This is, as near as I can remember, an accurate list, and description, of injuries I have sustained.
I don't include; the time I was flattened while playing hockey.
I was about fourteen, zooming along the boards, heading for a goal, when suddenly, there, right in front of me, was a wall of flesh.
The next thing I know I was on my back looking at the stars, outdoor rink.
Nor the time I was hit in the face.
I was working under the hood of my pick-up and he sucker punched me, knocking out my false tooth.
Nor the time I was punched in the face with an ice cream cone while working for the carnival.
Neither of these occasions required medical assistance.
ABBREVIATIONS USED ON THIS PAGE
Abbreviations for Canadian provinces: Alta, Alberta; B. C., British Columbia; Man., Manitoba; Ont., Ontario
I - 22 Injuries that I have endured.
For explanations of truckers terms see my Trucker's Glossary
1950
EDMONTON, ALBERTA
When I was little 4 or 5, my uncle Andy rented a room from us.
He wasn't really my uncle. He was a good friend of my father's and we called him uncle.One day I went up to visit uncle Andy.He wasn’t home.
I fell down the stairs.
I remember my father picking me up and singing me a nursery rhyme.
Goosey, goosey, gander
Where do you wander
Upstairs and downstairs
And in the master's chamber.
1952
We had been to visit a veterinarian.
My mother was just pulling away from the curb, in her Hillman, when a car, going the opposite direction came across the street and hit us head on.
They took me back into the vet’s office where my forehead was attended to.
1956
SICAMOUS, BC
In the dark, my neighbour threw a rock into the air, I ran into it.
My father had to take me to Salmon Arm, 23 miles, the nearest town with a doctor.
Father was not happy. The road was not paved. It was winding, dark, and under construction.
5 stitches, long, narrow, metallic, rods.
Later the ends would be cut off.
I could feel the remains inside my skin, for many years.
1957
GLEICHEN, ALBERTA
In the garage we had a large band saw. There was no cover over the up side of the blade.
I was cutting a curve in a piece of wood.
It felt like someone touched my elbow with a feather, instantly, for some reason, I knew what had happened.
Without looking at the wound I shut off the saw and went in the house to find my mother who took me to the doctor.
5 stitches, nylon thread.
In the park, I got hit by the seat of a swing.
Swings, in those days, used pieces of 2 X 6 for seats.
1958
I stepped on a board which had a nail in it. No stitches but I had to get a tetanus shot.
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1959
A car went by and I held the 22 rifle along the side of my leg so they wouldn’t see it.
I was out on the Indian reserve. I had a permit to carry a firearm, though I was only 14, but I wasn't allowed to do so on a reserve.
I forgot to take my finger out of the trigger guard.
The bullet went through the side of my foot, no real damage. It felt like someone was pouring hot water into my boot.
I walked home and phoned the Indian hospital where my father worked, though he wasn’t there. My mother and father had gone into Calgary for the day.
When they came home I was in Bassano, Alta.
The hospital had come and picked me up and treated me but they couldn’t keep me. The hospital was only for Indians. So they transported me, after treatment, to the next nearest town that had a hospital for white people.
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1960
ENDERBY, B. C.
My father and I were felling a tree with a two man cross cut saw.
The tree, when it fell, hit another tree, and rolled.
The butt hit me in the side, lifted me, carried me, then fell on top of me.
My father picked the tree off me, no mean feat, it was about 20 Cm. in diameter and 20 meters tall.
Dad took me home and put me to bed. My father being too thrifty to spend money on a doctor. None of which I remember, I was unconscious.
A couple of weeks later, when my arm was still swollen and I was still carrying it in a sling I had taken from my Boy Scout First Aid Kit, father finally sent me to the hospital.
My elbow and two ribs were broken. Three ribs were cracked.
I spent two weeks in hospital to get the swelling down in my arm.
To this day, my arm won’t open all the way.
My friend, from across the street, was playing catch with me along the side of our house.
The hardball caught me in the eye, forcing the wire rim of my spectacles into my face.
I had a perfectly circular cut and a beauty of a black eye.
; Working on my father's farm I swung an axe.
The axe was deflected by a small shrub and hit my foot.
The axe cut through my boot into my foot.
Luckily I was wearing good work boots or the injury would have been more severe.
I had hired John M. to help me that day and he got me into dad's pickup truck and rushed me to the hospital.
If it hadn't been so serious it would have been comical.
John had never driven dad's pickup before.
It was an old `49 Ford and had about a foot and a half of play in the steering wheel. This meant that the steering wheel couldn't be held straight. One had to constantly spin the wheel back and forth to steer a straight path.
However, John, unaccustomed to the wheel, was over steering and our path down the road was definitely not
in a straight line.
Along the curving road was bad enough but across the straight, narrow, bridge it must have looked like the keystone cops.
More stitches
1969
CALGARY, ALTA.
Four of us were trying to lift a wooden crate. I dropped my corner, on the end of my finger which popped open. Sort of like stepping on a grape.
Computers, in those days, were really big. The crate we were trying to lift contained 1/4 of the computer.
the entire computer couldn't do the calculations that a Cel phone can do today.
After we finished unloading I went to the hospital.
At the hospital they pushed the innards back into my finger and closed it with two, crossed, butterfly bandages.
1971
LAVINGTON, B. C.
One of the IS (Individual section) machines making beer bottles jammed and there was glass all over the floor.
I moved in to help shut off the machine and stepped on some molten glass.
The 1,000 degree glass cut through my boot, and my foot.
The doctor gave me five stitches but no antiseptic.
The molten glass killed any germs that might have been in my sock or boot.
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1973
WINFIELD, B. C.
Working at Vanguard I used to carry twin air guns, like the Cisco Kid.
The guns were connected, by airlines, to pipes above me which restricted my area of movement but made it faster when installing screws than using just one gun.
The left gun held a drill bit and after predrilling a starting hole I would then draw my right gun which was equipped with a Robertson screw bit.
Starting a screw and holding it with my left hand I attacked it with the right hand gun.
The screwdriver bit missed the head of the screw, slid across my thumb nail, and drilled through the flesh on the right side of my thumb.
1978
DAWSON CREEK, B. C.
Richard and I took turns.
It was Richard's turn to drive the garbage truck and my turn to pick up the garbage.
I picked up a bag of garbage, from a stand in a back alley, and a piece of glass, inside the bag, sliced through; bag, glove, and hand.
Five stitches.
1982
QUESNEL, B. C. I-15 - Fist in eye
I was living in Prince George and had gone to Quesnel for the weekend to do some prospecting on my gold claim.
At a party, up in the hills, I was leaning against a car.
The young man beside me, the son of E89, unexpectedly, swung his fist and hit me, breaking my glasses and cutting me beneath my eyebrow.
I never knew why he did it.
In fact, I was so drunk, I barely knew he did it.
I sent his dad a bill for the glasses but he never paid me.
I self administered a butterfly bandage.
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1985
DUNCAN - PRINCE GEORGE, B. C.
While scuba diving in Brentwood Bay I brushed against a sea urchin.
Its spine penetrated my wetsuit and the tip broke off in my thigh.
It wasn't painful. I never noticed it was there.
A few weeks later it began to fester so I went to a doctor in Prince George who cut out a chunk to send to Vancouver.
I said, "That's good, I'm sure they've never seen a sea urchin before"
Sheepishly he muttered, "That's right you told me what it was."
2 stitches.
Of all the injuries I have had this is one of the few remaining scars.
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1987
PRINCE GEORGE, B. C.
Diane’s cat was a terror and when I tired to pet it, it clawed and bit.
The scratches would go away and then come back.
Several times over the next few years I would go to doctors.
A skin specialist finally killed the `Cat Scratch Disease’ with cortisone.
1992
I squeezed a blackhead, that was on the side of my head, behind my ear, where I couldn’t see it.
Instead of it popping out, it popped inside, my head.
It infected and became very large.
I had to have it taken out.
While the doctor was cutting it was bleeding so bad that it washed out all the freezing and I could feel, and hear, the knife cutting the tissue.
3 stitches
2001
PETATLAN, GURRERO MEXICO
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While visiting a church I received a cut on my knee.
For the whole story visit my article, A Visit to a Mexican Hospital, in the travel section of my website.
3 stitches
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2006
MEXICO
I can't remember what beach we were at but I think we were in Puerto Vallarta.
I was walking in the water and I stepped on something. It made a small cut and the area around the cut started to go numb. I went to the doctor.
He froze my foot, or tried to, but because it was bleeding it washed out the freezing so he put in a couple of stitches, while I writhed in pain.
Then he gave me some type of `cilin' pills, an antibiotic, which worked like a laxative and cleaned me out, leaving me with an upset stomach for the rest of the trip.
Much like `Montezuma’s Revenge, without the stomach cramps.
2 stitches
We were at the beach in Mexico, at a little town called San Juan De Alima.
I was standing in the water, facing the shore, lifting up and down on the waves when I noticed the water level had dropped, from my shoulders to my ankles.
I looked behind me and I saw a huge wave towering over me.
I tried to jump up into the wave but it broke and the crest crashed into the middle of my back.
I was turned around and upside down and my head was driven into the sand, like a corkscrew.
The water receded and I was left on my hands and knees, totally beat, when a second wave hit me and rolled me around some more.
Between subsequent waves I was able to crawl onto the beach where I flopped, exhausted, for some time before I could move.
Then it was all I could do to stand.
My back was sore for weeks.
At work I took all the hard work jobs I could find so I could strengthen my back muscles.
I-22 - Broke my Toe
We were walking down a street in Zihuatanejo.
I made a sharp turn to the left, around a corner.
OK, OK, I was on the wrong side of the sidewalk.
I was walking on the left instead of keeping to the right.
So, when I cut the corner, close to the building, I couldn't see the people coming until I almost stepped on them.
I did a quick hop-skip to my right to avoid running over a young senorita.
My foot kicked a rock, about 4 Cm. in diameter.
One of several that were planted in a circle around the base of a tree.
The toe, next to my big toe, on my right foot, grew to about 3 times its normal size.
It also turned a beautiful purple colour.
Knowing that doctors can't splint a broken toe I never went to a doctor.
Such as; stepping on a nail, at least twice, and stepping on broken glass.
Few of my injuries have resulted in permanent scars, no matter how sever the wound, yet I have a couple of small scars that I have no recollection of receiving an injury. To the top of THIS Page « Return To the top of My LIFE LINE Page
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There are other injuries that I sustained but can't recall where or when.
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