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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dealer who wrote (58559)	7/4/2003 12:45:53 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 65232

Hi Dealer, "Where the heck ya been"? As you know, I have a hard time with reducing things to succunct little sound bites. It leaves too much room for folks to fill in the blanks with their own perceptions that become their reality...... regardless (or in lieu) of the facts. Suffice it to say there's two reasons for my absence of late. One reason was due to having knee surgery last month. Since I live in a split level home & my computers are on the lower level, I've been mostly unable to get online. It's quite painful walking stairs right now. Recently my wife bought an extension cord for our cable modem & brought our old notebook computer upstairs. I could surf fairly easily, but I needed to keep my knee elevated, so I had to balance the notebook on a pillow. That made posting messages quite unwieldy (cut & paste wasn't too bad). Now I can sit at the table for a spell & type away. I've discussed my ongoing battle with Workman's Compensation here a couple of times. I seriously injured my knee while working in Washington DC, January 2000. From the get go, Worker's Comp did everything they could, legally & illegally, to keep me from getting a proper diagnosis. In fact, they did likewise in keeping me from receiving any medical services, treatments & benefits whatsoever. Many approved, legitimate bills went unpaid. Three times since my injury I had collection agencies harassing me due to Worker's Comp not only failing to pay these bills, but repeatedly ignoring letters from the vendors, my Congresswoman, my Senators & myself imploring them to pay these long overdue bills. However, I digress. Worker's Comp successfully, albeit illegally kept me from getting a proper diagnosis of my injury. As it turns out, an MRI would have easily revealed the problem. Instead, several months ago they "successfully" terminated my claim & determined that I had been 100% recovered from my "contusion" since March 2000. Worker's Comp achieved this "successful" termination by violating numerous laws, regulations & their own established policies & procedures, including the Freedom of Information Act & the Privacy Act. Oh, & they also committed fraud (their doctor filed a blatantly false report that was based on an orthopedic examination that he never performed). Their Claims Examiners & supervisors lied & distorted facts in their reports as egregiously as anyone from SI's doom & gloom political threads (at least they had bonuses on the line - ng). Nevertheless, my claim was terminated. I went to my doctor who prescribed an MRI after examining my knee. It was obvious to him there was something seriously wrong. The MRI clearly revealed a torn meniscus. My Orthopedic surgeon explained after my surgery that it was an extensive tear & most of it had to be removed as it was not repairable. Also, since I had been living for more than three years with this tear, the meniscus damaged some of the cartilage, which also had to be removed. That now leaves me with very little protection from bone on bone contact in my knee. I found out that surgery for a meniscus needs to be done immediately - they can repair some/most of the meniscus with mini-staples, as this allows the meniscus to generally heal itself. Unfortunately, I ground the torn portion of my meniscus to shreds during the three years that Worker's Comp screwed me over in order to to save a few $$ & allowed a few unscrupulous people to earn bonuses. Great system, 'eh? My surgeon showed me pictures of the tear before he removed it. It looked like the frayed end of a shoe string. I can now understand why I had so much pain & swelling after only mild exertion. I'm rehabing the knee now. I'm hopeful that I will recover sufficiently that I won't be as incapacitated as I've been these last three years..... or at least not have as much chronic pain. All of the costs are being paid by our health insurance which is complete BS. And now back to your regular programming......