This week's entry is not a saying and is deadly serious. Maybe it should have it's own thread. What do you say, Moderator?
A mate of mine is 78 years old and lives on a couple of acres of industrial land in a smallish country town. He makes a modest living by being paid to have stock feed silos on the land and cooking breakfast for drivers who have arrived at odd times of the night. He hooks up the auger and loads the truck and when a delivery arrives, he does the same to unload it.
Recently, he drove one of his restored but unregistered trucks onto a low-loader to be taken to a truck show. Unfortunately, as he was getting out of the cab, he lost his footing and fell on his back on the ground. Doctors told him he had not broken any bones, and when the bruising went down he would be OK.
The pain lessened but was still there and he was told the xrays showed he had no damage. In response to his question, he was told that if he had broken his hip, he would definately not be able to walk.
After four weeks, the pain was getting worse and Doctors looked at the xrays again and hold him he had a crack in his hip/pelvis joint. The operated and replaced his hip with an artificial one. After two days at home, he went to stand up out of a chair and dislocated the hip. Another Ambulance trip to hospital, where they put his hip joint back in. Next day, while still in hospital, it dislocated again. In total, it dislocated four times. Each time, causing him terrible pain.
The Surgeon came up to him and apologised, saying "We have put the wrong hip joint in you, we assumed that at your age, you lived in a Nursing Home and sat in a chair all day and did nothing. We knew nothing about Silos or restoring trucks"
He then had to have another operation to take the first hip joint out and put another one in. He is now well on the way to recovery.
The moral of the (true) story is that if you have to have a major medical procedure, make sure the senior staff know you are active, fit (as fit as can be expected) AND YOU ARE NOT A VEGETABLE.
I have my shoulder to the wheel,
my nose to the grindstone,
I've put my best foot forward,
I've put my back into it,
I'm gritting my teeth,
Now I find I can't do any work in this position!