Spoke w/my father this morning. My brother, the superhero, is tearing off and replacing the roof on his 1970s house. Yesterday was day 3 or 4 of this project.
He has not been working on the roof by himself but something happened yesterday that I will pass on.
Ice and water shield is down, roofing paper is down and shingles are being nailed on (weather people lied, it wasn’t nice thru the holiday…the drizzle/rain just sprung up). Drizzle in the morning gives way to the sun. Huzzah! and the weather had changed from hot and icky to around 70s (except on the roof which was abit toasty). Things were moving swimmingly when his buddy went down to the kitchen. Late supper to be served around 1730ish. Buddy yells up to him to come down ’cause the food’s ready. Be right down, just wanna get abit more done.
Buddy doesn’t hear the nail gun anymore, so everyone thinks Buck (my nickname for him…Brother, dear) is coming down. Nothing. Buddy thinks too much time has passed…it’s odd. Goes to the deck and yells up at him. Buck has crawled to the edge of the roof and asks for help. Buddy helps him off the main house roof onto the garage and to the deck into the house/bathroom. In his words the following happened: Nailing shingles and finished a row, was starting on another – a bee got in his shorts and stung him (inside thigh). He got the bee (I asked him if he noticed a poison sack, could have also been a wasp) and pulled out the stinger. Went back to shingling. Noticed the shingles looked brighter. Of course they were brighter, the sun had come out. Odd, shingles look more orangey/yellow. Now they look really yellow. Think I’ll sit down. He remembers thinking that he should open his eyes but his eyes were open. He was just seeing black. Later he kindof came to and put head between his legs for abit then managed to crawl to the edge of the roof.
Wife practically slapped him upside the head to go to the emergency room. Blood sugar tested ok. EKG ok. Did Catscan. Nothing. No history of blackouts, nor history to bee/wasp stings (no itching/rash/throat swelling/difficulties breathing). He had a big breakfast at around 1030 that day and was drinking plenty of water while working. He’s been off the Atkins diet awhile. He has had heatstroke(?), especially during NASCAR races but it always ends up being a hideous headache and then he throws up on the way home. Doc wants him to go to a neurologist, ’cause they don’t like the fact that he lost control of his bladder during this “episode”.
The thing that worries me the most is not knowing the cause. And the fact he was working with a nail gun. He could have fallen off the roof, off the roof and on the nailgun…the possibilities are horrifying. I do not want this to happen again. His 30th was in January.
On soapbox
ALWAYS,ALWAYS,ALWAYS work w/a buddy. If one gets off the roof, the other one should too – unless you’ve got a 3rd buddy.
Off soapbox
This jobless recovery has done more to promote the consumption of exquisite chocolate than the finest chocolatier. Cost be damned.
Replies
AMEN and AMEN!!! That is why as a contractor I always have 2 men (or women) working together. Always, no exceptions. If I am not scheduled to be on the site that day and your buddy does not show call me and I will come and be your buddy, nobody works alone ever! evenif we are only doing interior work, you can still fall from the ladder you were using to paint and break something other than the paint brush you are painting with! SAFETY FIRST!!!!!!!
I wonder if lack of sleep could have something to do with it? Too much on the list to do, too much done and not enough sleep?This jobless recovery has done more to promote the consumption of exquisite chocolate than the finest chocolatier. Cost be damned.
That's possible. When one is close to exhaustion, it doesn't take much to push over the edge. One little event like a dose of venom to the lymphatic system - well that's not so little now I think about it....
Excellence is its own reward!
Yeah. The irritating thing about this is the UNKNOWN. Nobody knows what caused it. The docs shrug and say, oh well don't think it can happen again...we don't know what caused it...could be a onetime occurrence. ARGH. It may also be a more than onetime occurrence. I interrogated him thoroughly. Did you drink water? Yeah, yeah (didn't get down to how much water he was drinking, tho). Did you eat? Are you still on Atkin's? Diabetes? Heart disease? Allergic reaction to venom (sting inner thigh - possibly hit a major vein? - but no swelling/rash/itching)?
Just the ex programmer/detective in me I guess. Discussed it w/my younger sister who was heavily into Biology before she went into the music business. We bounced a couple of things off each other and then she went off to speak w/a cousin who's got a Doctorate in Emergency Room somethingorother. We are leaning toward your thinking of a combination of things culminating in shutdown. Will feel better when some more testing is done, tho.This jobless recovery has done more to promote the consumption of exquisite chocolate than the finest chocolatier. Cost be damned.
You might not feel all that much better for more testing.
My daughter ended up in intensive after going into a coma like state for a day or so. By time we flew down there to her side, they had run every test they could think (some of them twice) of to determine why - running up a bill of about seventeen grand above and beyond what the insurance paid.
It seemed to have been a combination of total physical exhaustion, emotional stress from being away from home for the first time, and a bump on her head. Her body just decided it was time for a shut-down to rest.
As soon as we were at her bedside, she came around enough to cry and mutter that she had fell down a short flight of stairs and bumped her head the night before the event.
All in all, I'm probably galsd to know all the things the tests eliminated but she would probably have been same recovery with just bed rest and an IV bag..
Excellence is its own reward!
That must have been traumatic for you Piff. I'm glad it all worked out ok for your family tho.
The not knowing what caused it is what's getting to me, I think. Logically, I know something happened, either a single cause or a combination of things resulted in the "shutdown". But the doctors (notice how only doctors and lawyers practice, everyone else knows how to do their job) don't seem terribly interested in finding out what happened. I guess on the triage list of bad things a blackout that didn't stay a blackout is not considered a priority.
Edit to add: I did suggest to Buck that we could try all those steps again and see if if we can recreate the event for him <g>. Told him to think of the fame and fortune he would gain. The cover of the New England Journal of Medicine, maybe the backcover of FHB, Oprah, movie and book deals, pharmaceutical companies clamoring for the rights to test the venom... For some reason he didn't go for the idea.
This jobless recovery has done more to promote the consumption of exquisite chocolate than the finest chocolatier. Cost be damned.
Edited 9/3/2003 10:27:49 PM ET by PLANTLUST
Just tell him he's a hot hornet host and try not to rub it in.
;).
Excellence is its own reward!
Good to hear everything, so far, has worked out. I would play this conservatively. have the checks done. Be safe. If it goes that far it is cheaper to hire a roofing crew than fall off the roof and have to be ambulanced off.
My first impression was that he was bent over shingling. All the blood head and feet. Stung, frightened, not just by the bee for he was also at the roof edge and holding a potentially dangerous nail gun, he tightened up and stood up in one swift motion. Blood pressure drops for his brain and his eyes pinpoint, the light gets dim, and he almost falls out. The heat of the roof you mentioned, possible borderline dehydration, low blood sugar with dinner coming shortly and the poison in the sting all would make this worse.
Hmmmm. Headrush. Hadn't thought of that either. Younger sis seems to think it could be physical reaction to a sting that may have been too close to a sensitive portion of his anatomy in combination w/no food, not as much water as he should've had, heat, usw.This jobless recovery has done more to promote the consumption of exquisite chocolate than the finest chocolatier. Cost be damned.