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Commotion

Submitted by the admin on 29 November, 2019 - 04:43

Five years since my last post... finally some news.

In July 2017, I started working at a magazine plant on mailing lines just for a job that paid something. In April 2019, I injured my hand trying to grab a too-fat bundle of Better Homes & Gardens that someone had strapped twice without thinking properly, and the feeder had only cut the strap that was supposed to be there. That put me on light duty at a charity shop for about four weeks, and when I came back, I was laid off due to lack of work.

So I applied for and got a job at a local package handling plant (you have heard of this delivery company but I choose not to name them in this post). I started out sorting the packages for the local drivers. I was then moved to unloading the packages from the other locations or that had already been sorted to our location. While in the back of the truck one Monday morning, I had a bad feeling about the packages that they might fall down in a way we could not control. Either on that truck or the next, about four or five (maybe six) packages hit me in the back of the head. When talking to someone on Tuesday with whom I had not spoken in three or four weeks, that person thought I was having trouble putting my sentences together. She suggested that I get someone to look at it; I called my office, and they sent me to their occupational health clinic who sent me to the hospital for a CAT scan.

I had a mild concussion (french: commotion cérébrale) with no internal hemmoraging. The ER returned me to regular duty with a followup at the OH clinic, but I could not complete my full shift the next day and was one of the first cuts. I worked a nearly full-shift on Thursday before my clinic, but I took a package to the head that I would have thought nothing of had I not had the big one on Monday. The Occupational health PA put me on light duty -- sitting down, sunglasses -- for the next few weeks with weekly followups. The company had me dealing with small packages -- mainly envelopes, and sorting and scanning them. After my third weekly visit with the Physician's Assistant, I complained of pain in my temple, so he recommended I see the MD that Wednesday.

The MD cleared me to regular duty with a followup (with him) three weeks after that, which was Wednesday the 27th. At that point, he said he did not need to see me further. He did suggest I seek a job better suited to my abilities, and on the day shift. He also recommended I find somewhere I would not be eating Thanksgiving dinner alone (I went to a community dinner put on by a local high school -- it's the 49th straight year they have done that).