Hi SuccessStory, I was wondering about being retrained and if I would still be collecting wc checks? or would I have to start collecting my unemployment checks? I will be moving to northern calif. in Oct. and the lawyers office said that they would have to get a referral for vocational rehab. and another doctor for me as well, this friday I see my doctor the 8th of aug. and I will let him know, as I can nolonger afford to stay in san diego, its just toooo expensive, but we are having movers move us and I won't be touching 1 single box http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif and we have already found a place in modesto, im excited, its my home town and I have some old friends there waiting for me to come home, in fact they have been helping to make the move alot easier being I'm not there and they were able to look at different propertys for me..well let me know what ya know, takecare and hope to hear from you soon...
Michaela

[This message has been edited by Michaela (edited 08-04-2003).]

Michaela
I think if you visit this web site it might help a lot. we wouldn;t want to give you the wrong advice here. WC is such a complex matter. Try this and see if your answers are there. http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/dwc_home_page.htm

Hope it helps
Alex

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1997 Hurt on the job
1997 Surgery Lf knee
1998 Jan on WC
1998 Surgery Rt knee
1999 Low back pain
WC denied any treatment for back
All of 1999 and half of 2000 living in constant back and leg pain
Jun 2000 finally saw ortho doc. Sent me to PT for 2 months
Oct 2000 back much worse.
Nov 2000 saw ortho again. Had spidural injection
Dec 2000 another epidural Injection
Jan 2001 another Epidural Injection
Mar 2001 Still no relief for back
Mar 2002 finally WC approved MRI
Saw ortho and Spine specialest.. Herniated L5-S1
Apr 2001 Surgery on L5-31 to reapir disk
May 2001 started PT
all went well for 5 months then back started hurting and leg pain got worse.
WC denied any further tratment. Had to file for hearing.
From Jan 2002 till Jun 2003 fought thru pain.
Finally won appeal. Had
Lumbar interbody fusion with hardware on Jun 24,2003

Thanks for the great information Alex...it kind of answered my question, its just alittle complicated sometimes the way they word things, and then trying to figure out what they mean, and the way they just plain old figure things out, ya know what I mean? and ya know I was wondering when I can expect to go to an evaluation to see if I'm at all disabled as far as lifting things off the floor, thats going to be a tough one for me, I try to squat/bend ,lol, sounds funny, but I still catch myself leaning into my legs(thighs) when in that position, I hope I will be starting pt next week, thanks for the info...takcare
Michaela

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August 29th 2002 Injured back at work
from August 2002 till late Nov, roller coaster ride with pain etc.
Dec Friday 13th 2002 laid off job.
Dec. 26th pain starts back up again, lasts for 6 weeks before pain got better then turned to sciatic pain for about 10 weeks.
April 1st had MRI.
April 4th MRI read by my doctor, reading L5-S1 herniated disk W/8mm bulge, pressing on nerve in spine.
Doc says I need surgery.
Then I was investigated (pictures & video taped)
Had second opinion Doctor appt. and Workmans comp didn't notify me till the day after the appt. by usa mail. I was pissed!
I did go to the appt. on another day, thank god I did, cause it was the icing on the cake at my hearing. I won!
Then had surgery for Laminectomy/Disectomy June 18th 2003.
I also had ALOT of scare tissue, surgery was longer then expected.
now I am over 4 weeks post op.
still get a zing down left leg, but I can walk.
7/30/2003 still having low back pain, like an ache feeling at the end of the day (6wk po)

Michaela
Don't know about there, but here for the Physical Capacity Test, your attorney has to set it up, unless you are filing SS and then they might. The test is geared around what work you did before. If it was manual type, you will do lots of lifting, etc. If you have one, do what you can without hurting yourself. When pain hits, stop. Thats all they ask of you.
Good luck

Alex

Hi Alex, hmmm, I wonder if they will put me thru this test, well I think my big concern is paying my bills and rent, while I go thru the vocational training, it seems like you would stay on the wc payments, but I'm not sure how that all works, its very confusing for me, duh, lol, all these different percentages etc. Thanks Alex

I was working in a Doctors office so not to much lifting there, but I was up and down all day long, I did just about everything a person could do in an office like that.(Optometrist Office)

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August 29th 2002 Injured back at work
from August 2002 till late Nov, roller coaster ride with pain etc.
Dec Friday 13th 2002 laid off job.
Dec. 26th pain starts back up again, lasts for 6 weeks before pain got better then turned to sciatic pain for about 10 weeks.
April 1st had MRI.
April 4th MRI read by my doctor, reading L5-S1 herniated disk W/8mm bulge, pressing on nerve in spine.
Doc says I need surgery.
Then I was investigated (pictures & video taped)
Had second opinion Doctor appt. and Workmans comp didn't notify me till the day after the appt. by usa mail. I was pissed!
I did go to the appt. on another day, thank god I did, cause it was the icing on the cake at my hearing. I won!
Then had surgery for Laminectomy/Disectomy June 18th 2003.
I also had ALOT of scare tissue, surgery was longer then expected.
now I am over 4 weeks post op.
still get a zing down left leg, but I can walk.
7/30/2003 still having low back pain, like an ache feeling at the end of the day (6wk po)

[This message has been edited by Michaela (edited 08-05-2003).]

Hi Michaela!

Glad to see you are going home. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Regarding vocational rehabilitation. You need to request through your lawyer, and then your doctor needs to put you as P&S (Permanent & Stationary). Problem with that, your w/c payments will stop and you should then be getting a lower amount while being retrained. As an example...I was getting $490 every 2 weeks before rehab. The day they termed me P&S is the day my checks stopped. W/C gets 2 weeks of (they don't have to pay anything) and then rehab checks of about $410 every 2 weeks came in (lawyer takes a percentage of these checks). The checks are actually "only" about $244 every 2 weeks. But you are allowed to supplement your rehab checks with another check in the same amount. This will chew down your $17,000 maximum fund for rehab...but it just depends if you need it right now or can take the $244 every 2 weeks. With tuition, books & stuff...that came to about $3,000. The rehab agency took another (less than) $3,000. In 8 months, my money was gone (at about $410 every other week).

I now get nothing from w/c...however, am under the impression I am supposed to be getting a temporary payment until my case is settled. I am getting SSDI now, so I'm not in a bind at the moment. Also...SSA has a plan for you to get back to work and still get SSDI checks. Check it out on ssa.gov and look under the disability section.

Don't be too quick about the vocational rehab. Your money goes waaaaay down when you get to that stage of the game. My advice would be to get the school you want...and make sure your doctor says you CAN do this new job...and get everything lined up so that when you ARE termed P&S, you are ready to go right away. It takes about 4 weeks for w/c to get their act together, and that's 4 weeks wasted for you and me. But they don't care, that's how they usually work.

I hope this helps. Have had some bad times lately, so apologize for not getting back any sooner. Take care.


------------------
successtory
Oct 2000: Repetitive Stress Injury-Inverted Hernia
Feb 2001: MRI. Shows only slight bulge at L4-L5
Dec 2001: Discogram/CT scan shows Inverted Hernia at L5-S1. L4-L5 & L5-S1 ruptured in all 4 quadrants. Unable to walk.
Feb 2002: IDET, Nucleoplasty, Intra-Discal Injections
Sept 2002: Rated in the top 10% for successful patients. Retraining for new career.

Hi Success, you know, I don't even know what I want to do, I have given it some thought, but then I don't know what my limits will be such as lifting and sitting and moving thru out the day, cause right now if I am moving thru out the day, and in the early evening I go lay down for awhile I can hardly walk, and in the morning I'm the same way, until I start moving around abit then I feel better... well what do most people end up doing in the way of retraining??? it seems that in your field that you have chosen that you will be doing alot of standing being that your training to be a massage therapist (sp). I just don't know, and thank god I'm moving to a less expensive place to live like modesto since there going to cut back on my payments, this is still alittle scary for me, so will i get my workmans comp payment, plus something out of that 17,000.00 amonth plus ssdi, now I thought that I had filed for ssdi before, and I was denied because it was a workers injury, so wc had to pay, not ssdi, butnow that im recovering and getting ready to go do the rehab training I can claim the ssdi right?? and the lower payments of wc?? I'm getting about 1,288.00 a month now...well got to go, hope to talk with you more....takecare
Michaela

------------------
August 29th 2002 Injured back at work
from August 2002 till late Nov, roller coaster ride with pain etc.
Dec Friday 13th 2002 laid off job.
Dec. 26th pain starts back up again, lasts for 6 weeks before pain got better then turned to sciatic pain for about 10 weeks.
April 1st had MRI.
April 4th MRI read by my doctor, reading L5-S1 herniated disk W/8mm bulge, pressing on nerve in spine.
Doc says I need surgery.
Then I was investigated (pictures & video taped)
Had second opinion Doctor appt. and Workmans comp didn't notify me till the day after the appt. by usa mail. I was pissed!
I did go to the appt. on another day, thank god I did, cause it was the icing on the cake at my hearing. I won!
Then had surgery for Laminectomy/Disectomy June 18th 2003.
I also had ALOT of scare tissue, surgery was longer then expected.
now I am over 4 weeks post op.
still get a zing down left leg, but I can walk.
7/30/2003 still having low back pain, like an ache feeling at the end of the day (6wk po)