Nothing like intense pain to focus the mind. I’ve always known that these stairs became dangerously slippery in the rain.
A: The stairs as I built them two years ago:
B: Two ribs broken when I slipped and fell on the stairs in the rain last week
C: Stairs with 3M Safety Walk anti-slip tape applied
Remind me to do this next time before somebody slips and falls.
(The single saving grace this time is that it happened to me and not to a guest.)
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Replies
I cracked a rib recently, man that hurt, I can only imagine 2 broken ribs.
The trouble with ribs, Mark, is that they've got to be constantly moving with the lungs, so they can't be immobilized in a cast like a broken arm or leg. And while the received wisdom (I learned at hospital corps school in the navy) was to tape the affected side to reduce movement, doctors now say binding results in lung infections due to restricted air flow in that side, so you're not supposed to tape or bandage the chest at all, and just take the resultant pain.
I've found that the pain is worst first arising in the morning, since pain medication has worn off during the night and I've probably turned a couple of times in my sleep. I can occasionally feel--or even *hear*--the two ends of a broken rib snapping together and apart. Given the constant movement, it's amazing that the two broken ends of a rib even manage to find their way back together at all.
I hope they gave you some good drugs. Motrin just doesn't hack it.
Good Drugs!
Motrin appears to be the trade name for generic ibuprofen. I think it's available here in Japan, but the doctors seem to prefer prescribing Loxoprofen (I was prescribed it last year when I broke two fingers on the spindle sander).
Loxoprofen is an ibuprofen-type drug, but not identical to ibuprofen. I don't know which is more effective, and the net says that Loxoprofen isn't approved in the US yet.
I've found the Loxoprofen is okay; not perfect, but it does reduce the pain. The doctor gave me a month's prescription (3x daily), so it must not be considered too powerful.
I self diagnosed myself, maybe it was just bruised ribs. The ribs seemed to be not broken in two, but were somewhat more flexible than others. It was very painful to breathe in, not so much to breathe out. Just touching the ribs caused very intense pain. I also found it hurt less to just lay on the broken ribs while sleeping because I could breathe with less pain that way. Everything healed up after a while, maybe 3 weeks or so. Yours were much worse judging from the x-rays. Did yours have to be "plated" with metal? I read a lot about broken ribs on the internet, so I'm more informed now.
In case you wonder how I hurt my ribs, I tripped in the basement on a jug of laundry detergent and slammed into the washing machine. I had to think hard the next day to remember what I did, as the injury did not really hurt much at first. Also I had a big bruise appear a day or so after the incident.
Self-diagnosis
I've had bruised ribs before, but the experience this time was qualitatively different. The instant my body came crashing down on the edge of that step I knew it was worse than whatever I'd experienced before. Like you, I didn't feel immediate torturous pain (thanx to shock reaction), but breathing was difficult and I figured I'd broken something. Since it was Sunday and no nearby hospitals had an orthepedic surgeon on call, I just packed ice against my chest and hoped for the best.
On Monday morning, the young doctor at the hospital started with percussion tapping of my chest, but for whatever reason I didn't feel much pain. He thought nothing was broken, but did the x-rays out of excessive precaution, and good that he did, since the x-rays showed clearly a minimum of two broken ribs, with possibly more if the xray had been dialed in more exactly for varying depths.
Anyway, no metal plating on mine, yet. I do have a bruise--with a line of broken skin where the edge of the stair hit, and overall I'm thinking two months for complete healing. I hope it's less, since I've got a lot of projects on lilne.
How steep are the stairs? the treads look to be about 11" wide. Goos idea to add the safety strips. There is now a paint-on grip that you could coat the whole tread in the colour you want.
I have broken ribs too (scafolding mishap). It aint fun. I also popped a rib. Thought it was a back spasm but massauging it only caused more pain. I went to get help and found out what is was. Proper massauge put it back in place. Must have happened when moving sheets of plywood around and twisting my rib cage the wrong way. Weirdest thing.
Noticed you added some low voltage step lighting as well. Great idea!
help for that tile edge
BTW-Schluter makes a retrofit grip nosing (just adheres with Kerdi fix)that will add safety and enhance the detail of your beginning tile landing edge. May be worth looking into.
http://www.schluter.com/8126.aspx
note: the TREP-GK is the retro-fit profile which is NOT the integrel profile in the photo.