Prayers and best wishes are winging your way. Keep fighting the man!

Good luck!

You have my prayers for a sane doctor and a good checkup!

I look at it like this - the doctor isn't an orthopedic specialist. You've had back surgery. She did not feel qualified to have an opinion on your back, because she was not a specialist. So she referred you to someone who could give that opinion.

So, it's not that her opinion of you was, "I won't clear you," it was "I can't clear you" because of her lack of specialism in that area.

So, hopefully a doctor who knows you better will give you the ok, or the orthopedic doctor will give you the rest of your ok.

You know I'm wishing all the best for you.  Hopefully you'll get your approvals and be well on the way to where you want to go!

I think 'specialization' was the word I was going for, but I like 'specialism' better.

I look at it like this - the doctor isn't an orthopedic specialist. You've had back surgery. She did not feel qualified to have an opinion on your back, because she was not a specialist. So she referred you to someone who could give that opinion.

First of all, I NEVER saw an orthopedic doc in the first place.  I saw a neurologist, and I've been discharged from his care. 

The physical was a GENERAL physical, requiring my heart rate, blood pressure, breast exam....all that kind of good stuff that a famil practitioner is supposed to do.  The back surgery was a VERY small part of it - a single line on the form asking me to list the surgeries I've had.  An orthopedic doctor isn't going to be willing to do all of that stuff because, as you pointed out, he's a specialist, not a family practitioner, AND the kind of surgery I had wasn't an orthopedic surgery.

I walk normally, even managing to walk three or four miles at a time in under forty minutes.  I manage to run a household with three very active kids. I go grocery shopping alone and I unload the groceries from the car alone.    In the course of my work I lift and assist full grown adults in and out of beds, chairs, cars and off toilets.  I bend and lift and pull and push, all without injury to myself or significant pain - in fact, I probably do MORE than some people who haven't had spinal fusion surgery.

After the surgery, I became depressed.  Seriously depressed.  I didn't want to get out of bed, shower, talk to anyone....I used to cry whenever I woke up in the morning and saw the daylight because I simply detested life.  People were telling me that I'd never do this or that and the other again, I was in pain....life was miserable.  Then I got the neuropathy under control (that's the major cause of my pain, not my back) and I kicked myself in the arse and I MADE myself do things.  I went to work for hospice, then I went to look after the Mr and Mrs....and I decided that nothing was going to stop me; that I wasn't going to lay down and die or accept that I couldn't do this or that or the other.  Yeah, I've got a spinal fusion, and yeah, I have some nerve damage, but I'm still active and able-bodied.  I'm not in a wheelchair, and I'm not on disability.  Besides, any CNA who knows anything about anything would NEVER lift or move a patient single-handed.  You ALWAYS do it in pairs, even if your patient is 95lbs.

Grr.  I guess it was her attitude that pissed me off more than anything else.  She saw that I'd had the surgery and treated me like I had some kind of contagious disease, holding me at arms length and literally running from the room.

*sigh*

It is my will to use all of my abilities to obtain the following goal: a CNA license and certification.

It is my WILL.

 

Prayers and best wishes are winging your way. Keep fighting the man!

I will, and thank you!

You have my prayers for a sane doctor and a good checkup!

Thank you too!

 

You know I'm wishing all the best for you.

Yeah, I know.  Thank you!

Jyth, I didn't mean to lay into you like that.  It's a sensitive subject for me, and I'm a little touchy about it.  I'm sorry.

Jyth, I didn't mean to lay into you like that. It's a sensitive subject for me, and I'm a little touchy about it. I'm sorry

As a disinterested observer, I don't think you have anything to apologize for, though it's nice that you are trying to keep things friendly.

I would just say that your attitude and spirit and refreshing and great to see.  I'm glad you don't want to accept anything as an excuse for you not getting to do what you want, how you want.  It is great that you want to be very productive and helpful for others and that should be encouraged wherever possible.

It is sad to read that the first doctor wasn't cooperative, but again, hopefully the next will be much more cooperative and supportive and will be ready to accept your goals and desires as something you can and will achieve. 

I'm not trying to defend this doctor's actions, but I have to say, having actually worked in medicine now I can see where the doctor is coming from, though I may not agree with the way she presented it.

American society is just so damn litigious that we are forced to practice CYA medicine.  I get paged to come to the ER and sew up lacerations that medical students can handle.  Why?  Because they want to be able to say "The surgeons stitched that up, any problems are theirs".  This doctor was practicing CYA medicine.  Not knowing you, Dharma, all she knew was that if she cleared you and you ended up hurting your back on the job (which happens all the time to CNAs, trust me, I was one for 3 years before med school) you would be able to sue her for clearing you.

Trust me, no one hates this kind of medicine more than we, the doctors, do.  It sucks and it sucks hard.  But you just have to practice this way, because even when you do your very best every single day, you just know it is a matter of when, not if, you get sued.

I'm not trying to defend this doctor's actions, but I have to say, having actually worked in medicine now I can see where the doctor is coming from, though I may not agree with the way she presented it.

I can see it too, Dev. Trust me, I can see her POV.  I understand why she was reluctant - however, there isn't any part of my physical form that says 'do you think this person is capable of doing the physical activities required of a CNA'.  All it says is 'is the person healthy enough to complete the class'.  That's all.  There's a big difference, I think. 

I've seen people who were in worse physical shape than myself working as CNA's.  Women and men who were hundreds of pounds heavier than myself, who had a hard time walking along a hallway, let alone taking care of a patient.  It frustrates the heck out of me to see them working and know that I can do a better job than they can but because I've had a surgery to fix what went wrong during a car accident I may not ever be able to follow my dream and be a nurse.

The hospice knows I've had spinal surgery.  The agency I worked for knew I had spinal surgery.  Everyone involved knows, and nobody has had a problem with it - or HAS a problem with it. Christ, the hospice has even offered me a job once I get certified, that's how confident in my abilities they are. 

If I can't get medical clearance......well, I don't know what I'll do. 

I just don't know.

Thanks for apologizing. I was just hoping there was a logical explanation for passing the buck to someone else, and not just so that the buck is passed. I guess I was wrong!

You WILL be approved. You MUST be approved. We must take up a bribe collection, just in case.

(((((((((Karen)))))))))

I'll be thinking of ya, my dear.