Dear diary, oh wait Susan's Place,
Well I'm still layed up from my back injury. After hiring a work comp lawyer I was able to get my care switched to an orthopedic clinic. I got an actual doctors appointment! Yea! Ok so back up a step here. Workers comp sucks. Ok now that that's been said. I was willing to pay $200 myself to just get a consultation with an orthopedic doctor. But the lady at the registration desk said I had better not. She said I needed to go back to my lawyer and have him help get my care switched. Otherwise, you guessed it, an insurance catch 22.
If you pay for a second opinion yourself, the workers comp insurance will think you are trying to go around their system and start looking for fraud. Then, if later you need your regular insurance coverage they will want to deny anything because either you were willing to self pay before or it should have been work comp and you ( into this case I) end up paying for everything.
Did I say workers comp sucks?
So long story short my lawyer came through. The new doctor, (OMG and actual doctor not a PA) gave me an actual diagnosis, had another 4 X-rays taken, and wants to have an MRI done. He already prescribed another 5 weeks of physical therapy and a back brace. Oh and actually prescribed anti-inflammatory medication. Of course I dropped that off with the work comp insurance almost 2days ago and the pharmacy still hasn't gotten approval.
Now I wait. Wait for WC approval for meds, wait for WC approval for an MRI. Go to physical therapy 3 times a week for stretches and heating applications.
On the plus side I don't have to spend every minute of every day lying on the couch. I can sit and stand for a while with less pain. Riding in a car for more than 20 minutes still hurts like hell. I lifted a laundry basket today. Not going to try that again soon!
But staying at my wife's apartment has been nice. We are getting along much better now. It has lasted longer than any time the peace has lasted for at least the previous 5 months.
Unexpectedly positive thing today. While sitting on the bumper of our pickup while the kids were taking laundry into the laundromat, a guy asked me about the electronics manufacturer decals on the side of our truck. I have been selling agriculture related electronics on my own for a few years now. Nothing big time but some added income. So turns out he has some of this brand equipment in a sprayer he and his dad have for their farm. I talked with him a while about it.
So the unexpectedly positive part. My hair is longer than in my avatar picture. I had on orange Nikes with hot pink swooshes on them. My earrings in, a silver chain necklace, of course the pendant was u dear my tee shirt. Oh, my hair, yes the last hair color was a few shades different. Ferris number R48. It's a deep purple hue red with slightly metallic undertones. My forearms are hairless and my nails are grown out enough with filed and polished tops. No paint type polish, just polished until smooth and shiny. Now I definately don't fit right in my old work jeans I had on anymore and despite my fatty belly my boobs are not really hiding from people's notice either.
So, is there a chance I might be able to continue in this agriculture electronics business? I had assumed not given ag and rural people being a bit more religious biased, but maybe?
Leaves me pondering my future for sure. One thing I'm pretty sure of now, is that I'm not going to ever be able to do heavy line repair work again. There's no fixing a bad back that allows returning to that work really.
PS
Oh yeh, forgot another fun aspect, hurt back and caught a nasty summer chest cold. Cough cough cough cough, not good on a hurt back. Sigh
PPS
Got my HRT refilled. Asked and got doctor to switch my medroxyprogesterone over to micronized bioidenticle progesterone. Happy about that switch.
All in all I'm still in a strangely good mood. As long as the pain doesn't kick in so much as to make me cry. That has happened a few times but better these last few days.
