Efforts Are Made to Show VA Doctor Who's Boss


 

A long time ago now, maybe even a year, I decided to change VA clinics from one county to another.  This is something I've done in the past because there is no VA clinic in this county, so I have my choice between neighboring counties, these counties located in different regions of the state.   The previous clinic had lost its doctor, which left me trying to limp along with a nurse only and it wasn't working.   So find a questionable doctor?  


My first appointment with my latest doctor was about a month ago.  What needed to happen?  Figuring out some mysterious malady?  Brain surgery?  The mysterious malady was that other doctors in the past had written prescriptions for me, a total of two, and the time had come for them to be refilled.  This wasn't rocket science.  And yet, it has gone completely off the rails.  Why?  Well, the doctor intentionally screwed around with my prescriptions for reasons known only to him.  Usually a couple of calls to the clinic clears this up.  No, this was no misunderstanding!  He had seen the perfect opportunity to be a total jerk.  I really don't know why he leapt at it.  No sir!  He had decided not to write my prescriptions.  It had something to do with the fact that he had a small authority over some aspect of my life, which tempted him past his limits to resist.  No he would not fill my prescriptions.  


This poor soul doesn't know that I know how to cause chaos.  I don't know why every patient isn't causing VA doctors to live in chaos.   I suppose many of the other patients don't have paper and a pen.  I will be going on a campaign to repair this doctor's thinking, one like he's seldom seen.  He has entered an area of my life that is carefully guarded and has caused as much trouble as he could with his limited resources.   


How does a VA doctor imagine that a veteran ever navigates the treachery of the VA waters to the extent of being allowed to sit in their precious little clinic?  Clinics that are astonishingly expensive to operate, and yet accomplish only minimal amounts of their purpose.   Well, the veteran writes to their senator.  I have warned this clinic now, probably five or six times, that I'm writing my senator.   The reaction has been dismissive.  


When I have finally written my senator about an issue with the VA in the past, the reaction has been surprisingly favorable for me, but the ones that I had complained about have been in shocked disbelief that the senator had called them on my behalf.  Also, their attitude may have been tinged with defensiveness.  Usually this means they haven't learned their lesson.  I have more paper and more ink.   There lingers some sense that an ungrateful lowlife has somehow, probably accidentally, flailed about and managed to get attention for a very inconsequential problem.  Inconsequential?  I have suffered actual pain because of someone grabbing at an easy opportunity to make my life more difficult.  OK.   Usually I try to discuss the issue with the clinic.  But I'm guessing that in this case there was a miscalculation.  While the issue is very monumental to me, and must be dealt with with everything I have, in their mind this was something minor.   I probably had no idea how to challenge.  Oh, I have an idea.  


Getting a call from a senator is second only to the President of the United States getting on your case.  But how has it come to this?  Surely I was not underestimated because I'm a woman??  Well, maybe.  


My final warning was given today.  Really, not a warning.  I'm going to have to write my senator.  




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