i work with a good crew of guys. small. ranging from 3-7 people. they tease me constantly, which sometimes is annoying, and sometimes just plain goofy, but it is typically the way things go for apprentices. in the world of construction, nicknames run rampant. i've worked with No Vise and Playa on my current job. i made the mistake of saying that nicknames never stick to me and one of the guys made it his mission to find the perfect name. i have an old ratty hoodie from my college days that i wear when i'm working on grungy tasks. usually this means cleaning my bathroom, but sometimes i wear it to work. it has a huge cincinnati decal with an embroidered "bearcat" below the decal. the guys latched on and now they call me bearcat, which of course is madly funny because i am the smallest person on the crew making me the least intimidating person. it's endless amusement for them.
"watch out! bearcat's getting into the panel! she'll rip it up!"
one of their favorites is to talk about what it would be like to get a call to report to a job and the contact name you have for the foreman is "bearcat". they would get there and i would walk out. commence belly-laughing. it's also immensely amusing to them that i cook all the time and bring in delicious food to eat for lunch. most guys eat a pb&j sandwich or a microwave meal. i take the time on sun nights to plan out my meals for the week. i like trying new recipes and eat a lot of veggies, so my lunches are extremely diverse.
"katie you should get your own show. cooking with bearcat! we could come and sit in the audience and yell bearcat. but you'll have gotten so big you'd probably kick us out."
the guys have constructed a whole life for me surrounding this nickname. when i started going back to the gym regularly, one of the guys comments that i'm going to get ripped. this lead to a constructed scenario of me posing for swimsuit illustrated wearing a hard hat, holding a pie in one hand and a drill in the other with the title "bearcat!" splashed across the front. they have even got the foreman calling me bearcat. it's definitely an official nickname. so much for not sticking.
a couple of weeks ago the foreman lent me out to another job to help them meet a deadline. i got there and the foreman showed me what he needed and walked away. there wasn't an orientation to the site or any guidance for what he wanted. if i were a journeyman this would be a normal occurrence, but i am a baby apprentice and really should be working closely with a journeyman. i decided that i would just push through and figure it out. i asked questions where i needed to and pushed my comfort zone. in reality, the work wasn't crazy hard, i just had never done it before and so there was a small amount of nervousness in my stomach the whole time. the tool that scares me the most of the job is the sawzall (picture shown is not what i normally do with a sawzall...). it can jump around a lot when cutting through pipe and your hands are always close trying to hold the pipe and sawzall steady. i struggle with the strength to hold it steady. but on this day i pushed myself and rocked it.
but things do not always go so well with all the tools. about 4 hours into the job i was mounting metal junction boxes in a framed metal stud wall. i was on a ladder trying to screw the box through the side from the left. first i tried holding the drill with my right hand but couldn't get the leverage to get the screw started so i moved it to my left hand and held the box steady against the stud with my right. while going full speed ahead the drill came in contact with the glove (kevlar gloves to keep from cutting yourself on the metal parts. my company has a 100% glove policy) on the back of my right hand and sucked it in taking my fingers with it in a clockwise motion. i screamed at the top of my lungs and when all the guys on the job site came running they found me standing on a ladder with a drill in my left hand and a mangled mess of a glove that should have been my right hand wrapped around the drill. i was freaked that my fingers were a mess inside the glove. i couldn't feel anything nor could i make out a definable shape of a hand so i was sure that i would find something horrible. after the journeyman unwrapped my glove from the drill, i turned around and pulled it off. to my surprise my fingers were intact however they were bent back farther than i can take them normally.
from there the workman's comp/safety person took over. i had xrays and spent hours in urgent care. as the adrenaline wore off i began to freak out. i kept picturing the glove/drill/mangled mess. i can't remember exactly what happened at the very moment the drill caught the glove, but shudder when i hypothesize. i run it in slow motion through my head. i waited for at least an hour for the doctor in a little room by myself and had nothing to distract my horrible thoughts (why do they never have magazines in those little rooms when you need one). by the time the doctor got there i began instantly sobbing while telling her what happened. i couldn't get the details out of my mouth. this was my moment of panic and i thank god that i didn't have it on the job site with a crew of guys i don't know.
my hand had swelled like a balloon instantly, but the middle and ring finger on my right hand were definitely in worse shape than the others. the diagnosis was two hyper-extended fingers. they mentioned something looked suspicious on the xray, but after a second opinion, they concluded nothing was broken. they threw a splint on it told me to take some advil and ice it and sent me home.
fast forward to now. the accident was investigated and i was found to have been doing everything right. it was freak accident. i've been working like usual and really the pain in my fingers isn't that bad unless i bend them back at all. by wed i made the decision at my boss's urging to see another doctor because even though they look better the swelling hasn't gone down and i can't straighten my fingers. after another set of xrays the doctor came in to tell me that my fingers are indeed broken. i broke the bone on the underside of the knuckle where the tendon attaches. just when i'd started to feel better about the accident i was thrown right back into a scary place. hand therapy here i come. hopefully from here everything will work out ok.
overall, i feel lucky. i did not lose a finger. my company has been extremely helpful. my boss has been super supportive. and i got a new doctor who saw what could have been a crippling condition and jumped at getting me help. the pain has been minimal (so far....enter hand therapy) and i can still do most things normally. it's actually going to be difficult for me to slow down a bit and let it heal.
my regular crew was so upset about my accident; there's nothing worse than a bearcat with a mangled claw.
