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6130 · 07-26-2021, 09:15 PM

I hope the 3-year necropost is okay- I just came across my own thread from 3 years ago, and wanted to give an update.

This injury in the line of duty absolutely turned our lives upside-down. But in some ways it was also a blessing.

As it turns out, it wasn't just my hand that was jacked up- my shoulder was torn, and my bicep was torn too. We didn't find out about it until after my hand was healed and I started physical therapy. I had reconstructive shoulder surgery to repair my shoulder socket and reattach my bicep.

Then came a year and a half of painful physical therapy.

During that whole time, I was drawing a full paycheck, which sounds like a good thing, but I typically made an extra $50-70K a year in overtime, so a full paycheck was basically a $50-70K pay cut. We still had positive cash flow, because we live within our means, but this tanked our plans of paying off everything before I retired.

During this time, my young wife was diagnosed with cancer. As a cop, we had excellent medical coverage. If I had retired before she was diagnosed, we would have lost her medical coverage, and that would have been it for us. Five surgeries later, she is doing well, and we consider cancer to be in our past.

Ultimately, the injury in the line of duty retired me. I first settled the worker's comp side of it, so that I could pay off our debts, since my disability retirement had to go through a long process before it could be approved. We were barely able to hang on financially. After another year, my disability retirement was approved, which more than doubled my existing pension, refunded all of my retirement contributions, and gave me free medical for life. This allowed us to purchase a property in Texas with some acreage.

And as I'm sure all of you know, now is an EXCELLENT time to not be a cop...

07-26-2021, 09:15 PM	#6
6130 Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Texas Posts: 409 Likes: 295 Liked 117 Times in 50 Posts	Re: Worker's Comp sucks. I hope the 3-year necropost is okay- I just came across my own thread from 3 years ago, and wanted to give an update. This injury in the line of duty absolutely turned our lives upside-down. But in some ways it was also a blessing. As it turns out, it wasn't just my hand that was jacked up- my shoulder was torn, and my bicep was torn too. We didn't find out about it until after my hand was healed and I started physical therapy. I had reconstructive shoulder surgery to repair my shoulder socket and reattach my bicep. Then came a year and a half of painful physical therapy. During that whole time, I was drawing a full paycheck, which sounds like a good thing, but I typically made an extra $50-70K a year in overtime, so a full paycheck was basically a $50-70K pay cut. We still had positive cash flow, because we live within our means, but this tanked our plans of paying off everything before I retired. During this time, my young wife was diagnosed with cancer. As a cop, we had excellent medical coverage. If I had retired before she was diagnosed, we would have lost her medical coverage, and that would have been it for us. Five surgeries later, she is doing well, and we consider cancer to be in our past. Ultimately, the injury in the line of duty retired me. I first settled the worker's comp side of it, so that I could pay off our debts, since my disability retirement had to go through a long process before it could be approved. We were barely able to hang on financially. After another year, my disability retirement was approved, which more than doubled my existing pension, refunded all of my retirement contributions, and gave me free medical for life. This allowed us to purchase a property in Texas with some acreage. And as I'm sure all of you know, now is an EXCELLENT time to not be a cop...