Life After The Army » Health

Worker’s Comp Claim

Charlotte — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:53:41 +0000

First a little background info.

In May 2001 I was working as a Unit Secretary at a nursing home. One of our residents stood up out of his wheel chair and I tried to get him to sit back down (no nurses or CNA’s were around at the time). He didn’t want to sit back down (he couldn’t walk and fell frequently). I pulled him one way.. he pulled the other and I felt and heard a “pop” in my back.. but got him to sit. I also felt pain in my lower back and numbness down my right leg. I reported it but never went to the doctor. I left that job 2 weeks later. The pain and numbness continued and in June of 2001 it got really bad that I went to the doctor. He told me it was work related and to go back to the nursing home and get them to approve a visit with their doctor. I did that and went to their doctor, had xrays and a MRI done. The MRI showed a herniated disc. They referred me to their orthopedic doctor and he recommended a discectomy. Then all hell broke loose. The nursing home’s insurance company refused to pay for anything because they decided I did something “after” I left my job. So… I took my happy ass to a lawyer and went thru 2 years of pain and hell but got the insurance company to pay for everything. I had the surgery in August 2003, got a nice little settlement and worker’s comp payments every week. I went to court for the final in November 2003 and was to continue receiving payments for 2 years and had the right to reopen within 2 years if necessary. I was to receive 27 1/2% partial permant disability benefits. A few months later the pain and numbness worsened. The case was reopened and I went again to their orthopedic doctor… had another MRI and lo and behold the same disc had reherniated. He suggested spinal fusion surgery. It took them awhile to approve it all but I had spinal fusion surgery in August 2005. Now it’s time to finalize everything again.

I got a letter from my lawyer today. He and the worker’s comp lawyer had a conference with the judge. After reviewing all the doctor reports from my doctors, the lawyers doctor, workers comp doctor the judge decided that I’m to receive 50% partial permanent disability benefits! I’ll get a nice little chunk of change minus my part of the lawyer’s fee and an overpayment the insurance co made. I’ll still be getting over 30 grand! This will help so much until I’m able to find another job or get called back to this one. Between this and unemployment… I should be in good shape!!

Finally… something is going my way

I still have pain sometimes and I cannot sit or stand for any length of time. I get leg cramps often. But I will not have surgery again. I will just have to deal with it the way it is.

Not what I need to deal with right now…

Charlotte — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 19:31:16 +0000

Hubby decided that we needed to discuss what to do in case his procedure tomorrow goes wrong and he dies. This is not what I need to think about right now. We went over his life insurance, his wishes about what to do with the camper, his truck, his boat, tools, etc. I know things will be fine. He’s having a stent put in the vein/artery in his leg. He will be awake and have a local anesthetic.

Now I’m just feeling really anxious and a bit down in the dumps. *sigh*

It didn’t go well

Charlotte — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 14:40:59 +0000

Hubby had the surgery to place the stents. They got one in the one leg ok, but they were unable to get the one in the other leg. Now they will have to do bypass surgery. He will be in the hospital overnight. They will have to schedule an appointment with a cardiac doctor to do an angiogram to make sure his heart will survive major surgery. Then they will schedule the bypass. He will have to be out of work for a month to 6 weeks.

I just had a bad feeling something went wrong. This procedure was only supposed to take 20 minutes and it took over an hour.

He’s home

Charlotte — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:44:48 +0000

Hubby is home He has to rest for the rest of the day and has to call to make an appoinment with the doctor to discuss when they will do the bypass. He had an echocardiogram before he left the hospital but we don’t know the results of that yet. I’m guessing it was pretty much ok since they let him go. Now I can relax until the next hospital trip.

Ahhh…

Charlotte — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:24:32 +0000

I’m loving my new home here I've uploaded a crapload of themes, so my blog may be changing from time to time.

Thanks to Mr Fabulous I now have collapsing & expanding links in my sidebar. See the little + over there? Click on them and they will open up and you can see the content hidden there. I just love that! It makes the sidebar nice and neat. I got the script at Flooble.com.

For anyone who was wondering, hubby is doing pretty good. The echocardiogram he had before he was discharged the other day came back fantastic! There are no signs of blockage in his heart. All the valves are working fine! He has to make an appointment to have a chemical stress test. This makes me a little nervous. But I'm sure he'll be fine. After he has that then they will schedule the bypass.

Waiting on hubby’s surgery

Charlotte — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:21:14 +0000

We are waiting for hubby’s surgery to be scheduled. He went and had a cardiac test done and the doctor told him that he will have a 90 percent chance of coming through the surgery ok.

The surgery will probably be scheduled after Andi goes back to Iraq after her R&R. That will be after the middle of March. He is very worried about this. We all are.

What happened?

Charlotte — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 10:54:00 +0000

I woke up yesterday morning just before 2 am and got very sick. 2 hours later Andi did the same thing. We were both kept busy in the bathroom most of the day. It wasn’t something we ate for dinner, we both had entirely different things.

I woke up this morning feeling so much better. My back hurts but I think thats from laying around all day yesterday. I don’t know how Andi is because she’s still asleep, but when I went to bed last night she was starting to get hungry. My tummy is growling right now.

PAD

Charlotte — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:29:05 +0000

Hubby has PAD (Peripheral Artery Disease) in his legs. On Wednesday he goes in to have bypass surgery for it. He is now taking about 3 different medications for this and medication to stop smoking. This is a man who would never even take anything for a headache unless it was really bad. Now he has to take this stuff every day for the rest of his life.

The tests he had to make sure his heart could stand the surgery came back good. He has a 95% survival rate.

So I will not be around most of Wednesday but I will post an update when I do get home from the hospital.

Please keep him in your thoughts! Thanks.

To be Rescheduled

Charlotte — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 12:50:20 +0000

Well… hubby’s surgery has to be rescheduled. They forgot to tell him not to take his Plavix…. so we wait again!

We have a new date

Charlotte — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:21:33 +0000

We have a new date for hubby’s surgery. It’s been scheduled for Tuesday. Hubby hasn’t taken his Plavix since this past Tuesday. He has to be off of it for 5 days before the surgery, so he should be good to go.

If they had done the surgery he probably would have bled to death on the table.