Back Injury for 3 months

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jul 20, 2019

On 7/9/2019 at 12:01 AM, lelelele said:
Hi everyone,
I'm in my 20s and in nursing school. I have been working as a CNA in neuro ICU over 2 years. We have a lot of patients with traumatic brain injuries and are completely sedated that they are deadweight and patients who are down on one side or both sides. I have 9 patients assigned to me every shift, and there are times I'm assigned up to 18 patients. (It's crazy). I'm turning and boosting patients constantly and it's killing my back! I hurt my back and it has been painful the past 3 months. I went down to employee health, and they told me it's a muscle issue. I went to see a PT and chiropractor and they both have told me they think it's my disc. My lower back hurts a lot even walking, standing, sitting and lifting and my right leg is often numb. I also feel tingling in my right toes. Despite all these, my employer tells me that it's my muscle and that I don't need to get an MRI. They advised me to continue with PT and take 3 advils every 6 hours. But taking advils don't help much. And my manager hasn't been responsive with my injury either. What should I do?
Thanks

Your employer is looking after THEIR interest, not yours. Go see a doctor. Numbness and tingling in your legs is a serious issue.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Jul 31, 2019

I've been fortunate to not have to deal with the nightmare that is workman's comp. A few people I work with have had to deal with them following clearly work related injuries and it was a slow and frustrating process for each and every one of them and that was with our employers full support. Without employer support that battle will be an uphill one but depending on your financial situation and by that I mean your private insurance it's a battle that might be worth taking on. Proving work related injuries when you can't point to a specific incident that caused the injury is a challenge but it's not impossible. Do expect a battle if you try to take it on, especially with an employer that has already proven to be minimizing your injuries before you even start a workman's comp claim. They will probably fight it every step of the way but they also can't prevent you from filing a claim. Don't rule out contacting a lawyer that specializes in workman's comp to help you with the process. Hopefully you have decent insurance that covers at least a good portion of your medical bills. Save copies of everything related to your health care for this. Any bills you incur related to this issue should be reimbursable when and if a workman's comp claim is approved if you can prove the bills were generated for services related to the injury you are filing for. Recovering out of pocket expenses is another situation where a good workman's comp lawyer can really help so you really might want to do a little research and find one. Many attorneys offer at least the initial consultation at no charge and there are also many injury lawyers that take payment only after winning a case. I might be totally wrong here but it seems to me that if getting paid is dependent on winning a lawyer isn't likely to accept an obviously losing case and is also more likely to fight for the win a little harder.

In the mean time I strongly encourage you to see your doctor anyway and try to get a handle on this before it gets worse and it will if something doesn't change. Every time you turn and boost without changing something in how you are doing it is just further aggravating your injuries and since your symptoms seem to getting worse this could be career and life impacting if you don't do something about it. Maybe at the very least a physical therapy consult would be helpful. Learning proper body mechanics can do wonders for your back. If you are having escalating back problems your are probably not using your body properly when manipulating heavy objects and yes, heavy objects certainly includes patients.