Since December 23rd I have been put on medical leave. Let me tell you from the beginning what has happened and lead up to this. In August I fell at work on a wet floor because I didn't know the floor was wet because there was no wet floor sign out. I hurt my knee and was sent to ER that night where they did a X-Ray which showed no damage. They put me in an entire leg brace which made it so that I couldn't move or bend my knee if I wanted to. If I wanted to move my leg at all I had to move my entire leg and also gave me crutches (which I found out later they did not put together correctly) and then gave me a poor demonstration. I used them to get out to my car that night and haven't touched them since (they said I didn't need them. I could use them if I wanted to). Then the next day they sent me to the medical clinic they always do when we get injured at work for workers comp. I was put on light duty doing office work and sent to physical therapy. The next week the clinic doctor sent me to get a MRI done. It showed a contusion (bruise) on the bone and a cyst. After four weeks with the clinic doctor and physical therapy at my work and not much improvement the clinic doctor sent me to a specialist. Oh I need to mention that while seeing this doctor at the clinic one of the days I was walking up the stairs and my knee popped and gave out on me and I would have fallen down the stairs if I had not been holding on to the railing (this happened in September before I was sent to see the specialist). In October he gave me a cortisone shot in my knee and told me to do therapy exercises on my own. In November the Specialist gave me 3 options since my knee wasn't getting any better. Option 1: go back to working full time on the floor. Which he did not release me from light duty and when I asked him about it he said I would have to transition in to it. If you have ever worked at an assisted living facility as a C.N.A. you know you cannot transition into it. You either work on the floor or you are on light duty. So option 1 was out. Option 2: get a second opinion. Option 3: Surgery. I brought Option 2 and 3 to the HR person and she proceeded to call workers comp. A week later I am informed that I am going to see a doctor for a second opinion. A week later (December 10th) I walk into this doctors office and am given paperwork to fill out which isn't unusual. I start filling out the paperwork and one of the sheets says this is an appointment to get a report and not to form a patient/doctor relationship. I am the ushered into an exam room where the doctor starts off by informing me that he will not be telling me anything and proceeds to asking questions and reading paperwork from the other doctors then hands me a pair of disposable shorts, asks me to put them on and leaves the room. He comes back after I am changed with one of the receptionists and starts examining my knee which he starts by marking my leg in three places rather hard with his pen. He finishes and leaves. I change and go back out into the lobby where I finish my paperwork. I then go to work where I immediately go to the HR office and say that it wasn't a doctor's appointment I was lead to believe it to be. She tells me he was making a report for workers comp and they would go by what he says for me to do. Two weeks go by and I don't hear anything. One of which the person in HR is in Hawaii on vacation. On December 23rd around 1:30pm we are sitting in the country kitchen at work and doing our Secret Santa gift exchange. My supervisors cell phone rings and she tells the person that she was busy and will come talk to them in a half an hour. I could tell it was the person from HR and felt in my gut that it was about me but brushed it off and scolded myself for jumping to conclusions that it could be they had hired someone new for assisted living. We finish our party and I go over the the nurses office and start filing paperwork when one of my coworkers tells me that someone was at the front desk looking for me. I proceed down to the first floor and to the front desk where they direct me to the HR office. I walk over and the door is closed so I knock and am told to come in. Both the HR person and my supervisor are in there and they lead my into the day room (a little office off to the side of the front desk) where they hand me a copy of a letter from workers comp and a copy of the report from the doctor. To sum up what is said it pretty much said my injury from my fall at work was healed six weeks after it happened and that I rushed up the stairs at home and re-injured my knee then and that workers comp was no longer responsible for it and any medical treatment or surgery I would need I would have to use my insurance to pay for it. My rushing up the stairs is when I was walking up the stairs and my knee popped. Anyone who knows me knows I don't rush doing anything. I am often told I walk too slow. I was teased by my sisters boss who called me a turtle. Anyway I was told I was being put on medical leave as of right then and sent home and told to go and see my primary physician which means I am not being payed. So I called that day and made an appointment with my primary physician for last Tuesday and he didn't understand why they had taken so long and he made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for last Thursday. He gave me another cortisone shot in the side of the knee it should have been put in in the first place told me to give it a week and if it didn't feel better in a week I would have to have surgery. So it has been a week and it doesn't feel any better and I had to find a different surgeon because this surgeon doesn't work at any of the hospitals my insurance covers. He is an in network doctor but the hospital he works at is an out of network hospital so if I had him do the surgery it would cost me 2500 dollars in deductibles. So I found a different surgeon to go and see for the surgery and it is the same specialist I was sent to by the clinic doctor. I will be seeing him on Friday. Anyways I just needed to vent a little so there it is. I am sorry if I went on too long or complained too much.
