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exercise. No more. She grew cautious in her body movements. "You have to be constantly aware," she says. "You can't be spon- taneous in doing things anymore." Still, Roy managed to work, raise her family, and she and her husband even bought a house in 2000. Things weren't perfect, but manageable, until April 2002. Roy was standing with her back straight, knees bent, ready to push back a C-section patient she was dangling in case the woman fell forward, when the woman inexplicably grabbed her arms and pulled Roy into bed with her. She remembers feeling that familiar collapse in her back, and then pain shoot down both her legs. This latest injury put her family's weakened financial foot- ing from her other injuries into a tailspin. Because her husband needed to chauffeur her to an endless series of doctor, physical therapist, and acupuncture appointments, he could not work full time. Her coworkers generously donated some of their paid time off to her, but it wasn't enough and the Roy family ate into their savings to survive. Around this time, she also learned she was pregnant with her third child. She constantly felt the push to go back to work, but alternative positions she applied for didn't mate- rialize. She stopped working at Methodist in March 2003 and con- tinued looking for jobs she could do, with little success. "People used to call me up, say they were really interested in interviewing me," said Roy. "And I do a good interview. But that summer, I didn't get a job for the first time in my life. You feel really low. You feel really useless. 2003 was the worst year of my life." She finally found a per diem maternal newborn position with Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento and started working again in November 2004, but not before the Roys had to sell their house in October for cash to live on. She would have liked to save their home by refinancing, but the timing was all wrong. Now they are renters and all the moving has made a big impression on her young children. "My 5-year-old asked me the other day if we were one of those families that had to move from place to place," said Roy. Despite all her hardship, Roy refuses to feel sorry for herself. Some days she has less pain, some days more. Instead of dwelling on her troubles, she takes delight in her family and is grateful that her current work has a lift team. She even makes time to fight for RNs by testifying in favor of the lift team bill. "My Mum asked me the other day if I get something by doing all this," she said. "And I said no, but if I can prevent this from happening to someone else, it's worth it." Lucia Hwang is editor of California Nurse. struction trades, or slaughterhouses. Yes, the equipment costs some money up front, says Charney, but hospitals will save time and money. His studies have shown that a hospital can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in workers comp and lost hours per year, and that lift teams actually save nurs- es about 1.5 hours per shift. Most teams carry pagers that the RNs call, or schedule routine visits for the unit, or both. But instead of preventing back injuries, the healthcare indus- try continues to treat RNs as a disposable resource. That one acci- dent on one shift launched Roy's work and home life into turmoil. An immigrant from just outside of Liverpool, England, she and her husband, who was transitioning from having served in the U.S. Navy into a civilian career, were newcomers to Sacramento and focused on getting established enough to start a family. She hurt herself just seven months into her job. After various doctors, physical therapists, and scans, Roy had surgery in December 1997 to free a compressed nerve near her lower spine. Her pain improved, but it was still there, and she still had problems walking. Since she was the main wage earner while her husband attended school, she had no choice but to return to work in July. Her coworkers were sympathetic and gave her mostly sick post-partum or anti-partum patients. Roy muddled along for years, adjusting her life around her pain. She only wore Birkenstock shoes because, in regular shoes, she couldn't feel when her right foot was entirely on the floor. During this time, she gave birth to two daughters. But instead of holding them while standing, she would lie down on the floor to hold and play with them. Roughhousing with them was out of the question. She stopped driving on the freeway because sometimes the pain was so bad that she'd have to suddenly pull over. She stopped sitting in soft chairs, like sofas, and could only sit on hard wooden chairs. Often the most comfortable position was lying across the coffee table. She and her husband Brad used to trav- el often, but now sitting through airplane flights to England or Brad's family in Washington state – even road trips – were too painful. She used to jog, work out in the gym, and swim laps for C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 19 Karen Roy, a labor and delivery RN, severely injured her back at work in 1997 while moving a patient after a C-section. That injury has triggered more injuries, making it hard for her to work and putting her life and career in turmoil. Today, she lives with chronic pain. On good days, she can hold her son James. On bad days, she rests in bed. Roy has such pain and nerve damage in her right leg that she no longer puts her full weight on her right foot, nor can she sense when it is completely on the ground.