I haven't done a personal post yet since I've joined Blogger. For those of you who haven't read my first post, I came from Weebly which is another type of blogging platform. I switched over to Blogger for several reasons despite the headache of relearning another blogging platform. People who say it's easy to use Blogger probably have either been using it for quite some time or obviously haven't attempted to completely customize their entire template themselves like I have. Everything you see on my blog, I've done entirely by myself. I also have a lot of time on my hands since I'm out of both work and school.
Back in September of this year, I got hurt on the job. When I got hurt, I was learning a new job. I had only been on the new job for probably about (3) weeks. While most people would consider that to be too much time training, that is definitely not the case in a factory. I work at Electrolux Major Appliance. You may recognize the name mostly for being a vacuum cleaner brand, perhaps even a washer and dryer. However, at the location that I work at, we manufacture refrigerators. Since December of 2013, I have worked third shift with the lower back of the refrigerator as a assembly line worker. The bottom back half of the refrigerator mostly deals with the main function of how your refrigerator works.
I've been with the company all together since April of 2012. Prior to working third shift, I worked 1st shift in the plastics department where I did various jobs that contributed to making the plastic liners that are placed into the refrigerators. For instance, when you open your refrigerator door where all your condiments are, that's the door liner and when you look into the part of the fridge that has the shelves, that big white box inside is called the cabinet liner. Same thing when you open your freezer; freezer door liner and freezer cabinet liner.
Here is a little refrigerator education:
Anyway, the job I did before the job I got hurt was a simple sit-down job where all I had to do was wear a latex glove on my right hand and apply a thin layer of a white substance called Flux to (3) copper joints which is a substance that is applied prior to reaching the brazing pit. Flux helps to seal copper joints better when they are brazed. One day, I was told that the current pay I made was the highest I could make if I stayed on the Flux job. So, if I wanted to make more money, I would have to learn another job. So, that's exactly what I did.
The job I was training on was a three person rotation job. We rotated every hour. I'm not going to bother explaining that whole job because I doubt it that you would understand all the factory terms as they apply to refrigerators. However, basically how I got hurt was I was bending one of the copper tubes in order to put them together (as my job requires it) and my right arm just folded up in excessive pain. Ever since then, I've been having problems with my wrist even so that I found it nearly impossible to do my job anymore or any job for that matter. My injury to this day consists of pain that is now tolerable (though it's still pain), sporadic tingling and shaking.
I've been out on workers comp since September 18th, 2014. It does make me nervous to be on workers comp because I am only a temp worker and I know that companies (though they can't technically get rid of you because of a work related injury) can find a way to word it, so that they can kick you to the curb employment wise. Since I've been out, I've had to withdraw from school (which I do online) for a semester, attend various doctors appointments, go for an MRI, and participate in physical therapy.
Recently, the general doctors that I was seeing referred me to a hand specialist and I've been assigned a nurse on my claim. It's been three weeks since they've been trying to get me an appointment. I just now heard from the claim nurse and she had told me that I won't be able to get an appointment until February 2nd. I was highly disappointed due to the fact that I've been out of work since September 18th and I have to wait another 2 months of pretty much doing nothing but physical therapy which is a standstill progress wise. Just to have a consultation with the hand specialist, I have to wait about 2 months. That's not all the other visits I have yet to schedule with them, possible tests, and maybe even a potential surgery.
I was told that workers comp is a long, drawn-out process, but being out this long for a wrist injury is a bit much. So, I'm going to just have to play the waiting game unfortunately. I refuse to give in because I can't have more than 3 pounds in my hand without it bothering me and pain, tingling, and shaking is still apparent. I just can't ignore that and go back to work. My prospective career to centered around constantly using my hands and the good Lord only knows that if I go back to work and close out my workers comp claim, I would never be able to afford the medical expenses to take care of my injury myself.
It does get a bit tough financially. I mean, I only lose about forty bucks out of my check a week, but it's more or less when they feel like sending out the check that is the problem. When you're working, you know that you will usually always get a check on the same day of each week. It's a little stressful and frustrating.
On the bright side, I'm all set to go back to school January 12th for my second to last semester of my associates degree which is a little exciting. At least I can finally do something that's productive with my life since my injury took place again; assuming of course, I don't need to have anything serious done in the near future like surgery which would temporarily force me to be out of school even longer. I really hope that's not the case because I had a bunch of problems with taking the Fall semester off. Also, to be honest, I'm going quite insane not being able to do anything productive.
I can't believe I'm only two semesters away from having my associates degree -- that's so nuts! I'm not that excited though because I have every intention to go straight onto my bachelors.
Though a factory job isn't my ideal choice of employment, I really do miss the close knit family I worked with there. We use to have so much fun. It also bothers me a little bit (not so much the uncertainty of whether or not I have a job to return to, but if I find out I don't) having to explain that time gap to a prospective employer in the future. Unless of course, I could just get away with telling that prospective employer that I worked for Electrolux until whenever workers comp decides to release me. I could use the release date from workers comp as an ending date for my employment depending on how the company decides to word my removal from the company.
So, there is my current story. It's nothing spectacular. Most of my days have been spent here on the couch, watching t.v, and being glued to the computer. I'm even surprised that I have anything to write about at all for the blog. I have to say that it's quite hard to think of something to write, especially when you don't do much of anything to write about in the first place. I think what makes it the most difficult for me is that I really can't do much. So, it's not even a matter of me just not wanting to do anything, I just can't.
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