Last night was a night to forget...and hope it never returns.
As the Sun set, so did a great weight sit on my chest...in short, I was unable to take a full proper breath until mid morning today.
The THREE days of work in North Dakota was performed in a near continuous cloud of construction dust...wood. paint, cement, and dirt tracked inside. I requested permission to spray a water mist or sweeping compound, but was denied...resulting in my lungs filling with dust...YES, I SHOULD HAVE USED A FACE FILTER, BUT DID NOT.
The first two days working in Bellingham was spent in an enclosed room folding thousands of corrugated "fish" boxes. Turns out corrugated boxes also create substantial "dust" also. Naturally, face masks were not available - althouge Hair and Beard "nets" were issued to all of the 30 something folks working along side me.
Yesterday offered the opportunity to work in a different Company, performing "warehouse" work...something I have done since age 9. Arriving at the work site, discovered the task to be joining a "production line" assembling steel cable ANCHORS ( for bridges, tunnels, buildings, etc) requiring precision and extreme high quality; steel cables inserted into plastic pipe shrouds, adding fittings, bundling 30 - 50 foot lengths of pipe-shrouded cables into groups of 4 or more cables...then feeding the cable assemblies onto a cable "coiler".
Each step of the process utilized "hay wire" fasteners applied with a "spinning" hand held hook, causing the hay wire to twist tightly around the cable bundle assemblies.
I failed in this work...primarily because I did not grasp the dexterity of the spinning hook...and the rapidity of the production line. I was given NO instruction...told to join in...which I did at every work station...to be overwhelmed by the speed of the work...and the limited physical work spaces.
For the first time in my life, I was released early...and NOT invited to return.
Back to breathing, I slept not one minute all night...unable to take even a 1/2 breath...fearing the next breath might not come at all.
I have analyzed the progression leading to my near suffocation, thusly:
My lungs became saturated with construction and corrugated box "dust"; Sinus fluids drained down the back of my throat into my lungs (a common occurrence) mixing the dust into a pasty gruel which literally became a PLUG, cutting off my breath - both inhale and exhale.
In addition, the damage received to my KIDNEY during the recent bus ride - being squished by grossly oversize ladies into the seat arm rests, resulted in intense pain...pain released by trips to the toilet every 10 minutes ALL NIGHT LONG.
I was pleased to get my breath back around noon today...and no need to pee for the last many hours.
Today, I have slept comfortably nearly 7 hours. Tomorrow night, I am back on the "fish" crew...from 6:00 pm 'til 4:00 am, this time, hopefully PACKING Salmon instead of handling the corrugated boxes .
My "employer" is COMMAND CENTER, INC. with temporary employment on a day-to-day basis - with $$ paid at the end of each day -. With employment offices in over 60 cities / towns nationwide. Phone #: 1-866-464-5844.
Left leg tendon is still swollen and tender. No possibility to walk any distances on it for a while yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment