I'm pretty sure I mentioned it in the last post, but I won't be allowed to return to work until I give a completely clean pee test. So last Tuesday I took myself to a drug and alcohol treatment clinic down in Tukwilla to take a certified test that is sent to an actual laboratory to get certified measurements and levels of drugs in my system. I got the results yesterday afternoon, which were negative for everything including marijuana. They test to within a 20 nanogram (ng) tolerance. I called the social worker I've been dealing with at work, a terrible human who inspires me to use only the most vile insults the English language has to offer, but for the sake of brevity I'll just call her something like "the social worker from work" or "that person". But trust me when I issue the following gruesome understatement: she lacks compassion.
I called her to inform her she can schedule the "return to work u.a." because of the findings of the test I took on Tuesday. She was like "Good news! What are the tolerances they measure to?" I told her they test to within 20ng, and she was like "Oh... We're going to need something a lot more comprehensive then that to get you back to work. I usually recommend Lakeside Treatment Clinic, maybe you should call them" I called the clinic I had already gone to and asked if they had something that tests to lower tolerances, perhaps something that goes all the way to zero. The guy I spoke to there was some supervisor or something, someone who knows his way around these sorts of things, and he said a 20ng test is enough to hold up in any court, legally it is considered to be "clean". And it's not like I had 20ng in my system, but that was as close as they get with a pee test. I mentioned that the social worker from work said I should go to Lakeside, and he said they all use the same labs for testing. The only way to get lower then 20ng was to take a blood test, which was extremely uncommon (and expensive), and still can't get to zero, but closer to 5ng. He said it was likely the person I was dealing with didn't know what she was talking about, and in fact seemed like she was trying to get rid of me. He advised me to get in touch with an employment attorney.
While I was on the phone with him, the social worker from work called back and left a message that said she was going to go ahead and schedule the pee test to return to work, and hopefully by then I would be clean. I told her about the conversation I had with the gentleman from the pee test I took, that he said that 20ng would hold up in court and that he had never heard of a test that could determine levels lower then that. She scoffed and said "trust me, they're out there".
I do not believe her. I think she doesn't want to be wrong. The shitty thing is that she's fucking with someone who ISN'T A DRUG ADDICT. I'm dealing with something more serious then just getting crunked and twisted. She is lying to me like I'm just some dude. As though my situation isn't serious. Complete ignorance is what that job has to offer me. Complete fucking prideful pig headed ignorance. Willful unknowing.
So I should hear by next week when my "return to work pee test" will be, then it'll be a few more days till the results will be available. I'll be out for another week and a half from now, and I'm currently up to 4 weeks of no pay. The only thing keeping all my atoms from exploding at once is the thought that I only have to work a little longer, just enough to recover from this financial loss, then I'm going to be able to walk out of there for good.
I hate how I'm being treated. It's been so shocking. Every step of this gets more and more humiliating and cold. The lack of compassionate understanding is nauseating. I'm almost done. I'm almost done. I'm almost done.
In other news, it looks like I've sold the bike. It was kind of a cool story the way it came down, I'll save it for my next post, but the new owner is going to take possession on Monday. Then our moving date is set for the 15th. It's weird to think that about three weeks ago I said "I can do without this pool table and giant apartment and fancy motorcycle and lifestyle if it means being able to have the time to do things that fill me up, not tear me down. I'm well on my way. My "to-do" list is dwindling down more and more, and I love seeing this plan come together. That was almost "Hannibal from The A-Team", I know, but it just came out like that :)