What kind of Fusion would be best for ME?

[Susanna]

You are absolutely right, what my husband does in his private life is no ones business. He works for a non for profit business and the volunteer board think that as the Ex. Dir. , that his every waking hour is theirs to command. It is ridiculous. Because you are paid salary and not hourly, they expect you to work every waking hour. As it is he often works over 50-60 hours a week. No matter, there will be litigation that will happen.

But now for the super good news! MY HUSBAND GOT THE JOB!!!!! Praise GOD!

Although the salary is a 1/3 of what we were making, it continues my health insurance because it is with the same overall non profit business and they all have the same insurance company. I wish it were a better one, but at least I won't have to deal with pre-existing conditions.

Now to see if the mortgage company will help us with our mortgage. So Im off to call them. I just wanted to give all of you the great news!!
Susanna

[Greg]

You are absolutely right, what my husband does in his private life is no ones business. He works for a non for profit business and the volunteer board think that as the Ex. Dir. , that his every waking hour is theirs to command. It is ridiculous. Because you are paid salary and not hourly, they expect you to work every waking hour. As it is he often works over 50-60 hours a week. No matter, there will be litigation that will happen.

But now for the super good news! MY HUSBAND GOT THE JOB!!!!! Praise GOD!

Susana,

I am SOOOOOOO happy that your husband got the job. Going through the painful life you are experiencing gets amplified so much when you have finiancial troubles as well.....I KNOW THIS ALL TOO WELL. So give your husband a good pat on the back for me. Just keep your chin up and stay positive in getting everything else sorted out. One good thing about the economy, housing market and amount of foreclosures going on is the banks dont want the houses back so I think you have that on your side with working things out with the mortgage company.

I got really lucky when it comes to owning a home as I was looking to buy about 2 years ago. I found the fixer-upper I wanted (as I am blessed with handyman skills) and almost bought my first home (at age 22), we were even at the point of already paid attorneys to draw up the legal documents. Something happened (not sure what....maybe a nudge from ) and it just didnt feel right so I stopped the process and didnt buy the house I'm glad I didnt because it was right at the point when the housing market was at its highest and right before it collapsed....I would have been screwed but thank that I trusted my gut instinct and backed off.

Then they made a comment on his age, (he is 52, but looks maybe 42 because he is very physically fit and does Ironman Triathlons) He told them he has lots of energy and that he does his training at 5 am and is done by 7 am.
Then they commented how it was interesting that the other candidate that they are interviewing could be more opposite, YOUNG, and INEXPERIENCED!

So if they don't pick my husband, does this sound like age discrimination? My husband, as they told him in "no doubt, more than qualified" and is opposite from the other candidate, OLD.

Even though your husband got the job I wanted to answer your earlier question so you and others who read this know for the future. I'm the plant manager of a manufacturing shop and since I only have a high school diploma I felt it was necessary to start taking college classes to build "my package" if/when the time comes I need to go elsewhere and years of experience isnt gonna cut it. One of the recent classes I took was Employment Law. And when it comes to job interviews the comments they made about age are so out of line. Those comments alone, if he didnt get the job, would win you a discriminatory lawsuit for denying his employment because of age. As carzy as it sounds I'm not even allowed to ask someone how old they are in an interview Sounds crazy doesnt it? But if I do, and they dont get the job, they can sue and say I didnt hire them because of their age.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. If anyone has any questions about employment laws or employee rights I'm more than willing to pass on the knowledge.

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN ON THE NEW JOB!

[Susanna]

Greg,
Thanks so much!
We have talked to the attorney about why he was let go at his other job. These are the reasons:
1. Hair too long.
2. Doesn't look the part of an Ex. Dir.
3. He exercises too much.
4. He isn't Flamboyant enough
5. He joined the wrong service club to give speeches. He joined a smaller one, not the one they were in. (they never told him which one to join, just to join one.)
6. He has been a complete disappointment since the day they hired him

Now, let me tell you why they hired him:
1. To get access to property and build a road into a camp, and start building a camp.
2. Solve problem of the current office they were in, that was too small for the staff needs
3. Sell old office in Juneau
4. Get budget out of the Red
5. Recruit quality staff

Let me tell you what he did. EVERY ONE OF THOSE!
1. The previous Ex. Dir. that was Flamboyant, Faked pledges by adding 00's to them to increase the amount of the $ that was pledged to the campaign. He also made a personal pledge that was huge and never paid a penny of it.
My husband not only got more money donated but worked with volunteers to get access to the property, got the road build within the budget, and they actually had the breaking of the ground, the day he gave his resignation for the first building!
2. By husband got supply's and labor donated to refurbish the current building, which they gutted and remodeled so that they were able to use the space better and have enough room AND STORAGE! They also got all new office equipment out of the deal!
3. He fired the Realtor in Juneau, kicked out the tenant in the building and hired a new Realtor, and sold the building in one year!
4. He cut staff (some of which the current volunteer President loved! This may actually be why he hated my husband!), promoted staff out of this area to other area's of the country to better positions, Restructured how things were done, so that the budget was more manageable. There were staff on payroll that were not doing anything useful, or doing things that he felt could be accomplished by others with a little more pay. He added special events, made other important changes. All to bring the budget into line. HOWEVER, he had to meet the GOALS that were set for the other Ex Dir that was there before him. No new goals were set for him. He met 90% of them, even though he did not agree with 50% of them. He found that membership had been faked to meet the goals and had to flush it out over the next 2 1/2 years. This would have been the last year to flush out the bad membership. He also found that the past E.D. had BORROWED on paper INTEREST from an account, that had yet to get interest for the next 3 years!!!!! How illegal is that! Just to balance the budget! This prevented my husband from using this money!
Even with all of this, my husband STILL BALANCED THE BUDGET while he was there!
5. Recruiting staff to come to Alaska is very difficult. It is even more difficult to get them to stay. People come thinking it will be a great adventure and then they start missing their family's because they can't just get in the car and drive home to see them. So there is the problem of high turn over.
Even with this. My husband has found quality staff. He has had to fire a few people just because he has found that a few were just not cut out for the positions they were in. One such person lived in Juneau and became very close to the volunteer President. Audun did everything he could to work with the person to make him successful, but he just didn't have the organizational skills he needed for the job. It was hurting the operation. The president we feel was angry that Audun let him go. We feel that this is one of the reason's that we got such a bad severance package. IT WAS PAY BACK!

What the President Wanted Audun to do, but was not willing to give him time to do:
1. Raise $270,000 over the summer, actually in 60 days. This is impossible as in the summer as everyone is on vacation. Not to mention the climate of the country right now. Oh, and my husband already had an extra $100,000 built into the budget. But these greedy people do not understand that a NON for profit means you don't raise more than you spend. They also wanted Audun to raise the $270,000 without any board help. Ummm, that's not how you raise money. They are clueless. My husband was the E.D in WI for 10 years before he was PROMOTED to this state, and very successful. He knows this business.

I can't remember what else, I think they wanted him to hit his membership goal in 60 days, which is not possible because you can't recruit kids in the summer. Recruitment happens in the fall when kids are in school.

The goals were written to make him fail! All they wanted was for him to leave. They also didn't say, "well, if you make most of these goals, or you make the money goal 80%." They also had the goals spread out with dates of one, two, three, etc. weeks. And he told him if he misses even one of the goals, he's "out of here!" It was all very ugly. So ugly that you knew there was something more behind this then why he said he was firing him.

So Alaska is a "employee at will state" So our attorney feels we still have a case. We will see what happens.
What do you think?

I feel sorry for the next guy that comes in here. There is no way he will succeed with these guys. And I actually feel a bit sorry for these guys. They are so naive that they don't even know, what they don't know.

Susanna

[sportsnut3007]

Look into the trans one approach for fusion of l5-s1. TranS1 : Minimally invasive surgical procedures for the treatment of lower back pain risk includes bladder puncture and its new procedure. I would guess this is the best, but im not a dr so do own research and get medical opinions. From a minimially invasive standpoint this is the least invasive. Contraindications should be listed on the site.

[sportsnut3007]

Also, did they mention a second microdiscectomy may help? If you go that route maybe go with the accura scope approach, but if they see some other bulges that are asymptomatic tell them ahead of time not to touch them lol. Also, who knows if using lasers such a good idea around nerves and idk if their method would increase reherniation chance. If you with with second microdiscectomy, then maybe look in the anulex x close/inclose system for anulus repair. If its a small type hole then go with inclose, if other go with xclose. Only downside to the repair is that one dr i talked to here said he had seen some disasters with anulus repair that but i dont think he knows much about newer stuff such as this. As the drs at texas back institute use this repair, but then again u have to think in perspective of that they use alot of new gadgets which can be good and bad. Again, I am no dr nor expert just researcher in fear of future needs lol. Do your own research.

[Greg]

Susana,

I have to say I admire your husband very much for his will to stick through it to the end even though they basically set him up for failure so they would have a reason to fire him. What low down, dirty cowards these people where.

What company did he work for?
What company does he now work for?
Is there any relation!connnection/ties between the 2 companies?

It sounds like you have a hell of a case for unfair treatment, hostile workplace and unlawful termination. Do you have any documentation to prove these shady things that went on about the guy adjusting numbers, pledging money and not commiting and borrowing interest? These would be good things to use to paint the picture of how shady this person was who fired your husband and would be more reason for the courts to believe you theory. I really hate both of you had to deal with all this but as messed up as all this was I would damn sure take this to court. And if the old and new companies are connected there are laws out there to protect your husbands new position while litigation is going on. You need to review any contracts he signed about his employment to make sure he didn't sign away any rights to take them to court or if they did it doesn't state he's responsible for THEIR legal fees. I had a business throw thay in an employment contract before and I freakin deleted those parts out, signed it and sent back. They never said anything though.

I think you have a hell of a case and I do hope you follow through with it. Hopefully you can prove that the boss' dislike of your husband was because he fired his friend and that's why he got a not so normal severance package because of that. And maybe you can get a better one once the court realizes what all was going on. Maybe they'll uncover a bunch of other stuff you didn't even know about that can help your case out and get rid of this bad guy.

Just remember a motto that I live my life by and you should come out on top....for this and anything for that matter. "I will persist until I succeed" Anytime I get down because something didn't go the way I wanted it to I just remind myself that I will persist until I succeed and NEVER GIVE UP OR LOSE HOPE!!!

[Greg]

I've gotta say I love the AxiaLIF and think that this is going to take fusion to a whole new level. After you put up the post the other day I started doing a lot of research on it and found out that this company is right in my back door! They are based out of Wilmington, NC which is 30 minutes from me. One of their top surgeons doing a lot of these procedures is Dr Adam Brown, a doctor I saw for my back bur stopped going to when insurance denied everything. I'm really kicking myself in the ars for not knowing about this as I would really have loved to have it done. Their even doing some developing on a motion preservation device for the AxiaLIF approach which would be top notch. I've got this company on my radar and after I finish about a weeks worth of financial research on them I might be investing in their stock. They're still younf (2000) so stock aint too bad and I've just got a real warm and fuzzy feeling about them.

Susana,
Sorry to take your thread off topic but I've just been so excited about this company and had to share my thoughts with others.

[KBear]

Susanna,
So glad your husband got the new job and that you are still eligible for the trial! That's great news and leaves your options open a bit more. Keep us updated, Kathy

[Cindylou]

See, I just had this gut feeling he was going to land this job!!! Yippee!! When do you guys move and when is his first day? Good luck selling your house and yes, I am so happy for you guys. (you're gonna be my neighbor.....as I am in Minnesota!)

[Susanna]

Greg,
No problem, I always appreciate the knowledge you share about anything!!
I really can't reveal the company right now, they are a national company that is very well known. A house hold name. That is really all I can say. Yes, he is with the same company. Just a little clarification. The last director was gone, my husband replaced him and cleaned up ALL of his messes. The President is a volunteer and they turn over every 2 years. Unfortunate for my husband, the good president left when my husband came on and he has had two crappy Presidents. I do believe we have evidence of everything I have told you. The other thing that we and others think is wrong, is that the National organization should have come to my husbands aid in this and stopped the local council from doing what they were doing. My husband has worked for the company for 29 years and has an excellent record. Although they stopped the President from firing him on the spot, they allowed him to write a 60 action plan that was not achievable by "the average Ex Dir." which is the rule for an action plan. We and others in the company, were astounded that we were not protected by them and that they did not step in and demand that we be given a fair action plan. Or at best, given the opportunity to have a transfer. As it was handled, my husband was REQUIRED to take a demotion to continue to work with the company! He was not allowed to get a position at the same level he was at or even at the level he was at before this position, which was also as a Ex. Dir. Which he was for 10 years successfully.

Anyway, enough about that. Now I need to find him a car as he starts July 16th. And we have very little cash.
So I've been on Craigslist all day.

Medically speaking, I am scheduled to have the remaining disk protrusion and what ever is left inside of the disk, removed on the 18th of Aug. If that doesn't cure me, then I will either have a fusion or try and get in a trial, of which I was informed yesterday, that I may still be considered for after 3 month of my surgery in Aug.

Susanna