Times Up

I've been recovering from shoulder surgery, no thanks to a 90 something year-old who was obviously opposed to the foley I inserted.  I had four months of pre-op physical therapy, a misdiagnosis of "I don't think it's anything" from the Worker's Comp ortho, even though an MRI result stated otherwise.  Well lucky for me I had a great therapist who was persistent.  It's been two months since surgery, and about 3 weeks since PT stated.  Things are painfully progressing.  

     

Normally PT appointments are scheduled for only 30 minute sessions, but my therapist always does an hour, knowing that my time to be back to full duty is very limited.  After a slew of exercises and stretching she starts the painful stretching again, which sucks, but it is helping me get better range. Mid stretch another therapist walks over and says, "Are you still working on that shoulder?  It's been a while." She returns a few minutes later and says, "I've already seen like three patients."  

And here lies the problem with healthcare today, we are time slotted into recovery.  We are not working towards progress of the patient we are more concerned about how many people we can put through the door.  

Maybe I should have explained to her that I only have 23 more days until my 12 weeks of medical leave are up and if I'm not 100%, I loose my job.  Yes, you can be terminated after being injured by a patient while at work if you go over your 12 week FMLA time and are not back to ship shape.