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Friday, February 1, 2008
Day 398
How this is gonna work:
I am not going to backtrack and go chronological with my experience. I would stay injured if I were to type that all out and besides, I am not into reliving all of it and, in turn, wallowing.
Instead I am going to cover things:
I wish I had known ahead of time= Mistakes
I have learned along the way= Hints
I still have questions about= Huh?
(more to come?)
I hope I am writing this blog as a resource. And I wish that people will comment, ask and answer questions here. I will be so happy if this happens. You know, I have a ridiculous amount of experience and knowledge about RSIs and the WC system in California now and it would be silly for me to not share it.
2 comments:
Hi, I'm a dental hygienist and have been off of work for 8 months. No one has really diagnosed me. Since the EMG test did not show carpal tunnel they are telling me it may be fibromyalgia and wc may not cover this now. Both forearms burn after doing any repetative fin motorskill like typing or using my instruements at work. It is definiately work related in my mind. Each time I tried to return to work after two days the burning just comes back in each forearm making difficult to hold onto the instruements. What kind of doctor diagnosed your injury as RSI through workers comp and what test is there for it? Moe
Moe, I truly feel for the pain that you are in both sympathetically and physically! Burning pain is unbearable and I'm thankful that I have days few and far between of it. It sounds to me like you do have inflammation in your tendons of some sort. Let me try and tackle your concerns here:
First of many say although I know a lot about workers comp now, I am in no way as smart as someone who has actually studied law. I want to share with you some of the things that I have read and experienced that I think to be true.
There are circumstances in which you may choose a new doctor and that all depends on the circumstance in which you came to be treated by the doctor you are seeing now. For instance, if you filled out an injury report and your work sent you to a workers comp doctor, there is a waiting period before you can request a new treating doctor.*
I have seen 2 treating doctors for my injury, they were in agreement with the diagnosis, they were able to ascertain the inflammation of my tendons by palpation and they also had me do several tests.
It's easy to see some of these tests on YouTube if you search "tests for carpal tunnel".
Both doctors I've seen are from St. Francis Memorial Hospital. The first was a doctor who specialized in Occupational Medicine and the second is a Physiatrist. I'm lucky to have had to doctors that supported me in my WC claim. My hope is that you find one soon too.
In the meantime I strongly suggest checking out this book (your library might even have it), California Workers Comp-How to Take Charge When You're Injured on the Job by Christopher Ball. Also, there's a terrific forum that I frequent for moral support and RSI questions http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum24.html
I think it's great that you found my blog. And I hope I've given you some good direction in finding your answers!! Best Wishes :)
*this information is discussed in that book that I recommended
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