After 5 years I finally got a bid. Soon after I bid in the cranes, a job I always wanted. After my 4 week break-in time I was again laid off and put back in labor pool for another 15 years. This is when I suffered my first back injury herniating several discs. Finally I was back in the cranes, but by then my back was so bad I was limited to what I could do and the rough rails were taking their toll on my back. The mill had bad rails which they refused to replace. The rail joints where the rails come together had chunks broke off and so they would weld to get then built back up but this didn't last long and they were broke out again. The cranes had no springs, this was equivalent to sitting on a wood bench and slamming the bench underneath with a sledgehammer. One night when I had to work near one broken joint I suffered a severe injury to my mid back. The mill claimed I didn't hurt it at work and refused to do anything, so I just dropped it and was released to go back to work 2 weeks later. A few years later my back was so bad it locked up and wouldn't relax. I lost a lot of weight, it was killing me, literally. So I claimed another injury after going over a bad rail joint many times one night, and again the mill fought me and claimed I didn't hurt it at work. The first year off work I did get workman's compensation, but then I was cut-off from all benefits. I was pretty much fired. I had herniated a disc in my low back. At first they sent me to therapy, and they had their own doctors say nothing was wrong with me. They hired a medical firm that specializes in scaring doctors into not doing anything to help patients. About 10 doctors later and getting nowhere, my worthless lawyer did get me paid for the year that the mill didn't pay me, they paid for th medical bills and that was it, no compensation. I had to take a medical retirement, which is the same thing as a regular retirement only it lets people retire early. They promised me medical insurance on my back for the rest of my life. Two weeks later the mill went bankrupt, I lost half my pension and all of my insurance. Now that it was no longer a workmans comp case, after many months of trying to convince my newest doctor that I needed an MRI, he finally agreed and found I had a huge bulge that was cutting off my spinal cord and needed emeidiate surgery. Well it had been this way the whole time while I sat in front of all those doctors who refused to do anything. I applied for social security 3 times while this was going on but since the doctors wouldn't cooperate, saying there was nothing wrong with me I was refused twice. After the workmans comp case was over and after the surgery I was still left in a lot of pain and unable to do a lot of things leaving me unable to work. I asked the new doctor to help with SS but he was reluctant saying I wasn't disabled. He did reluctantly go along but when I got a copy of his reports about me I had to drop it and not even try. He didn't even mention the surgery, saying there was nothing wrong with me to agree with the other doctors who's reports he insisted on getting and managed to get copies from somewhere. Mow he asks what I am doing and seems shocked that I am not working. The problem I have is I have too many herniated discs to fix, I have a back and neck full of arthitis. So I try to make a little on my website, my art and photagraghy. I can fish but I get a lot of headaches to come with the back pain so fishing is limited. This first MRI slide shows my T4/5 from the top. The big circle is my disc, the smaller circle is the bulge and the white part is my spinal cord, which was nearly completely cut off.  The next slide is the bulge, which was actually two bulges, one broke out and was running down my spine.  The next slide show my whole lower back. You can see the bad area, and the disc below that is also bulges out. The really bad disc had unimaginable pain.     More about my back injury and comp case Mill doctors: Steven Struven, MD, Steven Heim, orthopeadic surgeon, Naporville; Med Mang Nurse Karen Gonnerman who threatened my doctors and Barb Ockerman. My worthless lawyer was Randy Reese, Rockford. Workmans comp manager at the mill was Deny Fritz, a chronic liar. |