“Why are you here? Who sent you?”

There is a lot of history that goes into this situation so I will just give you a little bit of background so that the story can make sense.

In case you have not guessed it, I am not a person who deals well with stupidity, bureaucracy or “BS”. So, in that same vein, I am not often a friend of administration.

At the time of my ankle fusion, my principal was not a fan of mine and, dare I say, she was not sad to see me taking a leave from my assignment.

However, after physio and strengthening my ankle, I was ready to come back to work after March Break. Of course, to end a medical leave, there is paperwork necessary and it is perfectly acceptable procedure to have to go through Human Resources.

However, I was surprised when I did not get the official “OK” to go come back to work and waited a number of weeks after March Break, frustrated and confused. Apparently, my principal was worried that I was not ready to come back.

I finally did hear from my contact person in HR but it was not with the news that I was expecting.

Instead of accepting the letters that I had from my massage therapist, my physiotherapist, the surgeon and my nurse practitioner (who had been working with me to rehabilitate since my surgery), the Board had decided to “invoke [their] right to question medical that had been submitted”, meaning that they had decided that, before I returned, I needed to see a Board appointed physiotherapist and a PSYCHIASTRIST of their choice because they did not trust the validity of my doctors’ notes.

Needless to say, I was annoyed, bereft, confused, exasperated, frustrated…. I can likely come up with an emotion for every letter of the alphabet to describe how I felt hearing that I had to see a psychiatrist for return to work after ankle surgery, but you get the picture!

There was nothing I could do to fight it so I had to make the required appointments and get it over with. I wasn’t worried that the physiotherapist and psychiatrist wouldn’t sign off of me returning to work (since four health care professionals who were familiar with my history had already signed the paperwork) but I was annoyed at having to go through the hassle.

I called to make the appointments.

Keep in mind it was mid March. My appointments were to take place in the first week of….MAY! So I was not going back to work any time soon. And, since I had used up my paid sick leave, this unexpected leave would be unpaid.

I went to the psychiatrist. My HR contact gave me the wrong address – sent me to Kitchener instead of Cambridge. I raced back to Cambridge, praying that I would not need to rebook the appointment. Thankfully, the doctor allowed us to continue with our meeting.

I explained why I was there and at more than one point throughout our meeting, he said he could not understand why I was sent to him.

Join the club!

He actually said that I was likely more mentally healthy and prepared to perform the expectations of my job than him. I agreed!

In the end, he obviously signed off on my returning back to work, as did the physiotherapist.

Because the paperwork took forever to fill out and then had to be processed at the Board level, I ended up returning to work in September, even though I was ready to go back in March. Luckily, they fixed my pay situation and repaid me the money I was owed while off unnecessarily.

Lesson Learned? Honestly? Not a one! My head still reels every time I think of this situation… but not so much so that I need to see a psychiatrist.