Hi, I'm 39-year-old.
I got injured in Nov 2024 while working at a supermarket, It's a WorkCover claim.
Since then, I've been stuck dealing with chronic pain, numbness in my leg, and serious mobility issues.
I can't stand for more than 10 minutes, driving is limited to short trips, even basic errands wipe me out.
Sitting hurts after 20 to 30 minutes, so I spend most of my time lying in bed on my side.
The pain is constant.
Sometimes it's burning numbness down my leg mixed with lightning bolts of nerve pain, sometimes it feels like someone’s jamming a piece of rebar into my spine. I’ve been on Palexia, Tramadol, Celebrex.
I’ve done physio, hydro, and just had a nerve conduction study.
I get the results in a week.
That test was rough.
Some parts of my leg lit up and made me swear out loud, other spots like the groin down my thigh to my knee were completely dead.
He cranked the voltage to max and I didn’t even flinch.
The specialist said if he hadn’t met me, based on the MRI and CT, he’d think he was looking at a 60-year-old’s spine.
My nerves are misfiring constantly and the pain runs from my back all the way down both legs.
Despite all that, WorkCover keeps pushing me to go back to work.
They ignore what my body’s telling me and even take things my doctors say out of context just to tick boxes.
I've had to fight for every bit of support.
The IME said I’m at 40% capacity, but they’re twisting his words to say I’m ready for work.
This whole process has smashed my mental health.
I can’t sleep properly, I'm up at random hours, never more than 3 or 4 hours at a time. I’m dealing with anxiety, depression, burnout and PTSD.
I’ve been bounced between GPs, psychs, pain specialists, and every time I try to stand up for myself, I get treated like a problem or flagged for drug seeking.
Even when I flat out refuse certain meds because I hate feeling high.
I'm scared they're going to force me back into a job I can't physically do.
I'm tired of justifying my pain to people who don't live with it.
I can't even lift my 3-year-old daughter for a cuddle.
I can't be intimate with my partner.
I see a psych, she's nice, but too polite.
I don’t want sugarcoated sympathy, I want honesty.
I want someone who doesn’t blink when I say I’m barely holding on.
I don’t want to be told to do breathing exercises.
I want answers.
I need help.
I’m at my limit.
I don’t know how much longer I can do this.
p.s. I had chatgpt shorten my post as i was at 3400 characters long.
