Light Duty

Sleeping that first night in that much pain with Vicodin, oh what a joy. Vicodin and me do not get along, see eye to eye or it is just plain evil. The dreams were awful, pretty much the most vivid, horrific, scary like you were really there kinda dreams. It didn't matter thou because I needed that pain medicine one way or another and I wasn't scheduled to see the company doctor yet to get anything else. That next morning when I woke up to go to work I was exhausted from my nights sleep...imagine that exhausted from sleep. It was those wild dreams, I know it. Getting ready seemed to take FOREVER, you never know how important your foot is until you can't use it. Getting in and out of the shower, heck just standing in there washing was hard, then doing my hair and brushing my teeth, all that standing was really taking its toll on me. The most fun was yet to be had when it was time to leave, see I live in an upstairs condo...you caught that right...upstairs, I had to navigate my way down the stairs with my crutches, I'm sure it would have been entertaining for someone, but it wasn't for me. Now the task of getting in the car without hurting myself and getting to work. Yup, I could still drive because it was my left foot, not saying it was easy but I could do it.
Fast forward to work now>>>>>So I get in and the fun begins because no one knows what to do with me. Being on crutches now really limits the amount of light duty assignments I'm going to be able to do, plus I haven't seen the company doctor yet so they don't really have my work restrictions yet. Loss prevention comes in an hour behind us so I knew they would be getting me an appointment as soon as possible, but what until then. Well they stuck me back in our offices making store survey calls...BORING. I couldn't wait to go to the doctor, which I ended up seeing that morning. Darn, and when I came back I was still stuck making those calls.
I made calls for a few days and then we had Thursday off for Thanksgiving and then we were back on Friday. I seemed to go to the doctor every few days and nothing seemed to change, my pain was still at a high level and standing and walking even with crutches was painful. This doctor told me I had a deep bone bruise to my ankle and a crush sprain to both my foot and ankle. What? Sound like an oxymoron to me. He put an air cast on and an ace bandage and still had me on crutches, but now really limited me to more sedentary work.
I was starting to wonder when I would hear what type of punishment I would receive for my accident by that following Monday, well it had already been a week. No sooner I start wondering I find out and man did I find out. Two days later right after I clocked in my supervisor asked to speak to me and had me come into the manager of the departments office, he was in there waiting. After we entered she shut the door behind us, as we have some VERY nosey people in the department. We sat down and I waited for it. They questioned me again a little bit about the accident, brought up any mobile accidents I've had during my career there, talked about the shoulda, coulda, wouldas and then gave me a 3 day unpaid suspension starting that day. My manager said he needed my id while I was suspended and I could return on Monday. I was a little taken back by the suspension because it was an equipment failure, but I was even more taken back when I was told "this is to teach you a lesson". We are trained to stay on our equipment until it comes to a complete stop and I didn't. In that moment when my brakes failed I felt as if I had no other option but to bail from my truck, it felt unsafe to stay on.
I turned over my id and they walked me to the front and I had a 5 day weekend. Not happy that I was home not getting paid but at the same time I was home resting my foot. Monday I was back for more light duty and more doctors appointments. But why am I not getting any better, why is the pain still the same...these answers all in due time....