in too. just my luck. he said he couldn't believe it and would call him later today. I wouldn't care except this company is getting decent work and I went above and beyond getting this job done. this boss did say when I was hired that he looks out for his guys. justifiable or not, that's not quite true. and in my defense I can count with 2 or 3 fingers the number of jw's I've met who always have the same sense of urgency that the foreman and big boss have to get these jobs done.
even with my injury I out performed them all.
what gives?
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
im sorry to hear that. andi have good news and bad news. Im happy to say after very long days of hustling the job is looking good enough that they sent me to the next "hurry up and get it done" job. it was always my plan after this one was done to get another xray of my fore arm because 6" above my wrist the bone HURTS. I was going to give them bs excuse but honesty always pays off. the boss called back and fired me. now I know what your thinking, and you are way wrong. just pretend im the best jw you hired in a long time (mostly because I see the clowns they are hiring). this is slightly unfair but.... I called my previous foreman and he did say he was already pissed- I think other guys called in too. just my luck. he said he couldn't believe it and would call him later today. I wouldn't care except this company is getting decent work and I went above and beyond getting this job done. this boss did say when I was hired that he looks out for his guys. justifiable or not, that's not quite true. and in my defense I can count with 2 or 3 fingers the number of jw's I've met who always have the same sense of urgency that the foreman and big boss have to get these jobs done.
even with my injury I out performed them all.
what gives?
Why were you fired? If it is because you were not following medical advice I might understand. Who is paying the medical bill, and who keeps working instead of recovering as the doctor likely advised?
 

rambojoe

Senior Member
Location
phoenix az
Occupation
Wireman
I think its because he has a lot of new hires not showing up or performing. I have paid for all my treatment. i guarantee being a "right to work state" I would have been canned before I got to the hospital have I gone through the normal work accident channels so I did everything my self with only 3 days off- the 3rd day being 60hrs on a Saturday. I understand my mistake but I got screwed. oh well.. ill do the same work for another company for the same money. im actually happy I didn't give up my biggest trade secrets to them. carry on everyone, my bad.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
I think its because he has a lot of new hires not showing up or performing. I have paid for all my treatment. i guarantee being a "right to work state" I would have been canned before I got to the hospital have I gone through the normal work accident channels so I did everything my self with only 3 days off- the 3rd day being 60hrs on a Saturday. I understand my mistake but I got screwed. oh well.. ill do the same work for another company for the same money. im actually happy I didn't give up my biggest trade secrets to them. carry on everyone, my bad.
I don't see what right to work laws have to do with the fact you are supposed to be covered by workers compensation for your work related injury. If you were not on the job you wouldn't have been there and that injury wouldn't have happened.:?


If anything your employer's insurance should demand you seek medical treatment and get yourself healed before it ends up getting more complicated of an injury and cost even more to treat you, or worse yet you become disabled and they have to cover that.
 

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
I don't see what right to work laws have to do with the fact you are supposed to be covered by workers compensation for your work related injury. If you were not on the job you wouldn't have been there and that injury wouldn't have happened.:?


If anything your employer's insurance should demand you seek medical treatment and get yourself healed before it ends up getting more complicated of an injury and cost even more to treat you, or worse yet you become disabled and they have to cover that.
Yeah, no kidding...

And I don't think it matters that you no longer work there. You should seek legal advice on this, if for nothing else than recovering your medical costs.
 

rambojoe

Senior Member
Location
phoenix az
Occupation
Wireman
im glad that the new format unlocked previously locked and old forums, whether the powers to be know it or realize it...
At any rate im glad I documented this one... So 5 years later, heres the verdict. all injuries are tough and ive had them all but wrist stuff and eye stuff takes the cake for me...im starting to feel like stubbies old dog in "of mice and men". not so much stinky, but,...
 

rambojoe

Senior Member
Location
phoenix az
Occupation
Wireman
and since I cannot bring myself to dedicate a post to the issue (well, I think I tried when it happened but the forum wasn't working at the time) because it angers me to no end-
3 utility sub contractors were working on a transformer when it blew up a few months back. It was right down the street from me in Glendale az.all three were left critical and one in a coma. word from friends in this union shop are two of them are ok and I cannot find an update on the one in a coma...but sometimes, I hate to say it, making it out with no eyesight and fingers may not be so great.
the word from the srp foreman who swapped out the unit that day was the oil pressure release valve failed and somehow this young hotshot with two older VERY experienced guys thought it was a good idea to pull the lines anyway and the tranny pulled in oxygen, effectively turning it into a bomb.
now there were some very disturbing things that this srp lineman told me about this kid but since this is all in court now I will not- if you are a lineman and curious you can pm me and ill tell you. but it doesn't explain how the two old school guys could let this happen.
I also took pictures 18 hours after it happened and they clearly show where (exactly) each of the three were standing via the oil stains on the parking lot. my pictures also show the oil blasting 3/4"s of the way up a light pole that was next to the tranny.
all because of a short cut. and the hot stick was completely melted...
 
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