I AM SO FRUSTRATED.

The first thing I’d like to clear up with everybody is, the V.A. Administration has many great benefits and is very helpful in many ways. But on the other hand many of these so-called benefits are more nerve wrecking than they are BENEFITS.

Here are a few of my most recent issues:

1. Time wasted: About two months ago I went to the Shreveport, V.A. Emergency Room with a very painful swollen big toe on my left foot. No it wasn’t swollen profusely but the pain was very annoying. The Emergency Room Doctor looked at, (let me repeat that), looked at my toe and immediately told me to come back when it was  flared up more.
2. Several months ago I tried to log into my eBenefits Account, to no avail. I called and spoke with one of the representatives who fixed the issue. At least I thought it was fixed. Within the same week I couldn’t login again. I just called again in hopes of fixing the problem again. PSYCH. There was a 27 minute wait time. I hung up and tried the eBenefits Chat Option only to be told that there system was down until much later in the month. I was told to call the Customer Service Number to get some type of Special Authorization. REALLY?
3. I just finished logging into my My Health V.A. Account to refill my prescriptions only to discover that several of my diabetic related prescriptions are Inactive. REALLY, my diabetic prescriptions inactive. Wow!

As stated these are just a few of the issues that I’ve recently experienced. Now the bad part about all of this is having to pretty much take this sub-standard treatment over and over again because I have to go back and see or deal with these same individuals again in the future. For instance I went back to the Emergency Room again last week to get my toe checked again. I prayed up to the time they called me to be seen that I would not see the same doctor that I saw the last time. I got to see the doctor that I prayed to see. He went over and beyond (as always) to see that I got the proper care. He looked at both feet to do his comparison, explained to me what the deal was with my toe from x-rays (a confirmed bunion), prescribed meds, readjusted some of my meds because of pre-existing conditions, and explained all follow-up procedures. While mentioning this toe problem, let me add a key factor. I initially thought I had gout because of a knee injury as well. It took 10 months for me to find out that I didn’t have gout.

I know that I am by far not the only vet who’s experiencing these types of problems because I hear the many horror stories from other vets. When I share some of these problems with you all, you will be just as shocked as I was and still am.

Let’s get together and create CHANGE. WeRBetter2Gether!