Workman's Comp this time!

Well, it happened, I serously hurt myself at work today. We have another building down the street from our office/warehouse which the Boss bought when things were going full blast about 2 years ago which we were going to build out and move into. But do to the ecomomy the way it is, it never happened so we have been using it for a second warehouse for material and to store all the Bosses toys. Yesterday one of our lighting reps who we bought $80,000. worth of lighting for a mall which went south and my boss asked me to get them some of the fixtures which are being stored over there and give them to his driver as he is trying to sell them to someone else to get some of his $$$$$ back. I told him I couldn't go over there untill at least 11:00am after I had finnished writing all my afternoon orders. The driver> Flash, a crazy Jamacan guy showed up at 10:30am and when I told him he would have to wait, fell asleep in a chair in my office. I finally finished the orders and rode over w/ him to the other building which has no electric hence no lights! After opening the door, there was just enough light to see where we were going and made our way over to the other side of the bld. where I had put all the fixtures and gear 6 months ago. As I walked into the other side, I was looking at the pallets of lighting some stacked 3 high against the wall when suddenly I stepped down into a big hole right in the middle of the concrete slab! It was maybe a little more than a foot deep and about 3' round. Have you ever stepped of a curb or step and didn't realize it till you hit bottom? Well the jolt was enormus and my whole body collapsed. Ouch! A sharp pain went from my neck right down my spine just like when I almost fell on the Ship earlier this week only 10 times worse! I had so much pain I started to vomit right there as Flash was screaming something I couldn't understand as his accent is so heavy. That it! I said, why the hell weren't these holes (there were several of them) marked or blocked off so no one could fall in them and why didn't anyone warn me? I was really pissed this time! Flash helped me back to the truck and took me back slowly to the office. I asked him if he saw what happened and he said only the end of it. I sat at my desk for a while and luckily it was about lunch time when I take my meds so I took two percs and a methadone. I was in agony, my neck was red hot just like the lava Tony talked about in that post last week! After a while I calmed down and went down to see Madeline, the HR girl. After telling her what happened she said you have two choices, go to the ER now and fill out a workmans comp report or wait for the boss and just let him pay the deductable and let insurance cover it, which he bullies empoyees into doing so his insurance premiums don't go up. I told her I'd think about it but right now, I was going to put some ice on it and hope the pain would simmer down. after a while she called me on the intercom and told me the boss just got back so I hobbled down to his office just knowing he would flip out when I told him. Well he was in his office w/ his partner who runs the air conditioning for the company. His door was closed so I went across the hall to Madeline's office to wait and get a pep talk from her as she said I have to tell him no matter what I descide. After about 10 minutes I walked out and looked into his office, he & Brian were still in there talking and as the boss saw me and shouted "what the "F" do you want? Can't you see I'm busy? Can't you just give me 10 minutes to talk? He was still yelling when I walked away but the un-called-for outburst made up my mind for me!!! It's workman's comp this time, I don't give a "S" what he says! So about a 1/2 hour later, he came down to my office and said, "what was so G.D. important that you couldn't wait?" I said nothing. He asked again and I said nothing important enough to bother him with. He asked why I looked the way I did, was I mad? OK D-head! I'm in agony because you sent me over to that warehouse w/ no lights and I stepped into one of those holes that weren't there the last time I was there and seriously hurt my neck, back, hip and knees ! OMG how things changed! I could see the terror creep across his face! I told you to be careful around here and to take it easy while your healing. Yes, but you didn't tell me about those huge ******* holes in the floor! I'm leaving now and may go to the ER, I don't know! I'll clear it w/ Madeline and I will be filling out a workmans comp report! He just looked at me and didn't say a thing as I limped down the hall. She said, go ahead, you can fill it out later because you reported it to me right away and it's an emergency! I came home and here I am waiting for my wife to get here. I'm worried to death about telling her. She's so> so> so> tired of all my problems, now this! I haven't descided wether or not to go to the ER??? I'm hoping the pain will go down as it has a little now, the ice is helping. If it's bad later, I'll go or maybe tomorrow. I just can't put my wife through this now! The ER's here in S.E.Fla. are horrable w/ all the sooting, stabbings car wrecks and old people dying (dropoping like flys!) The waits are rediculous! She is so tired from the trip and her horse being sick and she's driving 4 hours after working all day!  I know if I go, she'll come w/ me. I also know that the ER will do nothiong but maybe give me an xray and maybe a shot which won't help anyway. I found that out after my surgery! So I think I'll just wait it out and call my surgeon tomorrow if it's still bad and see what he thinks!! One thing I'm not going to do is call that WACKO boss and let him know anything! Let him sweat it out! He probably thinks I'm going to sue him ort something which my concsience would never let me do! I must go lie down now. It hurts so bad! I'm so sorry to whine and ramble on like this but as all of Y'all know>>>>> Who else can I tell????????? Where else can I go??????

Thanks for being here for me>> Tears of pain or of happieness that y'all are here for me> I'm not sure which but I think it's the latter!!!!!!!

Love you guys & Gals!!!

Pityfull Pete      

Pete:

You definitely should get medical attention A.S.A.P., I'm afraid that they may use it against you if you don't go right away - they may try to say that it couldn't have been that bad if you didn't seek immediate medical attention. And I wouldn't put it past that boss of yours to lie and say that you were just fine when you left.

More importantly, you don't know what damage you may have done - hopefully it will turn out to just be muscle spasms, but the sooner you know what's going on, the sooner it can be treated, and hopefully the better the outcome.

PLEASE get checked out!

Lorie

Pete

I do hope your Ok! I know hind site is 20/20 but you should have went to the ER right away when it happened, it is not only important for you physically but also for legal reasons, with a wc claim. I hope your OK and everything works out!

White Beard

Hi All,
Thanks for all your suport and advice! I just got home from the marrage counceller, what a cry fest! I'm not sure it's helping as alot of ugly things came out today and my wife left right after we got home and I called the Doc. I think she did the right thing because staying may have got out of control if we started talking about it all w/o the shrink between us. We needed to calm down. After calling the Doc, the attending surgeon returned my call as I remember now, mine is in Hati doing vollenter surgery for those poor people. He told me that as long as it was just pain and no numbness or parrallisis anywhere that going to the ER would just be a waist of time. He said I probably just rattled things around a bit and have some inflamation but if it got any worse over the weekend, to call back and go back to The Miami ER, NOT here to the local ER! I don't have either symtom so I agreed with him. The pain has gone down a notch and I'm very happy and less worried about it now. As far as the workmans comp goes, I'm sure your right about the legalities of going to the ER right away but if the Doc told me not to, well, I'm just going to do what he told me to, stay home, ice it down, wear my brace, take my meds and try to get some rest. I've calmed down quite a bit since yesterday when I was really mad and I'm not sure I want to get all wrapped up in the workmans comp quagmeyer so many of you talk about. I already have enough stress! So again, thanks for all your help. I'm sorry if I seem hard headed with my head burried in the sand, I'm just not in a good place right now with the wife and all. I need to think!
Your Friend as always,
Pete

Pete, I know you have had a very tough weekend but I want to advise you to do something tomorrow. I would be lost without WC even though WC is not always easy to work with. If you have a camera with a flash, take it to work with you ther next time you go and get a picture of the building and the condition including the whole you stepped into. You might also want to make sure you have the mans name that was with you so that if necessary, you can use him as a witness. I say these things so that you are protected. You have no idea what will happen but you need to make sure you take the right steps. I know you state that you would never sue your boss. That is now and I appreciate you loyalty and work ethic. I felt the same way until after I was hurt and the county I worked for tried to bury me and make it so I did not get insurance of any kind. I had to threaten them and they knew I was willing to back it up. Protect yourself. Blessings, on you buddy.