Workers Compensation Neglect

[LeglEgl]

I can't agree more. An addiction is created when someone has a conscious DESIRE to use (then abuse) a substance. A dependency is created when one is drawn to the substance out of necessity and becomes tolerant of it, requiring larger and often more frequent doses.

Those who are addicted and those who become dependent are from different "classes" of prescription users. They do not go hand-in-hand. The two words are often used synonymously, and shouldn't be.

[bagpussinamerica]

Jayne,
You mentioned a PCP, is that a pain control pump? I ask because this as well as the possibility of a spinal cord stimulator, not both together obviously, was mentioned by my neurosurgeon as reasons for me not being at MMI, since these two options plus a few others have yet to be explored to control my pain. I have never had any experience with pain control pumps but did see two people at the pain clinic have their medications weaned off of these pumps and the results were awful to watch. I always knew that anyone coming off of heavy drug use go in to horrible withdrawals, but what I saw was beyond belief!!!

To be honest I am quite frightened by the prospect of either intervention. What if it goes wrong? Do they then remove hardware or what? And a PCP......Jesus, I hate to think what would happen if I got put one something I was allergic to. I have had so much go wrong with my case with Tarlovs that anything else going to be too hard to cope with. I am barely holding on as it is. Mentally that is.

Its like recently I fell. I don't remember the fall. Was using my walker in the house, night time, but lights were on, next thing I know I am on the floor with blood all around my head. I had somehow fallen and hit the staircase banister, huge gash on forehead and I at first could not even get up off of the floor. I have been having strange headaches in just that one tiny spot where I hit. Where there is also now a scar...wonderful, lets go for disfigurement as well..anyhow since I lost memory of before and after the accident I was put in for a CAT scan. Today I get back a denied letter stating they are not responsible for falls due to slipping in water on the floor. Now here I am thinking...who the hell told them there was water on the floor. I said there was blood on the floor, not water....so here we go again. And I am also now told to expect falls all of the time now, since that is part of what a lot of Tarlovs patients go through. Great. I will probably next be told that I cut myself on the head and slipped in the blood. That makes about as much sense. Oh well. Guess it is all part of the process. I am surprised that w/c didn't come back with my "drug dependence" obviously took over and I deliberately abused them to enjoy the feeling of falling down and hitting my head on the floor. Sorry if I sound so cynical. When I first joined the forum I remember my innocence. What a shame that its all gone now.

[jayne]

Bag,I am so sorry if I miss led you.PCP is my primary care phycision(sp)(dr) he is my rock and has been there when wc was hiding under rocks and couldnt be found.He was my PCP before my injury so he has been our family Dr for a long time.I understand the falls as I fall alot I fell earlier this week and have been paying dearly for it....I have also gained a upfront and personal relationship with arthritis in the areas of my injury.........add to that the meds I take give me memory loss and well I am just not the person I used to be.
addition or dependent both are words but when the meds are taken away we must go thru the same withdrawel process if I ever have to I hope it done in a hospital.The worst part of this whole injury is its taken my choices from me.....but I get what you are saying.....shame on you for busting your head open and slipping in the blood.....I lost count of all the different ways they reworded the question "Just how were you moving when you transfered the box from truck to the next person"Its not rocket science people 5 hours in a depo to clear up that one question and to prove it was work related.....oh my.....

[bagpussinamerica]

I don't know about everywhere else, but here, or at least with me, w/c have dropped my nurse case manager. My thinking is this. The top dogs cuts off the slack so that they can have the great fun of re-wording a doctors request and turn an injured workers injuries into something they read from Star Wars. Unrealistic. I have read so many mistakes in my transcripts...almost all on the part of w/c doctors and co-workers, that it almost...no it does, make me out to be some sort of imbecile to get injured in the first place. And you are right. A lot of the written reports are so badly written that you can't actually work out how a person landed here, when they were all the way over there. I don''t know who takes their notes for them, but maybe they should think about their own memory loss and their ability to string two words together that make some sense instead of poking at those of us who have memory loss because of the meds and the injuries and the trauma of going through so much every day. I honestly find it more and more difficult to remember one day from the next. And when they ask me to subtract 7 from the 100 game...I just stop. I know. Its supposed to be easy and if I could be bothered to memorize it it would not bother me. But I used to administer these tests to my clients and always wanted to say..never mind, leave that one. And when my own doctor asked me the list of presidents I almost dropped dead. I mean, didn't she hear the British accent? I know who most of them are, but who was after who in the last 30 years......like it was important for me at all. Now ask me about the Thatcher and Reagan relationship and Tony Blair.........well see what I mean.

I am going to take my slippers in as evidence. You can't slip on the floor even if it had ice on it with these guys. I don't slip. I fall. Backwards, forwards, sideways. Its my leg. It has a mind of its own and it moves in directions I have no intention of going. It has been witnessed several times so I am not making it up. Yep. I sure do LOVE to fall flat backwards onto my arse smacking my head onto the floor. The fall is the best part. I mostly don't remember hitting. Oh, I am being sarcastic here.

Sorry Jayne about the misunderstanding. I still don't understand most of the American abbreviations in their medical world.

I need some structure in my life. Maybe then things would make more sense.

[jayne]

maybe we can hire ourselves out as zombies to hollywood for their movies......

[bagpussinamerica]

Oh background for one those background players in a war film. Of course we would have to get the film company to pay for the bandages.