Saturday, April 11, 2009

Having to "beg" for medicines and then stand near pee to pick them up.

About 10 days or so ago, I was nauseated. I can handle surgeries, severe pain every day, you name it but i can't handle nausea. That's my weak link. You see, I had run out of Protonix, an acid reducer normally given to cancer patients for nausea. I ran out because my provider had retired and didn't give enough refills. So i had been patiently waiting for an appointment with a new provider for four months. Meanwhile, my "problem list" was as long as a notebook page.
However, last Friday, i called the RN line at 8, 830, 9. They all told me to call the Red team pharmacist and ask for the medicine. I called at 9,930, 10,1030,11,1130, 12....the phone just rang and rang. Meanwhile, every day was another day of the dreadful nausea.
So Wednesday April 8, i started off to the VA and checked my phone messages. The first message was from the VA telling me my appointment had been changed to the middle of June!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What, oh no way.
I called the Red Team and they couldn't give me a reason why the appointment was cancelled.
I told them someone was going to see me. I was so upset-angry and tearful.
I called the patient advocate's office and they had an answering machine on at 2pm. I called the director's office and they said they would check into it.
I decided to call Senator Nelson's office and tell them what was going on. So they called the director's office and the doctor had to see me. They had booked 3 veterans who each needed an hour with the doctor so myself and another veteran were cancelled. So needless to say, we did not get to every item on my pagelong list of needs but at least we got to 2 or 3 of the most pressing issues. I have to wait until June to get an hour with the new doctor. Ridiculous. That is partially due to the fiasco of the Miami VA not sterilizing the colonoscopy machine for 5 years.
Just another day of frustration at the VA.
I almost forgot. I went to the pharmacy and stood in line for 45 minutes to find a puddle of pee in front of the pickup window-the tech said he was too busy to call housekeeping! ARGHHH and then i only got one of the medicines i needed right away.
More frustration.
The line is so long , sometimes they have to call the VA Police to maintain order in the pickup line. I kid you not!

2 comments:

  1. That is unbelievable! I hope you'll keep writing about your experiences and encouraging others to write their legislators on behalf of veterans. Let me know if I can help.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I sure will.Thanks for readingmy blog.

    ReplyDelete