Stevens Transport aviary

Well howdy there aracos and welcome to the boards and welcome aboard at Stevens. It will be interesting to hear your opinions of training, being an experienced driver and all.
Thanks to all who wished me well after my bout of truckers tummy.
Doing so much better now that the trots have ended and the horrible gases have all vented. Would have been horrible if I was still cooped up with someone!
So today the Stevens doc calls and says he can't release me to drive until I get back to the yard and take a stress test on my heart.
sigh.
So now they have to find a team to break up to drive me and my truck back to Dallas, or park my truck in a yard here in Cali, probably back in Bakersfield at Ten West Towing, and bus/fly me back.
sigh and sigh
The hospital did an echocardiagram, where they view your heart using sound like they do to see babies in womb, and they did the blood enzyme tests to look for the signs of heart stress. Both showed normal and clear, so the hospital docotor said a stress test would be a waste of time and money, and keep me in the hospital another day for next to no point. If I had stressed my heart or had any heart injury the enzymes would have shown in the blood tests and/or the echocardiagram would have shown something odd in the working of it.
But none of that was good enough for the company doc. The really stinky thing is that the doc won't be back on the yard again until Friday April 2nd, so I will be stuck in Dallas until at least then!!! BS!!!
More than a week down time!
BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS
Now if they really want to give me a heart stress test, they should just tell me it counts as my week off time for home time and they won't be sending me home until after at least six or eight weeks on the road again!
For those who don't know, I left home on December 3rd and haven't been back since. I went from classes for three weeks to first trainer for six weeks to second trainer for four weeks and been on the road for two weeks.
I was asked if I wanted to go home for the stress test, and I said no. I would have spent three or four of my days on someone elses truck getting to Indiana, to have maybe two days there, one of which would be spent going to Indianapolis for a stress test, and then two or three days on another truck or a bus getting to Dallas - and would not be able to bring my things from home I want to have on my truck, like the micro, tv, books and movies, nor the rest of my clothes and such anyway. So that would have literally wasted my home time off.
And since this is all being forced on me by the doc, I'm not wasting my home time off. Instead, Stevens can pay for the test there in Dallas and shuttle my ### around to get it done, and pay me for each day they they retain me there on medical hold.
Of course, the doc waits until 4pm Dallas time to review my hospital files and make his decision, and by the time he calls me and informs insurance, its after five and my DM and counsellor are gone on Friday evening and there is no one to work on how to get me and my truck back to Dallas until at least tomorrow.
So here I sit in Wheeler Ridge for day four now, and day five tomorrow, at the very least. Thank god for APU and Sirius radio, my laptop and the 50 horror classics dvd I got cheap. I also have two new Salvatore books and plenty of fig newtons, instant tea and low salt peanuts. And the best parking spot here. lol And the restaurant has a pretty good salad bar.
Not what I'd hoped for in a trucking career, but better than asking "Would you like fries with that?" while endlessly adjusting my cheap scratchy uniform shirt and hoping some customer doesn't' get food poisoning. (snicker)
And like formygirlz said, food poisoning can be serious, as I found out. My case could have proven fatal if I'd waited a couple more hours to get help. I could have gone into a dehydration faint, which is basically a coma, then died in the truck. I waited until I had sweated most of my fluids out, my guts cramped up, my heart was beating irregular and slow and my blood pressure was 90/40. I've been told more than once I was a couple of hours to a few minutes from severe cardiac, kidney, and/or brain damage, or quite possibly death. I'm brain damaged enough, I can't afford any more of that!!!
So learn from my stupidity. If you get that sick and your guts hurt, and you get a little dizzy, start sweating but feeling cold, get shaky and your breathing gets funny, get help!

 

okies.
I'll be wearing glasses and my grungy blue denim ball cap, so look for the heavy guy who looks like this... and when not looking like this or