My upper back, roughly where my trapezius muscle is, is hurting. I think I know how I did it.
Yesterday at lunch, Mr. Neville and I were watching “Luke’s Vietnam” on the TiVo. In the episode we watched, Luke picked up one of those poles with the baskets hanging off either end that some Vietnamese women use to transport stuff (like this, only they weren’t as full). He didn’t manage to carry it very far. He mentioned that the baskets weighed 20 kilos each.
Later, I went to Petco and got two 20 lb boxes of cat litter. Inspired by the show, when it was time to put them in my trunk, I decided to pick one up in each hand. My back let me know later that night that this wasn’t a good idea. My left trapezius muscle hurts now in certain positions. I was lying on an ice pack last night, and will do more of the same today. I know there’s not much else you can do for a pulled muscle.
Now I get to feel foolish for doing something stupid, and realize that one of those old Vietnamese ladies could beat me up, no question (and yes, I know that 20 kg > 20 pounds). Tell me about some of your recent stupid injuries, and make me feel a little better.
If it makes you feel better, holding a weight in your hands is not the same as supporting it across your shoulders. You can carry an awful heavy backpack on your back that you’d have a difficult time holding.
As for stupid injuries, boy did I get a lot of them this week. I took a week off work to do some much-needed cleaning and home repair. In order:
When hauling my broken sofa out to the dumpster, I lost control of it and it fell off the hand truck, landing on the outside of my knee. The sofa is a pretty small one, so all that happened was swelling rather than a fracture, but it hurt like blazes.
While sweeping the kitchen, I pulled a back muscle…somehow. I’m still not sure how that happened. Thankfully I was still able to keep working, but every time I stretched it would flare up in severe pain. It’s still hurting now, and that was on Wednesday.
I was pulling supplies out of the car and shut the door while I was turning away, and the corner of the door caught me right behind the ear and left a huge welt.
When everything was finally finished and clean and working right, I went out for a celebratory dinner…and slammed my arm against the maitre d’s podium while walking past it.
It’s been a productive week, but I was half-dead by the end. I’m amazed I never actually started bleeding at any point, or got bleach in my eyes or something requiring serious medical attention. I only just barely finished recuperating over the weekend before it was time to head back to work. :smack:
This. I had to carry a 50 lb pack on my back for a portage when I was canoe camping about three years ago. No problem with the pack on my back. Lifting the pack to get it on my back however, felt very stabby in all sorts of muscles.
I hope I win this thread just because I hope no one else has injured themselves quite so seriously or stupidly recently.
I just recently got the pins removed from my index fingers after dislocating and fracturing them. I was on an early morning bicycle ride, going up a pretty steep hill. This particular road is closed to car traffic at night by a large gate. I went around the gate on the way up, making a mental note to remember that it was blocking the road when I came back down. After working very hard going up, I was enjoying the downhill so much that everything else went out of my mind. There is a turn just after the gate that I know I have to slow down to 32 mph to take safely. Just before the gate is the last section of the hill where you can really crank it, so I put my head down and hit it. When I looked up to see how hard I had to brake to slow down to 32, I saw the gate and knew immediately there was no way I could stop in time. This particular gate has a pole right at about the height of my handlebars. On my bike, the brake levers are out front and my hands were squeezing the brakes like crazy when I hit that pole, so they hit first.
Ouch.
The pushpins are out of the back of my knuckles, the swelling has gone down a lot, and I can almost make a fist, so things are getting better. Nobody to blame but myself - just plain stupid on my part.
Erm, I was walking out of my pole dancing class last week. There was a power cord hiding under an area rug. I hit that thing with my foot, which was clad in 6" hooker heels. The cord rolled, my foot slid along with it, my right ankle rolled out to the side and I fell ass over teakettle, jabbing myself in the leg with a stiletto heel in the process.
Then I had to explain to the ER doc (went to get xrays to make sure I didn’t break anything) that I was merely walking and fell off my hooker heels.
until you realize I did it AT THE ORTHOPEDIST’S OFFICE.
Yep… had just had a routine followup for my shoulder and knee issues, was walking down the hall to the elevator, going faster than I’d been able to for a while because my pain meds were working nicely… then landed funny and went down like a sack of potatoes, directly in front of the elevator, chanting my Special Driving Words.
Typo Knig happened to be with me (appointment at another doc in the same building) so he had the fun of dashing 30 feet back to the ortho’s reception room, and borrowing a wheelchair to get me back there.
We bummed an ACE bandage from them, Typo popped back to the car to get a cane I just happen to keep there, and I went home and RICEd it for the rest of the day.
Oh, and this sprained ankle is just the latest in a long series of really stupid “tripping over my own feet” injuries, some of which have come close to being quite serious. So far nothing worse than a broken elbow (or two… fortunately at different times) but the time I somersaulted down some stairs, I was damn lucky the elbow was the only think I broke.
The “at the doctor’s office” one wins for sheer absurdity, however.
But so far oboelady wins (sorry to hear about that - sounds pretty awful!!).
I think I just broke my foot, right behind the pinky toe. Was running down a rocky trail and kicked/caught my toe on a rock. Because I was wearing my Vibram FiveFingers pseudo-shoes, I wasn’t being careful and looking where I was going like I would have if barefoot.
My favorite is pulling really hard on something, like maybe a stuck pushpin, at face level in close quarters. When it lets go, I punch myself in the nose. I do this about every 20 years or so.
Wow this thread makes me feel a lot better about being clumsy (I’m in league with most of you!)
I got the flu shot on Wednesday. It always leaves my arm tingly and sore the rest of the day, so I’m sure to do it on a day when I do Zumba (a dance class) instead of a lifting class at the gym. I’m always extra careful to get it in my left arm and not my right.
I get home, and go upstairs to the bathroom. As I turn the corner in my socked feet, I slip on the carpet and smack full force into the jutting corner with my left “flu shot” shoulder. Special words ensued, and I didn’t try to type or do anything with it for an hour.
Mine aren’t severe, but I have a mystery injury and a stupid injury, respectively.
I have two bruises on my knee. I have no idea what the first one is from. Last week, it was bigger than a quarter, blacker than any bruise I’ve ever had, and hurt quite a bit when I touched it. But I can’t, for the life of me, remember what happened. This happens more frequently than I care to admit.
The second one? I know what that one is. I was walking upstairs to my bedroom about a week ago, because I had a rather severe headache and wanted to lie down. I walked about halfway up…and then tripped. How? I have no idea. But I slammed my knee on the edge of the step, and it started to swell. I was pissed, mostly because I was tired and had a headache and did not need this shit. Fighting back tears, I limped up the stairs, climbed up on my bed, and lay there for awhile. I knew I needed to ice my knee, but at that point I just wanted to be horizontal.
So now I have these two lovely splotches on my knee turning brownish-yellow, and it was all because of stupid shit I did.
Heh, double-posting, but I just had to comment on this. I had something similar a couple weeks back after I got an HPV vaccine. I didn’t slam it into anything, like you did, but I just couldn’t stop using it. I’d lift it to open a cupboard and…oh, right, ouch, I had a shot there. Lift up a jug of iced tea…ow, man, that really hurts. Try to pick up my purse…ouch, dammit, why do I keep doing that?
I suppose that’s what I get for having a shot in my dominant arm, but the weird thing was that I just kept forgetting.
On August 10th, I was cooking a frozen pizza, and it was time to take it out of the oven. I opened the oven door, lost my balance, and my right forearm managed to fly into the upper heating element.
O The Pain! Apparently I passed out, hit my head on something, and landed on my back on the floor. The pizza was balanced half in and half out of the oven, WHICH I HAD NOT TURNED OFF.
Tried getting up a few times; failed. Had to repeatedly get on my knees and hootch around to get my balance enough to get up & turn the oven off. Bruised my knees repeatedly. Finally got the oven off & the pizza out to the top of the range.
I had on a long-sleeved t-shirt, which when I pulled it back to expose the skin, it pulled off in black patches. Horrific. :eek:
Wrapped up my arm in ice-water-laced paper towels and collapsed on the bed. (I live alone.).
Took myself to the walk-in clinic THE NEXT MORNING (this happened too late in the evening / it was closed then, and I was in no shape to drive to the hospital emergency room) and got the diagnosis: second-degree burn, a good 5" long and 3" wide. But I didn’t need a skin transplant, which I was fearing.
The wound is “almost” healed, AND I GET MARRIED on Sept. 17.
I’m a waitress and I just started at a new restaurant. This restaurant has the servers wearing the long, almost floor-length aprons. Well, I’m not used to that. So yesterday, I accidentally stepped on the bottom of the apron, dropped my drink try (complete with real glass glasses, as opposed to plastic glasses) and ended up getting a sliver of glass in my hand when I fell. It wasn’t a bad cut, just needed a Band-Aid.
I’m going to be more careful with my apron from now on. It’s not too long, per se, but if I don’t keep pulling it up every now and then and re-tying it, it gets awfully close to the ground. Some of the other servers have told me their “stepping on the aprons” stories. It’s something they all seem to do at least once.
What a litany of mishaps! Looks like I’m in good company here.
A couple of years ago I awoke and sat up cross-legged in bed to read the morning paper. I was unaware that my leg had “gone to sleep.” When the phone rang, in my haste to answer it, I didn’t notice that when I put my leg out to set my foot on the floor my foot had not returned to a flat position and I put my full weight on it sideways.
I heard a loud crack. By the time it hurt enough to go to the doctor I was dismayed to learn that I had broken a bone in my foot simply by getting out of bed.
Everywhere I went when people asked me what had happened I wanted to say I’d broken it skiing.
When I told my mom on the phone she said, “Dear, you have to be more careful.”
“Oh, c’mon Mom. You never warned me that getting out of bed could be dangerous.”
Nope, that joint does not flex much at all and the nerves are kind of wonky. I do have some sensations all over it now where as it used to have a lot of numb areas.
Getting better real slow. I am doing better than I have any right to. Thanks for asking…
I recently finished my MBA program, so this past Sat. a friend from the program threw a party at her farm. Pool, a huge BBQ pit where I made some awesome gourmet burgers, and lots and lots and lots of potent mojitos. Oh, and a slip and slide. We spent the afternoon drinking and playing on the homemade adult-sized slip and slide. Then after it got dark, we thought it would be a good idea to go down to the crick and play on the rope swing. With only one flashlight between eight of us.
End result? I have a sprained ankle and finger from the rope swinging, and sore abs and ribs from hurling myself down the slip and slide in a superman pose.