Well as some of you know, 10 months ago whilst working as a lift engineer (elevator mechanic to our American friends) I stepped off the top of a lift and completely ruptured the quadriceps tendon on my left knee, that's the tendon that connects the thigh muscles to the kneecap, essentially what connects top half of the leg to the bottom. The hospital failed to diagnose it initially, took them 12 days to get me in front of a surgeon, who then told me he couldn't operate as surgery has to be carried out within 7 days of the injury.
So I was put in a leg cast that went from my groin to my ankle, I was completely immobile for 4 weeks and when the cast came off my leg muscles had lost around 50% of their mass. I was told it could take anywhere between 9 and 18 months to get back walking properly. The biggest problem was the way the tendon had grafted back to the kneecap, instead of being one long flat section spread across the width of my knee it was half the width and double as thick, it had clumped together in one fat mass and grafted itself to the left hand side of my knee. This now means the muscles on the right hand side of my knee are no longer connected to the upper leg and will eventually waste away. Leaving me with a constant weakness. On top of that the tendon when it was healing stretched slightly too, allowing the kneecap to slip down slightly, so the tendon under my knee is no longer tensioned and pulling the lower leg muscles in the same way as it used to. One of he resulting features of this is the horrible feeling that now and again my knee can flex slightly in the negative direction, yes it goes backwards.
Now you would think my workplace would act with some sort of responsibility as it happened in their care, or at least give me the proper time to recover. But no, 8 months into my recovery, even before my doctor recommended I start back they gave me an ultimatum. Return to work immediately or be paid off. So I convinced my doctor to allow me to start back on phased return, light duties working in the office, under the assumption the company would make reasonable adjustments to assist me. All I asked for was access to the disabled toilet and a chair with armrests to aide me getting in and out the chair. They assured me this was no problem. Lying bastards!! Disabled toilet was always locked and no chair was ever provided.
5 weeks of this passed and I was expected to return to my own job the very next week, I went back to my doctor who said under no circumstances was I fit for manual labour or climbing stairs. So I was signed unfit for work once more, the doctor told me my best option was to find a driving job which did not require heavy lifting as that would also put excess strain on the knee. So I went into work and handed in my sick line telling them I was off for another 8 weeks, I was packing up my personal belongings when the managers all gathered round and whispering they then printed off a letter and handed it to me. Disciplinary action taken against me. Claiming I brought the companies name into disrepute whilst on phased return. This is regarded as gross misconduct and is a sackable offence. The offence I was not told about at that point in time, so I took in a union official to the meeting and I was told that on a certain date I had sent a text message to a company representative claiming someone had been trapped in a lift and no one had attended the call for over 5 hours. Now the company that do the out of hours call out didn't deny they took 5 hours (even though they are contracted to get there within an hour) but vehemently deny there was anyone trapped. It is this one point the manager claims was me bringing the company name into disrepute. Now I had proof there was someone trapped, it was caught on cctv and recorded. It was kept on digital back up for 60 days. They were told of this at the disciplinary meeting, whether they done anything about it or not I've no idea, I'm still waiting to here back from management. According to the union they realise with me back on the sick they would have to pay me redundancy as I'm no longer fit to do the job I'm employed to do, and it would cost them nothing to sack me rather than pay me.
Not long after the disiplinary meeting I had a phone call from an ex workmate, I was telling him all about it and what job the doctor recommended I considered. He started laughing and eventually asked me if I was fit to drive, doctor wouldn't recommend it if I wasn't, he then told me the largest and busiest taxi firm in my home town was owned by his uncle. A few phone calls round his family later I was sent up to see his uncle who signed an application pack for me, as long as the local council and Scottish police have no qualms about me I'll be able to go into my current workplace and tell them I quit. And I honestly cannot wait. I'm crossing my fingers and toes that I get accepted and get the taxi license. I should know within 4 or 5 weeks. Once I'm out I'll be authorising the union to sue them for my injury, could make a princely sum if it can be proved they were at fault and the union convenor thinks I have a half decent chance at winning.
Finally things might be starting to look up, some positive vibes hopefully, long overdue. Through this long horrible process I'd like to say a special thanks to 3 people, my next door neighbour has been a godsend, 75 years old but he has done everything for me I couldn't do, taking out my trash every week, keeping my car ticking over when I couldn't drive etc. And the 2 other people who were there for me, who helped raise my spirits, who asked me how I was when even my best friends and family had gotten bored of me, a heartfelt special thanks go out to our very own @ghillie and @blu I love you both for keeping me feeling positive during my darkest hours ❤
