Pain management

[prentice110]

was reading the thread about lookin for a climber in iowa and it reminded me of a time when i broke my ankle early in the morning during a starving winter when i had a crane schedualed. One newbie brush bunny, a whipper chipper, every tree climbed and i still pulled $2300 that day. my ? is , whats the most pain / broken body parts you ever went to work with when you absolutley had to?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've worked with broken bones, and compression bandages that were leaking. I'm a wimp now, I call off when it is hard getting out of bed, or the IBS won't settle down.

 

[capetrees]

Worst pain? Continued to work through the day and then after after the boss hit me with a log he was grabbing with the excavator. Instead of picking the log while positioned perpendicular to the it, he was off to an angle. He closed the excavator thumb on the log which then clamped it square to the excavator and batted me 15' across the lot. Branch stub hit he square in back of the leg. Had to cut my pants off due to swelling after work to get them off.

Roofed with a fractured shin bone. Pitch of the roof helped keep the weight off the leg.

 

[mic687]

I have a bulging disk in my back that can cause back spasams that will stop you dead in your tracks. I woke up one morning with my back locking up and still climbed and remover two large ash trees being very careful how I moved. I also once hung up a poplar top and when I spun it out it kicked back and clobbered me and dam near knocked me out, I thought I was hurt bad when I got my sences back. I was wearing ppe but my left eye still swelled half shut and my ear was bleeding but I still got 6 more trees down. You should have seen the look on the home owners face when he saw mine, don't you want to stop your hurt he says. I told him I'll be alright and finished the job and got my money. tree work ain't for sissy boys.

 

[sgreanbeans]

was reading the thread about lookin for a climber in iowa

You are referring to me.
The worst pain for me is tomorrow ( because I dread the mourning's) Everyday I deal with it, literally. The only way I can describe it is, get hit in the neck with a bat, right on the spine, between the shoulders. Sounds like someone popping bubble wrap when I get up in the am.
The kids need new video games and the dogga needs food!
So I keep putting one foot in front of the other, waiting for the superstar to show up and take the rains.
Happy Friday the 13th!

 

[banshee67]

Roofed with a fractured shin bone. Pitch of the roof helped keep the weight off the leg.

lol..

 

[JimiLL]

Worst pain? Continued to work through the day and then after after the boss hit me with a log he was grabbing with the excavator. Instead of picking the log while positioned perpendicular to the it, he was off to an angle. He closed the excavator thumb on the log which then clamped it square to the excavator and batted me 15' across the lot. Branch stub hit he square in back of the leg. Had to cut my pants off due to swelling after work to get them off.

Roofed with a fractured shin bone. Pitch of the roof helped keep the weight off the leg.

Whenever an operator hits someone with a machine a shovel should go right into their hands.

 

[tree md]

I broke a bone in my left hand. The doctor put a cast on it and I cut it off the next day and went to work. Only long term damage is that my pinky sticks out when I drink a beer. Makes me look sophisticated...

I also stuck a gaff completely through my big toe one morning on the first tree. I climbed 9 trees that day and got paid.

I also had a 1 foot diameter limb that was under tension slam my big toe like a sledge hammer when I was doing storm work. It was my very first cut on my very first job of that storm. I finished the job, got paid, went home and put a red hot needle through my purple toenail. Black blood hit the ceiling it was under so much pressure but it was like instant relief. Took a couple of month of working everyday through the storm damage for my nail to finally fall off.

 

[Blakesmaster]

I probably told this story before but I almost burnt my thumb off trying to free up the rope in a massive spruce after I butt-hitched the top out of it. The rope had dug such a deep groove into the bark of this spruce that it jammed right up and wouldn't go down. I jiggled the rope after the groundie took off all the wraps and zoom she went with my thumb pinched between the rope and spar. Stole a good chunk of my skin and I rained blood on the groundies as I chunked it down. Climbed and trimmed 2 or 3 good sized pines afterward.

 

[tree md]

Not quite as bad as that Blakes but I got my left hand pinned by a top onetime. I was roping like a 20' top, Prolly 6-8" diameter where I was making my cut. I was using a webbing sling and biner for a false crotch to lower it with. I used my left hand to kind of throw the butt for some reason, can't remember, I was trying to guide it a little for some reason and the webbing sling and biner caught my hand and pinched it up against the tree. It was prolly a thousand pound top and it hurt like hell. I couldn't let my guys lower it because it was catching my hand. I was finally able to budge it just enough to get my hand out from under it. I had the perfect indention of a biner in the top of my hand for about a week after that and still have a small scar where the pressure damaged a little skin tissue. Anyway, I finished the tree.

 

[Blakesmaster]

Anyway, I finished the tree.

Hell yeah, bud.

 

[capetrees]

Forgot one.

Up in a maple, 30' or so, cutting spars when one of them swung around on the rope and crshed my knee between the log and the remaining tree trunk. Spiking down was a blast!:censored:

 

[CNBTreeTrimming]

When I was workin on a large maple near hot lines. I had to let a piece pivot on the rope to clear the line. I didn't want it to swing back so I didn't tie the butt. The branch split as it hinged and it spun around the back side of the trunk and drilled me. I was seeing stars and a broken branch left about an 8" gash below my right shoulder blade. The ho was watching. Asked if I was ok I said yeah and got the rest of the tree down. Lucky it didn't kill me. It was too big a piece. About 800#. Made me realize maybe I'm not young and bullet proof. Couldn't move the next morning.

 

[TrillPhil]

It's almost always when the ho is watching...

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

( because I dread the mourning's) Everyday I deal with it, literally.

Have they had you on Tramadol yet? It helps me sleep, and I wake up with less pain then if i don't take it.

Then again, I've never been blown up either....

 

[sgreanbeans]

Have they had you on Tramadol

Yep, in the beginning, they tried all kinds of meds, I have a week stomach when it comes to narcotics, I guess that's good! They had me on Morphine, and that was too much, made me drool!, Baclofen is my savior, strongest muscle relaxer, designed to replace methadone for heroin addicts!
Good stuff, don't feel a buzz and I don't drool, but I can crack my neck to relive the binding

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Usually I take one, but I can work on two tramadol, and sometimes go to bed with three + one naproxin. Combinative therapy is what works best for me, no single med will get me through the night.

None of it works well without PT, but the VA methods did nothing for me. I found a place 5 min from home that has done wonders, which I could get the VA to pay for some of it.

They do pay for accupuncture and manual therapy from a certified master in Traditional Chinese Medicine. I do not beleive everything TCM has to offer, btu i have seen results with the accu/massage (just do not call it massage to them!) She puts three needles in the back of my head and my nasal/sinus cavities do not clog up.

 

[treevet]

Yep, in the beginning, they tried all kinds of meds, I have a week stomach when it comes to narcotics, I guess that's good! They had me on Morphine, and that was too much, made me drool!, Baclofen is my savior, strongest muscle relaxer, designed to replace methadone for heroin addicts!
Good stuff, don't feel a buzz and I don't drool, but I can crack my neck to relive the binding

muscle relaxers will relax a certain muscle you had not intended fwiw :check:.

Fell outta a tree and broke 3 ribs on a limb halfway down and worked all afternoon but had to take a few days off after a splinter punctured my lung in bed that night. Broke some ribs in football in highschool. Laughing and sneezing are scary just thinking about.

 

[custom8726]

3 herniated disks in my lower back, work with it daily and it's no fun Going to get a cortizone/steroid shot in my spine in 3 days and not looking forward to that either but its getting to the point were either these shots are going to work or it's surgery time come winter. Been dealing with the bad disks for 10 years now with just excercise (Stretching) an Advil but as of lately its really slowing me down and I have a long way untill retirement..

 

[treevet]

3 herniated disks in my lower back, work with it daily and it's no fun Going to get a cortizone/steroid shot in my spine in 3 days and not looking forward to that either but its getting to the point were either these shots are going to work or it's surgery time come winter. Been dealing with the bad disks for 10 years now with just excercise (Stretching) an Advil but as of lately its really slowing me down and I have a long way untill retirement..

I have had the back issues and "pain management" is a chore. Hard to think about much else with back issues.

Right now I am nursing a strained achilles tendon for 3 weeks from a sports injury. Anybody got any insight into cutting rehab time on this one that is tought to heal?