I hit the four week mark yesterday, October 14th, in my recovery from my surgery and actually have to confess it went by quicker than I thought. The first two weeks dragged a little because I had little company with me but then my sister visited, friends started dropping by regularly, and another friend from out of state also stayed a few days and made me feel well cared for. Before I knew it, I was actually having to carve out time to NOT be occupied with something or somebody, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.
Yesterday, I saw Dr. Arcand for my second follow-up and there were few surprises. She is quite pleased with my healing wound, no infection noted, nor has there been any pain or tingling like others have reported on their blogs. She had the splint and ace bandages removed and underneath it all was one nasty looking dry, shriveled up foot! I know it just needs some major treatment with Burts Bees lotion (which works wonders on dry skin if you have never tried it!) so I got over my attack of vanity pretty quickly.
She had another splint put on but this one just runs along the back of my calf to just past my toes and is held in place by one layering of ace bandage. This means it's very light, not bulky, and much easier to manage when I'm in bed. The plan is for me to see her again in two weeks at which time she will have me put the CAM boot back on for a trial run. This feels like positive progress to me (as if ANY progress could be negative, right?) so I felt pleased by the visit. She also felt I could take on 4 hours a day of working from home so I will start that on Monday, October 19th. As I crutched my way out of her office to the appointment desk, feeling pretty upbeat, I took a rather embarassing and unexpected semi-tumble but was caught by my partner, Lucy, before I could hit the ground. Lucy definitely seemed more startled than I did! A very nice office worker named Sue promptly got me into a wheelchair and carted me outside, waiting with me for Lucy to pull up the car which scored major points with me. I have encountered some really nice people during this process and Sue was one of them.
Today involved a number of calls between myself and my Human Resources worker who overloaded my brain by verbalizing all the necessary changes that are upcoming due to my going back to 20 hours per week. Of course, my worker's comp check will be duly reduced (and I got a certified letter delivered that drove that point home in black and white), and my sick time still needs to be used to pay for my medical insurance, 403b contribution, etc. I told her very quietly that "I'm really a visual person so could you send this to me in an e-mail??" She said sure, but continued outlining all the numbers and facts and figures while I silently tuned her out, trying to just stayed relaxed while she very intently rattled off all the details. I joked to a friend on the phone a little later, "Even Helen Keller's blood pressure would be spiked after a conversation like that!" Oh well.
All in all, I really can't complain too much about things. I've had a nice, extended rest, and have gotten very cozy with my cats. So much so that now Lucy complains "they like YOU better than they like me". I reasoned with her that she is welcome to tear out the largest muscle in her body, have surgery and SHE can sit with the animals to her heart's content! (She declined to accept this kind offer of mine.) If you can go through anything like this and maintain your sense of humor (I have), you can't help but feel you are coming out ahead!
Showing posts with label workers compensation and achilles tendon rupture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workers compensation and achilles tendon rupture. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Time for "Modified Duty"
It's ironic that, when I first heard I would need this surgery and would have to be out of work perhaps 1-2 months and could not drive for three whopping months, I naturally panicked. I could not imagine being away from my job for such a long time, and the pressure on me before I left to set up things for whoever would cover for me was very intensive and all encompassing.
Three weeks later, as I face having a return to "modified duty" probably as soon as next week, I find myself feeling very differently, which surprises me. Contrary to worrying about how I will pull this off, I feel calm in knowing that our "tech guy" will set things up so I can communicate with my co-workers via a mobile connection between my computer and the agency's network, plus I also know I have to work from home. Last week, my doctor noted that the only thing I could do in an unrestricted way was to "sit". Standing is limited to 5 minutes at a time for no more than one hour a day and, of course, driving is off limits until probably December.
It's so quiet here in my home during the day that, faced with a list of calls I have to make and documentation to do for those calls, I can't imagine getting too stressed. Also, since I am in no position to make home visits or see people in the office (because I cannot drive there and I doubt the agency will want to risk the liability of having someone pick me up, drop me off, and have to assist me with the pain-in-the-butt transfers associated with all the stairs to my home), I doubt there will be more work to do than I can handle here. It's just odd to imagine doing my job in what is normally a very busy, hectic environment here in my nice quiet home. I think I may be asked to do four hours a day and will need to see if I can really find that much to do that will take four hours, but it's a wait and see kind of thing. The tech guy has been instructed to call me to set up the computer connection and the rest will just have to be day to day.
For anyone reading this who dreads, as I did, the prospect of putting your life and work on hold for an extended period, I can tell you this: it has many plusses along with the minuses. You truly do get extended rest, whether this means you are napping or simply reading a book with your leg elevated. On the other hand, crutching your way around the house to the bathroom, kitchen and living room is exhausting - I really paid for it yesterday when I went out for a short drive with a friend. I was so incredibly spent just from using my walker and then my crutches to navigate my porch, then my walkway, then down five stairs on my butt (which actually was more doable than I envisioned). I was struggling to stay awake beyond about 8 p.m. and really fell into a deep sleep once I did go to bed. My body is learning the meaning of "everything within limitations" and, every so often, I have tested the limits and felt the results.
So, hmmmm, back to work. That will be interesting to try and do from home, but I figure if I can handle a traumatic fall that led to spraining my left arm and rupturing my right achilles tendon, undergo surgery for the rupture and then have the patience and determination to keep my right leg elevated (AT ALL TIMES) for two weeks....going back to work should be a piece of cake! Hopefully, it's german chocolate :-)
Three weeks later, as I face having a return to "modified duty" probably as soon as next week, I find myself feeling very differently, which surprises me. Contrary to worrying about how I will pull this off, I feel calm in knowing that our "tech guy" will set things up so I can communicate with my co-workers via a mobile connection between my computer and the agency's network, plus I also know I have to work from home. Last week, my doctor noted that the only thing I could do in an unrestricted way was to "sit". Standing is limited to 5 minutes at a time for no more than one hour a day and, of course, driving is off limits until probably December.
It's so quiet here in my home during the day that, faced with a list of calls I have to make and documentation to do for those calls, I can't imagine getting too stressed. Also, since I am in no position to make home visits or see people in the office (because I cannot drive there and I doubt the agency will want to risk the liability of having someone pick me up, drop me off, and have to assist me with the pain-in-the-butt transfers associated with all the stairs to my home), I doubt there will be more work to do than I can handle here. It's just odd to imagine doing my job in what is normally a very busy, hectic environment here in my nice quiet home. I think I may be asked to do four hours a day and will need to see if I can really find that much to do that will take four hours, but it's a wait and see kind of thing. The tech guy has been instructed to call me to set up the computer connection and the rest will just have to be day to day.
For anyone reading this who dreads, as I did, the prospect of putting your life and work on hold for an extended period, I can tell you this: it has many plusses along with the minuses. You truly do get extended rest, whether this means you are napping or simply reading a book with your leg elevated. On the other hand, crutching your way around the house to the bathroom, kitchen and living room is exhausting - I really paid for it yesterday when I went out for a short drive with a friend. I was so incredibly spent just from using my walker and then my crutches to navigate my porch, then my walkway, then down five stairs on my butt (which actually was more doable than I envisioned). I was struggling to stay awake beyond about 8 p.m. and really fell into a deep sleep once I did go to bed. My body is learning the meaning of "everything within limitations" and, every so often, I have tested the limits and felt the results.
So, hmmmm, back to work. That will be interesting to try and do from home, but I figure if I can handle a traumatic fall that led to spraining my left arm and rupturing my right achilles tendon, undergo surgery for the rupture and then have the patience and determination to keep my right leg elevated (AT ALL TIMES) for two weeks....going back to work should be a piece of cake! Hopefully, it's german chocolate :-)
Friday, October 2, 2009
Workers Comp and the Achilles Tendon Rupture Patient
For those of you who incurred your achilles tendon rupture as a result of an accident, fall, or other mishap while at work, you might find this post interesting. I have never before had to utilize Worker's Compensation (thankfully) and, when this happened to me on 8/26/09 (seems you never forget the date of when such an injury happened!), I immediately panicked about "what the f**k is going to happen now? How long will this take to heal, how long will I be covered, for WHAT will I be covered, how much of a pay cut will I have to take?" etc., etc. It's not a pleasant worry to have (which of course is an oxymoron) but, if you can be patient with the process and trust in your Worker's Comp worker you should be OK. This person is not your employer, by the way, it is the "rep" they send their Worker's Comp cases to which is, in some ways, a benefit because it goes outside the workplace.
After getting some initial BAD information about how the Worker's Comp process works, I got the GOOD information I was needing to help me relax a little bit. Worker's Comp computes your last 52 weeks of NET wages (after taxes, but NOT including any personal deductions you take for medical insurance, your retirement account, etc) and comes up with an average. I'm blanking on the exact percentage you get of this average, but quick math tells me it is somewhere around 80%. At first glance, believe it or not, this does not appear on paper to be a huge difference between what you were bringing home for net pay and what worker's comp will pay you. The reason? Because all your "personal deductions" (see below) are not counted in this. The good news is your weekly check is not a lot less, the bad news is "how do I now pay for these personal deductions that used to be taken care of by payroll deductions?"
Here's an all important detail that no one in my circle could believe was true (but it is): For me, these personal deducations amounted to about $450 per bi-weekly paycheck (OUCH) and this would have been my personal responsibility to pay to my employer every pay period. I don't know about you, but I really don't have an extra $900 a month to shell out for these things. Before I could have a freak attack about it, however, my employer let me know that I could elect to use my sick time to pay for this extra amount. We figured out my rate of pay, how much I needed to come up with each paycheck (about $450) and it amounted to my needing to use about 20 hours of sick time each week. Luckily, I had six weeks of sick time available to me so, right off the bat, I knew I was covered for that amount of time. Should I be out of work longer than this, I would then need to go into my vacation and personal time banks to keep current.
In the employer's favor (which is NOT bad for either side here) is that they do want you back sooner than later and, believe me, after weeks of idle time, you are chomping at the bit to have SOMETHING better to do than hit the remote. So, if I come back on "modified duty" (which, for me, means using my own personal computer and telephone at home to do some office work for four hours a day), my employer certainly benefits and, for me, that is one less sick day (or vacation/personal day) I have to use to remain out of work on less than a full-time basis.
Worker's Comp sent me a letter at the beginning of all this (once my surgery was approved) stating it would be 23 (calendar) days before I could go on modified duty (which, for me, means October 9th) and 103 days before I can go back to full duty (most of this is due to not being able to drive for three months). My assumption is that they have plentiful case studies that show these "out of work" figures to be the average for anyone recuperating from an achilles tendon rupture, so you could probably expect to get the same kind of time off. People have already offered to drive me to work but I think it makes more sense to work from home until I get full clearance. Picking me up/dropping me off when I am on crutches could represent added liability to anyone who does this favor for me as well as for my employer if I just so happen to fall in their parking lot or building. Let's also not forget the stairs I need to navigate on crutches just to get from my front door to the car! However, back to "full duty" for me is somewhere in the vicinity of December 10th.
My purpose in putting all this information out there is that it truly is a jungle to navigate for the novice (which I was until about two-three weeks ago) and I hope someone can benefit from knowing how things went for me. So far, my checks have arrived consistently each Thursday and I know my health insurance, life insurance and retirement contributions are being taken out against my sick time at work by my employer. The less you can have things like this on your mind, the better you are going to be for the long journey of healing. Take it from someone who (already) knows! :-)
After getting some initial BAD information about how the Worker's Comp process works, I got the GOOD information I was needing to help me relax a little bit. Worker's Comp computes your last 52 weeks of NET wages (after taxes, but NOT including any personal deductions you take for medical insurance, your retirement account, etc) and comes up with an average. I'm blanking on the exact percentage you get of this average, but quick math tells me it is somewhere around 80%. At first glance, believe it or not, this does not appear on paper to be a huge difference between what you were bringing home for net pay and what worker's comp will pay you. The reason? Because all your "personal deductions" (see below) are not counted in this. The good news is your weekly check is not a lot less, the bad news is "how do I now pay for these personal deductions that used to be taken care of by payroll deductions?"
Here's an all important detail that no one in my circle could believe was true (but it is): For me, these personal deducations amounted to about $450 per bi-weekly paycheck (OUCH) and this would have been my personal responsibility to pay to my employer every pay period. I don't know about you, but I really don't have an extra $900 a month to shell out for these things. Before I could have a freak attack about it, however, my employer let me know that I could elect to use my sick time to pay for this extra amount. We figured out my rate of pay, how much I needed to come up with each paycheck (about $450) and it amounted to my needing to use about 20 hours of sick time each week. Luckily, I had six weeks of sick time available to me so, right off the bat, I knew I was covered for that amount of time. Should I be out of work longer than this, I would then need to go into my vacation and personal time banks to keep current.
In the employer's favor (which is NOT bad for either side here) is that they do want you back sooner than later and, believe me, after weeks of idle time, you are chomping at the bit to have SOMETHING better to do than hit the remote. So, if I come back on "modified duty" (which, for me, means using my own personal computer and telephone at home to do some office work for four hours a day), my employer certainly benefits and, for me, that is one less sick day (or vacation/personal day) I have to use to remain out of work on less than a full-time basis.
Worker's Comp sent me a letter at the beginning of all this (once my surgery was approved) stating it would be 23 (calendar) days before I could go on modified duty (which, for me, means October 9th) and 103 days before I can go back to full duty (most of this is due to not being able to drive for three months). My assumption is that they have plentiful case studies that show these "out of work" figures to be the average for anyone recuperating from an achilles tendon rupture, so you could probably expect to get the same kind of time off. People have already offered to drive me to work but I think it makes more sense to work from home until I get full clearance. Picking me up/dropping me off when I am on crutches could represent added liability to anyone who does this favor for me as well as for my employer if I just so happen to fall in their parking lot or building. Let's also not forget the stairs I need to navigate on crutches just to get from my front door to the car! However, back to "full duty" for me is somewhere in the vicinity of December 10th.
My purpose in putting all this information out there is that it truly is a jungle to navigate for the novice (which I was until about two-three weeks ago) and I hope someone can benefit from knowing how things went for me. So far, my checks have arrived consistently each Thursday and I know my health insurance, life insurance and retirement contributions are being taken out against my sick time at work by my employer. The less you can have things like this on your mind, the better you are going to be for the long journey of healing. Take it from someone who (already) knows! :-)
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