Help landscaper with medical expenses

Hi, my name is Yasmeen and I find it so difficult to get this done, kind of beg for the help from others. I'm usually a very independent and private person, I like to take care of things on my own and not bother anyone else with my problems, but I guess there are moments when you have to swallow your pride and seek help.

Year 2019 has started just awfully for me and I'm kind of scared to see what's going to happen next, it's been nonstop thing after another that has happened. In January I went to a doctor because of the cold I had, and my doctor wanted to get an X-ray picture taken, he thought I might have pneumonia. Well, I didn't have pneumonia, but they found out that my heart is enlarged.

Knowing that heart disease is the number 1 killer in women and in men, it really scared me. I'm 51 years old and for sure I don't feel like my time is or should be done here on the earth. I was a big mess after that, lots of tears and I kind of gotten paranoid about it (my heart) and I started "feeling" it.

There were times when I was driving, and I tried to find a comfortable position to sit and drive, without being uncomfortable. I swear I could feel it, I could hear it and I know it all was in my head.

After all those doctor's appointments, I owed a good amount of money to my doctor.

 The next thing that happened is I fell on ice. The winter here in Lincoln, Nebraska was very cold and snowy and icy also.

When I fell down on the parking lot I broke my glasses and the right side of my hip had a huge bruise and my hip got all swollen up.

After that I bit into a hard cookie and broke my front tooth. For a person who likes to smile and laugh a lot, it was nearly the end of the world! Luckily, I was able to dig the tooth out of my mouth and to the dentist I went. They were able to put my tooth together temporarily, but the dentist said it's not going to last for very long and that I need to get the tooth totally removed and get a dental retainer. So I did, but this is just a temporary fix.

I need to go and get an implant and it'll cost me $3000.

My job is very physical, I'm a landscaper. I love my job!! I love adding beautiful things to our landscape; plant trees, flowers and shrubs for all of us to enjoy and admire.

I work for one big national company and that company takes care of one of the private university's grounds properties here in Nebraska.

About 20 years ago the father of my children broke my left wrist. The relationship with him was very toxic. He was an alcoholic and when he was drunk stuff happened, not so good things to me. Anyways, I'm not going to go to the details, they are not nice memories.

In the end of the April I was trying to make the campus look perfect for graduation. We had heard rumors that if it's not beautiful and perfect, someone might get fired. I'm a perfectionist and I know I'm a hard worker, a go-getter.

So, I knew I need to weed whip my own area, I had to use the stick edger to make grass lines look nice and straight and there are also places where you cannot use the ride on mower, so I did some push mowing also. I did this two days in a row, 4 to 5 hours per day.

On Thursday afternoon I started feeling my left wrist was hurting and I told my boss about it. No rest for the wicked, I had to get everything done. I guess that's how I am.

I didn't want to be a reason for someone getting fired, besides let's face it, I'm a neat freak! =).

I came back for more on Friday and my wrist was bugging me, but I got everything done and afterwards everyone kept giving me compliments, how nice everything looked, and I think someone even said the campus has never looked that good. I cannot take all the credit, it was a team effort, but I do know I did my share. Maybe a little bit more and I was happy with the results.

In past sometimes when I've done too much with my wrist, it has gotten sore, but it has also always gotten better when I avoid doing things that bug it for a few days. Not this time. It kept being sore and I ended up wearing a brace for it.

On May 11th I had to give up and get a doctor's appointment. They took X-ray pictures and I had not fractured it (thank gawd for that), I had a sprained wrist instead.

The doctor gave me this cast type of thing and I remember asking him, if I still could use my left hand and work. He said yes, you can.

The "thing" (not sure what I should call it) was really hard and the edges were scratching my fingers and other body parts that I might have touched with it. I couldn't even change my clothes! It was so huge that the sleeves just didn't go over it, so I got rid of it and went back to the brace and I was able to shower, change my clothes and work =).

On 17th of May I was using a bobcat to do different things, with different attachments. I had a broom attached, forks and the bucket and when I was done with everything that needed to be done I opened the door and started getting out of it. Somehow my right foot got stuck with the forks attachment and I twisted my knee. My left wrist might have had something to do with it, since it was still hurting when I grabbed the bar.

I didn't think I twisted it that bad, but in the afternoon,  it started bothering me. I went to my second job delivering pizzas and the knee kept bugging me more and more.

Somehow, I survived the night and when I came back home, took my shoes off and changed my clothes, I noticed my knee was totally swollen up and the swelling was going down towards my ankle also.

On Monday morning I called my boss, who's also a good friend of mine and kind of wanted to know her opinion, if I should go to the doctor or should I come to work. We decided that I'll go to work and see what happens, how I can tolerate the pain and so I did.

 My boss was thinking of my knee when she had me sitting on a mower (so I won't bother my knee so much), but in the afternoon I could feel my jeans were getting tighter and tighter around my knee and calf area. I guess sitting in one position wasn't a good thing to do either.

I left work a couple of hours earlier than normally, I had gotten a doctor's appointment for later on that day. They took X-ray pictures and there wasn't anything broken, a few days later I had an appointment with ultrasound people and I did not have a blood clot either, all good news.

One of the doctors at my doctor's office had taken a second look at my ultra sound pictures and he said that I had a thing called Baker's Cyst.

So, it seems the Baker's cyst happened because my knee had some arthritis going on and when I twisted my knee somehow some fluids were all over my knee area and that fluid caused all the pain and swelling. I'm not sure, if I can explain things correctly. It makes a lot more sense when my doctor explains it. Heh.

I've been landscaping for over 20 years and as much as I have had fun with doing it, I also have abused my body a little bit and let's face it again, I'm not exactly a 30 years old lady anymore. I guess aging kind of surprises all of us, it doesn't happen over the night. Hehe.

It's been really painful ever since. I have a tough time walking, sitting is good only for a while and laying down hurts too. I have not been able to sleep well because of the pain. When I lay down to sleep I have to try to find a good position, sometimes it's so difficult to do that, to find a good position. If and when I finally do that, I wake up in the middle of the night, either I've moved in my sleep or I've stayed too long in the same position and the knee starts bothering me.

It's amazing how small things like that can make life so difficult and so different, that you have to watch every move you are doing with your knee.

I reported the wrist accident to my employer two weeks later than it had happened, because I thought, and I was hoping it'd get better, but it never did. I hurt my knee on May 17th and reported it on the following Monday, on 20th.

I'm trying to think of the words I want to use here, I don't want to say something that I might regret.

My employer has doubted my injuries, there has been an investigation about them and I've felt like I'm a criminal and I feel like that's how I've been treated, like a criminal that is trying to abuse the system.

I've been told that the paperwork for the wrist injury was misplaced and there was a time, when nobody "knew" about it, because the paperwork was lost. After that the reason for them not paying for it was because I reported it too late. Right now it looks like I'm going to end up paying for all the doctor's visits for the wrist and also the physical therapy for the wrist. I remember telling my supervisor that I'm going to be honest with you, this wrist has been broken before. But the way I see it, the reason for it getting so sore is the work that I did for my employer and during all these 20 years I've never before missed the work because of it.

They are accepting my claim for my knee, finally. It took lots of standing up for myself and lots of tears too. But because my doctor was too optimistic about my knee getting better, he signed the release for return to work form too soon and when the doctor’s office noticed the mistake, the other doctor tried to fix the optimistic release error, signing a new release to return to work with zero hours per day with “None” marked for activities, but that has not been enough. My employer’s insurance company is punishing me for the doctor’s misreading of the healing rate, since there is a penalty for that. I have not gotten paid at all from the time after the accident and won’t receive a paycheck until the end of June,

but that will be only for one week’s pay. The accident has made it so that I am unable to work at my pizza delivery job as well, because of the doctor’s note, meaning I have lost two sets of wages from this injury.

Because I have not received my regular paychecks, I am now facing the issue that I am unable to pay rent, utilities, car payment, and other expenses, like food and gas. I worry how I will be able to afford to eat and keep afloat in the weeks to come.

I have felt like I have not had enough time to get better, because of all the other stress that has been going on.

I have always tried to treat others like I want to be treated, I wish nothing but good for others. I love to make everyone happy and kind of spread happiness all around me.

This all has made me think, what it is so bad that I've done to someone that I deserve this. I've heard about karma, maybe I'm just one of those unlucky people in this world.

I hope you made it all the way to the end. Hehe. I do talk/type way too much, I know it.

Thank you for taking your time with this, any and all help is greatly appreciated. I hope you'll have a great day =)