White Rose's Adventures

Workman’s Comp: The Fall (part 1)

I am going to write several posts on dealing with a traumatic on the job injury and my experience with Workman’s Comp. I am also going to talk about facing the end of a 20 year Truck Driving career, and the overwhelming problem of trying to figure out what new career to start at the age of 44 when you have heavy physical limitations. Then I will start a category to chronicle my college life as a “non-traditional” student.

On November 19, 2008 the day was going well. I had dropped and hooked in Orange, TX and was in Avondale, LA. I was dropping that trailer and going to grab one going back to Pascagoula, MS when I fell off the top of my loaded flatbed. The emergency people at the Northrup Grummond ship yard were quick on the scene due to the fact that several people witnessed my fall, (I wrote a post detailing the fall here), and I was rushed to the West Jefferson Medical Center Emergency Room. Once there, they stitched up my face and took x-rays and a CAT scan.

The radiology report for the left wrist said: There is a fracture dislocation of the wrist joint. There appears to be a comminuted fracture of the distal radius which is displaced. Unfortunately, because of positioning it is difficult to evaluate the bone alignment. It is probably posteriorly displaced.

And for the right wrist it said: There is a fracture at the wrist joint. There is an impacted, comminuted fracture of the distal radius which is angulated posteriorly.

Friday they did surgery and I woke to pins in my hands and arms with external fixators. I was told to see an ENT doctor , Ears, Nose & Throat, within the next 7 days. On the folowing Monday I was released from the hospital.

Because my release from the hospital was so close to Thanksgiving I was not able to see an ENT till early December. Since my nose was not set within 14 days of breaking it, Dr Leatherman was going to have to re-break and set it. That put the nose surgery off till January.

I just about had my self weaned off the Percocet for my wrists, when I had the surgery on my broken nose in January. He put me back on the Percocet since that was what I was already taking. Two weeks later he removed the 2 ½ inch long splints that he had put in both sides of the septum. When he removed them it felt like he was pulling my brains out my nose and I screamed and cried like a baby. Once again I started weaning myself off the pain killers. He told me that fixing the septum had straightened my nose but that I would have to see a plastic surgeon for the scars.

On January 30, 2009 Dr Waguespack removed the pins and fixators from my wrists and once again I was back on the Percocet. Each time I had to wean myself off the pain killers was worse than the time before. I went through painful withdrawal symptoms that made me sick to my stomach and greatly depressed. Some days I would just curl up on the couch and cry off and on all day.

It has now been a little over a year since my fall off the flatbed and Dr Waguespack told me at my last appointment, October 19, 2009 that my right wrist bones are 100% healed and the left are 90 to 95% healed. She also said that I am at MMI, maximum medical improvement. There is still the issue of not being able to lift anything more than about 20 lbs and the almost constant pain I have when using my hands for any length of time. (This story was written over several days due to pain when typing for long periods.) The doctor did not give me a disability rating yet, but she says that my limitations are: no lifting of anything over 20 lbs and no tedious or repetitive work with the hands or wrist.

I told her that the Vicodin that she has me on for pain is not working any more. Instead of taking it every 6 hours on days that I hurt badly, I have to take it every 3 to 4 hours to get it to dull the pain. Since this cold snap moved in, I have been taking it every day. She put me on Celebrex twice a day and told me to continue the Vicodin for days that the pain is really bad. I see her again in January 2010 for medication refills.

I got a second opinion in October and his findings were the same. He suggested I get a FCE, Functional Capacity Evaluation, but Dr Waguespack says that I do not need it. She told Angela, the Workman’s Comp field nurse, to give her a list of jobs that they will retrain me for that I am interested in doing and she will tell them if I can do it or not.  Angela wanted me to see a hand specialist and I agreed to go. That was the third opinion.

While Angela was getting approval for me to see a hand specialist, Dr George, in the New Orleans area, I  had surgery on the scars on my nose November 2, 2009. Dr Miller, the plastic surgeon, said that this surgery would only reduce the appearance of the scars, not remove them. I went into the surgery with great hopes and anxiety. The stitches were left in for about a week. When he removed them I was very please with the looks of the scar on the bridge of my nose but not to happy with the one toward the end. It looked better before the surgery, but I won’t complain. Having the scar on the bridge of my nose look as good as it does now is a blessing. It looked very bad before. Luckily, after the plastic surgery, Dr Miller didn’t give me Percocet or Vicodin. He gave me Lorocet. I am still worried about becoming addicted to the pain pills and the problems that will bring if I do.

I had an appointment with the hand specialist, Dr George, on December 3, 2009. Unlike the second opinion, Dr George took his own x-rays. When he walked into the room he looked at them as he made his greetings. Then he said, “I can see the damage”, as he sat down, and asked me why I was there. Angela and I told him that we wanted a second opinion and we briefed him on what has been done so far. He told me that doing surgery on them would not benefit me enough to be worth it. That is when he gave me news that to this day, makes my stomach catch when I think of it. My radius bones have healed at an angle, the right at 5% and the left at 10%. He went on to tell me that he would have put plates and screws in to make sure the bones would have healed straight.

Unsuccessfully I fought the tears as I asked him, “If we had come here right after the fall and you had put in plates, would my wrists be in better shape?” He said that Dr Waguespack didn’t do anything wrong, using pins and external fixators are good for retaining the bone length. But as badly shattered as my wrists were, he would have used the plates.

He then asked about my range on motion. As I showed him how much I could move my wrist in different directions he said that he was impressed. He would not have expected for me to have as much as I do with the damage that he can see in my x-rays. I told him that I have worked very hard on it but the problem is that I still can not bear any weight. Dr George said he could see that I have worked hard and the reason that he is surprised is that, “Most people would just do what they have to do to get by”. He said that the only thing he could recommend doing now, a year out from the injury, was work hardening. “You will still never drive a truck again, but work hardening might get you to a place where you can lift more weight.” He told Angela and me that he would recommend 6 to 8 weeks of work hardening and then do an FCE. At that time, I would be MMI.

As Angela and I walked out of Dr George’s office, I looked at her and made the comment that we had talked about this the first time I talked to her after my fall, I wanted to go to a hand specialist and someone that was closer to where I lived.  (Dr Waguespack’s office is 2 ½ hours away.) She told me that AIG wanted me to stay with the doctor that did my surgery and that they would pay me a millage pay for driving back and forth. so I stayed with Dr Waguespack. Don’t get me wrong, she is a great doctor, but her specialty is with the spin.

Since we didn’t switch my care over to Dr George, Angela had to go back to Dr Waguespack to get the orders for the work hardening.  Even though she got those orders about a week ago, I have yet to start the therapy; we are waiting for Arnissa, my workman’s comp adjuster, to approve it.

Tags: flatbed, injury, Trucking, workman's comp