RE: "How did you hurt your leg? Are you rehabbing it? Will you ever get to do hiking eventually, you think?"
I was born a poor black child........... OOF!! That's The Jerk :-o Actually, it's an interesting, albeit sad story if you're interested.
January 2000, found me in Washington DC, in travel status for my job. I was the lead auditor/Gov't expert witness in a fraud case. On Tuesday, a blizzard hit the DC area. It was so severe that all Federal offices were closed for two days.
I had the good fortune to be located on the Concierge of the Key Bridge Marriott. The view from my little perch was awesome to watch Mother Nature do her thing. I hooked my personal computer up to my AOL account & set up my table right in front of the window. Spent most of the next two days there..... room service, Concierge goodies & all.
It was a welcome break & I intended to sit back & take it easy for once. My job was very demanding. Working 60 - 80 - 100+ hours a week was commonplace. Regularly having vacations canceled due to the exigency of public business had become too easy for my supervisor (trust me, this background info will make sense later).
Now I've watched nasty snow storms before, but never so much snow, blowing so hard, for so long, from 20 stories up. At times I couldn't see the hotel across the street thru the blizzard. For hours on end the snow blew horizontally. The wind howled relentlessly. It brought the city to it's knees...... and later it brought me there too :-(
Well, on Thursday it was back to work. I took the Metro to my stop. I got off & began to walk toward the escalator. The next thing I know I'm airborne.... my feet going in two different directions...... and I land, knee first onto the granite floor. I had slipped on some melted snow & went down like I was shot.
I scrambled to my feet & immediately grabbed my knee. The pain was excruciating. I was somewhat confused & dizzy & couldn't quite stand on my own. Some folks came to my aid & held me steady. They asked me if I needed an ambulance. I was so embarrassed about how silly I must have looked & I was still quite dazed. I politely declined any additional help & took a few moments to gather myself.
My left knee, right hand & elbow hurt like the dickens. I tried to make it to the escalator. I quickly realized I was hurt far worse than I was embarrassed. By then, those good folks who helped me had gone on their way.
I only had to make it up two escalators & cross the street to make it to my building, where a nurse was on duty & I could inform my employer of my injury & the need to go to the emergency room. That ended up being the longest one block walk I've ever taken. I had to drag my left leg as it would not bend or take any weight without severe pain. The blizzard had dropped so much snow that I had to walk on top of a foot or more of slippery, packed snow.
It took 20+ minutes to get to the nurses office - a walk that normally would take me 2 or 3 minutes tops. The nurse asked me to drop my pants so she could examine my knee. My knee had swollen so much that I had a hard time doing it.
OOF! It was quite grotesquely discolored & swollen. She told me to put my pants & said I need to immediately go to the emergency room. One problem though. Traffic was horribly screwed up due to the poor road conditions. The city was experiencing numerous vehicle accidents & countless slip & fall accidents. It might take an ambulance an hour or more to get to me.
Fortunately, one of the guys from my office in Pittsburgh was in town. He had a rental car parked across the street. He got permission to drive me to the emergency room. Even though the hospital was only a mile or so away, it took almost an hour to get me there.
By then, the emergency room was overrun with injured people. I waited for hours before I was taken to a gurney in a hallway. I waited more than an hour before anyone even looked at me. I waited more than an hour to get X-rays of my knee, hand & elbow. The X-ray technician said she had seen 200++ slip & fall people already, but I was the first knee injury of the day. The others were mostly ankle, then some with arm, hip, back & neck injuries. I waited more than another hour before a doctor looked at me & made a diagnosis.
Amazingly, there were no broken bones, but there was soft tissue trauma & a massive contusion of the knee. The hand & elbow were negative, although there was severe bruising. I was given pain killers, a cane & knee brace, told to stay completely off my feet for at least a week & to see my physician ASAP. Then I was given the bums rush...... as they were still up to their eye teeth in patients.
I caught a Taxi to my hotel right across the river. By the time I got to my room, it was already early in the evening. I got undressed & nearly passed out when I saw my leg....... bruised, grotesquely swollen & grossly discolored from above my knee to my ankle.
I immediately began to fear that I would throw a clot & it would kill me. I'd never feared for my life like that before.
Although I had already been given quite a bit of painkillers, I was in excruciating pain. I also had noticed that a large portion over my kneecap was numb & that really scared me.
Tomorrow was Friday & I was in Wash DC with a rental car, which I could not drive. Fortunately, another guy from my office was in town (ya Wash DC - our headquarters & actually all 5 people from my office were here working & wondering what the heck 100+ staff in headquarters were doing??? Mostly nothing at all..... followed by mostly nothing of any real value..... but I digress). He had flown in, so he offered to drive me back. He even came to my room & packed my equipment & luggage for me :-)
Man oh man!!! That was one painful trip!
I took the following week off from work. I went to my doctor & he almost puked when he looked at my leg. He could not believe there were no broken bones. He told me I needed to see an orthopedic specialist ASAP.
That's when things began to go downhill fast.
I had an office in my home where I worked when I wasn't in travel status. I couldn't walk much without excruciating pain (& even the steps down to my office were nearly impossible to navigate). My physician said to stay away from work until I saw my specialist.
However, this fraud case was considered high profile & a top priority by HQ. Although there were a ton of folks working the case in one manner or another (well, they were charging a lot of time to the job), little real work was being done to move it forward now that I was off sick...... that's why I was made lead auditor & selected to be the gov't expert witness..... pretty much anything of value on the case was due to my work & the prosecutor & our general counsel knew it was going nowhere without my testimony & working papers (which were detailed, complex & clearly exposed the fraud, leaving no wiggle room to get off....... but it would require real work for anyone else to assume my duties & get up to speed on the case....... leaving nearly no one willing or able to assume the task).
I contacted my supervisor & explained the situation. Well, let's just say he wasn't very happy at all. This was a high profile job! I was allowed to work at home (when I could have legitimately remained on sick leave) only until I saw the orthopedic specialist. I kid not :-(
The following week I saw the specialist. He essentially said no travel & placed severe work restrictions on me. He also prescribed physical therapy 3x a week, for 4 weeks....... then I was to see him again.
Needless to say, my supervisor was livid!
I should mention here that my supervisor was one of the meanest, abusive & underhanded managers I ever worked for. He had no morals or ethics whatsoever. Also, as a field auditor, I was among the lowest class of employee possible. The pecking order went from Headquarters staff, to Regional staff, to field staff. I was a lowly field auditor..... scum of the earth....... and I had no special protections that certain Federal employees enjoyed & regularly abused. And my supervisor was a consummate bureaucrat & ran his Region like a dictator..... regardless of established laws or regulations. In his mind, a field auditor without any protections was lower than dirt & treated as such..... PERIOD!
Let's just say disparate treatment was commonplace & folks like myself were at the receiving end.
My supervisor absolutely refused to accommodate my injury. He made all manner of threats. He said I either was on sick leave, which he said would jeopardize my job ("THEY" would close my office), or I was 100% available to work. There was to be no accommodation whatsoever. He insisted that I immediately return to travel status. He even insisted that I schedule all of my physical therapy to take place on the road......... when I wouldn't know in advance what city I would be in & some weeks I'd be in multiple sites.
This meant all manner of hauling luggage over long distances multiple times per week...... it included hauling equipment, case files, working papers, etc. (in excess of 100 lbs), over long distances to multiple sites per week...... and that didn't include the hundreds of files I had to organize, move & review....... meetings at multiple sites........ oh & being on the road meant lots of walking practically everywhere, including to feed myself, etc. etc. etc. And I could not leave my computer & working papers unattended when I went to lunch or left the work site for any reason..... and the same thing for leaving my hotel room.
Walking was almost too much to bear...... And my elbow & wrist had hardly healed yet too.
Well, once it became obvious that I wasn't going to cancel my physical therapy & it was impossible to schedule it on the road, I was grudgingly allowed to complete the therapy.
I know anyone who has read this far has said that I could go to the proper authorities & turn this supervisor in. Well, that just wouldn't work. You see, this guy would blatantly say all this stuff to you, one on one, but NEVER in the presence of others. He'd threaten, insinuate, lie, manipulate & cajole. He'd tell it like it really was in one on one situations & tell you to your face, "if you don't like it, quit." He also was a consummate bureaucrat who knew the system inside & out. If confronted with his actions, he'd deny, deny, deny (a favorite line of his was "I don't recall", even though he had a memory like an elephant). And he'd have a lame story already prepared of his version of events replete with acknowledging the appropriate laws & regulations that would be violated if the allegations against him were true.
Oh, if you ever did challenge him, he would get you..... one way or another...... and he'd make it stick.
Once the therapy was done, I saw the specialist. I had made only modest progress. The bruising had just about gone, but the knee remained badly swollen & the numbness persisted. He said I most likely had permanent nerve damage & there was not much chance of fixing it........ that numbness would likely never go away. He expressed concern with the pain & swelling, but he said I had experienced quite a traumatic injury. He said it was going to take many months to properly heal, but it was important to follow his instructions & continue the exercises I was taught during my physical therapy.
Total face time with this doctor was maybe 5 minutes for both visits combined.
His work restrictions were brief, but clear....... return to work as tolerated.
So now I had a real problem. My supervisor was not going to let that restriction stand. I could hardly walk 100 yards without swelling & pain. Since I was injured on the job, this was a Workman's Compensation claim (although I did not actually make it to work, I was in travel status. Workman's Comp covers you 24/7 while you are in travel status.). Getting my claims examiner to ever return a phone call was nearly impossible, so getting a follow up visit wasn't in the cards & it was obvious that this doctor wasn't giving my injury the same treatment that a Blue Cross patient was getting.
I returned to work & was treated as though I was 100% physically able. ZERO accommodations...... 80+ hour work weeks...... relentless travel........ business as usual.
Oh & my peers in the Region & those in HQ where this job originated. No worries for them. Just show face time at your desk for the many of them.
Yup, business as usual.
I'd regularly be one of the first in HQ & the last one to leave while many of these people wouldn't even be at their desks for 8 hrs (not to mention the 2hr lunch breaks), yet their time card reflected 9 hours worked every day...... so they could take every other Friday off (flex time).
Meanwhile, it was absolutely imperative that I lug my a$$, my equipment, files, working papers & luggage to & fro....... from home to airports or rental car agencies..... to subways..... to multiple offices & hotels...... from Pittsburgh to DC, Pittsburgh to Philly, or both sites with multiple stops at Rockville in between..... working 10 - 12 - 14 hours a day.
Yup, business as usual.
Needless to say, my knee did not respond well to that constant pounding. I'd usually return home late Friday evening & do absolutely nothing until Monday morning & I'd still be badly swollen & in pain. It only got worse as the week progressed.
Prior to my injury, I didn't accept the clear disparate treatment I was subjected to & often spoke out against it (much to my detriment). However, I was good at what I did & I liked the work. I felt I was one of the few Government employees who really made a difference. I saved the taxpayers untold millions of dollars & some folks went to jail for their despicable deeds.
But this injury brought home how precious life is & all I was doing was causing untold damage to myself. I knew I wasn't going to win against my supervisor. If I kept working, I might be doing permanent damage to myself. I wasn't getting any younger & time is such a precious commodity.
After a lengthy discussion with my wife, I tendered my resignation............ and I told it like it was on my exit interview.
Now I'm in the second year of fighting with Workman's Comp regarding the rehabilitation of my knee...........
but that's another story altogether :-|
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