Return to Work

I have always been a company man and upheld the best interest of the company. After my injury and return to work despite informing HR staff of every passing stage I was going through I realised it was just going in one ear and out the other as they “knew what was best for me”
I was to return to a section that was in a building I could not get to due to staircases (wheelchairs don’t climb steps) so I was to return to the front counter of Lost Property.
I actually felt like I was lost property. I could not see myself in this or the other department should it ever be moved. At this stage I was only working 8 hrs a week and trying to survive what my body was putting me through.
I had chronic pain surging through my body and my muscle spasms were that were that violent I would literally throw myself out of my wheelchair.
Once I was able to spend 18hrs p/w I enrolled myself at Sydney Uni and started to learn all about computers.
I guess this is hard for young people to understand but I was 33yrs old and never used a computer. I bought an Amaga 500 for my son but that was all I ever came in contact with. I was an out door person and now my future was to be inside and using this foreign monster.
Uni was 3 nights a week and it took a lot of convincing to have my taxi fare paid for.
In hospital I was promised the world but CEO’s and management change so you then are left with the normal rehab path. All they wanted was for me to return to full-time work and get off the workers compensation to drop there premiums down. (From a company making in excess of $60million profit)
My body was still suffering severely so my taxi driver would have to actually push me all the way to my desk while I hung on trying to stop myself from throwing myself out of my chair.
At the end of the night I would have to get the taxi driver to get me from my desk and push me again to the taxi. The longer I was in a chair the worse I would get.
I was not even aware if I worked 2 more hours per week I would then receive 80% of a make up wage from my workers compensation.
Three quarters of my way through my Uni course I was told that I would no-longer have my taxi cost paid for. The underlying reason for this was it was thought if I did not go to Uni of a night I would be able to spend more time at work.
In those day it was real to real servers and dumb terminals on desks.
There was a position that came up that required knowledge of spreadsheets so I moved to the Commercial department and my boss and I built the property management system. We did it so well we were checking data for the other 22 Airports in Australia.
I will write more of my struggling working history later.
The main point I am trying to make is, no matter what your physical ability or your limited knowledge it should not hold you back from doing what you are passionate about.
Believe in yourself and anything is possible. I find the more I am told I can’t do something the more I push myself to prove them wrong.