It's a three day work week for me this week! The center is closed on Turkey Day, I took Friday off and I don't work Saturdays, so I've got a four day weekend. Score!
Interestingly enough, the only day we aren't celebrating Thanksgiving is on Thursday. Somehow I convinced nearly all my siblings to travel to Kenton to my Mom's house for dinner on Friday and we'll have dinner at my Dad's on Saturday. Most of them have in-laws to visit in Gwinn or Marquette, so this works out best for everyone. I think Joe and I are going to get together with a couple of his brothers that can't get home to see their families.
I'm actually pretty glad we're not eating dinner anywhere special until Friday, as I'm not entirely certain how much I'll be able to chew. I'm having some dental work done on Wednesday...something like 3 crowns, a filling, and something else that sounds unpleasant. I'm going to be at the dentist for 2 and a half hours and she didn't seem to think I'd be very interested in chewing for a while. I'm also not very interested in paying the bill, thank you. Yikes.
This is the first year that Joe and I haven't gone to see his parents for Thanksgiving, mostly because we thought they were going to be in South Dakota. While I wish we could have planned things to see both of our families, I haven't actually been home for Thanksgiving in a couple years. I think we managed to make it to my Dad's last year, but definitely not my Mom's. Plus, I think my Mom is really pleased we're all going to her house. We'd thought about going downstate the weekend after Thanksgiving, but my Mom is getting married that Friday so we had to trash that idea.
And then there's Christmas. I'm trying to get my family to make some decisions about Christmas, but I'm not expecting much. We just nailed down Thanksgiving plans on Friday even though I've been emailing everyone for over a month. We're really still struggling to set traditions since my parents got divorced. We used to all get together on Christmas Eve for the day, people coming and going as needed, then everyone went home so Santa could come and if you were available you came for dinner on Christmas night. Now no one seems to know where to go or when. We usually get together with Dad on the Saturday before or the Saturday after, which works out great, but it seems a little different every year with my Mom. I'm the only one that has to drive more than half an hour to see my in-laws, so it's difficult to get my siblings and parents to have the foresight to plan stuff more than a week ahead of time.
I've decided that this year I'm not going to make the same cookies I always do, mostly because I don't actually like either kind very much. Thus, I'm shopping for recipes. Suggestions welcome!
Alright, off to work.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Worker's Comp
On Monday, I feel at work. In the back of the center we keep all of softgoods (saline, anticoagulant, disposable sets, needles, plasma bags) stacked on pallets. At the end of a shift we have to restock our phlebotomy carts, as well as put back-up stock into bins so they are easy to grab when we use up everything on the donor floor. Unfortunately, our center wasn't really designed to handle the amount of donors we currently process. Thus, the softgood area is very overcrowded, with our boxes of stock stacked too high and wedged against each other. In addition to this problem, the pallets we use are not really safe. They have large divots in them, which are just perfect for say, someone's foot to slip into.
While I was stocking on Monday, these two problems came together. A large box I needed to use to stock our bins was pinned between two large stacks of solutions (saline and AC). In order to get the box out, I needed to get behind it, lift it to chest height, and push it over the boxes it was wedged between. While climbing over the box, my left foot slipped off the edge of the pallet and my right foot slid into one of the divots in the pallet, causing me to fall. The box broke my fall, but my left knee hit the corner of the box, causing me to twist a bit as I landed straddling a box that is about 2.5 feet wide. The stack of boxes behind kept me from falling backwards, but I still still essentially in the splits. My knee started to bruise immediately, so I put some ice on it and filled out an incident report.
On Tuesday, my back started to hurt. Truthfully, I figured it was PMS since that's how it usually starts for me (in hindsight, that was a pretty dumb assumption since it didn't really work out on the calendar). On Wednesday my left hip was hurting, and by Thursday morning my leg was tingly and it hurt to pull my knee to my chest and to rotate my hip outwards. I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep that night. I was a little bewildered - I've had back and hip problems for a majority of my life, but always on my right side, never my left. Finally, it dawned on me that this was probably because of my fall.
I went to work on Friday morning (I'd had Thursday off) and told them about my back. They immediately sent me to Occupational Health to be examined. I was pretty confident that nothing was seriously wrong, since my pain was muscular, but the pain was pretty intense. I'd been taking 800mg of Motrin and it wasn't touching it, so I was mostly looking for some pain relief and a chance to rest, since being at work only made me more miserable.
The doc at occupational health did an extremely quick (albeit pretty thorough) exam and said I'd strained my lumbar region, which I expected. He didn't however, address my hip pain or take any x-rays. He gave me a prescription for Cataflam, which I'd never heard of, and cleared me for work immediately. My shift for the day was over by the time I left the office, so I was able to go home, but I was going to have to work on Saturday. And after looking Cataflam up I discovered he'd basically given me Motrin, which I'd already told him wasn't doing anything for me. Still, I figured he was the doctor, so I followed his orders.
I probably should have called in on Saturday, but I'm stubborn and didn't think I should have to burn my sick time for a work-related injury. In addition to that, we were already significantly short staffed and I like my co-workers too much to strand them so short handed. By the end of my shift I knew that I'd made a mistake, as I was now having shooting pains in my back and the medication wasn't working on my pain. I informed management that I needed to go back to the doc, and since occupational health was closed they sent me to the ER.
The PA at the ER was extremely nice, but he did a horrible job of covering his surprise that I'd been released to work so quick, especially without x-rays or adequate pain control. So we took x-rays, which showed scoliosis but no fracture, and decided I'd strained not only my back but also my hip, probably worse than the doc at Occ. Health had though. He sent me home with Motrin for inflammation and anexsia for pain and wrote orders for a 1-2 days off work and light duty for a week after that. I'm supposed to return for a follow up in 10 days, sooner if I don't get better.
While I understand that these things happen in the workplace, I'm a little frustrated by it. 70% of our incident reports (according to the nurses) are related to the softgood area, and most of the phlebs have commented on how dangerous the new pallets are because of the divots. What bothers me is that I'm nearly certain that my injury, nor anyone else's incident, will change the way things are stocked in the back (because that's how our management rolls). But I'm also not very sure what I'm supposed to do about it, which is even more frustrating. It's not really my style to let these things slide.
While I was stocking on Monday, these two problems came together. A large box I needed to use to stock our bins was pinned between two large stacks of solutions (saline and AC). In order to get the box out, I needed to get behind it, lift it to chest height, and push it over the boxes it was wedged between. While climbing over the box, my left foot slipped off the edge of the pallet and my right foot slid into one of the divots in the pallet, causing me to fall. The box broke my fall, but my left knee hit the corner of the box, causing me to twist a bit as I landed straddling a box that is about 2.5 feet wide. The stack of boxes behind kept me from falling backwards, but I still still essentially in the splits. My knee started to bruise immediately, so I put some ice on it and filled out an incident report.
On Tuesday, my back started to hurt. Truthfully, I figured it was PMS since that's how it usually starts for me (in hindsight, that was a pretty dumb assumption since it didn't really work out on the calendar). On Wednesday my left hip was hurting, and by Thursday morning my leg was tingly and it hurt to pull my knee to my chest and to rotate my hip outwards. I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep that night. I was a little bewildered - I've had back and hip problems for a majority of my life, but always on my right side, never my left. Finally, it dawned on me that this was probably because of my fall.
I went to work on Friday morning (I'd had Thursday off) and told them about my back. They immediately sent me to Occupational Health to be examined. I was pretty confident that nothing was seriously wrong, since my pain was muscular, but the pain was pretty intense. I'd been taking 800mg of Motrin and it wasn't touching it, so I was mostly looking for some pain relief and a chance to rest, since being at work only made me more miserable.
The doc at occupational health did an extremely quick (albeit pretty thorough) exam and said I'd strained my lumbar region, which I expected. He didn't however, address my hip pain or take any x-rays. He gave me a prescription for Cataflam, which I'd never heard of, and cleared me for work immediately. My shift for the day was over by the time I left the office, so I was able to go home, but I was going to have to work on Saturday. And after looking Cataflam up I discovered he'd basically given me Motrin, which I'd already told him wasn't doing anything for me. Still, I figured he was the doctor, so I followed his orders.
I probably should have called in on Saturday, but I'm stubborn and didn't think I should have to burn my sick time for a work-related injury. In addition to that, we were already significantly short staffed and I like my co-workers too much to strand them so short handed. By the end of my shift I knew that I'd made a mistake, as I was now having shooting pains in my back and the medication wasn't working on my pain. I informed management that I needed to go back to the doc, and since occupational health was closed they sent me to the ER.
The PA at the ER was extremely nice, but he did a horrible job of covering his surprise that I'd been released to work so quick, especially without x-rays or adequate pain control. So we took x-rays, which showed scoliosis but no fracture, and decided I'd strained not only my back but also my hip, probably worse than the doc at Occ. Health had though. He sent me home with Motrin for inflammation and anexsia for pain and wrote orders for a 1-2 days off work and light duty for a week after that. I'm supposed to return for a follow up in 10 days, sooner if I don't get better.
While I understand that these things happen in the workplace, I'm a little frustrated by it. 70% of our incident reports (according to the nurses) are related to the softgood area, and most of the phlebs have commented on how dangerous the new pallets are because of the divots. What bothers me is that I'm nearly certain that my injury, nor anyone else's incident, will change the way things are stocked in the back (because that's how our management rolls). But I'm also not very sure what I'm supposed to do about it, which is even more frustrating. It's not really my style to let these things slide.
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