Ok, so last nite, I was walking into work and as I was walking aroung the corner of the building, I turned my ankle on some landscaping gravel that was on the sidewalk, fall down go boom. Ankle’s fine, thanks.
It was just a minor strain, but I figured I should fill in an injury report in case it started to hurt later in the night after I had been standing on it, and I wanted to have a doctor look at it ( I could have put it off until tomorrow, which is now today, but I wanted to make sure workman’s comp would cover any potential doctor’s visit)
After I had been on the game for about an hour, I was coming back from break, and my pit boss stops me from taking out the stickman. He sends me over to talk to the shift boss, who sends me to the security office, where I was interrogated, made to fill out a bunch of paperwork, and then had my butt hauled to a medical center for a drug test and to have the ankle looked at. (I could have refused the drug test, but I would have been suspended pending an investigation of the accident, and possibly even terminated. Plus I’m really broke at the moment and couldn’t afford the time off work)
So, I pissed in a cup and had blood drawn. The results should be back in 24-36 hours.
The thing I’m worried about is, I have chronic back problems. For the last week or so, it’s been flaring up pretty bad. My mother has hydrocodone, which is a prescription painkiller that contains codeine,left over from when she had some dental work done, and I have been known to swipe one on occasion. Over the past few days, I’ve maybe taken three or four of them. I only take one if I’m in so much pain that I won’t be able to sleep, which means right before I go to bed.
I can’t remember if I took one yesterday morning before I turned in, but I don’t think I did. If I did, it would have been a good sixteen hours before I went in for the piss test. It’s more likely that the last one I took was thirty-six hours before the test.
I mentioned to the security guard that drove me to the clinic that I was taking the a prescription that contained codeine (didn’t mention that it wasn’t my prescription) and said I was concerned that it would show up as an illegal opiate. She said, no, they’d know if it was a prescription med, and they’re looking for illegal stuff like marijuana, cocaine, stuff like that.
I’m pretty sure the blood test would prove that I wasn’t under the influence at the time of the accident, so that might be in my favor.
Basically what I’m wondering is, if the hydrocodone shows up on the test, would they just assume I had a prescription and declare me clean? Or would I be required to produce proof that the medication was prescribed for me? The Human Resources office doesn’t open up until Monday morning, so I can’t make an anonymous call and find out what company policy is.
And does anybody have any info or know a website where I could find out how long the metabolites would stay in my system?
(note to self- do not borrow other people’s prescription medications)
By the way, when I came back to work from the medical clinic, the gravel I had tripped on was still there. Security knew it was there, and nobody was sent to clean it up. So now it’s waiting for some little old lady to come break a hip on it…