Casual Conversation

Well, my disability isn't directly job related, but I did get hurt in other ways.

Over the years of being a nurse's assistant, I had a few muscle pulls, got punched a few times (Alzheimer's is a bitch), that kind of thing. Easy to recover from.

But, my side gig as a bouncer could get problematic lol. The titty bars were usually chill, and nothing worse than a split lip level of things happened on those jobs.

But the gay bars, in particular the drag club that was well known to area bigots, that sent me to the hospital a few times, and I lost count of how many non hospital injuries I got.

I was lucky in one respect, the owner of those bars was a great employer. Anthony worker's comp didn't cover, he went out of pocket for, no complaints, and made sure we were paid on time, again out of pocket if need be.

But, the worst was probably the fractured ribs, on the job. Got cut and stabbed a couple times, but not bad enough to keep me from working my main job. Had worse injuries off the job though.

It was damn near a month before I could do anything that wasn't desk work, which isn't something a nurse's assistant is going to be used for. Ribs being damaged fucks up everything, but they'll heal eventually.

Now, outside of the arthritis and back issues that aren't from work, the worst injury was a fractured vertebrae I picked up doing some less than fun fighting at a gay rights meeting that got invaded by bigots. that was a six month recovery, and it still gives me problems.

Since you're looking for hope long term, with all the crap my discs have done, and the arthritis, I can say for sure that even progressive issues, you can definitely find a way to a good life. It won't be the same life, but it can be good.

Injuries? Even the bad ones, once the initial healing is over, there's a path to having a fulfilling life. I took care of paralyzed patients, and it was actually really rare for their lives to not be at least okay. It isn't the same as being fully able, there's limitations and obstacles. But it isn't inherently a bad life.

I'm in a disability and chronic pain support group too. Even there, with people that have agonizing pain levels, it's still possible to have enough good days to make life worth living, and some of our members are in the kind of pain every day that I've felt with fresh injuries.

I call any level of living life instead of just surviving a victory over disability. So, even if your injury changes your life entirely, even if you lose the ability to work, there's still a future that's worth working for.

When I lost the ability to work, my entire identity kit fell apart. Like, I had built my sense of self on the job, being strong, and being able to make other people's lives better. That's why I took a job as a nurse's assistant in the first place, and why I never hated it even after I wanted to do something else.

Rebuilding from that level of change is brutal. It took almost a decade before I could do any martial arts training again, and it was pretty much a watered down thing. Can't do much strength training that involves anything below the nipple line because of discs being wrecked, but that's still better than it was originally, when I couldn't even breathe without pain.

So, there's hope. It might look dim along the way, and if the injury is bad enough, what you're hoping for can be much less than what you had before, but it's still worth the struggle more often than not. Injuries get better, barring very limited exceptions. Even those might get better on a long enough life line, I dunno. You'll reach a point of stasis, and be able to figure out what comes next.

Also, lawyer up asap. If your employer is going to pull a fast one, having a good worker's comp attorney in your contact list is a good idea.

Seriously. When I had to quit working, I got dumped, had to deal with the whole us disability process, went years without proper medical care, and literally only didn't eat a bullet because my dog was there and loved me out of that darkness. I came through it. I'm married, have a kid, and managed to get through some ugly stuff that isn't on topic. There's always victory available.