work injury is on my black list now

[katt]

so right around halloween i injured my neck. went to my doctor and was on vicoden and muscle relaxors for the rest of the week. well, it never fully healed, but it was getting better. yesterday i was training on a new job in veggie prep and used the heck out of my left arm. got out of work and realized just how bad it was feeling.

so i kept myself on motrien all night long and stayed on the heating pad. woke up this morning and it wasn't any better. all the muscles in my neck and left sholder feel like they are all knotted up, it hurts to hold things, move my arm in anyway, even just standing there hurts.

so after talking with my mom, i decide it was high time to call work injury and get it seen. after lots of phone tag between my mom, my managers at work, and work injury i got an appointment.

the guy was a total a$$. to say the least. there i am in extrem pain, to the point i cannot even stand right (i have to hold my head ata funny angle to ease the pain a little). he is moving me around, making me flex my muscles while i am on the brink of tears. then he sits me down and tells me i just need to work through the pain. like i was making up the pain in my mind. i question if overusing it could hurt it more and he said that doing something extremly taxing like vaccuming might cause discomfort, but i should be find. i then ask him if lifting cases of pop. hauling large trays of dirty dishes, case of candy, ect would be considered 'over taxing' cause that was on my list of duties at work today. he shrugged it off, looked at me like "you just want an easy day at work, i can't see you doing the jobs you say you will be doing".

i was givin a pat on the head, no restrictions on my work, not even a script for perscription strength motrien. . .

so i get out to my car, tears streaming down my face, because after being poked and proded at and forced to use the muscels that were causing me so much pain i was feeling awfull, then added to that being told basically that my pain was nothing, something to "work through". i call my mom, she calms me down, i am now getting worried that i have to go to work and do all these things when i am hurting so bad. she tells me to go talk to stan (one of my managers).

so i go to talk to stan, i am now done crying (or so i thought) and i told him what happened. i told him that the appointment went very badly and i was feeling like crap. i asked that if he could cover me i would go home. i started crying again. he sat there reassuring me that it would be okay, told me to stop crying cause he would get upset and have to personally call this doctor up and yell at him. tells me he will work it out and to just go home for the day. i am trying to leave work (i have to walk through the kitchen to leave, past everyone) and i have tears streaming down my face, i was just so upset (all over again) that i couldn't control them. finally one of my friends that i work with pulls me aside asks what was wrong, i start really crying, so she tells me to go into the locker room so i could tell her what happened. all this time people are gathering, telling me it will be okay, don't cry, asking what is wrong.

within 10 minutes i have told my story, picked myself back up and am leaving the building. i call my mom on the way out to tell her i am going home for the day and just as i start talking to her, she tells me to hold on she has another call. beeps back to me going "i need to let you go, that was your father, apparently someone from dietary just bumped into him and told him that you where crying." my poor father, both my parents work at the hospital with me, just in different departments. so here i am still raw from crying, my mom upset with the doctor for being so dissmissive, and my father who only knows that his daughter left work so upset that she had tears in her eyes.

ahh! what a day already. i now have today and tomorrow off, and am taking it easy. if i don't start to feel better by tomorrow, then i am calling the doctor back up and telling him my "just working through it" isn't working. other then that i have an appointment in 1 week to fallow up, and i really don't want to see him again.

 

[Bassetluv]

Oh wow Katt, I'm so sorry to hear that! It's terrible to be in pain and not be able to get the relief you need. And the big irony is that you work in a hospital! :shock:Is there any way to see another doctor, other than the first guy you saw, or is he specifically assigned to employees' cases? That really sucks! Thing is too...one person's pain isn't necessarily another's, so two different people could have the same injury but one could be suffering much more than the other. Pain threshholds vary so greatly...all doctors should be respective of what the patient is telling them. Can you go to a clinic and get another opinion?

Afraid I once felt like killing a doctor when I was in pain. I had just finished radiation/chemo treatments to my head/neck/throat area and was at the peak of side effects (coughing up blood, couldn't eat, couldn't talk, extreme pain). They had me on Tylenol 3's I think it was (whatever the strongest one is) along with liquid morphine...but right at the peak of the side effects, I ran out of both meds. I called the hosp. and the dr on call told me to go to the nearest clinic with the empty prescription bottles, explain to the dr there that I needed refills, and they would do it. Well, I walked in, waited almost an hour, then when the dr finally came in to see me I tried to explain it all to him, but could barely talk. He looked at me (after getting me to explain things 3 times...very difficult for me to do!), at the empty bottles, and said, "I can't give you any refills, these are narcotics. You could get addicted to them".

I swear to you, I almost grabbed his stethoscope and twisted it around his neck! (Well, the visual was certainly there in my mind.) I think sometimes doctors just don't think...or don't realize what it's like to be in severe pain and having someone refuse to help. :?

I hope you're able to at least get more pain meds to get you through this Katt...and a reprieve from having to aggravate your neck even more by lifting heavy things. Big hugs going your way...I know it won't help with the pain, but I do feel terribly for you...get better soon...

:hug1

 

[Flashy]

I'm sorry you met such a useless doctor. You needed someone to listen and take you seriously as well as help you physically and with work. If I were you I would launch an official complaint about him and also get a second opinion on your arm and neck. If you get worse, remember that you can go to ER and get them to log it down and also write a letter or something to work.

As for the pain, try lots of warm baths to ease the muscles, and also see if massages work, if you can stand them and they don't hurt you.

Hang in there and look afteryourself.

 

[Thumpers_Mom]

That doctor SUX!!! Just work through it? What an arse! :tantrum:

Take it easy and try to get some rest sweetie. I hope you feel better especially so that you don't have to deal with that dimwit again!:hug:

 

[polly]

I think you need to go to either get a massage, or see an osteo, or physio. Sounds like your muscles have gone into spasm. Heat will help but a massage should ease the muscles and take some of the pain away. I hope you feel better soon.:hug:

 

[katt]

thanks guys. i still can't believe what a dip the dr. was acting as.

seeing another doctor isn't really an option. he is there to look at work injury cases, so i am stuck with him. but i have decided that if this still is bothering me, and he offer's no help i will either go to urgent care (my regular doc. would send me there in a heartbeat after hearing my story), or end up back at my regular doc. office.

i have never had a bad doctor's experiance before, i guess i have always been lucky.

and i think your right polly. if i need to talk with my real doctor about this, i am going to ask her about doing some real in-office physical thearpy. i use to work at an orthropeadic office that had an in office physical thearpy program, so i know were i would go, and who i would see, i would only need to make that call.

 

[seniorcats]

If you have injured a nerve or several, 'just working through it' could cause you serious problems. At the very least this jerk should have ordered an EMG and some other basic testing. For your own safety, you really should see a real doctor instead of this sorry excuseof a quack.

 

[tundrakatiebean]

wow Katt, I am so sorry what a buttface that doctor is!

If you go get a second opinion and have the doctor sign a letter to the effect that you DO have a serious problem and the other doctor was obviously off his rocker would you be able to file some sort of complaint?

:hug:I'm so sorry you feel so bad and still have to deal with butt doctors. Feel better!


edit for clarity

 

[Leaf]

Am I wrong to assume your workplace sent you to their doctor? If it was a doctor that they use I would follow up as quickly as possible with a trip to your doctor so the examinations are closely documented.

From there, you'll need to submit your doctors findings to your work. If they do not honor what your doctor decides there are third parties that can get involved with this happening.

 

[katt]

i have a case worker for my file. she is there to make sure that i get the treatment that i needed. i know that i should have called her right away, talked to her right away about being told to just work through my pain, but i was so completely upset, all i wanted to do was get as far away from that office, and go to bed.

before i left she told me that i could move my fallow-up appointment up if i felt like i needed it. i am going to give it today, then see how i do at work tomorrow. if i still feel this pain, if it hasn't gone away, i am calling her up.

in the meantime, i have talked with my managers. even though they put me at non-restricted, the managers i work under are going to see to it that i don't over do anything. it just doesn't make sense to me to do very heavy lifting, continous chopping motion, ect for 8 hours on anything that is causing this muchpain(even just a strained muscle) and to simply work through the pain. i can understand being told not to baby it, but it doesn't make any sense to beat up something when it is already down. and the work i do daily is enough to give good feeling muscels a bit of pain.

anyway, i have spent almost my entire time since i got out of work on monday in bed with the heating pad. i am so awake now that i am going to get up and try to get some stuff done. my mom is taking me out to lunch today as i was on the phone with her going "i just need to get out of this apartment"