What Next?

Let's see, I haven't yet decided whether my latest bump in the road is a good or a bad thing. Early Thursday morning (about 5 am) I was helping get a critically ill patient settled into a new bed and in the process about 6 of us nurses slid him from one bed to another. As soon as I finished I felt a sharp pain in my back radiating down my leg. Well, I was forced to go file an Employee Injury Report, meaning I was unable to go back to work and my back was actually feeling pretty good on Saturday and Sunday. Well, Sunday night the torture began! I was unable to sleep because of back spasms and went to see our work nurse practitioner. As it has now been >3 days, I had to file a Worker's Compensation claim secondary to the back injury and the NP started me on a muscle relaxant so that I can begin to heal. The good news is that she doesn't think I herniated anything! The other good thing is that since this all happened at work, only the first 2 days I was out of work (Thursday night and Saturday night) have to come out of my sick time. The rest of the time I am out, the hospital has to pay me 60% of my regular pay and it is tax free. She gave me the option to go back to work Today, but didn't really recommend it as I am still in quite a bit of pain - looks like I will go back about the 20th if all goes well. So, the good news is I have mostly paid week off, but the bad news is that it hurts to do much, but I am supposed to be walking and doing back exercises. Also, when I went to see the NP, Jess went to see his old manager and he will be working 2, 12 hour night shifts on the Oncology floor and 1, 12 hour night shift on his old floor. Things are looking up from the respect!