Paradox At The Crossroads

It seems like I have been finding myself at various crossroads along my path of life as of lately. I find myself at yet another point where no matter the decision I make - life changes from here on.

If I have any readers left from the old blog you will know about the accident with the hand and I ask you to bare through another version for any new readers.

In June of last year I was finishing up the installation of a hardwood floor when a table saw I was operating malfunctioned causing me to lose half the index and the end of the ring finger on my left hand. The middle and small fingers were cut extensively and both have permanent nerve damage. At the time, I was on layoff from my full time job as an electrician and was installing the floors in a new house to make ends meet.

I was working for a new company and supposedly they had workers compensation coverage. It turns out they didn’t. Two weeks after the accident my full time employer called me back to work. Obviously I couldn’t work then. Three months after that I was forced back to work because I had no help paying the bills. I’m here to tell you it is not easy being a hands on electrician with only one good hand. Every single day I found things I simply could no longer do or was severely handicapped in doing. For the first time in twenty years I was nervous working with electricity. Nervousness and electricity do not combine very well. But I had no choice.

I managed to make it through the first three or four months because I am a hands on supervisor. Which basically meant I got more work out of my help while I tried to determine the extent of my ability or disability in this case. I found the extent the hard way. My crew was helping tear down an old coal prep plant right on the Kentucky and WV border. I was cutting down conduit on the second floor. Normally when I work on things I’m pretty ambidextrous. I could do just as much with one hand as the other but not anymore.

I was on a ladder with a cutting torch in my right hand. Since my left hand was pretty useless I was using it to hold the end of the pipe while I cut one of two straps holding it in place. The pipe by itself is pretty heavy and about ten feet long. As soon as I cut the first strap the end of the pipe I was holding with my left hand came down catching the thumb between the pipe and a structural beam. I worked for the next three hours with a compound fracture to the first bone on my thumb.

To be honest - I knew I broke it when the accident happened but I just didn’t want to believe it. It was because the thumb was the only good appendage left on that hand that I was able to even work at all. After the swelling got so bad and the pain I had to face facts and go to the emergency room. It was quickly confirmed my thumb was now in three separate pieces. The doctors at the hospital said it would need a pin and they wanted to do it as soon as the swelling went down.

Here is where I made a decision that has cost me dearly since then. I was staying out of town at the time in a motel room provided for by the company. The only way they pay for the room is if you work each corresponding day. Seeing as how I obviously wasn’t going to be going back to work anytime soon I opted for the doctors in Kentucky to refer me to someone in my area so I could just go home. It would be nearly a week afterwards before I finally got to see a doctor in my area. On examination he determined pins weren’t needed and decided to fix it the old fashion way - twisting and setting.

Now I have severe limited use of the thumb on a hand that was already handicapped and my doctor has released me for work. There is no light duty work in the life of a construction electrician. After 22 years in the electrical maintenance field, I’m afraid my career as an electrician is over. With all of that being said, one decision I have to make is go back to work and chance it or face the reality of the situation - I simply can’t do it anymore.

Where is the paradox in all of this? The company I work for, should I decide to go back, wants me to go to work on Massey Energy property. This is a serious conflict of interests because I don’t want to help Don Blankenship earn the first dollar. I don’t speak out against mountaintop removal to hear myself talk. I speak out because it is just wrong and I flat don’t want to be a part of it.

In other words - I find myself in the same position as a lot of my neighbors - help them destroy the mountains and communities or go hungry.

So I’m faced with a career changing decision with a nifty little paradox thrown in for good measure. Life does get interesting at times.