Repetitive Strain Injuries and Disability

Darlan

Hey guys,

Back in 2012, I had recently graduated and couldn’t find a job that used my degree, so I did some data entry at a bank while I looked around. After only a few weeks, my arms and wrists began to severely hurt and I stopped, and was told that I wouldn’t get any worker’s comp for the injury at the time because I was a temp.

The pain has largely continued since with a completely ineffectual string of chiropractors, physical therapy, and family med doctors trying seemingly random things and ending up shrugging at me. Medical consensus at this point seems to be "Sucks to be you, wanna try some pain meds?"

I’m been working IT for a while now, and it seems to be getting harder and harder to keep on working past the pain—I wouldn’t say it’s getting that much worse so much as I’m getting more and more tired of that being a permanent part of my life, and continually running to the work fridge to get more ice and having my various wrist straps around my workstation is drawing lots of negative looks. Continuing to work gets genuinely hard at the end of the day after I’ve been typing, and forget enjoying things like video games or arm-strenuous activities like tennis or golf after a work shift.

I’ve recently started to think about the possibility of disability, but I haven’t the first clue where to start—I’m working in Colorado if that is a large factor there. Is this kind of injury something that would potentially be covered? Who do I contact? I’ve heard it can be a bad idea to talk to doctors about disability for “invisible” pain injuries, as they may think you’re just being lazy and looking for a free pay day. Would my "pay" be frozen forever at my mediocre-paying job's levels?

I do not presume to compare my ailment with even more severe disabilities such as not having an arm at all, but given the medical consensus at this point, exploring this option seems like something I should at least think about.

Any recommendations on where/whether to start this process?

Enc

First off, does it get better with over the counter pain medicines or not? Are you using ergonmic office equipment such as wrist pads and the like?

I had a similar problem for a while that a set of wrist pads and a vertical mouse solved for the most part. For a while it felt like my hands would just plain fall out with the amount of typing I was working and resting them against the hard edge of my desk did a number on tendons and flesh alike.

Darlan

That is a good recommendation, but I am using ergonomic equipment in so far as the keyboard and mouse goes, and have been requesting a stand up desk for years, but that last one just isn't happening.

OTC meds don't seem to do a whole lot.

Enc

Standing desk will help your back but shouldn't impact your arms and hands in a meaningful way.

If there are no other remedies you can get as far as equipment you will probably want to start by talking with your General Practitioner about disability accommodations in your area, part of what most GP offices do is be knowledgeable about those resources as they apply in your state and country and should be able to refer you to the appropriate state resource with the documentation you will need (which they would be originating).

Darlan

Much appreciated, I will get the ball rolling with the GP then.

Edit: I would also like to encourage people here to take breaks from gaming/typing and to take ergonomics seriously! It sounds silly until suddenly you're stuck with seemingly untreatable pain. If your employer does not budge on that, find another job, no paycheck is worth it.

Enc

On my part, I had pretty solid RSI in my shoulder and hands, along with one of my legs. One thing I do suggest when you have a chance is try to take a long vacation. Nothing was working for me until I spent two weeks at a pretty reclusive spot up with family in Maine. Not much tech, mostly spent it relaxing and not using complex tech. At the end of it, I wasn't taking my pain meds and my shoulder was pretty much back to normal just from having time to recover. When I got back I started adding in my physical therapy stuff along with it and I have very rare flare ups in my wrists and fingers, and even then only during crunch time.

Everyone's different, and going to Maine is by no means a magic bullet, but taking some time totally off may help if you can.

LostNinja

Darlan wrote: »

That is a good recommendation, but I am using ergonomic equipment in so far as the keyboard and mouse goes, and have been requesting a stand up desk for years, but that last one just isn't happening.

OTC meds don't seem to do a whole lot.

Have you had an actual ergo evaluation for your workspace?

I do some ergo evals for my office, and one of the big things I see for wrists wrists is the keyboard being at a bad angle for typing. Those little leg stands on the bottom of keyboards that tilt them towards you, you actually don't want those out. The wrist is in a more neutral posture when it is actually angled slightly away from you. This etool on the OSHA website demonstrates why it's bad and gives some ways to fix it ( https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/components_keyboards.html ).

For your arms, I would be aware of you keyboard height in comparison to your seated position (one of the tabs on that OSHA link will also show the preferred angles for your keyboard).

I'm also going to assume your doctors and PTs have already shown you the exercises to do regularly through the day to help with your pain.

I know you might have tried these things and/or it might be past the point where they make a difference, in which case I'm sorry I can't really help you with your actual question in regards to disability.

schuss

Ergo adjustment, natural keyboard and vertical mouse would be the first steps. Talk to your workplace about helping you out on it, as they will own a piece of the RSI. Also, see if you can get it under workers comp, as most insurers have a LOT of good resources for combating RSI since it's a huge issue in offices.

Reverend_Chaos

I work in the insurance industry, formerly in a Short and Long Term Disability department. Here is *what I would do* if I were in your shoes.
1. Talk to your GP about a referral to a specialist
2. Go to the specialist and see what your options are for fixing your issue. You might need surgery. When you have something like this, where you can "schedule" a surgery, you should find out if you can get your disability pre-approved, so you don't find out 3-5 weeks after you stopped working that it's not covered and you are not getting paid.
3. Call your insurance provider for disability and ask questions about the above mentioned pre-approval and probably the most important thing is to ask about *pre-existing conditions* in regards to your possible disability. Depending on what your employer has set up, they might exclude pre-existing conditions, or there may be a waiting period before it's covered etc. The only way to find out is to call them and ask. Most disability providers will not approve something until they have detailed notes from the Doctor who is going to *fix* your, including diagnosis, prognosis, detailed physicians notes, as well as notes from your GP
3.5 Also ask what kind of ongoing notes the will need to continue your approval of disability. (Many disability insurer's will require updated paperwork and physicians notes on an ongoing basis, ask how often that might be.) - Also ask them what their process time is once that is sent in.
4. Stay on top of your doctors and make sure they are getting the paperwork to your insurer, or giving it to you so you can get it to your insurance. If you do not do this, it's likely that the insurance will stop paying you at some point.

Also, if you want a standing desk, get a physician's note and they HAVE to get you one. Now would be a good time to do that.

Best of Luck!

hsu

Darlan wrote: »

... and have been requesting a stand up desk for years, but that last one just isn't happening.

Get permission to hack your own stand up desk, with your own money. You spend 2000 hours a year at the office, so refusing to spend like $200 of your own money to fix a problem with your own health is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

My standup desk is from Ikea, that I had to buy and build myself (reimbursed later, luckily), but friends at work did something similar, one used bricks to raise his desk, two raised their cubicle desks higher (our cubicle desks were on height adjustable, semi-hidden shelf rails), one got a small platform designed to be placed on a normal desk.

Darlan

That is a good recommendation, I have built an IKEA hack at home. However, at work, I have to monitor 8 monitors at a specially made desk, and as I work with classified data I need approval to bring in outside equipment, which isn't happening. It sucks; naturally I'm applying around to get out of here.

dispatch.o

Darlan wrote: »

That is a good recommendation, I have built an IKEA hack at home. However, at work, I have to monitor 8 monitors at a specially made desk, and as I work with classified data I need approval to bring in outside equipment, which isn't happening. It sucks; naturally I'm applying around to get out of here.

Be cautious with disability while simultaneously applying for other jobs with similar requirements.

You can't both be disabled and apply for jobs that you are on disability for.