ring, little phone, RING!

 details, details. oh, find the devil in these, baby.

on march 10th, i fell down half a flight of carpeted stairs in our house. i missed the first step down and caught air, landing on two steps flat on my back, slightly to the left of my spine. the small box of frozen foods i was carrying to the freezer landed on my chest. we debated about whether to call an ambulance and decided that since i *could* get up, insurance would prolly not cover the ride. i changed out of jeans into fresh pajamas and off to the emergency room we went.

they took x-rays of my lower spine, where the pain was most severe and they came out clear. i was given percocet, an Rx for hydrocodone, told to see my doc and sent home.

monday, march 15th, my doc put me on 2 weeks no duty, gave me an Rx for an anti-inflammatory, a muscle relaxer to help me sleep and said REST FOR REAL.

all went swimmingly. i took my meds less and less. i followed-up with my doc on monday, 29 march, who said, if you're not in pain, then stop taking the anti-inflammatory and see what happens. she asked me to do a few things to show her my range of motion, which was great. i told her i'd been lifting full laundry baskets occasionally over the past couple of days to test my strength. no pain. she said if i had any further troubles, i'd likely have to go to PT. i was released to full duty.

wednesday we walked & biked down in DC for a few hours. i was sore, but not overly so. i rested all day thursday. 3am friday i woke up in pain. PAIN pain. i can't recall exactly, but i might have woken up in a sneezing fit; that is not an uncommon occurrence in spring. i got up and got the heating pack for the pain. i rested again all day friday.

i went back to work on saturday, 3 april. i was tired and a little sore after the first day, so i decided to take the anti-inflammatory again. sunday was a bit worse. monday after work, it hurt to breathe. tuesday morning i took aleve in addition to the anti-inflammatory. i took my oxycodone and a muscle relaxer at bedtime and hoped i'd wake up on time for work on wednesday.

wednesday i just gritted my teeth and made it through the day. it felt like a knife wound in my chest with every breath. which is odd, because the initial injury was in my lower back. i went home and slept poorly, not hungry, and after dinner, looked up chiro in my insurance plan. once i found what i needed, i drugged up for pain and tried to sleep again.

thursday i went to my initial chiro appointment. they ordered another set of x-rays to get a picture of my upper back that had not been x-rayed in the ER. i was informed that there are several possibilities to justify the pain in my chest. 1) the pain in the injury to my lower back was so severe, it blocked the lesser pain of the upper back at that time. 2-a) the anti-inflammatory medicines took care of the upper injury altogether and i didn't notice any problems until after i stopped taking the anti-inflammatory and went back to work and/or 2-b) re-injured that area at work. that second part is unknown, since i can't pinpoint exactly what set it off. 3) the new x-ray showed a slight possibility of a compression fracture of one of the vertebra - the one that had a rib connected to the pain in my chest. apparently the rib bones can "resonate" pain from an injury all the way through the bone. i was also informed that not all fractures show up in the initial x-rays. doc asked me to wait until the radiologist confirmed that diagnosis before treating the ribs.

friday, radiology hadn't read my pictures yet, but doc said he would call me in the afternoon if there was indeed a fracture. i was told to go ahead and work the weekend because he wanted to see me again on monday after three days of light duty - to see if adjustments to my duties needed to be made and judge how well i was holding up. i was given a back support to wear at work and the doc filled out a light duty request for work. no lifting over 5 pounds. paperwork was faxed to work for duty restrictions. since i have to show up live and in person to receive a light duty accommodation, i drove my little self to HR... who promptly said "we don't know why this other guy says you can only do certain things, but the first provider says you're fine."

wouldn't that be the difference between a general practitioner and a specialist? hm.

three weeks of ass-sittage right into 5 days of full duty. perhaps i wasn't ready to come back to full duty and sure, maybe we should have thought of that. *shrugs* but we didn't. i felt just fine at the time. no hard feelings over here. so what is the deal?

HR sent me home. meanwhile the clock is ticking. i haven't heard whether or not i am going into work saturday, my monday, when both my doc and HR are closed, with no hope of communication until mid-shift on real monday. and i am out of sick leave, thanks to the genius at HR who cleverly just submitted all 15 of my days off as sick leave, not as partial sick leave and partial annual leave. tell me exactly why they ask for paperwork if they are going to do it their own way? i kinda wanted a little in the bank, yo. it's MY leave and i should dictate how it is spent. my back is sore from the treatment this morning, my guts are a wreck from worry (over the bid, the pain, radiology, and if i'm going to get slapped with unpaid time off). i've actually lost 4 pounds in 10 days from all this stress. can we please????

i'm going to carefully put my uniforms in the laundry (one at a time, no heavy lifting, i know!) and try to nap a bit. updates will be forthcoming. i effin hope.