Concussed

 

Fence post driver image ripped from the internet

After nearly five decades of fairly clean living, I managed to give myself a concussion for only the second time in my life. The first occurred only seven or eight years ago when someone blew a stoplight and hit me nearly head on. Fortunately it was at fairly low speeds at the time of impact so I only suffered from a mild case of whiplash, which my doctor informed me is the same thing as a concussion. I hoped at the time that would be a one and done event. Nowhere in my wildest did I think I would ever give myself a concussion with my own hands!

While cleaning up our garden for the year, I noticed the deer had trampled over our garden netting fence and trampled through the strawberry beds. I guess they did it just to see what my reaction would be. Besides uttering a few choice words which I can't repeat here, I decided to reinforce the fence by putting metal fence posts in the corner to allow me to stretch it so it couldn't sag, much like it had been earlier in the year. I grabbed an extra fence post and my fence post driver seen above and often memed about as a "guess this gadget" or "only those of this age know how to use one" device. 

After over a month without rain, the ground here is extremely dry and hard and so I was applying some muscle on the downward stroke to get the fence post drive into the ground. On the fifth or sixth stroke, on the upstroke when I lift the driver up to allow it's weight (and my added force) and gravity to do it's thing, I made a subtle miscalculation. The driver came just off the top of the fence post so that the post no longer guided it's path. As I applied force in the downward direction, the top end of the fence post caught the lip of the fence post driver creating a hinge point. I was applying force downward and with hands on each of the handles, gravity and force did it's thing and the 40 pound driver (plus applied force I was exerting) had no place to go besides hinge over and hit the top of my head!

ISO Tunes Ear Muffs

Fortunately, in my old age, I splurged several years ago on a set of the ear muffs seen above. They connect to my cellphone via blue tooth and allow me to listen to music while out in the yard or in the garage. Due to the loud nature of a metal fence post driver slamming at high speed against metal fence posts (and my noggin!), I was wearing these at the time of impact and fortunately, the impact occurred on the top padded portion of the ear muffs that were between the fence post driver and my skull. 

Don't get me wrong, despite the padding, the hit knocked me immediately backwards to the ground like a sack of potatoes and I may have even exhibited a "fencing response" with my left arm. Although I never lost consciousness, it did take me at least 10 seconds of wondering what had just happened and wiggling finger and toes to verify I was still alive, before I finally staggered to my feet, picked up the fence post driver and finished the task at hand. 

I continued until I got the fence back up in place and hopefully deer proof again but already my lower neck and shoulders were starting to ache and I knew I had taken a pretty good blow. I went inside where my wife, unaware of my brief lounging stint in our garden, looked me over and said I had given myself a concussion. I was told to avoid all bright electronic screens for the next 48 hours and give my brain a chance to heal. 

Fortunately, the ear muffs made my concussion pretty mild on the scale of things. On the list of side affects, I didn't loose consciousness, didn't slur my speech, didn't have dizziness, headaches or confusion. The only symptom I did have was a sensitivity to light, especially from a computer, television or phone screen for a day and the previously mentioned neck and shoulder pain for a couple days. 

Thankfully I'm still alive to tell this tale. Hopefully minimal brain cells were damaged permanently.

Comments

  1. They should have a warning label on that fence post driver: "BEWARE OF YOURSELF"!
    Pleased to hear that you emerged from the unexpected blow without long-lasting or serious injury.

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    1. Sad that the biggest danger in my life is me!

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  2. If it is any consolation, I have also done that to myself.

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    1. Well thank you for making me feel a bit better. More than once, I have done the same thing only to have the fence post drive tip to one side or the other. This is the first, and hopefully last, time that it caught and tipped directly at me. I need to remind myself to exercise patience and not try to maximize every stroke of the driver.

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  3. Yikes! Rest up Ed. Glad to hear there seems to be no permanent injury.

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    1. Well, from what I have read about football players, there is permanent injury but hopefully not enough to effect me outwardly or shorten my life.

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  4. Ed, oh no! That sounds like one of those freakishly odd accidents that no one ever expects. What a blessing that you had the headset on. I'm so glad it wasn't worse. Good thing you have excellent medical expertise in the family.

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    1. Yes, I shudder at my outcome had I not been wearing that headphone set. I'm sure I would have been unconscious with an ugly lump on my head at the bare minimum.

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  5. I'm glad you're alive Ed! Voice to text. My hands hurt, so I don't comment much anymore. Are you able to put two fences estimated feet apart around your garden

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    1. I answered your question via email about why I need the netting. If it weren't for racoons, I would just put a single woven wire panel fence up and call it good. It won't stop a determined or spooked deer but it works well enough for my purposes. That is what we had around our previous garden and it kept the deer out.

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  6. Dang! I'm glad you had a tiny bit of cushion and didn't hurt yourself any worse than you did. We have one of those tools at our house. I'll keep in mind it can be dangerous!

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    1. Dangerous especially if one is in a hurry and trying to maximize efficiency by getting everything out of every stroke. I just need to slow down and not lift it as high as possible and take the extra two or three strokes needed to accomplish the task.

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  7. You never know how a concussion will work out. Fortunately, you seem to have come out of it with minimal repercussions

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    1. From what I have read, every concussion leaves behind a form of permanent scarring that with repeated injuries, could potentially have harmful effects. Seeing that this is only my second time in many decades, I'm hoping I haven't come anywhere near that threshold yet... nor will I.

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  8. Phew! That was scary. You had angels that saved you.

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  9. Accident causes are never straight forward. You know what happened. Many time we don't know what happened.

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    1. Yes, I know someone who got hit by a fallen tree branch and didn't know what had happened other than he couldn't find his sunglasses he had been wearing.

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  10. Oh, ouch! Like many of our injuries (my fall and skinned knee for example) it sounds like a series of unfortunate events.

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    1. I hope to limit mine to just one event thank you!

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  11. Wow! I'm not sure you could actually repeat that adventure, but you might consider buying your strawberries, getting a deer hunter license, and wearing a football helmet. Ouch! Linda in Kansas

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    1. The strawberries are my wife's love so I don't have a choice in that matter. I live JUST inside the city limits so I'm not allowed to hunt legally. I do encourage my neighbor who lives JUST outside of city limits and my property to shoot all that he can. I think he got six last year. Investing in some sort of hard hat for future fence post pounding might not be a bad idea!

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  12. Nothing to mess around with...glad it was not worse:(

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    1. Me too and it could have easily been a lot worse without those earmuffs.

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  13. Wow! Scary! It's a good thing you had those headphones on.

    I didn't realize whiplash is a kind of concussion...interesting.

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    1. I didn't either until my wife informed me in a tone that insinuated my low level of intelligence!

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  14. I have used those post driving tools many times and glad you had on ear muffs! When I drive a post, my watch will warn me of the high level of sound but thankfully my ears are protect. I can see how this could have been very dangerous and will be more careful the next time I need to drive posts.

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    1. I have never heard that a watch could tell you such things. It seems like a pretty neat idea. Unfortunately my watch is dumb and just tells me the time.

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  15. How did I miss this??? I read your election day post, but missed this one! Good lord. Glad you are okay. My own worst injuries have usually been self inflicted, now that I think on it. Same with Tim. So...you're are not alone in this.

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    1. It was all the usual things, being in a hurry and thinking I am immune to such things. I need to remind myself that I can take my time.

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