Ok…. This is very much overdue and there are no pictures on this one.
We did not get away without incident on our venture. Some of you are aware of this, but others are not. I apologize that my posts have been far and few between, but since 09.28.10 my challenges changed to helping Glen as much as humanly possible.
On September 28th, Glen finished the roof – YEAH – it was a grueling job. We have an 8 12 pitch on the roof so it is really steep. We were also battling the Fall rains and at one point Glen was up on the roof with his head lamp and by the light of the full moon putting down tar paper. We had a break in the weather and we were concerned that the weather would worsen and ruin the plywood that he worked so hard to get in place.
Glen had just finished taking off the last piece of face board that he used to keep himself on the roof as well as to rest the steel on. He had also removed the nails that were on either side of the ladder. While putting the last piece of face board to the ground the ladder decided to slide.
I was in the mess tent working quickly on Austin’s schooling to help him move ahead and keep working when I felt him go…
I threw everything in the air (with the exception of the computer) and started running – not even sure what I was running for – I just had the dreadful feeling and I heard a weird noise as I started to run and Glen yell something and as I was about to round the corner of the shouse I heard him hit the ground. It was the worlds most awful sound and the uncertainty of what I would find was even more grueling. I heard that thud for days after he fell.
Thankfully being a bull rider – gave him the upper hand on knowing how to fall right – if there is such a thing. :0
We had been using an eight inch piece of pointed steel the diameter of your pinky finger to punch holes in the steel. When I got over to Glen this piece of steel was laying two inches from his side. Needless to say – seeing this – I picked it up and threw it across the yard and started to cry. He also landed with the back of his legs across the board that he had just removed that had the blunt end of the screws still sticking out of the wood. God definitely had his hand on him because there he sat in one piece with no additional holes in his body, pain in his foot and ankle, but the rest of his body appeared to be untouched.
Glen actually jumped from the ladder vs getting caught up in it and taking the chance of really getting hurt. When he jump with his feet together his left foot was sticking out just a bit more than the right and right before he his the ground his left foot caught the bottom rung of the ladder causing it to slam into the ground.
Gratefully – I was able to get him to go to the ER and get it checked right away. He had enough pain that he felt it warranted getting it checked. I gave him an herb called Arnica which eliminates bruising and swelling and that did the trick – he had minimal swelling and next to no bruising, but he had a great deal of pain. He thankfully did not break anything, but his heal was jarred into the ground so hard and his ankle was jarred as well at impact that he was going to have a long road of recovery because it was tendon and nerve damage. He is doing well now and has some discomfort every so often, but he had really been suffering every since and of course for those of you that know him well – he would have been back up on the ladder when we returned from the ER, except George and Gudrun had come to visit and SAVED the day. They got him to sit back, relax and enjoy the good company and his foot elevated! But he was back on the ladder and working like a mule the next day.
Just to give you an idea on the level of impact – he hit the clay and put about a 1 1/2 inch divot in the clay when he hit and when you take a sledge hammer and hit the clay as hard as he can you just have a sledge hammer that bounces back. So all I can say is that GOD is so good – I was so afraid what I would find when I turned that corner that day and at the end of the night my emotions were pretty raw in just thinking how lucky we were (he was). Glen has been my knight in shining armor since he walked into my life and thought of anything happening to him scares me to death.
So again I will say GOD is so good and thankfully that was really the only incident that we had while working out here. I will end this post to say this man is the hardest working man I know. He just won’t quit and our house will be amazing and I am thankful for him and all his hard work.