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.