Just updating!

16 more days until I'm back on the work payroll!!  

I'm going to talk to my claims specialist and see if we can bump that up by 2 days since I actually finish work on a Sunday and have 2 days off before I start my actual first shift on the payroll. However, with those 2 days I could pick up some shifts at work and have 5 days on my first pay cheque instead of only 3 days. I'd rather do that than have the insurance company pay me because I would get more from working than from the insurance payment.

It's been a tough few weeks. Things were going so well. I was virtually pain free and only going to the chiropractor once every 2 weeks for "maintenance."  Then the unthinkable happened. I was in a car accident. 

I was a passenger in the back seat. The driver stopped suddenly to avoid one accident that he was causing, only to be hit from behind. This caused me to fly forward and backward twice and gave me a pretty bad case of whiplash, not to mention totally messing up my back.  The injury may not have been as bad had the car had a seatbelt that I could use, but it was too short and there was no extension available, and then the driver was completely negligent after the accident. He didn't get the insurance information of the car that hit us from behind because there was no damage to either car, and he failed to report the accident to the company. Plus he was a maniac behind the wheel constantly stomping on the gas and slamming on the brakes and taking turns at full speed, causing me to be thrown around the backseat only adding to my injury.  By the time he dropped me off, it was nearly an hour later and I had a horrid headache, nausea, complete back pain and stabbing pain down my leg, plus both of my arms were numb from my neck to my finger tips. 

I got home and immediately took Ibuprofen and applied ice packs to my back and neck to help combat swelling and wrote a long letter to the car company and the company who contracts them.

Needless to say the car company is "pooping bricks" because the first they heard about the accident was from me, and I told them that if the accident in anyway causes me to not be able to complete my back to work program and return to my job in a timely manner so that I get the required number of nursing hours needed to renew my license for next year, and I have to take the refresher course and rewrite the exam, that I would be seeking compensation for not only the course, but also my living expenses while I'm attending the course, the exam fee, my licensing fee and any other expenses I have to incur to re-obtain my nursing license.  In addition to that, they stand a chance of having their contract with the City cancelled.

Our car insurance here is all "no fault", so there is no such thing as personal injury claims. However, according to my former boss who did a number of personal injury cases before the policy was changed,  said that because the company was negligent with the seatbelt, and the driver had complete and total disregard for the fact that I was injured and his driving after the fact was wreckless, not to mention failing to get the other cars insurance information, that the scope falls outside of autopac and woud fall under civil litigation. He also said that as a former Queen's Court Judge, that the company wouldn't stand a chance of winning if I were to take them to court just because of all of the variables involved.

Now I don't really want to have to go back to school for 2 years and I have no interest in suing anyone! So I've been working through the pain and loading up on over the counter pain medication (Robaxacet is a God-send) and going to the chiropractor. I've only missed 3-half days and that was hours at the research part of my back-to-work program, because sitting for extended periods really hurts my back.  But I've been managing pretty well on the ward.

As of November 30th, I'll have 375 hours towards my license, which is 7 hours more than I need in order to renew my license, so the hours I work in December when I'm back on the payroll are gravy so far as hours go.

The chiropractor visits have been helping immensely, and I'm still icing my back. With the Robaxacet I am still having some pain, but it's been manageable, but it will be weeks or even months before my back is back to the way it was before the accident.

My chiropractor told me that I have drive and determination. I told him that it's more like tunnel vision.   Getting back to my job is the only thing I see in front of me and nothing and no one is going to get in my way of getting back to my job.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi