operaations,
For the record I am LEGITIMATELY on the sick list and have been trapped at my crashpad since the 11DEC. I spent my 5 days off here because I have not been able to move (no energy or appetite) until today. I also would have blown my right eardrum out if I tried to fly home.
I have been absolutely miserable and I'm losing 25 hours of Incentive Pay for this month because I am on the sick list.
Today I finally had the energy to go to the ER at a hospital where they prescribed me exactly what my Primary Care Physician would prescribe me at almost $60 more for the visit than my co-pay with my Doctor in MIA. God knows what I'll co-pay for the X-Rays.
I have a virus and a major sinus infection but not bronchitis or pneumonia (which I was starting to fear with the duration), thank goodness.
I guess if I was sketchy I would have risked the ruptured eardrum to be home in MIA (and the cheaper Doctor fees vs. an ER visit). However, I stayed at my base, hoping I would be better for my trip 5 days later and not lose my incentive hours. That did not happen.
I have been through the eardrum thing before and that is a pain I wish on NOBODY. When you don't work in a pressurized environment, I don't think you quite understand it. I know when I should not be on a plane at all. This included my 5 days off.
I am bored senseless and want to get back to being "normal". I'm ready to go back to work but the physician has pulled me until a follow-up visit 2 days from now. Now I have to fight the FMLA rejection machine and deal with all that bureaucracy. In my perfect world, I would have spent my 5 days off plastered to the couch in the crashpad and been rip-roaring ready to go on my next trip, not losing any extra hours and CERTAINLY not paying for an ER visit...not to mention having a VERY RARE 19 hour LAS layover.
On the next to the last trip I worked, 3 of 4 of us had sniffles. At my crashpad, 2 others besides me were sick...it appears I won the virus medal. They had 3 day colds and did not call in, I HAD TO. They are on RSV!
One told me how she nearly popped her eardrum going home.
It's easy to be jaded when you hear people calling in sick all the time but recognize with the time of year that people can really be sick.
December is always too lucrative for me to be on the sick list. This is now the 3rd month in a row that I won't fly 100 hours. October was RSV, November I was stung with a trip-removal (when I needed days off, ended up flying 2 freebie turns for the company), and now this.
I hope you can feel my frustration from this setback. If I was going to spend X-mas anywhere, it would be RDU but I hope to be flying the LAS turn I bid instead. My family knows I fly holidays.
However, I need to get to MIA for 24 hours to renew my parking sticker since they weren't in when I was last there. I hope I have a Jan "grace period".
This is our world,
Coop
SLT
p.s. weird thing, when I signed in earlier tonight, I showed a new supervisor in MIA in AAFLTSVC, it disappeared when I signed back in, what was THAT about?
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