I'm kinda pissed part 4

Not too long after the right knee injury in January of 2011  I got tired of being pushed around by the work comp system and got an attorney.

A good friend who knows the work comp system very well told me that it was 'way past time' to get a lawyer.

I hadn't retained one in the first place because I thought that the act of getting a lawyer meant that I was unhappy with the medical treatment I'd received and a way of saying they'd done a bad job for me. I didn't feel that way at all, and was not interested then (or now) in causing any trouble for the people who took such amazing care of me.

I can certainly understand people scamming the system, but off the top of my head I can think of at least two other ways to steal money through personal injury faking... and I'd never be caught.

Who the hell can't figure out things like that? There are certainly enough of them out there collecting benefits. Google it! (funny how that's become a verb, huh?)

If I were faking injuries for personal gain, it would be awfully hard to fool an MRI, now wouldn't it?

So I contacted a relative who works for a very large nationwide work comp insurer. She is a senior claims analyst. Very familiar with the system, the people who work within it, and all the local attorneys. And I asked her via email who she most hated to hear from in a comp case. She got back to me right away with a name and phone number, telling me that 'she's a good attorney and she makes us work for what we want.'

So of course that was who I chose.

When I was a teen, my brother Jim had a poster on his bedroom wall.
It was a cartoon drawing of a large plain, devoid of any features.
A little mouse sat in the center, middle finger up at an approaching eagle. Nowhere to run.
Inevitable death.
The caption was The Last Great Act of Defiance.

I deliberately did not send a surgical report or any written information regarding the December surgery to my attorney until Wednesday, February 3rd. Two days before the hearing was scheduled.
That was on purpose.
MY act of defiance.

I faxed the surgical report to my lawyer Wednesday morning about 10.
Thursday morning at 8:30, my cell phone rang. The chief paralegal. She called wanting to know 'if resigning from your job was taken off the table, would you be interested in settling your case?'

Funny. As soon as those generous and caring comp attorneys found out that I'd had surgery to repair my injured knee, they were suddenly interested in settling and NOT trying to steal my job from me. They'd made two offers to settle before.

Both times they'd made an offer the first item on the menu was Resign from your job.

No. Hell no. No, no, no. That's actually what sent those lovely flowers of humanity to my blog in the first place... my angry tirade mentioning the attorney whose name was on the paperwork coming from my attorney and asking for my resignation.

Father Teresa. Taking great pride in kicking injured workers while they're down. No person too small to shit on.

Someone from their firm spent a very long time reading old posts on my blog. Looking for actionable things. 

Evidently after that, for whatever reason, the case went to Mr. H. Statesman. Or at least that's whose name started showing up on papers and that's who came to the hearing and groveled in front of the judge while simultaneously looking down his nose at me.

So I gave serious thought to the possibility of settling.
Asked many questions of my attorney. Talked with several people.

Decided that I was going to go through with the hearing.

I didn't say what needed to be said in the hearing, it was intimidating and although it shouldn't be that way, is designed to keep people off balance if they've never been there before.

I wasn't given an opportunity to tell 'the whole truth.'

I'd love to have a do over. But of course that won't happen.

After the hearing, I went back to regular life.

You know, getting up at 5 in the morning, hanging out with the kids, not sleeping enough at night and still healing from the surgery I was forced to pay for myself.

I had to use a great deal of my vacation time and pay to keep things afloat while getting the knee repaired and recuperating from surgery. I was able to go back to work in January, although I was still in pain and needed to wrap the knee up to function at even a percentage of 'normal'.

I'm doing as well as I can now. The left knee has never healed properly, and it does cause trouble for me, but I'm managing. I make it to work. I can move the tables and set up my program and walk where I need to with the kids and take care of business.

The right knee, which was repaired in December, continues to improve. It doesn't feel... broken like it did before.

Although the first few days post surgery were excruciating, it was worth it. There's very little popping and grinding and not much pain now.
Healing.
Even though arthroscopy is minimally invasive surgery, it's still surgery.

Still involves someone slicing into part of your body, sticking instruments and cameras and stuff through the incisions and doing all kinds of things to you while you're sleeping. Takes time to fully heal. Especially when you're not 20 anymore.

I'm glad to have the surgery in my past.