The Ladder Incident
August 2010

On the morning of August 27, 2010, while putting something in the attic, the wooden ladder I was standing on broke and I fell about 5 feet to the garage floor.

I realized I took a pretty big hit, but didn't realize that I had broken my arm...at least not right away. But within a few hours, I was wearing my first splint.

I consider myself very, very lucky. I easily could have fallen on my back or head. I could have been paralyzed...or even worse.

And fortunately, there was no displacement, so I was in a cast for only four weeks, then a brace for several more.

As some know, it can get pretty itchy under casts. I found a great solution to that, and subsequently created and posted a video on YouTube. (Click here to see it.)

The real surprise was how quickly I lost muscle and motion in my arm. I thought once the cast was removed, I'd be pretty much back to normal. It never occurred to me that it would take a lot longer to get my range of motion back then it did for the bone to heal.

The big lesson:

If you have (or know of any who has) a wooden ladder, turn it into firewood.