I have only 4 1/2 toes on my left foot, after an injury with a spade when I was about 9 or 10. I was helping shovel gravel off a flowerbed in our new garden, but no one noticed I wasn't wearing shoes.
Golly, what a sad litany of awful accidents! Thank goodness no-one appears to have been seriously hurt. I've had several nasty falls in the garden, mainly down steps of which we have lots but none ended up by me being hospitalized. My worst accident was when I was trying to knock out my mum's old washing line which was encased in concrete. I swung a big sledgehammer (with my brothers looking on laughing at me!) and somehow hit my calf instead of the pole. Went to the G.P's the following day because of the pain and swelling and told him I thought I might have a blood clot, he agreed and booked me in for an ultrascan the following Monday. In the meantime I had to take aspirin and lie down with my leg in the air for a whole weekend. Of course by the time I'd had the scan, the swelling had gone down and if I did have a blood clot, it had luckily dispersed.
Mine is nothing to compare, really, but when I first moved in I hacked back an 8ft ivy hedge, not knowing what was in there. Too much coffee later I grabbed a handful of hedge not realising there was a load of broken, rusty wire inside. Sliced fingers, spurting blood, dizzy from the shock. I ran across the kitchen and up the stairs. Blood splatters along the hall wall and all over the carpet. I couldn't get them out of the carpet. These days when I have a bad cut I yell at myself to bind the thing in kitchen paper before doing the bathroom-dash upstairs. I also keep a first aid kit near the back door.
More tricky, in some ways, was repetitive strain that I got from the short, mad hack of that hedge by hand. The wrists took about 18 months to recover fully.
Mine is nothing to compare, really, but when I first moved in I hacked back an 8ft ivy hedge, not knowing what was in there. Too much coffee later I grabbed a handful of hedge not realising there was a load of broken, rusty wire inside. Sliced fingers, spurting blood, dizzy from the shock. I ran across the kitchen and up the stairs. Blood splatters along the hall wall and all over the carpet. I couldn't get them out of the carpet. These days when I have a bad cut I yell at myself to bind the thing in kitchen paper before doing the bathroom-dash upstairs. I also keep a first aid kit near the back door.
More tricky, in some ways, was repetitive strain that I got from the short, mad hack of that hedge by hand. The wrists took about 18 months to recover fully.
At least you didn't do what I did. I "rinsed" it in the water butt. 48 hours in hospital on IV antibiotics
Crikey. No, but I do wonder. A while ago I started a thread about tenatus, as some will remember. I think the conclusion from folk was that early boosters should be enough to see you through adulthood, but it might be wise to check your jab records. I rarely make it in the garden without being scratched or jabbed by something.
I know several people who have been jabbed in the eye by canes, one narrowly avoiding loss of vision permanently in the left eye. My own glasses have saved me from several nasty accidents.
I once jumped down backwards off a raised bed and 'sat' on a bamboo cane. If that had been serious, all the hospital staff would have been giving me 'knowing looks'. No doubt.
Oooh that reminds me @fire … while pushing an old and brittle bamboo cane into the ground it splintered and snapped and I slipped (gammy knee again 🙄) and the pointed tip of the cane entered the flesh of my inner thigh just above knee level and went upwards for several inches … thankfully OH was at home that time … I was incapacitated and very sore for several days … and was very lucky not to get an infection.
It’s a dangerous business, this pottering around in the garden … 😨⚠️
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
At the weekend I scraped a gouge out of my calf on a short piece of cane - that I'd just carefully placed beside a newly-planted plant to stop me from inadvertently stepping on it. It worked too well . It wasn't deep though, so a quick clean and some antiseptic cream has done the trick. Fortunately (fingers crossed) I've never done myself serious damage while gardening.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
When I was little, about 5 or 6, I was running around the garden while pretending to help. I tripped over a rake which was lying spikes up, fell and slammed my wrist down onto it. The spikes went all the way through and out the other side. Because I was running, my momentum carried me about two inches further, dragging the spikes up my arm. My mum says I sat up, poked my fingers through my arm, then pulled out a dirty hanky and wrapped the hole. Astoundingly, there was absolutely no lasting damage to nerves, tendons or bone, although 40 years later I still have the scars.
We were attending a "village open gardens" in a small town nearby. For one garden the access was up an alley and through the back gate. When we left I was reading the map to see where to go next and completely forgot there were 3 steps down halfway along the alleyway. The scene afterwards looked as if a murder had been committed and I looked as if I'd been mugged for several weeks afterwards. Luckily most of the damage was to my dignity and not permanent but I did feel an idiot.
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I've had several nasty falls in the garden, mainly down steps of which we have lots but none ended up by me being hospitalized.
My worst accident was when I was trying to knock out my mum's old washing line which was encased in concrete. I swung a big sledgehammer (with my brothers looking on laughing at me!) and somehow hit my calf instead of the pole. Went to the G.P's the following day because of the pain and swelling and told him I thought I might have a blood clot, he agreed and booked me in for an ultrascan the following Monday. In the meantime I had to take aspirin and lie down with my leg in the air for a whole weekend. Of course by the time I'd had the scan, the swelling had gone down and if I did have a blood clot, it had luckily dispersed.
48 hours in hospital on IV antibiotics
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Astoundingly, there was absolutely no lasting damage to nerves, tendons or bone, although 40 years later I still have the scars.