Illness/Injury

[Dave Ramsden]

Does/has anyone else succumbed to some sort of injury or illness as a result of being a tiler?
I personally have the worst back ever and for the last 6 months have had the worse bother with my arms. At first I thought it could be RSI or some sort of nerve damage.
I did a stint last year of working 7 days a week for nearly 3 months and in the morning I would wake up with pins and needles shooting down my arms and a heavy, fatigue feeling in the right one... so bad that some mornings I could barely brush my teeth or fill the kettle!
These symptoms have eased slightly since I have calmed down my work schedule and I am awaiting a referral date for some kind of nerve tests...

Any other stories out there?

 

[Olz]

Afew scarrs from deep cuts, and I cant stay on my knees without pads, I didnt wear them when I started out and did a bit of damage. 😳

 

[Andy Allen]

5 knee opps, and i see my chiropractor so much i ended up tiling his house for him and he has become a personal friend,
still dont get a discount though will have to wait till he moves house again, get some reddies back.

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

yes mate knee's, back, shoulder joints, hip, you just pop the painkillers and crack on!!!then one day you cant do the job you love ,so its off the nearest cliff,. there all done :lol:

 

[Dave Ramsden]

Afew scarrs from deep cuts, and I cant stay on my knees without pads, I didnt wear them when I started out and did a bit of damage. 😳

sounds familiar oli! snickers are a god send!

 

[Andy Allen]

sounds familiar oli! snickers are a god send!

you will get fat eating all those snickers :lol:

 

[Richard Edwards]

Hi Dave

My arms and hands are numb some mornings after a heavy day the previous day. Worst when using a lump hammer or heavy tools. Hang your hands out of bed and dangle them down a bit - move your fingers about and massage inside of the elbows. Once the blood pumps again your up and about.

When your as old as me and Gooner you start to creak and crack when you walk. Gooner even farts when walking - but we don't talk about it much in S. Wales -

My Snickers Trousers w/c pads are a gods send gift. !

Uh Just gorra keep goin man

 

[brinkley]

on december 2008 i noticed a bruise on my finger and thought nothing of it as im always getting cuts etc ,any way left it and the bruise got bigger till it had swollen up double the size i didnt even have a doctor at the time so thought i would register and get it seen to, turns out it was quite badly infected and came back from the doctors with some antibiotics . That night it burst open and the puss was pouring out of my finger like a tap scared wasnt the word thought i was gonna lose my finger , went to the hospital and ended up staying in for a week . i had 2 operations first one was to clean it and the second was a skin graft anyway this resulted in 3 months off work and the fear of not being able to tile again which is all ive ever done luckily the op was a success and im working normally.

 

[mikethetile]

on december 2008 i noticed a bruise on my finger and thought nothing of it as im always getting cuts etc ,any way left it and the bruise got bigger till it had swollen up double the size i didnt even have a doctor at the time so thought i would register and get it seen to, turns out it was quite badly infected and came back from the doctors with some antibiotics . That night it burst open and the puss was pouring out of my finger like a tap scared wasnt the word thought i was gonna lose my finger , went to the hospital and ended up staying in for a week . i had 2 operations first one was to clean it and the second was a skin graft anyway this resulted in 3 months off work and the fear of not being able to tile again which is all ive ever done luckily the op was a success and im working normally.

blimey thats sounds a bit serious

so it started with a bruise

 

[brinkley]

yep a bruise or a scratch probably from tiling round someones soil pipe cant pinpoint it ,doing different jobs each week .

 

[mikethetile]

they reckon now you should wear barrier cream daily before starting work to prevent infections

some bathrooms ive worked in have been rank and you get in the van and you can still smell it as its soaked in to your trousers

 

[brinkley]

well i am very careful now but its also down to me being a ***** of the doctors

 

[White Room]

Lower back seems to be giving me a bit of grief at the moment and the shoulders but thats the plastering which I don't do alot nowadays

 

[Fekin]

you can still smell it as its soaked in to your trousers

Lovely 😛uke:

 

[Richard Edwards]

When we are working on toilet pans and pan connectors I always wear latex gloves. So do all my plumber mates . Sometimes I DOUBLE GLOVE. ! Cannot be too carefull about that.

I also start the day will a squirt of barrier cream with hand cream afterwards. I never used to bother, only I was getting big splits on my index finger and thumbs and thats where the bugs get in and its hurts like hell. Seems to have solved the problem.

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

This is music to my ears, I thought I was a wus. with my trapped nerve in my neck etc. I won't bore you with the details. My physio told me 30yrs ago I needed 2hrs traction per day. I had to buy a contraption to stretch my neck, when my boys where little they used to bring their friends to the window to see me hanging myself:lol: Still going though

 

[Richard Edwards]

Thanks Phil - :lol: You made me laugh with the story about your neck and the boys and thier friends, but I suppose there's a serious side to this business - ie looking after yourself especially as were are all in the manual wear and tear biz.
Take Care the lads

 

[Dave Ramsden]

Thanks for all the comments guys, its good to know Im not alone.
Feels like Im going to be waiting for this refferal forever and maybe arm wrestling with the lads sat night wasnt the best idea.
I seriously hope this is something that can be treated, I only know tiling and cant see myself doing anything else... fingers crossed!!

 

[faithhealer]

hey Dave, been looking at your pics, no wonder your arms ache with the size of those tiles!

 

[MTiler]

I dont have the strength of you guys and often struggle with the large formats especailly when fixing them to walls. A couple of times Ive badly strained the muscle/s in my lower right arm that i cant use it at all as its so painful. If i feel its going to happen again I'll wear a wrist strap for extra support.
Ive also had RSI in my left wrist.
All good fun!

missyT

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

where is the H&S bods now telling tile makers about weights then!!!

 

[Scott]

My turn!

I suffered majorly last year with being tired all the time not just a little bit but properly knackered! If it sat down id fall asleep. I woke up in a customers chair one lunchtime. I had real problems with muscle stamina, putting a screw into the wall with a screwdriver over head height was agony, as was leaning over the bath laying the first course of tiles and kitchen splashbacks were agony on stomach and lower back. I ached all over and getting up in the morning was a feat unto itself. A hot shower with body jets and all was about the only thing to get me moving. It started getting silly always struggling to get through the day, looking at people my age and what they were doing in their lives and working day. There was no way i could keep up with what they were doing. Im 38 by the way and i felt a lot older!

Im not one for going to the doc's until its desperate but i decided to Google my symptoms and came back with low thyroid. Doctors did a blodd test and bingo Google was right! No thyroid function at all.

I now have to take meds everyday but felt so much better stragiht away. Now though i have terrible knee pain and the backs of my upper arms are agony.

I get test results on Wed from a load of bloods i had taken last week (proper arm full it was). Fingers crossed it will be nothing and on reading the above maybe its just being back at work that has done it??

 

[ricmrc]

inflamed tendons in arms, which i get quite often, sore knees, shoulders, back, neck etc, several cuts and scars from various injuries, a few requiring a trip to the a&e, ( electrical tape and toilet paper just didnt cut it) several trips to the hospital to have eyes flushed out,
and im still under 30, so still got a few more years of injuries to suffer :lol:

 

[brinkley]

good business to get into it seems:smilewinkgrin:

 

[Fekin]

Sliced clean through my thumb tendon with a razor once, pics in my profile thingy.

 

[Richard Edwards]

Scottley

Snap - I've an under active Thyroid gland. Stable after 6 years on 150mg day. Mine problem was caused by diving in The Indian Ocean in 2004 - Maldives. Plankton buried its way through my ear drum into the middle ear and set up a tropical infection. Us Europeans are used to this and ' bang ' my auto emune system when into a frenzy and attacked my thyroid gland, mistaking it for a foreign body.

Next thing, back home and could not walk more than 100 yds without stopping for breath, I HONESTLY THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE out with the dogs up the woods. ! Could not work, kept falling asleep on the job - at my desk, in the chair, nearly fell asleep in the car and van whilst driving home. - Sound familar Scottley ?

My neck swelled up, put on about 2 stone in two weeks. When the quack,. although I guessed the problem. Emergency dose 100mg that day and tested every year now.

This is potentially very serious - If I had not gone to the quack that afternoon, he said that with my life style, physical work with lots of sport and running etc, if I had pushed myself as I do now and then, I would probably have suffered a cardiac arrest. I was only 50. Apparently, UAT is the cause of most heart failures in young men - I'm still young !

So warning to all - Scottley - Now your under control it will be fine, take care to take the tabs regularly and get your blood tested regularly until you are stable. Then its nothing much at all - live your life as normal.

By the way I still Dive - Advanced / Nitrox Qualified and Dive in the tropics at least 3 times a year - Thats what lifes about !

 

[Fekin]

Does sound bad.

 

[Scott]

Mine was at least 2 years undiagnosed. Im on 150mg a day too for now and the weight has fallen off.

I do feel like a new man since October and im now back working and also working on my house in the evenings as well and can still manage to find the energy!

IF i could just shake off the aching arms and painful knees id be sorted!

 

[Dave Ramsden]

Theres me worrying about a bit of arm ache... I dont dare go back to work now lads!

 

[Scott]

Theres me worrying about a bit of arm ache... I dont dare go back to work now lads!

Can you still do this Dave? :8: Thats the important one!

Never mind this one though :hurray: far too strenous

 

[Dave Ramsden]

Just been back to the quaks and been referred to the 2nd specialist who will apparently inject, educate and exercise me and if that fails Im down for some serious surgery that may or may not fix the problem.