One of THOSE phone calls (Family/Children)

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Getting ready for work this afternoon (night shift) and I get one of those calls that begins "Hi, Mrs. Pitts, I'm *** at ***Med in Raleigh. We have your husband here. He's cut himself with a saw." Oh joy. My husband appears to be the guy that Tim the tool man Taylor was based on. I am expecting anything. Call in to work ("Can you come in late?" UH, my husband is in the EMERGENCY ROOM! I'll come in when I can! Sheesh - some people.), drive out with about $30 bucks in my purse and a sinking feeling in my tummy.

Luckily, it's not that bad, all things considered. He was aggravated and running a Skil saw (a great mixture if I ever heard one - he's one of those guys who "drives mad" when he gets hot under the collar behind the wheel) and appearently had both ends of the board supported or some such beginner's mistake (he won't say exactly, too embarrassed after over 20 years of experience). He got away with a shaved left pinkie, a left ring finger missing the last joint, some nasty slicing here and there across the rest of the hand and a flapped heel of his palm, which may not reattach and may need to be grafted (the heel pad along the back side of your hand appearently has some sort of tricky attachment to the fatty pad underneath and doesn't "take" really well if you flense it and try to re-seat it.) We'll see.

Just what I needed. One wage earner down and, because of various happenings that I was kept from knowing about until it was too late, we are seriously behind in most of our bills, with new ones arriving every day. The gas people won't deliver until I pay them in full and the gauge isn't even registering. Etc, ad naseum. Joy.

With luck, his boss is as insured as his business cards make him out to be. If not, I guess we'll end up with that new boat boss man just bought. Instant messaged and e-mailed family (it's rude to just show up missing body parts you had last time. Sis said that her new daily affirmation is "...and yet I have all of my fingers" Told DH, who is crashed out on Percoset generics at the moment, that I now have the right to call him Stumpy and say I told you so for all the worrying I do about his job. Ah, a breeze! Finally some rain is rumbling by. Too wired to sleep. Anybody got a doctoral dissertation they need vetted?

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 11, 2001

Answers

Response to One of THOSE phone calls

I'm sorry, Soni. Sending you a cyber-hug! Sorry, no doctoral dissertation here . . .

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), August 11, 2001.

Response to One of THOSE phone calls

Soni,

It is by the Grace of God more of us haven't had something like that happen. My best wishes for a speedy recovery to him. For what it's worth, I severed the heel pad on my right hand so badly it was only hanging on by a quarter inch wide strip of skin. It was successfully reattached and took perfectly.

The healing process was lengthy but there was a positive side. It really got me to using my left hand more. My college coach said if he'd know that's what it took to get me to go to my left, he'd have cut my hand himself. ;o)

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), August 11, 2001.


Response to One of THOSE phone calls

Soni, perhaps misery loves company and this helps. Was awoken last night at 2:30 am, to the local ambulance telling me to wake my sister, her son (they all live on our property) was joy riding :) in a golf cart LOL! and rolled it. He was taken to the hospital for a head injury (turned out to be minor thank goodness) my sister had to use my car since hers was in the shop. In the later morning my daughter headed out to the hospital to sit with my sister, and swirved to not hit a deer and her car spun out and landed up against a fence on the other side of the ditch, miraculously she landed going the wrong way on a dirt road, with the car pitched dangerously so that it may tip over, she was unhurt, and swears God lifted her car over the ditch. Called the wrecker who got the percariously tilted car down with only a broken rear tail light, she is to leave for college Wednesday! In a final twist of irony the very same wrecker drive had towed my sisters car to the shop, felt so sorry for us and our woes that he gave us all discounts! He also noted that all accidents that happen to teens always include the swirving so they don't hit a deer :) I actually did look at the ground around the accident site, and yep! no deer tracks to be seen! Hope you have a better weekend! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 11, 2001.

Response to One of THOSE phone calls

My heart goes out to you--I've been there. We do craft shows for a living. I was shopping and came home to blood on the floor and the phone ringing. It was my Mom telling me that my husband had cut himself with a chainsaw and was at the hospital and our two girls were with them. I'm glad the phone was ringing when I walked in the door because my children and husband weren't home and all the vehicles were--pretty scary. He ended up with lots of stitches (I don't remember how many--it was a few years ago). We didn't have insurance and it was a big bill. We were scheduled to do a craft show the following week (it is a big production to set up for them) and we had to cancel because of my husband's injury. It cut through the muscle on his arm and a little on his chest and chin. Anyway there went the $$$ from the craft show and we were concerned about him ever being able to use his arm fully. God is so good. He has full use of his arm (although he has a nice scar). The doctor reduced our bill by about 70% when he found out we weren't insured; so that was a blessing. It was a scary time for us though. Our daughter was only about 11 or 12 then and was level headed enough to call my parents and wrap her dad's arm in a towel and keep him still. Needless to say he's very careful with his chainsaw now! Just hang in there--it'll get better! Sharon

-- Sharon (spangenberg@hovac.com), August 11, 2001.

The heel flap injury is just like Gary described it - hung on by about a quarter of an inch. Here's hoping. Hubby hasn't called his boss yet today, so no word on the insurance yet. Crosing my fingers (I have all of mine LOL!) and hoping he kept his payments up to date. Otherwise I may be soon reviewing all of those posts on bankruptcy (well, maybe it's not that bad, but not as far from it as I'm comfortable with.) Seems like every step forward these dys comes with a mighty backhanded slap backwards. I feel like a raquetball :{

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 11, 2001.


Update - boss man, having less than the minimum of four employees, was not required to have workman's comp and doesn't. So no insurance companies will be involved on either side. Ouch. I think I hurt worse than hubby does right now - I'm the only wage earner at the moment. Hubby's co-worker is putting pressure on boss man to do the right thing, and several customers have been calling boss man to inquire as to hubby's fate, so maybe the combined good will can result in a little cash from that end. Any little bit would help, although a bigger bit would be better. Boss man offered to put hubby back on ASAP, even just to boss co-worker around (LOL), but narcotic painkillers make it hard to drive to work! Will keep you updated.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 12, 2001.

Soni - Hang in ther hunny. Just keep telling yourself, "It could be worse." Soon you'll believe it. As far as the medical bills are concerned. Don't sweat the small stuff. When we didn't have insurance, we made arrangements to pay what we could afford (even if it was $10.00 per month) on any medical/hospital bills. As long as you are making an attempt to pay these bills off.....there will be no problem. Just be sure you call the folks you owe and make these arrangements before you attempt to just send them a little money here and there. And keep good records too. Keep a running balance of everything. What your original bill was and write down the date, check number and amount you paid each time etc. I'm in the middle of this exact situation right now. It'll be a year next month and I'm STILL paying on these medical bills. So What! "It could be worse!" Wishing you peace and patience and your hubby a full and speedy recovery.

-- Greenthumbelina (sck8107@aol.com), August 12, 2001.

Soni,

here's another

[[{{HUG}}]]

I danced with a circular saw when I was 14, and only have nicked toes, Fortunately it was on the 4th jump out of the way - it had slowed down a whole bunch.
-- See even there the view of it could be worse works swell. :)

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), August 12, 2001.


I don't know what state you live in but here in NY you need to carry WC regardless of how many employees you have, if there's a payroll you basically need insurance. I know because we have run a business for over 13 years. There are a number of contractors in the area that operate "under the table", some even go so far as to advertise they carry WC and Liability Ins. Bunch of crap. Sometimes the WC bill is so big it makes me want to go out of business.

Anyways, my heart goes out to you. My hubby is an accident walking around waiting to happen. Been without insurance at various times in our lives, too. Check into speaking with a Social Worker at the hospital, sometimes they have very valuable info and lists of resources.

Keep us "posted" as to how he makes out. Hang in there.

-- Tracey Burnash (burnash@gisco.net), August 12, 2001.


I don't know what happened with this post.

I don't know what state you live in but here in NY you need to carry WC regardless of how many employees you have, if there's a payroll you basically need insurance. I know because we have run a business for over 13 years. There are a number of contractors in the area that operate "under the table", some even go so far as to advertise they carry WC and Liability Ins. Bunch of crap. Sometimes the WC bill is so big it makes me want to go out of business.

Anyways, my heart goes out to you. My hubby is an accident walking around waiting to happen. Been without insurance at various times in our lives, too. Check into speaking with a Social Worker at the hospital, sometimes they have very valuable info and lists of resources.

Keep us "posted" as to how he makes out. Hang in there.

-- Tracey Burnash (burnash@gisco.net), August 12, 2001.



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