My introduction to the Lisfranc fracture

Misty Hollow Carving

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My introduction to the Lisfranc fracture

We started off down the highway to Oshawa to watch our grandson play football.  Not knowing what will happen in the game.  Will he be okay today? Will he get hurt? Will they win?

The cell phone rang and my wife answered the call.  The conversation went something like this… (from what I heard)… “We are on the #115 highway just about to the 401…(long pause)… are they at the hospital yet?  Sure we can turn around and be there in about a half hour… sure we will go right now…(more pause…)  Okay we will call you soon. Bye.”

By that time I had pulled over on the highway shoulder and was waiting to hear how our grandson was doing. I waited to hear which hospital we had to go to.

My wife looked at me and said, “No football game today we are going back to Peterborough. They are taking Emma (our granddaughter) to the hospital right now… she fell off a Zip Line and hurt her foot or something…”

My heart stopped. I serve as an On Call Chaplain at that hospital. I have attended way too many crisis calls when something terrible happens. As I drove back to Peterborough the memories came flooding back.

A zip line? Emma?  A fall?  How? When? Why? It was a long half hour home.

In the Emerge waiting area Emma saw Grandma and started to cry. Her foot was elevated with the shoe and sock off.  She needed Grandma big time at that minute.

Her friend Serena and her mom Laura were sitting with Emma trying to make her comfortable.  Both were scared from what they witnessed happening to Emma.

The zip line is a cable stretched between two large trees.  It has a pulley on it with another cable hanging down attached to an old bicycle handle bar. While sitting on a branch that Emma climbed up to… the idea was to hang on tight and then zip out from one tree to the next.

Emma moved forward while hanging on to the handle bars… but something happened when she left the branch… the handle bars were loose… or they turned slightly… Emma lost her grip… or something.  She fell down about seven feet landing awkwardly with her left foot taking the brunt of her weight… before she rolled over.

After X-Rays were done they told us that she has four broken bones in the foot.

It is a Lisfranc fracture – four of them in fact. 

The Lisfranc fracture is a fracture of the foot in which one or all of the metatarsals are displaced from the tarsus. It is named after 18th- and 19th-century surgeon and gynecologist Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin.

Wikipedia goes on to tell me that… quote…

“This type of injury classically occurred when a horseman fell while riding, having trapped his foot in the stirrup or fallen into a drain. At present, such an injury happens typically in activities such as windsurfing (where participants' feet are in foot straps that pass over the metatarsals), or when one steps into a hole and the foot twists heavily. Falling from a height of two or three stories can also cause this fracture. High intensity activities such as body movements in which a person leaps into the air and then rotates one or more times while airborne. American football players occasionally get this injury, such as Matt Schaub and Darren McFadden in 2011, often when they have their foot pointing down and someone lands on their heel.”

Oh boy. They have inherited their grandpa’s tendency to get hurt from doing too active a sport or activity.

I love to do stuff that is dangerous as well.  Emma’s wanted to try the zip line is just like me. That isn’t from one of her other grandparents – only Grandpa Murray Lincoln.  If it looks like fun… I would/will try. And I often got hurt… in fact I hurt all through my teenage years and into my twenties and thirties… in fact I am hurting now!

I apologize to the parents of my grandkids… I am completely responsible.

Emma… your friend’s mom told me that the line was being taken down before you left for the hospital.  Serena’s dad was making sure that no one else will get hurt.  Darn!  That would have been so much fun!

We are praying for four bones to come together quickly and heal well.  Emma will likely be running by the middle of summer… !!!!

Did I ever tell you the one about the time that I was…. Ouch! That really hurt!  But I am running again… well walking now!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

www.murraylincoln.com

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisfranc_fracture

My old Atlas Lathe died and My Heart Sank – How could I fix it?

Misty Hollow Carving

This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.

My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.

To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/  

My old Atlas Lathe died and My Heart Sank – How could I fix it?

About two weeks ago my Metal Lathe quit working.  Actually it was the motor.  When I turned it on it would only make a low hum as it tried to begin to turn over.  Something was seriously wrong with the motor after all these years.

My heart sank as the feeling of hopelessness flooded over me.  What am I to do?  I need the lathe and what it does for me now. In my production of some of the items that are in demand right now, Misty Hollow cannot have any down time!

On Tuesday I started working toward the possible repair of the electric motor. I removed it from the lathe and started to take it apart.  It is old and very dirty to say the least.  It has been ages since this has been looked at.  What am I going to do?

I should tell you this part first. The lathe is something that you turn metal parts on but you can also use it to make wooden parts as well.  Things like chair legs or table legs and even wooden bowls.

The lathe is not new. I inherited it when my Dad passed away in 1987.

He bought the lathe in 1943, a year before I was born.

It is an Atlas Lathe with a 10 inch chuck and a 46 inch bed for those that understand that lingo.

Whoa!  The motor is 69 years old or more – likely closer to 72 or 76 years old. It was bought in 1943 but likely produced a few years before the small garage in Lang, Saskatchewan purchased it to work on the farm machinery. My dad was working for that garage as a mechanic. The lathe was too small to do the larger tasks that it was needed for.  So my dad stepped forward and bought the lathe from the owner.

When I was presented with the lathe in 1987 I moved it in a small trailer from Regina, Saskatchewan to Scarborough, Ontario.  Then we moved it from Scarborough to Yorkton, Saskatchewan.  After that it moved with us to Regina, Saskatchewan.  Following the stint in Regina it went across Canada again to Peterborough, Ontario where it has worked hard for the last 14 years.

The original move to Lang, then Milestone, and then Regina Saskatchewan had taken place after it had arrived from Illinois where it was made those many years ago.

I doubt that there is any lathe, anywhere that has traveled any more than this one… and to top it off it is now very old.  Talk about an active senior citizen that weighs about 300 pounds!!!

As I pulled the motor apart it was clear that the dirt built up after all these years was the issue.  It so caked with dust and grime that the working parts were not doing what they should do.

In lower technical language I can tell you that this kind of one phase induction motor starts with a starting winding and then switches over to the running winding. The initial start is done by a zap from a capacitor.  And it all happens when the power flows through the starting switch which makes the starting winding send the armature in a certain direction either Clockwise or Counter Clockwise – depending on which way you position the drum switch… Forward or Reverse.

Did you get all that?  I learned all that when I worked with my dad rewinding and repairing electric motors at his Lincoln Motor Repair shop that he launched later in his life.

Knowing this stuff has come in handy over the years.  And when I ran into trouble with a motor on one of our appliances I would call my dad for advice, or parts or whatever I needed to repair the electric motor.

My father had given me the most valuable thing he could have. He gave me some of his knowledge and ability to repair things.  He gave me the best.

It was amazing to have him around in person or by telephone.  One quick call and he had an answer.

For 25 years now he hasn’t been around. I have had to rely on what I remember and what I can figure out. His training and gift to me was very good.

BUT – and it is a BIG BUT… on Tuesday when I took apart the old motor my heart sank.  This is not something that you go out to a repair shop and get parts for. No one even remembers this kind of motor!  Not the young guys at least.

To buy a new motor I found that I was looking at a range of prices from $175 for one that might not be big enough or up to $350 for one that would likely work.

After pricing the new motors out I was less than confident that I could go this way.

Worse yet, I had checked the wiring harness in the old motor and in the line to the switch and the wire casing was breaking every two inches. It was already broken in many places from the switch to the motor. The 70 plus year old wire couldn’t remain pliable any longer. It was having a heart attack of sorts.

As I drove away from the last place I checked prices at I suddenly remembered another place that I had passed almost every day. It was the “Dependable Electric Motor Service” with a sign that explained what they do. When the door was open it looked just like the shops that my dad used to work in.

When I walked into Dependable Electric Motor Service it smelled like my father’s shop.

I explained my problem and the older fellow (younger than me but older than his staff) told me that they do carry new motors as well. But there were also shelves full of used electric motors that were for sale.

Bingo. There on the shelf was a used motor that would more than do the job I needed done. A customer had brought it in to be repaired.  It was from a band saw and should do the trick.

Whoa!  The best news… it was only $50!  Misty Hollow can handle that for sure!

Oh boy!  When I got it home and opened the back of the motor up where the wire connections are… there were six wires coming out – not four like the other old motor!  The drum switch had only four wires to connect to… and the plug leading to the wall had two more.

It was early Friday morning when I started to work on this problem. I began on the Internet asking how this problem could be solved. There were suggestions but not the answer that I needed.

By the afternoon I was even more confused. Where should I begin? Dad wasn’t there any longer and I had no one to call… no one at all!

So I began using some of the old ways that my dad had taught me. Try this… test. Mark it down what I did if it didn’t work. Try it… test. Try it… test.

The real testing started at about 8 PM and suddenly at 10:30 PM – kazzoom the motor roared to life and with both Forward and Reverse working perfectly!  What a moment of elation!

Who should I call?  Who would care? Who would even understand why I was so happy?

I wished at that moment that I could have called my dad.  He would have been so proud of me.

When I left my Misty Hollow shop last night and went into the house. I checked something on the calendar.

It was May 25.  That was the day that my dad passed away… 25 years ago!

Could it be that my dad is still watching over me? Naw!  I don’t believe that kind of stuff.

But when I had left that last place when I was pricing out the new motors I had this strange sensation that I should to Dependable Electric Motor Service.  And when I walked into that place it was as if I had come “home”… it had smelled like my dad’s place… the man was like one of my dad’s guys he used to work with. Even his clothes were the same.

When I went to bed I was smiling!  I had to tell someone… so I did that just now… by telling You!

Oh – and by the way – I worked on the old motor a little more… and even with its weak wiring and ancient workings inside… it too roared to life as well.  I could say it is as good as new… but that should say… almost as good as new.

It will go with the Lathe to one of my grandsons when I go. It will depend now on which one is really ready to take over this part of my life. Hmmm?

Somehow, somewhere and in some way I think my dad is smiling.  And in some small way he is telling somebody near him… “That’s my son… I taught him well!”

~ Murray Lincoln ~

www.murraylincoln.com

Gary Connery, My Mother’s False Teeth and a swarm of Bees

Misty Hollow Carving

This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.

My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.

To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/  

Gary Connery, My Mother’s False Teeth and a swarm of Bees

Lordy. Lordy!

It just has to be the fact that I watched Gary Connery jump from that Helicopter without a chute!  Or maybe it was the fact that my mother was in a complete panic in that she lost her false teeth… or maybe it was the fact that last night an entire bee colony came into our tree for their new home? I do not know! All that happened during the day!!!

The dream last night was so wild and so persistent that even after waking up and with my eyes wide open the anxiety that I felt all through the dream was still there. Lying there early, with my eyes wide open I still was trying to solve the problems the dream was filled with!!!!

I hate that kind of dreaming.

Some wise person said that the dreams we have are a result of the brain trying to unload all that happened that day. Perhaps there are unresolved issues in your mind and it is still trying to solve the problems.

Hokey Mokey I don’t need to go back and try to organize the entire Church Organization that was or maybe is so fouled up. The bimbos in my dream were nuts. They were impossible to work with and super stupid. And each one was someone that is real and were very much a part of my life.

What a bunch of idiots!  No kidding!  In my dream they were just nuts!

Worse yet my wife had dropped me off in another city, returned home, it was snowing and lots of slush on the street… and I had no money to get home… no money for food… and the idiot that was leading the meeting made the conditions for me worse than ever.

It was in that slushy snow and cold city with no money that I woke up.

My mind perhaps was trying to solve the problem but the problem was too big… so it said, “Wake up fool!  These idiots won’t listen anyway!”

I almost want to call some of the guys in my dream today… and apologize for the way that I felt about them in my dream!  But they were idiots so I won’t.

Gary Connery went on to land on the pile of cardboard boxes. My mother never lost her teeth – she had put them in her teeth container. And the bees will know better than to mess with me… most are dead this AM… ahem. (Sure… sure… I saw the Bee movie… and guilt is there again!)

Now I am about to start another day and load up again… more guilt trips… more problems to solve… and stuff to do… things to fix… and it is called life.

I am not sure that I want to go to sleep again. If those idiots are in my dream again – I am going to blast them… I have the blaster ready.

Why does this happen to me? I never did much wrong yesterday… just a little. Grrr… umph!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

www.murraylincoln.com

Yesterday an Insane Man named Gary Connery jumped without a Parachute – wearing a Bremont Wingsuit

Misty Hollow Carving

This BLOG is sponsored by “Misty Hollow Carving”. You are welcome to visit Misty Hollow and see all of my carvings.

My Web Site is a like a Gallery – please drop in for a stroll through.

To help me promote my Web Site please copy this URL address and email to someone today http://www.murraylincoln.com/  

Yesterday an Insane Man named Gary Connery jumped without a Parachute – wearing a Bremont Wingsuit

I am sitting here watching the video over and over again. I cannot believe that guy actually did it. Gary Connery – what a nut!  A daredevil is putting it mildly.

No parachute and no safety equipment – just a big kind of bed sheet made of a kite material, and attached to his body… then he jumped from 2400 feet up… right out of the door of the Helicopter! The suit is called a “Bremont Wingsuit”.

Then he fell free and fast with the wind ripping at his jump suit. Arms and legs sticking out left and right caused the material to flare open.  The guy was like a flying squirrel… only moving much faster… an estimated 150 miles per hour and then hitting the landing area at about 90 miles per hour.

Nope a chute didn’t open at the last minute… but the pile of cardboard boxes did break his fall.

Take a look at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9284736/Gary-Connery-practices-Bremont-wingsuit-stunt.html

I know what water feels like when you hit it fast. It is hard.

I know what the ground feels like when a bucking horse gets rid of you and you hit the ground at the full force of your own body weight.

I cannot imagine what the cardboard boxes felt like at that speed. Sure they would break the fall somewhat… but… wouldn’t that hurt too… just a little?

As I sit here today watching Gary Connery do his thing from the Helicopter, I found out that he did many stunts in many different ways, that each could have killed him.

He does Base Jumping… which is jumping from a high tower, bridge, cliff – or whatever… with a parachute on… then trying to land successfully in an open area. Often this is done over buildings such as houses or businesses… and trees… and rocks… stuff that is hard on the old body.

I watched a number of Gary’s video.  He is something else.

Ouch. I just moved a little and the ankle on my right leg is hurting big time today.  It went over on the side last night…. I sprained it I am sure.

But I didn’t jump out of the helicopter like he did. And I never hit the pile of boxes like he did. He has to be hurting today.  There just has to be some bruising on that body of his.

But he is only 42 years old… and his wounds will heal quicker than mine!

I have had dreams that are much like what Gary does with his jumps. But I don’t need to climb to a high cliff or tower… I simply take a step and away I go… over the roof tops and power lines… over tree tops and branches that swish by my feet. It is way too much fun with that dream. I am never bruised after it is done… and always look forward to dreaming more of that adventure.

That may be the reason that Gary does this. His dream is now a reality. He can live it over and over again.

What a rush!

Ouch. I just move the ankle again.  I guess I will simply watch Gary’s videos over and over again.

~ Murray Lincoln ~

www.murraylincoln.com

Resources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9284736/Gary-Connery-practices-Bremont-wingsuit-stunt.html