State Seizure Law ??

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hiswife

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Hi!

I'm new here so bear with me, okay? :)

My DH was diagnosed with a brain tumor in April of this year. The doctors here say it's inoperable but we've done the radiation and he's still taking chemo. He remains "remarkably symptom free" as all the doctors continue to say. Great, right?

Yeah, so great that he still can't return to work according to his doctors. They don't mind him going to work but he has to be able to test drive cars around the block for his job. The ONLY reason they won't release him to drive, even though he's in excellent condition, is that a neurologist saw him once for 20 minutes and prescribed a seizure medicine because he "could" have seizures. Well, my DH took it for about six weeks and stopped because he didn't need it and is still fine, seizure free.

Well, that seizure medicine being prescribed is "an indication of seizures" and our state law is you have to be seizure free for 12 months before driving. He NEVER had seizures! But, this was all that neurologist knew to do. He told us we didn't need a follow-up visit unless something drastic happened, wished us well, and walked out the door. Our oncologist has tried to talk to him but he still maintains the "12 month" law and "what if something happened". It was never proven he had seizures because he hasn't. This is strictly a CYA (cover your a**) thing on the doctor's part! In the meantime, my DH sits at home in great health, driving around here, working on stuff at home, using up all his disability insurance. He has 52 weeks total. That's it and it's over. When that "12 months" is over he won't even have a job because his 52 weeks of disability will be up before then because the seizure meds were prescribed about two months into all this. If he loses his job, he loses his health insurance which can't happen.

The oncologist doesn't know what to do but does agree that it'd be fine for my DH to go back to work since he's still in excellent health and will write a letter of release conditional upon the neurologist. The neurologist is so busy covering himself that my DH, and our entire household, is suffering because of it. He needs to go back to work for his mental health mostly. Yes, for financial reasons but mainly for his mental well-being. And, too, he can't lose his health insurance. We all know that eventually brain tumors usually do not have a good outcome BUT while he's healthy and such, shouldn't DH be at work, living life as normally as possible?

Please, if anybody has any legal way around this CYA of the neurologist and his "what if" way of thinking, please let me know. We can't live the rest of however many years DH has left living a "what if" way of life, KWIM? We've got to do something to get him back to work and living as normally as possible.

Thanks so very much in advance,
hiswife
 
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