Hello, I would first like to say thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my concern.

I will give a little background on how I ended up with this problem. I took a fall which injured my wrist. When the doctor went in to correct the injury, in order to fix the problem he had to cut a nerve. This has cause me to have permanent numbness, pain, tingling and etc in park of my hand and wrist.

I work in a factory/assemble line making products at times this cause my flares ups and cause pain. Also sometimes I wake up in horrible pain.

I am almost out of my vacation and sick time at work because I've use it for when the pain is just unbearable. I've just found out about FMLA and wonder if its possible for me to get it for when I have flare ups when I am at work and sometimes right before work.

Some days its fine and I can go the whole day and forget I have the problem and some days its awful.

What is the process of going about getting FMLA? Are you require to see your doctor a number of times to get this? I have several doctors such as the doctor who conducts my EMG, the orthopedic doctor who did the surgery and my primary physician; who would I see to fill out any paper for it?

I apologize for the long post. Thanks once again in advance.

-John

You should be hearing soon from some of the posters that have successfully been able to get approved. For some, it took a lot of ups and downs; but eventually many succeeded.


Gerry

I don't have any personal experience with FMLA but the place I worked for 26 years had a lot of FMLA approvals for things like migraines, gastro problems, pretty much the whole list of chronic illnesses.

I remember them having to get their dr to fill out a form stating the dx and how much time the dr would allow them in a certain time frame. One lady I worked with had up to 5 days a month the dr would allow her to be out due to her condition. And one with migraines had unlimited days off recommended by her dr. And let me tell you....once they were approved nobody messed with them. HR took FMLA very seriously.

Wishing you much luck and I know others with specific knowledge will be coming around to help you.

Debi from Georgia

Welcome JohnJohn22.

I have had Non-Length Dependent Small-Fiber Neuropathy (NLD-SFN) for several years and the past year I have been on intermittent FMLA at my place of work.

Through my company's HR website there was information about the company that handles all of their FMLA claims. From that website I was able to find the contact information for the company and their representatives were able to shepherd me through the entire process. My neurologist just needed a heads up of what paperwork was coming his way and we worked out how much time I might need each month (3 days in my case). The FMLA company faxed all the paperwork and got all the required signatures and info.

Now, I just need to fill out paperwork everytime I need to be out due to the pain. Once my sick and vacation time is used up this FMLA coverage allows me to continue to take days off as needed. However, I am not sure how this would work for an hourly employee as I am salaried and don't need to worry about tracking hours for my paycheck. That would be something to check into depending on your situation.

I hope that info helps and that you are able to get your situation straightened out soon.

All the best,
SFN Warrior

Welcome SFN Warrior.

Thanks Ger175, St George 2013, Kitt and SFN Warrior.

I will speak to the person in the HR dept tomorrow and see what I would need to do. Hopefully things go well; I am often ignored at my job.

I am not sure how that would work since I am hourly. I've pretty much ran out of my vacation and sick time. I've requested an accommodation a couple of times (even from the person in HR) and I was ignored for over 8 months. This resulted in me using a lot of time. They would basically keep me at this one work station well other workers we're able to move around to different work stations. I explained that it causes me pain because the affected hand/wrist was constantly under pressure and stress. Doing for 10-12 hours a day (excluding breaks) was at times unbearable when I was in pain. So I used up my vacation/sick time in order to get a break from this. It doesn't sound fair but as the saying goes "life isn't always fair". It was a simple accommodation that they do with other workers without a request but I was ignored when I asked for it.

I will see how this goes tomorrow. I just don't want to push too much and end up losing my job. Hopefully I don't get too much of a hassle. I'm basically out of time now so I will be screwed if I need to miss anymore time.

Thanks once again everyone for your helpful advice; I am very grateful for such this community.

[ The accommodation was that I would be able to move around to different work stations like the other co-workers. Instead they keep me at the one work station between 10-12 hours (excluding break/meal period). This work station cause the pain to flare up or become worse if already in pain due to the repetitive pressure and stress it placed on my hand/wrist. ]

Reading this part makes me wonder if you might have Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) or some related RSIs.
I had the same problem when I was working, I really pushed for rotations & cross training at my work place after I got my first extreme flare of RSI..more so after the accumulated injuries started flaring more often..

Here is our TOS forum & the sticky threads to see if it fits your symptoms.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum24.html
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

But unfortunately many GP or primary care MDs are NOT fully up on the condition..
They may say they are- but have biased or incomplete knowledge..

PTs and chiropractors can be helpful especially if they are skilled & have advanced training. There are plenty of self care things you can try too but it does take time and time off work usually.. Usually not a quick fix thing..

Thanks Jo*Mar for the replied and the helpful advice as well as links. I will look at the links when I get home from work this afternoon.

Side-note: I apologize for the double post. When I typed the first one and clicked on "Post Quick Reply", I didn't see it right away so I thought I did it wrong and typed it again. Admin please delete the post (#8). For future reference I now know that it could take a little bit of time after clicking on Post Quick reply. Thanks in advance.