Two kinds of state job, two kinds of load
Working for the State covers almost every kind of job there is, but for a body it tends to come down to one of two patterns.
Seated for most of the day — at a desk, a counter, a bench or the wheel of a vehicle. The lower back carries the load of sitting for hours with little movement, and a screen draws the head forward so the neck and upper back hold it there. The pain builds slowly and is usually blamed on age.
On your feet for most of the shift — road and maintenance crews, inspectors, facility and institutional staff. That is lifting, carrying, walking a site and standing in one place, which loads the spine, the knees and the hips, and — because standing still switches off the calf-muscle pump — the veins of the legs as well.
What happens here
The first appointment is an examination and a conversation with Dr. Donna D’Alessio, who is board-certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation — the specialty concerned with getting people working again without surgery. You should leave knowing what is causing the pain.
Where the legs are part of the story, a standing duplex ultrasound shows whether the veins are the cause. Pain that travels down a leg can be the spine or the veins, and those are treated in opposite directions, which is why it helps that one practice examines both.
Treatment
Non-surgical, office-based and under local anaesthetic where anything is needed at all: targeted injections for back, neck and joint pain, with a rehabilitation plan attached so the improvement lasts; and, for veins, radiofrequency ablation, Varithena® microfoam or sclerotherapy. Where an examination points to something that needs a surgeon, you are told and referred.
On benefits
Many public-employee plans include out-of-network benefits that are never used, because nobody said they were there. Whether yours does, what it covers and what you would be responsible for are verified and explained before anything is scheduled. How out-of-network benefits work →