Today I re-installed Internet Explorer, and looky here, I can blog again. I wonder why I didn't think of this sooner.
Updates:
Work comp denied Paul for the Spinal Cord Stimulator. I am not surprised, after all, it is a $100,000 surgery. Something needs to happen though. His pain has gotten dramatically worse in the past few weeks. He's been missing days of work, therefor our already low income went down even more. The doctor prescribed him a new medication that could help his pain, Exalgo. I guess it's new and doesn't have a generic form. Denied. It was a synthetic, time-released version of Morphine. This may just be a good thing. I can't imagine starting something like this in your 30's could end up a good thing. So it was back to the drawing board. The pain doctor requires patients to come into the office for meds, so an appointment was made and I decided to take this opportunity to go with and voice my concerns to the doctor.
The appointment was this week. I got someone to watch Jesse and we went. I prepared for the appointment, having my concerns ready, have a defense prepared and bringing proof of the amount of pain my husband is in. The topic came up about taking Paul off work, the doctor asked if we were sure this is something we want to move forward with and we both confirmed. It's obviously the best thing for him. The commute itself was putting him in pain, the pain and his work situation was giving him stress, the stress aggrivates the pain more and it gets worse and turning into a never ending cycle. He was down to 25 hours a week and we could barely even live on that. Something had to change, so the change is now made. The doctor wrote a note that states, "Off work until further notice."
Now the scary part. Waiting to see if work comp will resume disability payments. Of course I spoke with the attorney and he feels Paul is entitled to these benefits and has stated he will fight to get them. So we wait. It's scary. I only work part time (not by choice) and we cannot survive on just my salary. I have already started thinking of back up plans. In the mean time I have requested extra hours at my office and at the restaurant I have been working at. If I need to, I will start looking for a new full time job.
Yes, this is a risk, but we had to do what was right for Paul and right for our family. This can possibly help work comp approve the stimulator and/or any future treatments. We believe he was denied because he was working. If this guy can work, he must not need a stimulator THAT bad. WRONG! He's been working in extreme pain, just so he could be a provider for his family. He's been suffering and it needed to stop. Time will tell where this leads us on this journey, hopefully it's a path to something good.
