Amid all the crazy of the past months attendant on the launch of the new home page and the CMS issues, on August 21 I fell in the highly polished marble lobby of my building on the way in to work at the insanely early hour of 6:15 a.m. Flat on my face, with my right arm stretched straight out. Now, according to the rules, the first 10 feet of falling incurs 1d6 nonlethal damage, which is what I guess I took. Yikes. My shoulder popped out of its socket, much like happened about 12 years ago with my other shoulder. Serious pain, but my only thought as I sat there on the floor was, I have GOT to get up and get to work. Later, my therapist said I should've called 911 and gotten an ambulance. Farthest thing from my mind.
It hurt. A lot. I reported it as a worker's comp claim, but I waited a week to actually go to the doctor. Too much going on! When I finally did go, no doctors were available for some bizarre reason and I had to come back the next day, although I did get an X-ray. The next day, the Occupational Health Center doctor put me in a sling, wrote on the form I could resume my duties with no restrictions, here's a prescription for naproxin sodium and a muscle relaxer, get thee back to work.
So it popped out of socket three more times. After several weeks, I went back to the doctor, who scheduled me for an MRI. Had it done at ImageSouth Shelby, a facility I highly recommend, btw. Then I got a phone call at work. "You don't have a rotator cuff injury," the voice tells me. "Good," say I. "You have a fractured shoulder. You have an appointment to see Dr. Jeff Davis at St. Vincent's at this time and day."
Wow, I was freaked out. Fractured shoulder? I'd been walking around with a fractured bone for about a month and a half.
So I asked Thomas to go with me and we went to the crazy-huge complex that is St. Vincent's, to the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center, where I got another X-ray. When I saw the doctor and was relating once again the story of what happened, I got to the part about having an MRI the previous Thursday (this was on Tuesday). He looked at me funny. "An MRI?" He shuffles through my chart. "You have the films?" "No," I answered, with a rising sense of frustration. "They just called me on the phone and told me I had a fractured shoulder and to come see you." "I don't have your films. I can't diagnose you if I don't have your films."
He arranged to get my films sent to him. His assistant told me to be sure to call if I hadn't heard from them in 5 days, since I would no longer be in their appointment system.
Yeah, I called in 5 days, and was assured he'd get back to me. Ten days later (2 weeks, as the crow flies) I emailed the campus worker's comp coordinator and was told that they were working on scheduling a CT scan for me. Yesterday, October 15, I had the scan and Tuesday I will have my appointment with Dr. Davis, to decide if I need surgery or therapy on my fractured shoulder.
Today is 8 weeks since the accident.
I'm sorta frustrated by the whole experience. If it hadn't been worker's comp, I'm sure I'd have been taken care of 7 weeks ago.