[johannakat]

Anyone ever have one? It is scheduled with an OT and supposed to last 4 hours or so. It is to evaluate permenant restrictions as listed on my LTD claim with Unum.

It is scheduled for exactly two weeks after my scalenectomy...so I still have lifting restrictions from my surgery...i dont' know why they didn't wait a little longer, but they didn't.

In any case, supposed to evaluate my ability to lift, twist, bend, and specificalyl i have listed restrictions for grasping, keyboarding, reaching, and some other stuff on my claim.

Just wondered if anyone had any experience to share. Goign to look up old threads next.

Thanks
Johanna

[Jomar]

That seems awfully close to your surgery.. can atty get it rescheduled - I'd hate to see you injure anything while doing the testing so soon
Are they aware that you just had this other surgery?
I'd make sure that they do know that for sure.

I think I saw one being done while I was @ PT 3 yrs ago.

It involved the guy placing pegs in holes, transferring items, overhead tasks and lifting, etc.
but maybe they are more job specific??
I heard that his job was electrician.

[DiMarie]

Like Jo said that is really too close to surgery. If you had a C-section they would not have you perform an FCE under restrictions, why if you had a TOS surgery? On the other had you show up, you evaluate what they ask you to do, DO NOT PUT YORSELF IN HARM! If it is moveing items, lifting attempt to grasp, IT WILL HURT and state, I tried and it caused me pain in my etc, relate what you felt and where.

I would not even lift soup cans, if one only and asked to lift a second be atune to your body.
Remember in a function capacity, if you lift it once, they will only state you could lift, move, carry, not that you can only do one or SHOULD only do one a shift.

The most important thing, as a friend on the forum went through hers last year, she ended up in an extrem flare, long term and never would this information be in their report.

I would get a doctors not from the surgeon to state extrem, nearly no activity except incidental to take care of personal needs during the day, a NO WORK order so they can not ask you to do wprk related items.

They feel, if you can do an FCE two weeks after surgery, then you can go back to work.
These people do not understand, they are being paid by the insurance carrier to just see you do something and document you did it. No concern that it caused you injury, flare, or will harm you.
That is my experiance.
Keep us posted
di

[hairdresser]

Hi, I'm still hurting from my fce from last year. I was tested for grip strengths,standing, walking,stairs,low level work,reaching, trunk and neck bending, trunk and neck twisting,hand function, lifting, carrying, pushing as measured by a gauge.
All I can say I tried everything they asked. I would also caution that when you start having more pain and symptoms, stop what you are doing! Tell the examiner what hurts. Don't keep going. These tests are measured for objective evidence not subjective. But only you know what your capable of, so don't injure yourself further and do more harm to yourself. Why so soon after surgery? It's awful. I was given a heart monitor to wear durning testing. My fce was done over 2 days. Honestly, be careful, don't push yourself. If you can go easy on the pain meds for that day. I only say this because if your using meds. for pain control they will cloud your pain and judgement. Good luck. I wish I could type more and be more specific but I'm still in extreme pain after my fall on the ice last week, gosh flat on my back and of course wacked my head off the ice.

[johannakat]

thanks everyone- i do plan on being careful, I have a note from the surgeon re: a 5 pound lifting limit and hospital discharge instructions with "no heavy lifting, bending, twisting"

the timing is due to their review of all my paperwork from before i had the surgery scheduled, but they do know that I just had surgery. The bummer for me is that i know that i can do certain things that will make me feel better right now, like particular types of massage, etc, but they will make me feel pretty good for a few weeks so now i feel like i have to put them off until after the FCE...because i don't want them to get a better idea of what i can do than what i can actually do.

Frankly, a walk around the block yesterday sent me into a huge flare, so i am not incredibly worried about how much i can do in front of someone at this point

What i have seen explained here and on a thread in the w/c forum is pretty much what i expected it to be, i am just worried about how biased it will be against me, i guess. There are no attorneys at work here, it is just me and the LTD company which so far has been quite reasonable. They are just trying to decide if my permenant restrictions are really meant to be permenant. I don't know how they can possibly evaluate that, but they seem to think they can...

in any case, I really appreciate everyone's responses...

Johanna

[lisa_tos]

Your medical treatment team may be able to recommend a provider that has experience doing FCE's with people who have TOS. You likely will have to pay for it yourself but you will have a better chance of having a realistic estimate of your limitations. The FCE I had (done by someone recommended by my medical team) they measured TOS tests before and after typing and other tasks and were able to show changes in tests based on activity. I have never heard of this being done in FCE's paid for by insurance companies. I also saw my PT and doctor right before and right after the FCE and they commented on the objective signs of a flare up (swelling, TOS tests, etc.) and my reduced ability to do PT exercises. It's also documented in the records that the FCE caused a flare that lasted months.

[Jomar]

[a 5 pound lifting limit and hospital discharge instructions with "no heavy lifting, bending, twisting" ]

the main problem with those restrictions is they aren't very specific - nothing about repeated lifting or hours of etc...

my doc always wrote along with lifting and weight restrictions - "no repetitive hand use" or "limited rep hand use"

of course in an assembly situation, well nearly any production/manufacturing type of job, that really limited what I was able to do.
even the very simple light work of prepping the parts for assembly was still hand and finger intensive... so then I was sent to do paperwork type of jobs in the offices and that still was pinch/grip intensive
I did get paid to walk the parking lot for 2 months LOL
security LOL

[Donna7]

Hi, Johanna...I might be posting this too late, as I don't know when your FCE was scheduled, but I thought I'd share my experience. I've had two done; the second was done a few weeks after my cervical fusion, and I was not fully recovered. It was set up by my attorney, so I didn't have insurance companies pushing me. The therapists I had (different ones for each eval) were very good; they constantly asked me to rate pain levels, and I stopped when they got too bad. They also had me call in the next day to report how I was doing after the eval, and whether or not it put me in a flare (it did...for a few days, IIRC). For me, one of the worst things was the fine motor stuff...picking up slippery little metal things, and putting rings on pegs. After those tests I HAD to stop for a while; she had a table where I could go to lay down, and she even came in and massaged my arm and shoulder a bit to calm things down. A lot of the lifting tests were out of the question, so they didn't even require me to do them.

After the second one I was rated at sub-sedentary...basically full disability.

I hope things go well, Johanna...I agree with the others. DON'T push yourself at all, and let them know how you are feeling throughout the whole thing.

[johannakat]

thanks donna- my FCE is early next week, so you aren't too late

I hope i have an experience like yours....soudns like exactly what it should be.

i do think it is likely not to be too negative, they are really evaluating based on my ability to return to my current job right now, i have two years (i am almost a year in at this point) to go back to what i was doing before they evaluate me for any reasonable employment.

how do they rate delayed pain is going to be my first question, though.

i'll be sure to go light on the pain meds that day so i don't miss warning signs of pain and impending flare.


thanks again to all of you!!

[finz]

Make sure that you refuse to do any actions prohibited by your doc....and I would make a copy of those post surgery instructions for them to show you are following MD orders and not trying to be uncooperative with the exam.

Good luck !