Well, the quacks cleared me.
And I don't understand how a health-care "provider" like them can remain in business.
Three-and-a-half weeks after my work injury, I have gained some range of motion in my back, but only because I'm allowing myself the extra five seconds to get my back in a bent position. Like I told everyone from the very beginning, the therapy I've received has not been a benefit, because the simulated working conditions they preach do not equal the actual working conditions experienced at the airport - especially with parking lots overflowing & spilling over, meaning additional passengers, and additional bags.
It took a more reputable general practitioner a mere five minutes this evening to tell me what the clinic refused to tell me for nearly a month: the pain is not courtesy of my brain or thinking: it is real, it is there, and that I need to see a spinal specialist "immediately." It only took that short time for him to realize he didn't like how my back was reacting to a simple drill; how it took me nearly fifteen seconds to sit up from a prone position while holding my feet down for maximum leverage.
If I truly didn't see a necessity to work there, as I said before, I would have quit ages ago. I can't see myself without a job, period... and that's the only thing available right now. Yet, how can they judge me to be 100%, when I am technically not any better than I was on January 28th?
"Well, we're open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if you feel a need to come back & see us," was the doctor's frank reply as I left in a huff. "Okay, see you tomorrow," was my immediate reply. I would be taking bets on how many hours I'll last before I'm in that supervisor's office, with that idiot supervisor rolling his eyes. He'll just be met with the truth: their "reputable" clinical care said I was 100% in spite of how I truly feel.
What a shame they don't give their employees more consideration when it comes to their own physical well-being. After all, those who hurt have to live with the hurt, and know where the hurt is. A doctor or unlicensed assistant who doesn't even physically or verbally check for problems is hardly in a position to understand; never mind empathize.
I've grown to know this in the past five-plus years, and finally there are co-workers who know exactly the things I've gone through, and they root for me. For that, I couldn't be more thankful. In fact, it scares me that I have been proven right in this regard. People agreeing with me on my condition is something new to me. Don't bother to pinch me, as I'd rather not lose this satisfaction.
Look for another report tomorrow. My current estimation: Five hours of work before it goes out again, and the entire process repeats itself.
The spinal specialist will be called Monday when they reopen. Until then, I can only hope that all breakdowns will be cosmetic in nature only.
