Lol, playing football with the Marines, as an average teen, I’m sure would turn your world upside down.
I’m actually on Medicare, you see, on November 7th, of 2019, I was scheduled to have carpal tunnel surgery. I cleaned up my desk at work, and told the person that was going to cover it for me, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks, and I haven’t been back since. I didn’t even file a workers comp claim, because it would have been considered an OSHA recordable accident, and I didn’t want the plant to suffer the hit for my pain.
The day I had the surgery, I woke up, and I thought man, my middle finger hurt really bad, and this was on my right hand by the way, which is my primary hand. On my way home it started hurting really bad, that’s because the anesthetics were wearing off, from that day forward, my hand has been messed up. I had an appointment to remove the splint, and have the stitches removed in my wrist at 3 weeks, so I waited until then. When I arrived , it was my surgeons PA that saw me, my hand was so swollen I couldn’t bend my fingers, however 2 of them now had trigger finger. So he says he’ll be back in after the nurse takes out my stitches(who is now my daughter-in-law), she comes in and was able to get about 3 of them out, I said the “F” word at that time and said I needed to take a break, the pain I was having, was over the top for a carpal tunnel surgery. She walked out, and I looked at my husband and said, I feel like I’m gonna throw up, he said, do you want me to get you the garbage can, and I said no, and the next thing I know, I woke up and I was resting on his lap, so I had passed out, my body just quit. The pain was over the top. She came back in and finish getting the stitches out, and again it hurt so bad it was crazy, but she was able to get them all out, and then she left, and I looked at my husband, and I said, I’m not feeling good again, and I really passed out that time. I even peed my pants, and I guess while I was passing out, the doctor walked in so they had grabbed me before I hit the floor, and laid me on the bed. He did tell me that he’s sent a request to my insurance, and as soon as they receive the approval, my daughter-in-law looked at me and said I’ll call you and will get you in that day, so that’s what happened.
I am now at about 2 1/2 months off of work, my hand is ridiculously in pain, swollen, trigger fingers, and my fingers were super shiny, like somebody polished them. It was weird, this is when I started studying medical issues. I was still going to physical therapy at this point, because my hand wasn’t getting any better, as a matter of fact, it was getting worse. After looking up all my symptoms, I knew exactly what I had. They told me there were no available appointments to see the surgeon. It was 6 to 8 weeks out, I said but I hurt so bad, she told me if you hurt that bad then go to the hospital, so I made an appointment, hung up the phone, and called my insurance. At this point I am still covered through work, and I asked them if I could go get a second opinion, because I was having problems My physical therapist, who dealt with the condition that I have, told me the name of a really good doctor, so I asked for him, and he was under my insurance, so they got me in, in three days, brand new patient, three days, amazing right. I was in there for about 5 minutes, he said, you have something called CRPS (Complex Regional Syndrome), it’s a very rare disease that affects the peripheral nervous system, and central nervous system, it over exaggerates pain. It’s sensitive to touch, it gets swollen, I get trigger finger in 2 sometimes 3 of my fingers, the list goes on.
He asked who my doctor was, I didn’t want to tell him, but did, and he was like oh wow, he’s my buddy, I know him very well, we golf together. So he tells me, I’m gonna tell you what you need to do, go home, call the doctors office, tell them that you need to get in there sooner, that you’ve had a second opinion, and then you tell them my name, and you tell them, if they don’t get you in right away, that you will take further action, so that’s exactly what I did. She told me that they couldn’t get me in, and so be it, so I hung up. It wasn’t long, no more than 5 minutes, my phone rang, and what do you know, they got me in in three days.
This appointment, is what I thought, was the worst day of my life. They told me, this disease doesn’t go away, you will have it for the rest of your life, it can go in remission, but won’t go away!!! I was lost, confused , and crying!!! Why? How did I get it? Are you sure?
Now I’m scrambling, i was already on state disability, that lasts for a year in California, so I had to get a lawyer, and that took a while, because I didn’t leave on workers comp. I found one, and I won the case.
YAY!!!
Oh wait, 3 months later I have a ruptured aneurysm. At one year from the carpal Tunnal surgery, which was about 6 months after the rupture, the doctors still considered me unable to work, or return to what I was doing. So I now had to consider permanent disability. My insurance through my employer provided me with a lawyer, which was pretty awesome. At one year I had to go to the state provided doctors, and they did some cognitive testing, and some other tests, like the function of my hands, my balances off, there were too many little things. I even have trouble with a date, and sometimes even where I’m at. It was wonderful when I found out, but it sure was painful getting there.
So I now have CRPS in both hands, but my right hand feels like a car ran it over, and then backed up over it too.
Sorry so long, but that’s how I got disability. I sometimes feel like I’m walking under this dark gray cloud, and the lightening keeps striking me, damn it, I can’t get away. It’s taken me a long while, but I’ve adjusted to it, well, I don’t think we ever really adjust to it, we accept it, and move on.
K
, that was a whole lot for one hour, in one single day, for me anyway!
when things don’t go the way I would like them to, this is where the delay comes to an end.
, bot have they become my best friend, the calendar I started using when I jumped on the, “Determined to help myself” train. I also started using the notes app, how funny. I put everything in my notes.
. I think I started using a crisp dollar bill back in the ‘90’s. It works surprisingly well and I always have a dollar to my name, Because I’m so absurdly anal with books, I go for the “very good” or excellent (rare) I’ve had good luck with them and they usually end up being library books.
, Insurance Group:heavy_check_mark:, Social Security (still on hold) it’s been about 30 minutes. I did find out, that I can request a case worker to help me through this kind of stuff. I get anxiety so bad, my throat feels like it’s closing up, and my heart starts pounding.
. When I’d get injured, Dad always told me I’d be an old lady before I was an old man. When I ruptured and my Neurosurgeon asked me how I was doing, it popped right out!