I've been stuck at home on workers comp for the last two months with a back injury....
the official diagnosis is a strained lumbar muscle, and while I have been in quite a bit of pain and general discomfort at all times, I really thought they'll figure something out and it'll get better... just got my "final medical report" in the mail and the way its written, it seems they've given up on making me feel any better. something about my full wellness potential being reached and i can go back to work but not doing the same job....
i've spent the last 7 years welding, i went to school for almost 2 years learning as much as possible in the field, i love it and that's all i want to do. suddenly i've found myself stripped of all this, and uncertain of what the future has for me now.... i've been waiting for 3 days now to hear from the workers comp agent to give me my official rundown of what i can do now... can't get her to answer her phone. i'm stressing out pretty bad.

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~Dan

Are there speciality types of welding you could do? Could you teach welding? Become an inspector, manager, supervisor, or QC person in the welding field? Your knowledge and skills are valuable even if you can't do heavy high-volume labor.

Oh Lameandcliche Im truly sorry, I hope your back pains improves that is just miserable. I hope you are able to figure out a plan uncertainty is terrible. Good thoughts heading your way!

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Mona
"Music is What Feelings Sound like"

not a bad idea, stray. i could go back to school for a few more months and get what i need to teach.... hmmm... or if i could find a job doing some precision TIG welding where i'm sitting down all day working on small pieces.... we'll see. i'm holding out hope i can get back into my old welding booth within a few months.... if not, going back to school is a very good idea.
and thanks, Mona. I know it's nothing compared to all of what you're going through, so I really appreciate your kind words

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~Dan

So they can diagnose only a muscle strain, I'm assuming without
an MRI of the lumbar? If they haven't, demand an MRI , if not
get a lawyer. If you have a HNP herniated nucleus pulposus,
Then depending on the grade or severity, different avenues can be
taken.
Physical therapy
Pain mgmt
Microsurgical discectomy
Lumbar laminectomy with internal fixation (severe cases)
You need to be seen by a neurosurgeon, the WC physician
exhausted his know how....

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

What are your options for vocational rehab? Do you have an attorney? Workman's comp people will tell you just about anything to get you back to work. My woman is currently fighting a workman's comp fight for the past year and a half, it has been a tough fight but a winnable one.

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"Music is what feelings sound like"

i am talking to an attorney.. haven't officially hired him yet, taking his advice to wait and see if my job will even let me come back first. i didnt see a neurosurgeon, but did see some sort of spinal/muscular specialist. he's the one that tried two different kinds of injections, neither of them did anything for me.
after that they had me do an "FCE" where they test your ability to do different physical things, to rate your ability to return to work. that's the results i just got.
i talked to the adjustor a little bit ago and she's talking about an offer for around 3k to close the case. ha.
physical pain, mental anguish, lost time, etc aside, i've also got about 20k in student loans from welding school... it'll be really hard to write those checks if i can't weld anymore.

the workers comp doc i was seeing first sent me to some phys. therapy, and i thought it was helping, but after 2 months he cut me off and sent me to the specialist. he seemed frustrated and mad that i wasn't getting better. the last time i saw him he's all "Oh, so 2 months and we're not helping you? that what you're saying?" in a real smartass tone.
i'm like "you're the one who said it, dude." lol
what a joke. supposed to hear from my job tomorrow to see what they say.. if they let me come back, i'll probably take the offer..we'll see. i'lll update after i hear from HR.

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~Dan

Sorry to hear it. Welding is hard on the body in many ways particularly if you have to spend every day on your knees hunched over with your face in the plume. A pipe spool fab shop might be a good option for you. You get to stand up and you can usually adjust the height of your pipe stands to give your back some relief. It's even better with powered rolls so there's no need to bend over to get the bottom. Unfortunately you'll get out of practice welding in position that way but at least you can still make a living. I hope you're the kind of guy who never strikes an arc without first donning your respirator.

On a related issue, I've seen you mention a few times that you like TIG welding. I enjoy it too but there are some safety issues most weldors are not aware of. Argon is inert in its natural state (so it will not react with your body except to displace oxygen in your lungs) but they are beginning to suspect that once it becomes ionized in the arc that it may become a carcinogen. There have been studies done investigating a curious phenomenon. They've noticed that career TIG welders (meaning they started straight out of highschool) tend to die of various kinds of cancer at a relatively young age, average 52. This has opened a new field of study on argon and we may not see any definitive answers on the issue for 20 years or more. The problem is there are no respirators available that filter out argon and it is not always heavier than air because some of it runs along the electrode becoming heated and therefore less dense and therfore lighter than air. There is always a fairly good sized envelope of argon all the way around a TIG joint, both above and below due to some being cooler and some being hotter depending on how close it was to the electrode and the arc as it flowed out of the torch. That means you can't get your face out of it and because it is odorless you have no way of knowing how much you are taking in.

There are other dangers as well what with most industries moving more and more towards exotic alloys containing hexavalent chrome. Good old fashioned 7018 and 6010 should be all a smart person welds for the next decade or more when we can learn more about whether argon is dangerous or not.

It is for these reasons that most contractors in my industry now provide supplied air to their TIG welders and especially if they are welding chromium alloys.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Holy $@!&! The Cat With The Strat is really smart and knows all about welding too!??

+100!

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2012 Lefty American Standard Jazz
2017 Lefty American Professional Precision
2018 Rumble Studio 40 Combo
2016 Rumble 200 Combo
One day they shall name a GREAT city after me, and they shall call it LINNINGRAD

I may be a Safety Officer now but I spent a lot of years on the business end of a stinger, I can tell you.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

damn, didn't know any of that. thanks for the info. to be honest i've never worried about respirators too much unless i'm doing something with extremely rusty or dirty materials.
at my first welding job i built custom gates (at a fence wholesaler) and we did a lot of work on vinyl-coated and galvanized steel. the cancer's probably already brewing because of all that. god i hope not, though. will definitely be more cautious of the TIG work, now. thanks for the info, bmw.
I do want to get one of those respirator systems that Miller makes (ive got a real nice miller elite hood) - but they make them so expensive that poor underpaid welders like myself can only dream of them. maybe after i get this settlement wrapped up,right?
what's the coolest thing you ever worked on while laying beads, BMW?
my favorite thing so far was building 4 GIGANTIC sally port gates for Fort Knox.

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~Dan

Flanging glass pipe for me. What was your craft, BMW? Lame, you need to find out if your back is damaged. If not, a chiropractor kept me going for 30+ years. Lots of low back. Be patient with the comp. Don't let them make you nervous and don't sign anything until you're ready. Good luck.

Hastelloy. It's an extremely expensive and extemely exotic grade of stainless. It's extremely hard. I forget what the exact Rockwell number was but it was but it was in the 90s on the A scale. Brinell numbers were somewhere in the 600s. 24% chrome. We built a huge ducting system for a chemical plant. The process required this caustic vapour to be ducted to a furnace to be burned and they had been replacing the 316L ductwork every two years due to erosion/corrosion and were getting tired of the expense so they went with Hastelloy. The steel was so hard you could barely touch it with a grinder. No way you could cut right through it with a grinder. You'd have to use up too many disks. Had to gouge or use plasma. Gouging had to be done very carefully and cleanly because the cleanup grinding was so difficult. Air chippers would not even touch the gouging slag. The TIG roots we put in ran pretty much the same as any stainless but the stick rod for fill and cap was crap to use. The puddle would always want to run to one side and not fuse to the other. The only way we could get it to run was by cranking the heat while the QC guy wasn't looking. Surprisingly it seemed to run about the same in position as it did in the flat; badly. We input way too many joules according to the procedure but we found out afterward that when they checked the chemistry we hadn't changed it very much beyond what they expected so nobody got into trouble.

Make sure you get yourself a respirator and use it every time you weld. I'm not kidding here. Don't leave home (weld) without it. IMO the best is the 3M 7000 series. They're the gel ones. They're more comfortable on your face than plastic ones. North makes a snorkel system for theirs which draws the air from the middle of your back, presumably to get the intake out of the plume but the masks don't fit well on your face. They do leave more room inside your hood though. Don't do like the old codgers do and cut a hole in your respirator so you can smoke under your hood while you weld.


When I was young and living in BC I worked out of the Pipefitters since I also had a fitter's ticket but when I moved to Alberta I worked out of the Boilermakers

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I'm sorry to hear about your situation.

I've had lots of back pain for a very long time but fortunately I work at a desk and was able to keep working most of the time. At times walking to my desk was nearly impossible.

I had a scan a few years ago and it turned out I have herniated disks.

Unless you have a scan the doctors are simply working in the dark. Like welding with a blind fold over your eyes.

I'm no lawyer, doctor, workman's comp expert but I wouldn't sign anything until a scan was done. They're not very expensive and insisting on one doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.

Hope it works out for the best.

BMW - well, sir, I'm impressed. I won't even pretend like I know anywhere near as much as you. maybe someday!
I just got a call from my job, they want me to come in monday morning and they'll have "something for me to do" sounds like they still don't know what i'm doing.
but i guess i'll take the lawyers advice, go ahead and accept what they offer as of now, and hope i can work through the pain.
and hey, if the offer's good enough, maybe i can buy that kurt cobain mustang i saw on clearance for 699 yesterday

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~Dan