-=> CHARLES ANGELICH wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-
 
 WC> and stainless steel pinch rollers. My fingernail was driven
 WC> along the bone to just about the first joint where I
 WC> removed it with cheap loose pliers on something like the
 WC> fifth attempt to grasp the nail. Then I went to my
 WC> supervisior to get soome peroxide to pour over the wound.
 WC> This happened first thing in the morning and I finished the
 WC> day though it was a major owie when that finger touched the
 WC> frame of the press while adjusting various settings
 WC> throughout the day.

 CA> I think that would've scared me so badly I would've had to go
 CA> home and sleep it off.

 I barely paid it any attention. I used to have an incredibly
 high tolerance for pain, that however has changed with the
 severe injuries that left me crippled.
 Gradually my stamina failed on me over the last 6 
 years.

 CA> It's unfortunate how many of us were raised to be good soldiers
 CA> and continue as though nothing has happened when we are badly
 CA> injured. 
 
Only time I bailed on work was from an injury I reported likely 
to happen two weeks before it happened due to an insanely dangerous 
arrangement at a loading dock. I would have stayed and 
shaken off the concussion but for the gaping hole in my head 
gushing blood from hitting the overhead support post
at the front right of the forklift.
A forklift moving at a fair rate of speed is not a good thing to have
stop in about an inch. 
The trailer I was loading actually moved forward.
See those locks extending below the dock plate had broken off
and instead of inert gas welding them back on they merely drilled
it attaching with carriage bolts and washers on top.
A central trailer rode so high on the dock one had to
hit the dock plate fast and let it slow to keep the plate from
falling off the trailer. Worked fine for a year until two weeks after
that fubar repair caught the left fork on entry and the damned
carriage bolt did not shear :-(
Had to have some stitches on that one and it's a good thing
I'd covered my ?ss a couple weeks before by reporting it.
The owner was on his way down to tell my boss to fire me,
typical practice for this company when intercepting him I
rattled off a list off people I'd reported the safety problem to
as soon as I saw that mess.
I _was_ a good soldier as by merely taking a picture of that dock 
plate and my forehead I could have sued the company.
They even left the evidence around for a couple of
weeks before it vanished. That one could have killed me.

 CA> My first AMI was at work and I stayed there and
 CA> finished my shift. 
 
AMI? Some kind of myocardial infarction? Atrial?
That was not a good idea as beta blockers can limit damage 
to the heart if administered promptly.

 CA> Seems a bit insane to me now that I did that
 CA> but the really weird thing is a younger man working next to me
 CA> was having chest pains at the same time and he stayed and
 CA> finished his shift too.

 Ah the good old days when young and thought ourselves indestructable...
 
 CA> We each deserve the same care and consideration we would show
 CA> to our pets, our friends, and our family. 
 
I'm on SSDI and my dogs been to the vet 3 times
in four months over a problem similar to mine in type but far 
lessor in magnitude and scope, this on an SSDI income!
When the dog gets to the point he's in a third of the pain
I was in on my best day last year I'll have him put to sleep.
Last time I saw a doctor was in 1995.

 CA> It was a mistake to
 CA> treat myself with such disregard. I would've never treated
 CA> another living soul that badly.

I agree especially given the nature of the illness
you recount. I've had some angina but taken steps to limit 
physical and psychological stress as well as attuned myself to 
my respiration rate. No attacks in a year though I may have 
aborted one last week by feeling what felt like first onset 
took a bunch of short rapid breaths.
Back when I was having them regular it was a hell of a way to
wake up!

 WC> OH yeah, this system I thought I'd fixed is evidencing
 WC> problems again and actually may never have stopped having
 WC> them but the problems of a hang or crash with Win 3.1 are
 WC> less severe than with Win 98 so I've managed to work around
 WC> it. Gotta try putting in a different hard drive ribbon
 WC> cable as that's free but fear it may be the H.P.'s on
 WC> motherboard board I/O :-( Those are about the only things
 WC> left it could be. Then again the Seagate drive I put in
 WC> there is ten years old... Two failed drives in a row? Glad
 WC> I kept the 6.4 Gig Quantum drive as it's possible it's good.

 CA> If you can detail just what is happening to you and when (after
 CA> a 'clean' boot with the machine turned off/on or 'other' etc.)
 CA> something may click here. 

It's some kind of weird problem where the operating system is 
not found on boot. I've seen error messages "No operating system found."
Another error message I've seen is "disk timeout error"
and all the power saving features are turned off in CMOS.
One time on boot the CMOS settings for the C drive had 
mysteriously vanished and I had to re-enter the values
manually as "auto" did not identify the drive as it had before.
It's an intermittent sort of thing, worst kind of problem to diagnose.
I changed the first listed boot drive to A: with C coming second
just in case.
I've also seen "error 200 hard disk failure" _one_ time
but this is the second drive to indicate similar problems so
i'm guessing maybe onboard I/O controller failure? 

 CA> http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/dos/w31_cfg2.htm

I'll save this URL and snag it.
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