In what can be described as the ONLY exciting thing to happen to me while at work recently, I almost broke my leg. Managed to walk sideways into that abyss between the trailer and the warehouse door. Foot went down about 8 inches, and then I fell sideways. It was only due to my impromptu sideways left arm only pushup that I didn't break my leg. I DID manage to get a huge swollen lump on the side of my leg, bruised my foot, strained a muscle in my upper back, my shoulder, and my triceps are completely screwed. On the way down I actually had time to believe that a horrible cracking noise followed by my yelling was inevitable. Would have been one of those nasty compound fractures too, likely. Definitely something that gets one's attention. It received everyone else's attention as well, as three of the four people working around me tried to support me and actually picked me up afterwards. These guys were absolutely CONVINCED that I'd snapped my leg, which in all likelihood WOULD have happened had I plummeted deeper into the gaping maw of the abyss, or if I had failed in my spontaneous attempt at a one armed workout. Never broken one of my limbs before, and I don't plan to start now. This is not saying I haven't broken bones before. I snapped my finger on a NURF! football (you know, the SOFT ones that are supposed to be safe?) at one point, and I broke my jaw in five places once (don't try this at home). Countless toes also have been snapped in the pursuit of bipedal locomotion. Lets just say that I gained a reputation in school as being slightly accident prone. Ever plunged a pitchfork clear through your foot? I have, but this is all beside the point.
It took a spontaneous dance routine to convince my coworkers as to the integrity of my lower leg. The ones still clinging to the idea that my leg had indeed completed all 90 degrees of the bend they claim they had witness were truly horrified at all my hopping around. Then I refused to go to first aid and returned to work. Dumb.
An hour later, my lower leg had swelled up quite a bit, and had turned all kinds of colours. So I went to first aid, and then returned to work. The real kicker about getting hurt at work is the paperwork involved. At least they horribly massacred my the spelling of my last name….
It wasn't until after my hour long commute home that I determined that I could barely move my left arm. Luckily, I'm right handed, but it was painful enough to keep me up all night, and to prevent me from going to work the next day. Missing a day due to work makes for even MORE paperwork, if that were even possible.
Then came the bureaucratic hoops to jump through. Since I missed a day, I'd have to go to the doctor and get him to verify that I was injured. This even though I had ample witness and a first aid report. Whatever. The doctor charged me 10 bucks to write a silly little note about injuries that he couldn't not verify from an accident he didn't witness.
It was all ok in the end and the injuries have healed now, a week later.
Now I've got strep throat, apparently. Picked it up at work free of charge. Feels like I've had some kind of bad sword swallowing encounter or something. Not that I’ve had any good ones either.
Wots the moral of this story? Don't go to work in a warehouse? I don’t know.