So the Bad News Turned Good

For those of you who don’t know me via Facebook I suppose I should do an update here.  I had an accident and I ended up breaking my back and my foot… I am ok but the tiny house will be on hold for a few weeks.  I have turned this into good news and, as life changes, adjusted my plans accordingly.  Here is the story of how it all happened…

I have been pretty stagnant over the last month or so on my tiny house build, mostly because I had expected to be further along (finished) by this time of year so I had committed to a bunch of obligations that I really didn’t have time for and had scheduled a week long vacation.  I basically haven’t worked on my house for about a month.  I made myself OK with that because I said as soon as I got back from my vacation I wasn’t going to sign up for anything else until my house was complete.  I think I was a little over anxious to get back to work and that may very well have played a hand in my accident, I was rushing to get to the ‘fun stuff’.  I literally woke up early Saturday morning STOKED to finally get to work on my house.  Little did I know not even an hour into it I would be going to the ER.  My goal was to finish the roof trim and move around to actually start siding but first I had to clean the dirt from some big dust storms in the month it sat stagnant, then I could put the last coat of sealant over them and trim it up. To do that I needed water… on a plastic sloped roof…  It was all going well with a wash rag and a bucket of water but I continually had to go up and down the ladder to get new water every 2-3 feet or so… it was REALLY dirty.  With about 150 feet-ish of seams to clean it was taking FOREVER… I did a stupid thing to speed it up, which I totally knew was stupid at the time and thought I would just be ‘really careful’.  I brought the hose up on the roof with me, I stood/sat up-slope from the water and clean the seams a thousand times faster.  It totally worked!  I got the seams cleaned in a fraction of the time.  It all went great until the VERY end, when I had to walk back across the [now soaked] roof.  I was being SUPER careful and super aware but really what I had done is make an elevated slip and slide… in retrospect there are any number of things I should have and could have done differently but, what I DID do was walk across the deathtrap I just made with the exact same results any person would expect.  I fell on my ass and slid out of control off the roof, sliding the full 9′ of slope, gathering speed, and hurling myself off the ledge dropping 11′ onto the asphalt below.  Thankfully I landed on my foot side instead of my head side but I landed square on my right heel (breaking it) and shoving my leg up into my spine, giving me a compression fracture in my lower back and actually breaking a vertebrae a little higher up my back.  I did actually have the forethought in the fall to go limp (I have heard there are far greater injuries caused by tensing up in an accident so the best thing to do in an impact is to go limp…).  I hit my body just right to do the damage though.  I also tried to catch myself when I first fell (in the roof) which sprained my wrist.  In the end I came out with relatively minor injuries (a broken heel bone, a fractured ankle joint, a compression fracture in my back, a fractured vertebrae and a sprained wrist and ankle), it could have been SOOOO much worse and I am so thankful it wasn’t but I am out of commission for a little bit on my build.

There are a few things that I lucked out on but that I did wrong that I have learned from that would be valuable to pass on…

• First, my mom’s last words to me were ‘don’t fall off the roof’.  You should ALWAYS listen to your mom… instead, I DID fall off the roof and now I broke my back… lesson learned.
• Second, I wasn’t working with anyone, you should always be ‘around’ someone else while you’re working, in case something like that happens.  When I fell off the roof I couldn’t move right away, I COMPLETELY lucked out because my cell phone (which was in my back pocket) landed inches away from my hand… it DID land in a puddle of water but I was able to make a call and get help from my brother and boyfriend right away.  Had it been any other day at my house there would have been no one there and my phone wouldn’t have been in reach, we live in the country so I could have been laying on the ground for a while… I COMPLETELY lucked out in a few different ways there…
• Third, I sort of waited a while before getting medical help, I was trying to convince myself that my foot was just sprained and my back was just ‘jammed’ and that it didn’t really hurt THAT bad… my brother wanted to take me to the hospital right away but I sort of refused… had I gone right away I would have gone through A LOT less pain… I hate going to doctors (and spending money), I waited until long past the shock wore off to really get help… if I get hurt again I will encourage my future self to get it taken care of right away… I could have saved myself a lot of pain.

So that’s the jist of it, I am pretty sure if I were to count this as at tiny house expense I just doubled the cost… but I’m not going to do that :).  I am going to take this opportunity to study for some of my A.R.E. s (architectural licensing exams) and check a couple of those off the list and also to catch up on some work projects.  I have some fun updates coming down the line and some potential ‘parking places’ for the tiny house.  I am excited to share these plans as they solidify a little more!  I am also going to be drawing up my plans to post for free/donation based download so look for that in the future.  For now, here are a few pictures:

Dad made a faux OSHA sign for me, they would totally be shutting down my job!

My mom's office sent me some get well soon flowers, they are pretty and smell so good!

James is being the wonderful boyfriend he is and finishing the back breaking (ha) job I tried to do. He was able to finish sealing the seams so they are super water tight. Thanks James, you're wonderful and I appreciate you!

This is the worst of it, my back is relatively minor compared to my foot, the picture doesn't really do it justice, there are some amazing colors in there! One week later and it is already doing so much better, the swelling is way down and it's far more tolerable.

Here is my back brace I get to wear for the next couple months. I don't even have to sleep with it on, my injuries could really have been SO much worse, I really lucked out.

here is the back of my contraption. This was ridiculously expensive from the hospital but I suppose it's worth it if it makes me grow back together correctly. It's really pretty intense, there is a lot of engineering to it.

I know I look confused, I'm on a lot of drugs... here is a perk, I can guiltlessly ride the go-carts at the store!

Here are the crutches I'll be sporting for a couple months... pretty stunning look. 😉

This is just for pretty sake.