Question about DOT physicals

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by '63GENIII

Hey, right on. Hope there is an easy answer and solution to keep you on the road.

If MD is anything like CA, you can get an exemption for near anything as long as it means you're still generating money for the state!

Best of luck Richard

Lol we are the east coast CA. If they think there is a dollar to squeeze out of the working man you can bet they will try for two and then offer a 50 cent discount to quiet the peasants down like they did them a favor.

['63GENIII]

I hear ya. As an electrician I have to give them 150$ every 3 years so that I can carry a little card around that says I can do my job. Never mind that I had been doing the job for 20 years prior before I had to pay them to tell me that I can keep on doing it. Its not like they enforce it either. Never seen someone thrown off of a job for not carrying a State Cert.

Its probably pennies compared to the effort and $$ that truck drivers have to put in to keeping current but damn, every time us little guys figure out how to make a $, they figure out how to take 2 or more.

Let us know how it works out. My hearing is getting worse too. I do hear / feel the vibrations of the jet engines that I think have contributed to the Tinnitus and hearing loss but conversation is a killer for me. Im a supervisor and its getting tougher to communicate to the guys which may mean I soon will not be able to do my job as effectively.

[richard2717]

It is all set up to try to put the little guy out of business. A lot of the mega companies actually lobby for all of these regulations I could go on and on but the thread would probably get locked lol. I am really hoping this fed exemption works but it looks like it takes 6 months for it to play out. Hopefully the new doctor will work with me for a bit

[richard2717]

Posting this back up from the dead. Did not realize I left it hanging like I did. Have been super frustrated with the lack of response from different agencies in regards to this and never did get a resolution. I ended up parking all my big trucks when covid hit. My 70 year old that worked in the office retired at that time and my driver that was retirement age went ahead and retired as well. 6 months later he found out he had stage 4 lung cancer and just passed away a few months back. Since I am not hiring anyone I had to figure out what to do to make things work. Quick emails to existing customers along with a message on the phone machine to email me have actually worked out quite well for most. I ended up purchasing a 10k gvw van with a 35' boom on it as well as converting my dually to a miniature crane since it is 10k lb gvw. I have been only taking on work that I can do by myself and I wish I had done it years sooner.

As far as my hearing, I had a buddy text me a couple months ago and told me I needed to go see a specific doctor in Baltimore. Long story short, is I made the appointment and went to it on April 5th. Good news is, An hour in the hearing booth and I was actually able to hear the tech talking to me thru some specialized equipment. Bad news is that the equipment simulates cochlear implants which seems to be my only option at this point. The worse news is that I have no health insurance, so i have been looking for something that i can afford. The doctor would not even talk to me about paying out of pocket or payment plan. Costs for this type of deal range from $200-400k according to her including the aftercare. Good news is most insurance plans will pay for it. One thing she mentioned is that the longer I wait the more damage there will be to the hearing nerve and the less likely I will have good results. She also said if I never get anything done with it, there is a high percentage chance I will end up with dementia.

[Boog]

Dang Richard! I guess the saying KISS applies here too. Keep it simple. By involuntarily scaling back you have found things are much simpler, maybe near as profitable and less worrisome as when you had multiple employees? Your liabilities have been reduced. Wow. I knew of cochlear implants but I had no idea they could be that expensive. Individual health coverage doesn't get any cheaper as we age. Communicating with customers by texts or emails is a good idea as there is less chance of miscommunication on a customer's order. When I was still working I had trouble hearing on the phones so often I would ask the person to just send me an email, text or fax. Many times I would keep all messages to refer to later if needed. It paid off some times too!
I still hope you get some hearing aid help and health coverage too. At our ages it's more important than ever.

[LockDoc]

-
I have had hearing aids since the early 70's. I had Stapedectomy surgery in the late 70's and it helped me tremendously. They removed a piece of cartilage in my ear lobe and replaced one of the bones in my ear with it.

The surgery got me through my career as a professional firefighter and I retired in 1998. I still hear pretty well for my age and I think I have the newer hearing aid technology to thank for that.

I don't know what your specific problem is but I would ask about the Stapedectomy surgery option. It was $10,000 per ear when I had mine done but that is a lot cheaper than $200- $400k.

LockDoc

[57taskforce]

It’s too bad those cochlear implants cost what they do. I know they were a real miracle for Rush. He used to talk about them all the time. I hope you can get something figured out that will work for you Richard!

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by Boog

Dang Richard! I guess the saying KISS applies here too. Keep it simple. By involuntarily scaling back you have found things are much simpler, maybe near as profitable and less worrisome as when you had multiple employees? Your liabilities have been reduced. Wow. I knew of cochlear implants but I had no idea they could be that expensive. Individual health coverage doesn't get any cheaper as we age. Communicating with customers by texts or emails is a good idea as there is less chance of miscommunication on a customer's order. When I was still working I had trouble hearing on the phones so often I would ask the person to just send me an email, text or fax. Many times I would keep all messages to refer to later if needed. It paid off some times too!
I still hope you get some hearing aid help and health coverage too. At our ages it's more important than ever.

Thanks Boog. Other than still not hearing, it has been a win all the way around since going back solo. was able to get rid of workman's comp insurance that will absolutely kill you in this industry since I have 2 bucket trucks that go 80' I was in a high risk area that I was paying a $17 per hundred premium on that was based on payroll. It was based on total payroll hours even if the trucks were only used for 10% of that time. Same with unemployment insurance, no longer have to have it since it is just me and I can't claim it anyway. If I would have hired anyone back my rates would have been higher than a new company starting out because both guys drew unemployment when they left. Over the last couple of years, while my gross is way down, my net is way up and I am generally happier now that I can pick and choose the jobs I do. I actually fired several national companies that were slow pay. I can generally live with up to net45 but a lot of them were starting to go 60 then 90 and beyond. Sorry, I am your signman not your bank. Another upside to going solo is it forced mt to drop 100lbs of weight off which in turn put my blood pressure back to normal. I agree with getting everything in writing, deaf or not. It keeps everything up front and no "he said she said" deals.

Originally Posted by LockDoc

-
I have had hearing aids since the early 70's. I had Stapedectomy surgery in the late 70's and it helped me tremendously. They removed a piece of cartilage in my ear lobe and replaced one of the bones in my ear with it.

The surgery got me through my career as a professional firefighter and I retired in 1998. I still hear pretty well for my age and I think I have the newer hearing aid technology to thank for that.

I don't know what your specific problem is but I would ask about the Stapedectomy surgery option. It was $10,000 per ear when I had mine done but that is a lot cheaper than $200- $400k.

LockDoc

Leon,
I think we talked about the surgery you had done and that is apparently not my issue.
I spent a little over $6k for my hearing aids back around 08. They helped for less than a year and I still believe they sped up my issues. As they continued to help less, I cranked the volume up more and more until maxxed out. At that point I still could not make out most conversation but if someone dropped something like a pen or closed a hard case for eye glasses it was just like someone set a fire cracker off in my ear. Last tuesday in Baltimore is the 1st time they have been out of the case in years. I always carried them in my shirt pocket while driving the big trucks in case I did get stopped. The card technically says I had to wear them, nothing about they had to work. but I figured it was only a once time stop deal.
From what they tell me is that other than some of the hair folicals that control the high pitch receptors being damaged, there is nothing wrong with my actual ears. They are telling me it is the nerve going from them to the brain that has sustained damage. They are saying the only correction is the implants at this point. They gave me a whole lot of paperwork to read over to get more familiar with them that I am still going thru as time permits. I am still unclear if the implants will get rid of the ringing though. The woman that ran the hearing test told me that is was 50/50 chance of still having it but the doctor said that it would for sure take care of it. Me being the pessimist I am with this kind of stuff , tend to believe the hearing booth girl over the doctor since the doctor stands to make the most money should I be able to get it done.
Another thing is that with the implants, it is all digital so apparently you would sound nothing like what you actually sound like to someone without them. The girl in the booth said it was more mechanical like the GPS in a vehicle. I told her if it was the same woman as on the gps i would decline the surgery, man was she annoying

I am hoping over the next month or so to come up with a solution for insurance that I can afford, will cover the bulk of these costs, and something I can maintain paying if and while I am out of work because of the surgery and follow ups. That is the biggest downfall to all of this, is that I have no workers to lean on while I am out. The actual procedure is at most an overnight deal in the hospital but up to 4 weeks healing and no lifting of any kind. There are also 2 vaccines I have to take before getting the surgery done but they have not said what they are yet. I assume one of them is for mennengitis (sp?) since it says I would be high risk for it with the implants.

[Boog]

Weight loss and lower BP is a Win!

[Liz]

This may not be an option in your case, but try looking into places that help pay. My mom has MS. The injections she gets cost like $65k each, twice a year. Insurance doesn't cover, but someplace called the assistance fund does. I am not sure if there is something like that, that you could look into to help share the cost?

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by Liz

This may not be an option in your case, but try looking into places that help pay. My mom has MS. The injections she gets cost like $65k each, twice a year. Insurance doesn't cover, but someplace called the assistance fund does. I am not sure if there is something like that, that you could look into to help share the cost?

Thanks Liz, I will look into it as well