What should I do now?

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time, but I wanted to make sure it was "safe" to do so. Even though enough time has probably passed, I'm not going to mention any company or employee names here.

Back at the beginning of October, I had to request a medical leave of absence from my company. I realized that I had been suffering from depression for several months, and being away from my wife and son, on top of things that had been going on at work, had finally brought things to the point where I didn't feel mentally safe to be driving a truck until I saw a doctor. Fortunately, I only live about half an hour from a company terminal, so I dropped my load there and came back the next day to talk to my dispatcher. I explained to her that I was most likely suffering from depression and that I wanted to get checked before I went back to work. She agreed and told me that I could take a leave of absence to go get checked, and once I had a doctor's note certifying that I was good to come back, my job would be waiting for me. She only asked that I clean out my truck since I might be gone for a while and to write a note explaining the situation so they would have something in writing. She tried to get me to say that I was temporarily resigning, but I didn't use that phrase anywhere in the note. I made sure to put "medical leave" so it wouldn't be misinterpreted. This was very important since I had signed a 1-year contract with my company.

I met with my dispatcher on Wednesday, and the following Monday, I had an appointment with my doctor. He prescribed an antidepressant and set a one-week follow up appointment so we could see how the medicine was working. When I came back a week later (now a week and a half since starting my leave), he wrote me a note that said I could come back to work. I called my dispatcher and read the note to her. She told me that for legal reasons, it had to specifically say that I was "cleared to operate a commercial motor vehicle". I called the doctor's office and had them write a new note and fax it directly to her. When I called to see if she received it, she said that she had received it, but it only said "cleared to operate a motor vehicle". I called the doctor the next morning to have them fix it, but they told me that it was correct the second time and just refaxed that note. When I contacted my dispatcher again (now 2 weeks since my leave started), she told me that there were no available trucks and I'd have to wait until they had one for me. I called later that week to ask her if she had any new information. She said no but to call back the following Monday (almost 3 weeks after starting my leave). When I called back, she told me that they had made the decision to not rehire me now and that I'd probably not be eligible for rehire in the future either. I was kinda confused by the term "rehire" since I never quit in the first place.

After speaking with my dispatcher, I made phone calls to several other departments to get some more information as to why I wasn't able to come back. Finally, the operations manager called me back and said that because they didn't know how long I'd be gone, they decided to take my note as a resignation. When I asked if I could come back, he told me no because I had too many service issues - he said I was late too often and that there were times when I didn't even show up for loads. He didn't give me any examples, and the only times that I know I was late were because either my truck or trailer needed to be in the shop (blown tires, truck wouldn't start, bad oil leak, ruptured trailer air bag, etc). Another employee at the terminal advised me to call recruiting. When I talked to a recruiter, he told me that there was no reason for me to be inelligble for rehire. All he saw was a note on my file from the legal department regarding my medical leave. Once he checked with the legal department, he told me that my doctor's note wasn't on file, so I had the doctor's office fax the note again. I spoke with someone from a different operation of the company who said that I'd definitely be eligible for their department but he needed to make a few phone calls first. He called me back and said that the only person who didn't want me to return to my original job was the operations manager, but he should be able to get me into the other department. I explained what had happened and he said that there wasn't a problem with it. I tried for 3 weeks to get in touch with him again but never could.

It is now 2 months to the day since I started my medical leave. I did finally get a note releasing me from my contract with no penalty, so I have been applying to different trucking companies trying to get back on the road. I did talk to one company (Averitt) who asked me what happened with my first company, then told me that I didn't have enough experience for them to hire me as an experienced driver, but had been out of school too long to be considered a recent CDL school graduate. I rechecked the job qualifications and saw that I did in fact still qualify despite what the recruiter told me.

I guess that brings me to my questions. Is this situation on my DAC? Are companies not willing to hire me because I was forced out of my job after less than 3 months? I requested a copy of my DAC from HireRight but haven't yet received it. I really hope to be able to get back in a truck soon, but I don't really know what to do at this point. I would definitely appreciate any advice you might be willing to give.