Also known as the School of Hard Knocks.
Lessee, a few.....
1) Rotating machinery is flat out dangerous. Keep hands, feet and all loose clothing inside the ride at all times.
2) Never walk under anything that's being lifted or suspended.
3) This one is gonna be a bit more grounded: Take care of yourself, ain't nobody else gonna do that for you.
So, in regards to #3.... when I was welding up my monster smoker, I was working by myself in a hot garage (ambient temps of 80+, higher close to hot steel,) and took almost a month. I lost 25 lbs. in about 4 weeks. Part of the reason behind losing so much weight is that I'm a Type 2D diabetic, diagnosed at 35. I am insulin dependent now, but in contrast to most Type 2 diabetics, I'm just not producing, I can utilize what I have and what I inject. One of the hallmarks of this particular condition is a relatively speaking easy weight loss. Back to the story.... After I was done welding and fabricating, I smoked a single pork tenderloin, then winched it up onto my 18' flat bed trailer and hauled it 600 miles east to smoke food for my brother's surprise birthday party (which was a hit, BTW.) Something else about diabetes: exercise can drastically affect insulin utilization. Did I mention I'd been working hard on this thing for a month? Yeah, my insulin utilization was pretty darned good. And at dinner with the family a couple of days later, I didn't budget right for dinner, just didn't eat enough carbohydrates, and effectively took far too much insulin.
My g/f & I were staying in a vacation rental (owned by someone I went to high school with) along with my oldest sister, and my little sister with her family. I went to bed early, my g/f came in an hour or an hour and a half later, only to find that I'd started to curl into a fetal position, was quite unresponsive, and had very labored breathing. In spite of being a professional blood banker with a med tech background, and having watched me with my blood glucose meter for nearly 20 years, she just could not get it to work (and got my blood all over.) She squawked for my sister, said she was calling 911. This house is out in the middle of nowhere, I think the nearest street light was several miles away, and there was no way the ambulance crew would find this place in the dark without assistance. My sister got in her car, and parked it with the headlights shining on the road. The first responder was also someone I went to high school with, got my meter to work, and measured my blood glucose at 28 (US scale.) This level is considered to be immediately life threatening. His crew was horsing a 1 ton ambulance something like 12 miles down twisting turning country road with a response time of around 15 minutes, which is just absolutely freakin' AWESOME. They jacked an I/V into me, and push 15 grams of glucose. It was like flipping a switch, and I came to. "What the hell are all you people doing in my bedroom????"
I declined transport, did continue to support my glucose levels, called my clinic the following morning, and was told that I'd done just about all that I could do. Slight side note, by that point, I had already self-recovered from a blood sugar crash down into the upper 30s. That, by itself, is still a concern, oddly enough, I generally tend to wake up when my blood sugar drops through the 60s into the 50s. Still, absolutely nothing I care to repeat.
I did stop by the ambulance barn a couple of days later, to check that they had all the paperwork they needed, as well as to let them know that everything was fine with me. I guess that I really shouldn't be too surprised that nearly none of their patients ever come back with feedback.
Since then, while I still do have the occasional drop, I've never gone below about 60 or so since (knocks wood.)
What do ya'll have for things learned the hard way?
Lessee, a few.....
1) Rotating machinery is flat out dangerous. Keep hands, feet and all loose clothing inside the ride at all times.
2) Never walk under anything that's being lifted or suspended.
3) This one is gonna be a bit more grounded: Take care of yourself, ain't nobody else gonna do that for you.
So, in regards to #3.... when I was welding up my monster smoker, I was working by myself in a hot garage (ambient temps of 80+, higher close to hot steel,) and took almost a month. I lost 25 lbs. in about 4 weeks. Part of the reason behind losing so much weight is that I'm a Type 2D diabetic, diagnosed at 35. I am insulin dependent now, but in contrast to most Type 2 diabetics, I'm just not producing, I can utilize what I have and what I inject. One of the hallmarks of this particular condition is a relatively speaking easy weight loss. Back to the story.... After I was done welding and fabricating, I smoked a single pork tenderloin, then winched it up onto my 18' flat bed trailer and hauled it 600 miles east to smoke food for my brother's surprise birthday party (which was a hit, BTW.) Something else about diabetes: exercise can drastically affect insulin utilization. Did I mention I'd been working hard on this thing for a month? Yeah, my insulin utilization was pretty darned good. And at dinner with the family a couple of days later, I didn't budget right for dinner, just didn't eat enough carbohydrates, and effectively took far too much insulin.
My g/f & I were staying in a vacation rental (owned by someone I went to high school with) along with my oldest sister, and my little sister with her family. I went to bed early, my g/f came in an hour or an hour and a half later, only to find that I'd started to curl into a fetal position, was quite unresponsive, and had very labored breathing. In spite of being a professional blood banker with a med tech background, and having watched me with my blood glucose meter for nearly 20 years, she just could not get it to work (and got my blood all over.) She squawked for my sister, said she was calling 911. This house is out in the middle of nowhere, I think the nearest street light was several miles away, and there was no way the ambulance crew would find this place in the dark without assistance. My sister got in her car, and parked it with the headlights shining on the road. The first responder was also someone I went to high school with, got my meter to work, and measured my blood glucose at 28 (US scale.) This level is considered to be immediately life threatening. His crew was horsing a 1 ton ambulance something like 12 miles down twisting turning country road with a response time of around 15 minutes, which is just absolutely freakin' AWESOME. They jacked an I/V into me, and push 15 grams of glucose. It was like flipping a switch, and I came to. "What the hell are all you people doing in my bedroom????"
I declined transport, did continue to support my glucose levels, called my clinic the following morning, and was told that I'd done just about all that I could do. Slight side note, by that point, I had already self-recovered from a blood sugar crash down into the upper 30s. That, by itself, is still a concern, oddly enough, I generally tend to wake up when my blood sugar drops through the 60s into the 50s. Still, absolutely nothing I care to repeat.
I did stop by the ambulance barn a couple of days later, to check that they had all the paperwork they needed, as well as to let them know that everything was fine with me. I guess that I really shouldn't be too surprised that nearly none of their patients ever come back with feedback.
Since then, while I still do have the occasional drop, I've never gone below about 60 or so since (knocks wood.)
What do ya'll have for things learned the hard way?
