CRAP! Yet another set-back!

Most of you who read this blog will know that for the last few years, I've been struggling in the employment department of my life. About 5 years ago, (long before I started blogging) I was let go from a job (Graphic Consultant in a small commercial print shop) I had held for 7.5 years. I was glad to get out of that job, because my boss had been making my life a living hell there ever since he had taken over the business 2.5 years earlier. But, that was the start of a long and ongoing struggle to make a living. Last week, I had reported that I had finally, through a temp agency, found work that could lead to full-time employment, but, the Phoenix Curse struck yet again! This time, in a devastating way.

At the risk of repeating something I posted previously in this blog, I will try to explain what the "Phoenix Curse" is. When I was 22 years old, I fell while moving into my first apartment. I was carrying a very heavy box of magazines and while trying to navigate through some other boxes, tripped over the box containing all my college textbooks, and fell, tearing a muscle in the lower right side of my back. I think it's called the Trapezious or something. That injury took over a year and a half to "heal" but I still have trouble with that portion of my back from time to time. Just over a year ago, I started seeing a chiropractor for what I thought was an unrelated problem with numbness in my right hand. Being right handed, that was a big enough issue to get me to overcome my distrust of chiropractors and initial treatments were very helpful in allowing me full use of my right hand again. During my initial assessment at the chiropractor's office, x-rays showed I had TWO problem areas in my spine, both most likely stemming from that one fall about 15 years earlier. The first problem was my neck had "stretched out" putting major stress on my cervical spinal column, and the 2nd was a "kink" in my spine just above the area of the earlier injury. It seems that although the pain of that torn muscle had subsided, I had unconsciously "favoured" my right side and had forced my spine to bend sideways, pinching nerves leading to my stomach and upper GI tract. In order to stay balanced with this kink in my spine, I had, also unwittingly, compensated by stretching my neck forward and to the left, compressing and stressing my entire spinal cord. It's amazing how much damage one can do to one's body without realizing it! My chiropractor informed me that it can sometimes take years for these problems to make themselves known and a job I found after losing the print shop job was the trigger for my problems.

About a year or so after I lost the print shop job, I found work with an industrial control systems company building control panels for industrial machinery. The company was great to work for, the pay was fantastic and I really enjoyed my work. About 3 months after starting there, I began to notice my right hand was tingling a lot, and eventually numbness set in and I began dropping tools frequently. One of the managers noticed this and recommended I see a chiropractor, as he had had a similar problem and had been "cured" by a chiropractor. I took his advice and after finding out the information above, agreed to treatment. I was amazed when my hand returned to normal after only 3 weeks of adjustments (9 in total) and so I committed myself to "life-long" treatment! LOL! It was during this time, however, that I began to suffer from severe migraines with almost alarming frequency, and my chiropractor assured me that they were the result of my body trying to a) resist the changes he was forcing on it, and b) deal with the increased neuron flow along nerves that had been previously pinched off or severely constricted.

I worked for this company as a "self-employed contractor" for 4 years, but, each year was an "on again, off again" affair. I figure I probably only worked 6 - 7 months each year that I worked for this company, due to the cyclical nature of their business. I used the temp agency to find work that I could do during the frequent lay-offs, but after the first year, the temp assignments got tougher and tougher. For some reason, despite the fact that I had given the temp agencies all the details about my computer and electronic skills, the only work they would offer me was what I call "grunt work" - heavy factory labour. Unfortunately, last July, the company I was contracted to closed down their panel building shop and I started the hunt for employment once again. I suffered through a string of "one-night stands" at a couple of companies which required intensely physical work which "undid" all the work my chiropractor had been trying to do! I then found "light" work as a stained-glass assembler but that's when the curse really kicked in! I lasted about 5 weeks there thanks to return of my numerous migraines. The temp agency kept calling, but the jobs they were offering were all "grunt work" so I kept turning them down. Fortunately, my wife was working full-time at this point so we weren't completely without an income, but it wasn't enough to keep us in the black. I really needed to get back to work.

Just over a week ago, now, the temp agency called once again, this time offering a job consisting of "wiring fluorescent light fixtures." I put that in quotations, because that's what they told me! When I got to the company, I did absolutely no wiring, but was once again doing grunt-work, unloading parts from an automated painting line. I tried to stick it out, but it was not to be. Last Wednesday, after being ordered to move a pile of parts I had mistakenly (because I hadn't been told the proper way) put on a cart wrong, I pulled a muscle in my right pectoral area. The pain was so intense, I initially thought I had broken my collarbone! That night, I began to feel the dreaded tingling in my right hand again. I went to the chiropractor Thursday after work, and he adjusted my shoulder which seemed to alleviate the pain and tingling somewhat. However, that tingling returned Friday and got progressively worse during the day. By the end of Friday, I couldn't feel whether I had a grip on these parts or not and I was dropping far more than I should have been. I declined the offer for overtime on Saturday, hoping that rest would help my shoulder and hand recover enough to allow me to return to work Monday.

This morning, I woke up to absolutely no feeling in my right hand. I asked my wife to massage my shoulder, hoping that would stimulate the nerves. It worked. Boy did it work! Now, instead of no feeling, my hand felt like it was on fire! I had no strength in it at all as well. I couldn't even open a drawer with my right hand like I would normally do. As soon as I tried to do anything required the slightest bit of strength with my right hand, it would go numb and relax completely, followed by searing pain, similar to the pain I once felt after scalding my hand years ago! I called the temp agency at 5:30 am to tell them of my problem and then, as soon as my chiropractor's office opened at 8:00 am, I went there for treatment. That pulled muscle I experienced last Wednesday? Well, the muscle's swelling has completely pinched off my nerve cluster to my right arm and my chiropractor tells me this will take a while to heal. So, once again, I'm unemployed, and unemployable! To make matters worse, the agency is not returning my calls, so once again I am forced to try to find work on my own. This is going to be very hard without a right hand to rely on! And to add insult to injury, because I was considered "self-employed" for the past 5 years, I don't qualify for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, or even disability benefits! Yep! I am definitely cursed!

Well, that's my story of woe this gloomy, grey Monday! I'm sorry to have burdened you all with it, but as most of you know, getting it out in writing is a very therapeutic exercise! Besides, if you don't want to read it, you don't have to! LOL! Yeah, I know, NOW I tell you that! LOL!

I hope the rest of the week is a better one for all of you!