[wall o' text coming.]
Cali, I see your side of this. From working at the racetrack, it was a 'dog-eat-dog' world. If you got hurt and couldn't work, you lost your work the next day and goodluck getting any of it back. From galloping and ponying racehorses, I got injured plenty of times. A QH hit me in the face during the 2nd race two years ago - broke my nose and bled everywhere. I continued ponying that race with blood down my face/shirt, and then ponied the rest of the day without stopping. There was several days where a horse reared in struck me in the leg and/or arm, or I was bit extremely hard, or this/that happened. I continued my work. Sure, the past year I've had a constant limp partially from my severely screwed up knees & rheumatoid arthritis. But it was something I had to deal with. I don't get WC. My health insurance that I do have is already extremely high to deal with because of several issues and the constant injuries I DID deal with when I was younger and my parents made me go to hospitals/doctors.

And we're not the only ones. The majority of my co-workers went through the same things. I've seen jockeys ride (badly) with a broken rib. One of my good friends back in April had a horse galloping that flipped head-over-heels on him. Broke three ribs and tore all the muscle/ligaments/whatever in his right arm. That AFTERNOON, he was ponying racehorses in the races. His right arm was unable to keep hold of horses properly, so in his 2nd race, a horse managed to smack him in the face and break his nose. He called it quits after that day and went home with his 3 broken ribs, destroyed arm, and broken nose. But come 5am the next day, he was sure as shit back galloping. WHY? Because he was SIXTY, no WC, and no health insurance. I promise you he galloped 15 horses that morning, worked all the races, and came back again and again every day.

Now, that's not the life any of us want really. You and I don't want to be 60 and like that. Nor do we want to be completely crippled up. BUT, we live for now and we worry about other things. If I was in your position, and felt fine, I know I wouldn't go to the hospital/doc. I would continue working. If you feel fine and TRULY feel fine, then I think you are fine. If you suddenly don't feel fine, you can go to the hospital/doc.

Pain is apart of our job.

An eye for an eye way of life may make the world go blind.

Maybe then we would learn to start listening.