I think i did this the wrong way?
Hi!
So ive been working at my job (full time. Related to medical field/sorta in it? I work at a plasma donation center) for about 9 months. Ive had carpal tunnel in the past but ive recently developed de quervains which is essentially carpal tunnel of the thumb. I use my thumb to squeeze donors fingers after a finger stick. I did almost 900 (probably over 900 if we look at resticks) finger sticks last month alone and probably 75% of them used my now injured thumb.
I went to my pcp when my thumb and fingers started losing strength, going numb, and hurting. I went on 6/15 and was diagnosed with de quervains. I was told to rest it but with my job, that isnt really possible, so its gotten worse. I messaged my pcp about it getting worse and she sent me a referral to ortho. On 7/2? 7/3? I realized that carpal tunnel is covered under workers comp, so thought surely de quervains was too.
The situation: I filed an online form on the 2nd or 3rd with the state office for WC. I havent told my boss I filed yet bc she hasnt been in office this weekend but I think she will be tomorrow (7/6) and will talk to her then. But im reading my textbook about insurance and it says for workers comp, depending on the state, I should've filed a written form to my boss first ans she should've filed. It also mentioned some states have a thing about declaring an injury within a specific time frame.
Im confused about a lot of this. Any advice is appreciated. What should my next steps be? Am I screwed because I went out of order? My job is becoming increasingly difficult to do and so are a lot of other tasks outside of work. The de quervains is getting worse and worse because I cant just not do my job. When I talked to my boss briefly about possibly needing injections for my thumb and that it would be 24-48 hour pure rest after and I would need time off, she told me I would have to schedule PTO to get it done and we cant schedule PTO for any time on the schedule already posted and she posts the schedule 3 weeks out, so if I do need injections, I have to delay treatment for a minimum of 3 weeks. What should I do?