Injuries, Let Me Count the Ways

With the recent thumb injury I've had a few comments about how accident prone I could be, it even got to the point where The Wife chimed in. That got me thinking about how many work related injuries I have had and here is a list of all the injuries over the last eight years that required me to go on worker's compensation.

Back injury- While in Toledo on overnights, I was driving to an accident where a semi crashed into and landed onto of the concrete barricade in between both directions. I was new and hauling tail to the scene. I get close and I suddenly notice a car in my lane that did not have any lights on and was not moving, I hit the breaks, but because of ice and diesel fuel from the accident I slid into the car at about 45 MPH. Both cars were "OK," but I hurt my back. I had to go to a chiropractor for a year.

The Knee Injury- Still in Toledo I was shooting a story at a high school and as we were climbing the stairs I heard a loud pop and a sharp pain in my knee. I stopped for a minute to figure out what was wrong. I could still walk, but was limping so I continued on and finished the story. By the time we get back to the station the limp was worse and it was starting to hurt. The desk sees that I am limping,but I tell them I should be fine to finish my shift. As usual in Toledo we were short staffed and it is decided that I should go on a second shot, this time on a search for a missing Alzheimer patient with search dogs in downtown Toledo.

Mid-way through my knee starts popping every few minutes, which leads me to grab my knee and scream. My report informs the desk that I am in serious pain, but does nothing to help... no one else is able to shoot. I finally put an end to this and tell the reporter I can't go on. She calls the desk and they finally send another photographer,but here's the catch; they want me to edit the first story I shot, then I could go to the hospital. I walk in and everyone looks at me with a worried look. Later I was told I was ash white and was clearly in pain. I'm sent to the hospital 6 hours after the fact.

I tore the plica and have floating cartilage in my knee. Due to a filing error it takes nearly two months before I could have surgery. This was the most painful injury of my life.

Tendinitis of the Elbow- While shooting a sports story i grabbed my camera and felt a sharp pain in my elbow. I try to rub the pain out and continue to shoot. I think nothing about it till a few weeks later when my elbow hurts all the time. Come to find out that I had a bad case of tennis elbow and a inflamed muscle group.

Back Injury- Once again a Toledo injury (I need to stay away from Toledo), I am shooting file for The Network so if anything happens in Toledo we wouldn't have to rush up there or wait for out affiliate (my old station) to figure find away to get us the video. I'm on Alexis Road at I-75 (Oddly enough 2 miles from previous accident) when a light just turns red, no yellow just green to red. I slam on the breaks and stop just pass the line. "Wow that could have been bad." That's when I hear screeching tires and I get shoved into the intersection. The ramming Astrovan was totaled and my explorer had a dented rear bumper. I had yet another inflamed and tender back. I drive the two and a half hours back to Columbus and see a doctor.

I'm given muscle relaxers and given two days off. I should have taken more days off because I nearly killed Chud, DJL and myself on the way to a story.

The Thumb- just read the previous post and you will get the idea. A close second in the pain catagory.

Honorable mentions (not workers comp related)
The Wife tries to kill me
Fractured a bone in my foot playing basketball
Got poked in the eye playing basketball, causing a blood clot in my eyelid
Sprained my wrist on a Jacobs Ladder
Sprained my ankle playing soccer
In college I flipped over the handle bars of my bike spraining my wrist and hurting my knee

OK maybe I do need to be placed in a bubble or something.

Good News

It's been one week since I hurt my hand and I was happy that today was my appointment with the orthopedic specialist. I was worried about what was wrong, but I just wanted to know how bad it actually was.

After The Wife and I filled out reams or paper work we go back to a room and the doctor decides to see how much pain she can inflict. I scream at least two times, I may have screamed more, but I may have blacked out from the pain. It is discovered that I did not break a bone in my hand and my tendon is not torn. So what happened then? Well the two tendons in question pass through a little "tube" in your hand. I broke the tube and the tendon's popped out then went back in, so I have tissue damage and I now wear a nifty splint and can't lift anything for 4 to 6 weeks.

I am very happy that I do not have to have surgery, but I am a little sad. JDOG-17 did a story about a physical therapy center using the Nintendo Wii for therapy. I was trying to figure a way that I could get one and have worker's comp pay for it. I also will not be getting a helper monkey.

Only Typing With One Hand

No you sickos, it's not what you think! As you can see from the picture something is wrong with my hand.

Yesterday I was working with HyPClR yesterday on a story about teaching people English, by having them learn to read and write in their own language first, it's supposedly easier that way. I'm shooting away and I pick up my camera off the table and felt a sharp pop in my hand. It was one of the sharpest pains I have ever felt. My hand started to contort into a strange position. I find HyPCLR and tell him I need to go to the hospital. We inform the station that I'm done shooting for the day.I call The Wife and tell her which hospital I'm at.

About 3 hours later I found out that one of the tendons that goes over my thumb, somehow chipped off part of the knuckle bone in the thumb. I now have to go to a Orthopedic specialist and see what has to be done. Best case scenario is just a case for a while. Worst case...surgery.

I do get a few days off and will probably have to start editing, which will be hard with just one hand. It's taken me 20 minutes to just type this. At least this happened at work, so now I am suckling on the teet of Workers Compensation. Also NO IT'S NOT A STRESS FRACTURE FROM "DOING SOMETHING ELSE." I'm looking at you Wilson.

Spanish Inquisition

Remember in the last post I smacked my leg up against a trailer hitch. Well Yesterday it was very sore and I should not have gone into work. By the end of the day no long was my shin the only thing sore, it has migrated to my knee, hamstrings and my foot. I wake up this morning not wanting to go through that again so I do the American thing and call off. I've done things like this before. I'm sore and can't function so I take a day to heal. Well I just found out that I have to go to the doctor for this. I'm "OK" with this, but it technically is a Workers Comp deal, so I need paper work for them to look at it or find a place that will even look at me. With our entire HR department on vacation (she needed a Bahamavention) no one can get me the paper work. I now have to do this on my insurance and pay the co pay. Fantastic, just what I want to do, pay for something that I don't want to do that should be paid for by someone else.