I was surfing thru the web just looking for info when I ran across your site. a little more than a year ago I was injured offshore on a oilrig when I fell backwards and landed badly on my right hip and lowerback. I thought it was just a bruise so I worked with the pain for about 6 days untill I could no longer walk. I was put on a boat for 6 hours to get me back to my truck and then it was a 9 hour drive back to the house. When I got home my wife had to drag me from my truck and into the house because I was numb from the waist down. As I said that was a little over a year ago. My family doc put me on Vicadine and sent me to PT, the therapy just seemed to make me hurt more, from there I went to a local orthopedist who tried injecting cordozone into my hip, it didn't help. I have taken a Funtional Capacity Exam and Impairment Rating and received a score of 15% impaired (and was told I could do secretary type work for no more than 4 hrs a day) which I am told is enough to draw SS benifits but I am not quite 30 and dont want to get into that because I cant understand why there isn't some way to stop the pain and let me return to earning a living.

After the orthopedic went over my FCE with me he said there was nothing else he could do to help me and there was no need for me to return to him. I went back to my "family M.D." and asked for a referall to a specialist and a refill for my pain medication (which had been changed per my request because I was building up a tolerance to the vicadine).My so-called "family doctor" started giving me a lecture about becoming a sponge on society and sitting around sucking up workmans comp benifits and in his opinion a 15% impairment raiting was no worse than a sprained ankle and I was asking for pain medication only to sell or get high.

In high school (as I'm sure the majority did) I smoked MJ and experimented with other illegal substances but I put all those things behind me when it was time to stand up and make my own way in life. I was severely upset but bit my lip because I needed a referall to try and find someone who could help.

I got to see my specialist and the first thing he noticed was I had a chip of bone missing from my pelvis and he said the capsule surrounding the head and neck of my femure had a rip in it along with a severly bruised femure. Along with this the right secro-illiac(sp) joint was approx. 2" mal-aligned. acting as a pair of pliers on my scyotic nerve whenever I walked, moved, etc..

I am now waiting on aprovval from workmans comp to operate on me and I hope that this solves my troubles, if it does not I honestly don't know what I will do. I know that my primary doctor will not be the same one I have been seeing as I refuse to have him oversee any condition I may have from this point on.

Well you can use this in your horror stories if you wish although I am hoping that I might get a lucky ending from this, but it truely opens my eyes to how ppl who need help the most sometimes cant get it due to red-tape and doctors who want to make you suffer because they truely dont understand what your going thru and dont really care. All they see is a piece of paper and not a person.

Jerry