Shoulder work related injury

The beginning of February I had a student on a small trampoline and he decided to drop to the floor while I was holding him. I immedietely felt pain in my shoulder, by the next morning it hurt alot. I filled out all the paper work and went to the WC dr. Since then I have been going to therapy and visiting the dr every two weeks.

After much fighting they finally found a place to do a diagnostic ultrasound yesterday. I cant have an MRI due to my SCS. The dr that did the ultrasound (the actuall radiologist did the study, not a tech) told me that I had some small tears/separations as well as calcium deposits in the tendons, tendonitis and bone spurs.

So today I met with the dr and he tells me the US was completely normal and he is referring me to an ortho dr. They got me in tomorrow morning at 7:45. I know that the bone spurs and calcium deposits are in no way caused from the injury with the child. But before that day I had no pain what so ever, this was the only joint without an issue, lol.

So now what happens? What do they do when treatment would be for the tear and calcium deposits? 1/2 WC, 1/2 pre existing irritated by WC injury, although we never knew it was there and it never caused a problem previously. Or maybe WC injury made worse than it should be because of my bone spurs? Just confused I guess. Anyone knows how this works? I am sure WC will try and get out of it if they can so I am not sure how flexible I should be.

Hi shell, basically, the WC works like this... whether there was already a pre-existing problem, a pre-disposed problem (as the work comp attorneys like to put it), or there was no problem at all beforehand, if there is an injury caused by performing your job, workers compensation has to pay for the medical care. Where all the other stuff comes into play, is when your negotiating a settlement for permanent partial disability from any injury sustained. If it is deemed a work related injury, they have to cover the medical care, plain and symple, the other stuff... that's why work comp attorneys exist.

If there is deemed to be a pre-existing condition, then what will happen at the end of the claim, the work comp company will figure out an apportionment, what % of the condition was caused by the injury, and what percentage was preexisting. They will figure out what your Whole Person impairment Rating is based on your condition when you are declared permanent and stationary, that WPI will be used to calculate your total Permanent Partial Disability % rating (a rating that only exists for the purpose of calculating the final settlement of the claim, this disability rating means nothing to any other agency). Lets say at the end of your claim, they give you a PPD rating of 20% (note, its only for the work comp injury, not for anything else) and they figure that 20 % of that rating was already pre-existing, then for the purpose of that claim, you were made 16% permanently partly disabled, and thats the percentage that they are liable for, and the basis on which they will come up with a number for either a cash settlement (if they do those in your state), or for a PPD structured settlement (in my state, they use your PPD percentage, and pay you $230 per week, for 7 weeks, for every 1% that you are declared PPD, so if 20% PPD, then you get $230 a week for 140 weeks.

Thats kind of the basics on how it works, if everything goes smoothly... it probably has several different variations in every state.

Regarding your shoulder, it wouldn't shock me in the least if an ortho decides to do an exploratory if there is a tear, usually a tear is an indicator that there is something else wrong. They did an exploratory on my left shoulder in 2002 because the MRI was too fuzzy to find the problems, turned out the "fuzzieness" was built up scar tissue, and they removed a lot of it, and had to shave a whole layer of bone and cartalidge out of there to smooth everything out. It actually fealt great when I woke up, a few hours of a dull ache, when I was at home that night, but it felt alot better.

Let us know what happens, I know with your CRPS, that anything is going to be tricky, I really hope that it turns out to be something simple like just some strained ligaments that some PT or something can take care of. Please take care of yourself, your in my thoughts and prayers and I wish you the best.

Asymptomatic pre-injury means it was not impairing your job-related activities, in fact you say it was never noticed before. Since then, the bone spurs and other things have been found. It's a little like getting hit on the head while at work, and finding a brain tumor checking you for a concussion.

Get a copy of your records and films from the WC doc. They are your records, no matter who is paying for them. Do the same from the ortho. And get into defense mode, as these things can take on a life of their own.

Thank you very much for the info everyone. The injections were painful and definetely made things much worse, but it is starting to calm down slowly. Hoping in a few days it will come around. The dr just wants me doing home PT, since I cant have ultrasound or TENS it is silly for me to go, just for them to watch. Of course if WC says they want me to go, I guess they have some pull.

So far so good, my employer is still accepting the no lifting restriction without a problem. We will see,lol!