. . . to walk down three steps and across a doormat on a slight ledge, then twist my foot sideways to fit in the space between the ledge and the car.
But I ended up breaking my 5th metatarsal-the most commonly broken bone in the foot–also known as the bone along the side of the foot connected to the “pinky” toe. This was last Monday–I have a walking boot, but am off work for several weeks so that the bone can heal. (My job involves standing and walking for 6 or so hours at a time).
It seemed like a good idea at the time, for a friend of mine to stick a paperclip in her ear to retrieve the cotton swab on a q-tip which had gotten stuck in her ear.
She ended up in the Emergency Room, with a parade of nurses, doctors, and students checking out the ear before an ENT doctor took her to his office and removed it while trying not to laugh–and pointed out that usually he removes foreign objects from the ears of children.
How about you? What seemed like a good idea at the time?
It seemed like a good idea, at the time, to drill out the twisted-off bolt stub in my car’s exhaust manifold.
While lying beneath it.
Without eye protection.
After a few hours of the metal fleck - which had become irretrievably embedded in my cornea - scratching the hell out of the inside of my eyelid, I ended up in the ER, where a doc dyed the fleck for conspicuity, put me under a microscope, and berry berry carefully picked the fleck out of my eyeball with something terrifyingly long and pointy.
Ever since, eye protection has seemed like a much better idea for lots of tasks.
Trying to find a propane leak on a forklift. I needed to see if there was pressure in the hose that runs from the tank to the engine so I used my car key and pushed the little valve button in (this would be like pushing the little button on a valve stem on a car tire)…yup, there was pressure, lots of pressure, enough pressure that the liquid propane knocked my hand back. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but my hand hurt like hell* for the next few hours or so. I really thought I was going to wind up in ER for the first five minutes or so.
liquid propane get’s very* cold as it turns to a gas.
**VERY cold. I was sure my entire hand would be frost bitten.