A broken pelvis is the last thing I needed!

Just home from the hospital yesterday (July 17) after going off the roof on July 6th and smashing my left pelvis. They say I will be off for 6 months. Seeing that I'm now 55 years old and this happening maybe I should just quit this game. What would you do in a situation like this? :(>>>

Probably the last one to speak since I'm not a roofer but been known to associate with a few...first, sorry to hear and also glad your home and you will be sound someday. This doesn't mean an end, it means a change. Since you will be layed up for a while, time for thought. No throwing in the towel allowed. Hey, I got you beat in years by a little, set backs have been my specialty lately. So your name is not true, you thought you seen it all. Open the eyes, there is always more, the sky gets dark but eventually the sun will shine.

Get yourself better first, most important. Respectfully, PC>>>

Way sorry to hear about your bad break! I hope the healing progresses quickly and painlessly. 6 months is a long time. Do you have a trusted employee that can step up to take over while you are laid up? It would not be easy but were I in the same situation I would have to put my foreman in charge of things and assist as much as I possibly could. You will need to have him out calling on potential customers, measuring jobs and taking lots of pictures so that you could maybe still do the estimating and then have him, or someone with some experience, try to do the selling. This will be a major hurdle for sure but I would have no better options than to try to keep my business alive. I know you were always hands on and are probably the best roofer in the company but how many employees were you running? Is there another roofer in the area that you have worked wih in the past that could help out, maybe take over your leads and give you a cut on whatever work he can sell? In my case I would have to keep the business alive some how because I have never found a good alternative employment opportunity to pay the bills and I sure as heck couldn't retire. I know that Kage and a couple of other posters are in your area. Maybe you get them to help out. Hang in there Seen-It-All, I'm sure all of us here would be willing to help out with moral support. I wish I could come out and lend a hand but that's not real practical. Maybe one of the posters here that are slow could come out and help. Keep us posted on how things are going.>>>

PC I hope by " no throwing in the towel allowed " you didn't mean stop roofing That is the first thing IMO should be done . There are a few niche areas in the roofing business model that most don't think of. I would go there . My advice " GET OFF THE ROOF " You still have time to change . It is like trying to stop smoking . When you find yourself near the ladder walk away . Now is your opportunity if you have set yourself up go for it . If you haven't do it now. Roofing is not for the damaged ." You are damaged . " Think of your children and family . They will want grand and or dad around .>>>

Gerry At 55 you have a wealth of experience to share so a move into management may be the way to go.>>>

I hate to see anyone not be able to determine their own terms for quitting, so I'm hoping this doesn't end up to be a career-ender for you. Myself though, I was laid up with two broken wrists and the revelations from that experience provided me with the incentive to cut way back on future exposure. In the roofing business recovery time sometimes ends up being the longest vacation time we get, I hope you are able to take advantage of it.>>>

That is going to hurt for the rest of your life. Ouch!>>>

Thank you all for your encouraging remarks and advise. At the time of my accident I had one fellow in training (has been with me about a year) plus 2 labourers. There is no one to really take charge and work solo to keep things going. My oldest son offered to ask for a leave of absence at his employer but I told him his electrician career was more important than trying to hold things together on my end.

I have cancelled all upcoming contracts with people and will let them find someone else to do their work. I was reluctant to recommend anyone because if the job went sideways I would feel some what responsible.

I have somewhat determined that this may be the end of the road as I already suffer from previous injuries (2 broken heels in 1991, broken right ankle in 1992, 5 ribs and punctured lung in 1993 plus other breaks in my younger years being a foot and a kneecap)

I also have a torn rotator muscle in my left shoulder plus numbness in the side of my left hand and two fingers from the latest fall. It is suprising how much damage you can do in a fall of less than 8 feet.>>>

One of the hardest thing for a good craftsman to do is to let go of the hands-on production and change to trainer/coach/mentor. And yet, if this transition is successful, you have the benefit of years of experience and knowledge being applied through hands that are fresh and eyes that are not jaded. So why don't more people succeed? Because it's very hard to make the mental change. For instance:

- As a craftsman, you set the standard, and then achieved it, through skill, determination and hard work. To get another person to achieve the same standard requires a lot of patience, guidance, encouragement, ability to read moods and empathy. Oh, and it helps to have a indestructible tongue as you'll be biting it all the time, refraining from telling your charge how YOU would do the same detail. He/she aren't you, and their strenghts and weaknesses are not yours, so they have to find their own way to get to the same place.

- As a craftsman, you make an almost infinite number of adjustments during the course of the work, from the initial conception, to the final result. And you do it almost automatically, with very few issues rising to a level of consiousness where you are aware you're solving a problem. However, unless you've mastered the Vulcan mind-meld, you can't micromanage your worker/trainee. So now you have to master a different way of adjusting to the usual deviations from the expected, through goal-setting, inspection of interm results, discussion of why this or that would not work, discussion of how to correct it... yada, yada, yada. Man, it's taking forever to do a simple (to you) thing. And yet, this is the training/mentoring/coaching approach which allows you to invest the worker with the knowledge and insight to get things done correctly.

- As a craftsman, you're used to balancing technical details, vs. esthetic, vs. budget, vs. schedule. Heck, you can do it with your eyes closed! And yet, the promising worker(s) you have recruited don't have the benefit of your years of experience and knowledge to make those decisions correctly most of the time. So again, you have to monitor what's going on and pull them back when you see them doing the things wrong, without, at the same time micromanaging them so that they give up doing things on their own initiative, and wait for you to bark the command.

I've got a senior installer who's exactly in this position. His knees are shot, and he already had open-heart surgery. Yet he cannot let go of the hammer/tools. I know he is capable of training, as he has done an excellent job with several workers (one of which already is the head of another crew), but only when he's in the mood. So we do this dance when he comes to see me to tell me that he can't continue on the roof, and then we work out a plan so that he can follow his two or three most senior guys to ensure that they can do the work he has done, and then a few days later I would go on the job site and he's up there again, hammer and snips in hand. I ask him why and he usually tells me that he watched them struggle with this really simple detail, and he just got frustrated and decided to "get it done". And I go back to teaching him how to be a trainer/mentor/coach. It's not that he will lose his job (he knows that I need his skills in a number of areas), but he really has a hard time letting go of the "doing" end. Sigh. :(>>>

Sorry to hear. Sometimes things are ripped out of our lives to make room for something bigger. I hope it turns out to be the case here.>>>

There is roofer here in my town that's done a lot of work for me. He fell 33' onto concrete, head first. It's a miracle he lived. I forget the bone count that was broken, but he was given no chance of a significant physical recovery, nor restoration of full brain function. That was about 10 years ago and he's working today like nothing ever happened, and today he's in his mid sixties. I know he's a miracle, but maybe it offers some hope.

I'm glad you survived, and whatever the recovery involves, one thing I know all good roofers do well......................... adjust.>>>

What a bummer! Sorry to hear it. Don't let it get you down. Wether or not you keep roofing, you can recover very well and keep on getting it! Just hang in there and do your therapy. Call sometime if you want. Anytime if you're a verizon cell user.>>>

I was just wondering what had become of seen-it-all and this is exactly not what I had in mind.

Knew a GC who had a bachelor's in math but like many of us in the seventies wound up staking his lot in the trades. He was not a great builder, was not particularly good at managing people in the trades, not bad but just not great. Tried to tarp up a little shed roof in the rain one night, slipped on the visqueen in the dark and destroyed his pelvis. Was laid up for months in a full body cast, thinking about how he could get a handle on his accounting practices and job-costing. Started programming with a friend of his who was there during the dawn of the computer age, formed up a company, copyrighted his software, cobbled together sales, revision after revision, and after a good long while sold it to a major software firm for millions. He's now growing vegetables and running a restaurant.

Each of us has to grapple with the life God gave us to work with. It is a gift, not a burden. Even in times of crisis, every day is a gift. Winning & losing, succeeding & failing, persisting in the same direction or striking off in a different one, these things are all illusory. How you feel about your life is all that matters. No one has the right to judge from outside the personal rectitude of a decision made from inside. The real opportunity is to open up to all the questions we generally keep strictly in check while we are moving jobs.

One way or another and with everything we have going for us in our lives, it always comes down to use it or lose it. Nothing wrong with losing it. Unless in some way losing any particular "it" pierces your core. Everybody can have an opinion and back it up with recitations of perfectly valid reasoning, but in the end, we alone are fit to assess what impact the loss will have on us.

Therefore, I offer no opinion. I do offer my intense sympathy and best wishes, in spades.

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I am so sorry to hear that you are down. Broken bones are no fun but a broken pelvis is miserable. You have a long time ahead of you to think about what you are going to do once you heal. Only you can decide if getting away from roofing is the right thing or if it is your siren song that keeps calling you back. Don't make yourself crazy thinking about it right now. Take the time you need to heal and you will have plenty of time to decide what life holds in store for you. My prayers for a speedy recovery!>>>

egg When I first read your reply I agreed on the surface. As the impact of what it is that reply implies . I have to respectfully disagree. I have had in a very short but major decision period of my life advise that was of similar value. The intention was genuine and meant well . Unfortunately it was very self centered and most often offered with the caveat " I offer no opinion " I'll quote Robert C Byrd............ “One's family is the most important thing in life. I look at it this way: One of these days I'll be over in a hospital somewhere with four walls around me. And the only people who'll be with me will be my family.”....... Family is centered around mutual and self sacrifice + lots and lots of work . I respect your replies and post . Importantly , most of your replies are well written and thought out . On this one however , unless I've misunderstood , I have to strongly disagree.>>>

I fell at 20 and broke my pelvis in half and unknown at the time two vertebra in my back. at 50 I still have pain in the pelvis area and chronic back pain. With my recent biceps tendon brake I'm looking to get out of the roofing business all together my self. It going to mean some major changes in my way of doing things but in the long run it will be the best decision I could make>>>