White Rose Adventures

Workman’s Comp: Vocational Evaluation

Today I had to meet with a gal from Workman’s Comp for a vocational evaluation. This assessment was to see what my skills and limitations are. There were a lot of questions about my hobbies and activities before the fall and what of that I can do now. It is this lady’s job to take what learned from me today and the doctors notes and go out and look for me a job that I can do within those limitations. After an hour and a half I broke down and cried when telling her my frustration at not being able to do the things I did before and not being able to drive a truck anymore. Trying to explain to someone that has never driven a truck what it is like to do and then to loose it is not an easy task. I know many of you have heard and read me talk about how trucking in more than just a job, it is a way of life and a life style. The nomadic nature of drivers in ingrained in them so deep that it becomes part of who they are and of who I am. Over the last couple on months as I have started school and had to try to integrate myself into the “real world”, I have had days that I hate my life. I have had days that I am angry at the world. I have had days that I ask why me and want to crawl into a whole and hid from all these crazy people that just don’t get me. I try to hang on to that fact that now I am chasing another dream I have had for several years. If not for the fall I am not sure that I would have taken the step to go to school and try to start another career in radio. I remind myself that I am smart, personable, and that the only one holding me back from chasing this dream is me. But it doesn’t always work. Even though I am doing well in my classes, I think I have at least one A, several high B’s and a C, I get scared. I wonder if I can really do this. All of this came out when talking with this lady today. I think that this meeting is another slap in the face that this is really happening, I am not going to back to truck driving, and that hurts.

The thing that made it even worse was the meeting with my lawyer after the lady left the office. My doctor has give me a 6% medical impairment rating. To get a rough dollar number as to what that means for a settlement we have that the 200 weeks that are allowed for a scheduled member, multiply that by the 6% (which equal 12 weeks) and then multiply that result by what I am getting per week from AIG for workman’s comp. That comes to $4787 for each wrist. Shane, my lawyer, says that it what I can count on getting at the very least. But that total will be multiplied by 4 or 5 because of the impact the injury has had on my life. So if we go with the hopeful number of 5, that total is $23935 per wrist. That is a total of $47871. Does that seem fair for how much of my life has been impacted by this injury? These are just base figures. Shane say he is going to shoot for 100 week times what I am getting weekly to start off with. That still only comes out to be $39893 per wrist for a total of $79786. Of course, he gets 25% of what ever settlement I get. This news did not go over well with me. I was really expecting more. I don’t want enough money to live off of the rest of my life, I just want enough that I don’t have to worry about how I am going to live while I got to college the next four years. Shane told me that workman’s comp laws are really not set up to deal with severely injured people. they figure that if you are severely injured, you will be going on social security disability. when I asked him I qualified for that, he said that they really are not set up for a partial permanent disability. He says that I do have a winnable case, but it would be a fight to get it. When I asked him if a lawyer would even touch it is it was going to be such a fight, he said they would, but that I didn’t want to start that until after the workman’s comp case is done.

So, I sit in limbo once again, not knowing what is going to happen and how I am going to survive the next few years while I try ti finish college and start a new career. But as much as there are days that I really want to give up, I am just not that kind of person. I am a survivor and a fighter. One way or another, I will adapt and overcome!!

Finding The Right Major

Even at my age, finding the right major is not an easy task! Maybe it in some ways it is much harder, or maybe it is just me.  Heck, I don’t think I have ever fit into any kind of box that most people would think a woman should be in. No matter what I have done in my life, I always do it my way no matte what, good or bad. So I guess I should not be surprised that college would be any different!

Today I met with my program advisor. (Yes, this is one that I talked about in my post a few days ago.) It went rather well other then the fact that when I walked out of his office, I realized that being a Media Production major was not where I wanted to be. As he explained to me, the program entailed more in the video field. It only has one class for radio! So, I made my way to the guy that runs the campus radio station. I need to talk to him anyway. My professor for my film studies class sent me an email telling me that the radio station wanted to interview me. We talked about the interview and my working with the campus station.

I then went to my acting class, lunch and back to talk to the head of the Mass Comm Department, Dr Campbell. I felt I really needed to figure out what I needed to major in to get to where I want to be, but he wasn’t in. So, I stopped back by Mr Sanders’ office to talk about my working with the station.  As we chatted I filled him in about my dilemma. He remembered talk to the people over in the Arts & Letters Department about the Interdisciplinary Studies. From what he understood of it, I could tailor my Bachelors degree to fit what I wanted and where I want to go.

So I made my way over to the Arts & Letters building, went to the second floor, found the right office, had a brief chat with the ladies there, and set up an appointment to meet with them after my next class. As I explained that I wanted to eventually have a call-in talk radio show,  about my book, blogs, fighting for civilian contractors for a couple of years, and the many emails and call I have gotten from women in abusive relationships that say that my story helped them get out of it, the many people that call about working in Iraq, the time I have spent supporting the military and dealing with PTSD, and so on and so forth, she said that I was in the right department. That made me feel good.

I still have to take all the core courses that every college student has to take, but I work with each department very closely to determine which classes I will take to get where I want to be. Here is the description from the USM Bachelors of Interdisciplinary Studies web site.

Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies

The Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (BIS) undergraduate program allows students to create interdisciplinary specialties in preparation for careers in a world where complex issues demand multi-faceted knowledge and skills. With the help of an Interdisciplinary Studies faculty advisor, students will select courses from two or more disciplines and focus their program on the basis of a unifying issue, theme, or topic as an area of concentration. Students will work closely with faculty from each selected discipline to design a program meeting their diverse educational and career goals.

Acceptance into the BIS program is determined by the following criteria:

• the student’s selection of a concentration area that does not reflect any existing major, linking clusters of courses and faculty where no structure or formal program exists;
• the student’s selection of a concentration area that integrates knowledge and skills from at least two fields and disciplines resulting in an individualized program that is historical, regional, thematic, or problem-based;
• the student’s selection of a concentration that is supported and approved by an BIS faculty advisor and associated program faculty. BIS students are required to cultivate relationships with assigned or designated faculty, taking initial responsibility in developing their individualized programs.

Interdisciplinary Studies students will develop individualized, coherent, intellectually challenging, cross-disciplinary academic plans, utilizing courses selected from departments at The University of Southern Mississippi.

After our chat, I filled out the paperwork to change my major. I hope Dr Campbell isn’t upset with me for changing my major, but I will still be a part of the Mass Comm department, just that it wont be my only focus.

Workman’s Comp insurer, AIG

I am an editor and have been writing over on “The People’s Journal” about the PGR, “Road Dogs on Hogs” and workman’s comp. Yesterday the site published a story from a good friend of mine, Walter Twohorses, about his dealings with Trimac‘s workman’s comp insurer, AIG. I have to say that being friends with Walter over the last two years I have seen and heard of the difficulties he has gone through in trying to get non-invasive medical treatment and other benefits due him.

In July 2007 I started training where I learned how to run the pumps, measure the oil and several other required duties. After two weeks I was turned loose with my own truck. It was a ‘96 Freightliner FLD that was originally an OTR truck and had been converted to run the oil fields. It was probably the biggest piece of crap I have ever driven and should have been “retired” a long time ago. I suspect that instead of buying new equipment, they would purchase older, worn out trucks from other branches of the Trimac company to show a profit and saved the company some money.

I drove this worn out Freightliner for a year with the air-ride seat bottoming out an average of 3 to 4 times a day. The impact to my spine took it’s toll over that amount of time.

One day I got out of the truck to hook up my hose. When I stepped down it felt like someone had stuck a very sharp knife in my back and I went down. I could not move. Other drivers at the pumping station helped me get up because I could not do it on my own. I have never experienced pain like that before and it scared the hell out of me. It was about half an hour before I could move. The other drivers helped me get back into my truck and I drove myself the 35 miles back to the yard. Good thing I know how to float the gears because I could not push in the clutch due to the pain and weakness.

Sadly this is a common problem with some trucking companies. Trucks that are deemed “safe” by DOT standards are not always in the best shape when it comes to the drivers body. Truck drivers spend hours upon hours sitting behind the wheel bouncing down the roads of this great Country. These are not always the best roads and can give a very rough ride. These roads take a toll on the trucks. the suspension gets weak and any air-ride equipment no longer works as it should. I don’t know what regulations are for running in the oil fields as Walter did, but I know that any road truck, even if it is new, is NOT set up to be running off-road. They need a much heavier suspension as well as many other beefed up parts to keep the truck from falling apart.

Whereas I have had a rather easy time in dealing with AIG, my injury was a very obvious one, Walter’s is not. The damage to his spine was incurred over the course of a year. I realize that can make a case harder to settle, but if he has the documents to prove that this damage was done while driving for Trimac, why are they not taking care of him? Is AIG to fault for this or Trimac? I know that any time I had a problem with AIG I could call my company and they would get in touch with my adjuster and get things straight. Trimac has not done this for Walter. They have left him swinging in the wind, fending for himself.

You can read Walter’s full story, “Difficulties with Trimac’s Workman’s Comp insurer, AIG” on “The People’s Journal”.

Workman’s Comp: AIG/Chartis (Part 2)

Once you get past the fact that you have had a sever on the job injury and that you are going to be out of work for a long time, you then have to face dealing with Workman’s Comp. Even if they give you most everything you need medically, the amount of time you spend making sure that you get your weekly checks on time, the prescriptions filled, keep track of your millage and so on can be a bit frustrating.

AIG was the workman’s comp insurer for F & H Trucking when I fell November 19, 2008. Having been a civilian contractor in Iraq for KBR in 2003/2004, I have seen how this company has treated some of the people I know when they were injured overseas. Some they took care of but many have had the fight of their life to be medically taken care of. My driver, Robert Rowe, on the night on August 21, 2004 was shot in the knee and until earlier this year, has been fighting with AIG to get the medical care he has needed. His fight started with being sent home to heal, going back before he was totally healed for fear of loosing his job, to AIG saying he needed to prove to them that he was shot in Iraq. Still walking around with several pieces of shrapnel in his knee, he has never gotten the physical therapy ordered in his settlement and received only a “few thousand dollars”.

To date, my dealings with workman’s comp and AIG/Chartis has been rather positive. Within the first two weeks of being released from the hospital, I was contacted by Arnissa, my workman’s comp adjuster. We talked about the fact that Dr. Waguespack’s office was 2 1/2 hours away from where I lived and I requested to find a hand specialist closer to home. Arnissa informed me that workman’s comp would rather I stay with the doctor that did my surgery in the hospital and that they would pay me millage for traveling back and forth. She said she would get in touch with Angela, a workman’s comp field nurse for the New Orleans area, for my medical care in the state of Louisiana and Debbie, the field nurse for the Mississippi Gulf Coast, for a doctor to fix my broken nose.

Arnissa asked me about my wages with F & H Trucking. The compensation rate for the state of Mississippi is 2/3 the Average Weekly Wage subject to the minimum and maximum in effect on the date of injury. Two-thirds of my income from F & H Trucking was more than the $398.93 maximum a week allowed for injuries in November 2008 and the millage pay was $0.585 per mile. This was a drastic cut in income for me. Arnissa got my mailing address and said she would send me the forms to keep track and get payment for all my millage.

Angela met me at my first appointment with Dr Waguespack two weeks after my release from the hospital. She sat in on my visit with the doctor, took notes, and told me to let her know if I needed anything. Even though it took me about an hour to bathe myself, I could not wash my hair and I needed help at home with personal hygiene at the very least. She said that she would get in touch with Debbie to get a Home Health Care Nurse in to help me a couple times a week.

It took about 2 weeks for my Workman’s Comp checks to get started. For the most part they have come every week, but once in a while they will be a week late. So far AIG/Chartis has not missed a week, but the inconsistency that the checks arrive can be a bit frustrating. For a few months they arrived at the house on Thursdays, then they started arriving on Tuesdays. Then, in the last few months, they have arrived any where from Tuesday to Friday and a couple of times not until the following Monday.

Getting millage pay is a bit complicated. I run the route on Google Maps or Map Quest to get the millage, they do not pay actual miles. I have to keep up with every time I go to the doctor. The form asks for the date,  address of my house and the doctor’s office, what was the purpose of the visit and how many miles it was round trip. In the beginning, keeping track of all that was not a big deal other than I could not write, I had to get my Dad to fill out the form. I don’t sent this off every month, I usually wait till the amount of reimbursement is up around $700 to $800. Once I started Occupational Therapy (OT), it was a lot to keep up with. In stead of trying to write out every day that I went to OT, I would get the rehab center to write out a list of dates of visits and attach that to the millage form from AIG/Chartis. Once I mailed that form I am supposed to get the reimbursement check in 30 days. I have yet to get one in that amount of time, it usually takes about 45 days and I have to call Arnissa and get a bit nasty in the message I leave on her voice mail to get it then.

One of the biggest frustrations I have is getting Arnissa to return my phone calls in a timely manner. Usually it will take 2 or 3  voice messages left before she will call be back. Angela is almost as bad. I send her text messages through my cell phone because it is easier to get her to answer them, than it is to get her on the phone, but it can still take her 24 hours or more to answer those. Debbie is real good about answering my calls or text messages in a timely manner.

Getting prescriptions filled in the beginning was a bit of a pain. The doctor would write the prescription, I would take it to the pharmacy and it would be about 3 days before I could pick it up. It took the pharmacy that long to get approval from AIG/Chartis. This was the process for refills as well. A few months back, without any notice, AIG/Chartis switched to PMSI to handle prescriptions. I received a phone call out of the blue telling me who they were and what they were doing. They mailed my refills and 2 weeks before I was due for another refill, I would get an automated phone call asking me if I wanted to reorder the prescription. This was good. Now I no longer had to drive into town, drop off the prescription, wait 3 days to get approval and drive back into town to get my prescriptions refilled, they would be delivered through the mail to the house.

That was great till I messed up on reordering once or had a new prescription. There is no option to delay reordering the medication. You either reorder, or you cancel. A few months agoI still had plenty of the Vicodin and didn’t need to reorder  so I choose to cancel the order at that time. The next time I saw Dr Waguespack, she gave me a new prescription  for Celebrex along with a few samples of the drug to tide me over till I got my prescription filled. When I got home I called PMSI, punched buttons till I got a real person and told her I had a new prescription, and asked how do I get it filled. I was told to “put it in the mail”! When I told her that I needed the medication sooner than that, she told me to have the doctor cancel the written prescription, and fax them a new one, ordering the Celebrex. I asked if they could call Dr Waguespack’s office and get it, I was told “no, they could not”. This frustrated me and I hung up the phone. I sent Angela a text message telling her the problem with getting the prescription filled. The next day I got a text from her saying she would get a copy of it from Dr Waguespack and send it to PMSI for me. It was two weeks before I got the first bottle of Celebrex. Celeberex is a medication that you have to take for 2 weeks before it has any effect. So the samples Dr Waguespack had given me and that I had used up a week before I received the prescription in the mail, were of no use.

At that last doctor appointment I still had some of the Vicodin and didn’t get a new prescription for it. A month later when I did need to reorder, I jumped through the hoops of the automated system but I could not figure out to reorder them. Again, I sent Angela a text message. When she didn’t text me back within 24 hours, I called Dr Waguespack’s office, told them what I needed and asked if they could help. They told me to get Angela to come get the prescription for me and fax it in. I sent Angela another text message and tried to call her. No answer. I needed the pain medication so I called PMSI again. I went through the automated system again till I got a live person. I explained the situation. She told me I was talking to the wrong department, but that she would help me anyway. She got Dr Waguespack’s phone number from me and said that they would have the medication to me in about 2 weeks. Angela finally sent me a text message back that afternoon saying she would talk to the doctor’s office. I text her back informing her that I had gotten it taken care of myself.

Now, when PMSI’s automated system calls saying it is time to reorder my medication, I just reorder it weather I really need it yet or not.  Since I try not to take the Vicodin unless the pain in my wrists get to the point that I just can’t stand it any more, I am building a rather nice stockpile of Vicodin. Since medication will keep for an extended amount of time, I guess this will be less I have to pay for out of my own pocket, later on, when they cut me off.

In my last post about dealing with Workman’s Comp, two weeks after seeing Dr George, I was still waiting for Arnissa to approve the work hardening therapy. Again, I took matters into my own hands and called Arnissa and left a rather tart message. Amazingly, she called me back that same day. She told me that she had just gotten the orders a few days before and had approved them. I thanked her for calling me back so quick this time and called the Rehab Center to set up my first session.

At the date of writing this story, I have been to 7 sessions, a little over 2 weeks , of the ordered 8 weeks and will not be going to any more. The mission of work hardening is to work a patient up from 2 hours of therapy, 3 times a week to 8 hours of therapy each visit. They take a description of what your job physically requires and your therapy is based on that. Even though 3 doctors have told me that with the injuries I sustained to both my wrists I will never pull a flatbed and never drive a truck again, my therapist has to go by that guideline and try to get me to where I can do the job I was doing when I was injured. I have had pain with every therapy session. Some of the pain was muscle pain from a year of non-use, but some was injury pain. My last therapy session was to be for 4 hours. I was sent home after just 1 hour due to the pain in my wrists. The head of the therapy department told me to call my doctor and see what she wanted to do, either not be so aggressive, or stop the therapy. Dr Waguespack’s assistant called me that afternoon and told me that therapy should not hurt like that and I should stop. I have now exhausted every means to get more use out of my wrists.

I have an appointment with Dr Waguespack on January 18, 2010. At that time I will give her the letter from the Rehab Center. It states that I could only lift 10lbs instead of the 20lbs that we thought I could do before and all other limitations they have seen though the work hardening therapy. At that time Dr Waguespack should give me a disability rating with my limitations and we will move to the settlement phase. With this milestone comes a whole other set of problems. AIG/Chartis could cut off my weekly checks, no longer send me medication, and refuse to pay for the doctor visits I will need for future pain management.

The Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission has a web site that gives all the information a person could need about the laws and regulations for the state.  After spending hours and hours reading the laws governing Workman’s Comp for the state of Mississippi, I have hired a Workman’s Comp Attorney. I know I have had a much easier time dealing with Workman’s Comp and AIG/Chartis than many others have had, but the laws are very hard to decode and understand without some legal knowledge. In the next installment I will try to decode the law a little so you can understand what I am facing in trying to get a settlement out of AIG/Chartis on my Workman’s Comp case. It is very possible that even with the very low limitations on the use of my wrists, I could get less than $50,000. That settlement would include future medical visits due to this injury, future medications, and a lifetime compensation for the disability.

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.

Taken just minuets after arriving at the emergency room at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, LA

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.

Wrists: Good News/Bad News

I saw Dr. Waguespack last Thursday. It has been 2 months since my last appointment and I have been in the bone growth stimulator’s for about 5 weeks of that. She did the usual x-rays and told me that the right wrist is doing great, but the left wrist still has some delayed union. I don’t have to wear the wrist braces all the time any more, only when I am using my hands a lot or if picking up any weight.  I still have to use the bone growth stimulator on both wrists though. She says that we wear them for 3 months total, so I have another 2 months of that. Even though the right wrist is doing good and no longer has any delayed union, I still have to use it on that one as well. “We can’t over heal the bones” she said.

She did give me permission to ride my motorcycle again. Course showing up to the appointment on it may have had something to do with it. I did ask her if I should continue to wear the braces while riding. She said that I didn’t have to but to be careful. I am still in danger of re-shattering both wrists if I fall and hit them. I have found that as long as I am on the open road and not having to use the clutch much, I am OK without the braces. But if in town, on wet roads, or any where that I have to use the clutch a lot, I really feel better wearing at least the left brace.