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4/17/08

Warning! This blog is a huge vent...

So I have been trying really hard to keep my emotions in check with our time running out here. For my military girls, you know what it's like. You move into an area knowing that your stay is temporary, but as the clock gets closer to running out your emotions do tend to run a bit higher and probably get you more wound up than they normally would.

So keeping THAT in mind, let me also explain one more thing before I get into the drama of today. Base medical. Norman and I have been married for 6 years. The first three years, I endured the hell on earth that is otherwise known as Tricare Prime. That just means that I went on base for all of my healthcare. During that time, here is a quick overview of the most INSANE things I endured...

1. When I was pregnant (5 months pregnant) the base refused to look into issues that I felt I was having, because I wasn't having any symptoms. I was not spotting, I was not cramping, so they told me I was crazy and sent me home. Finally after weeks and weeks of getting NO CARE, NO HELP, I went to an off base Emergency Room (AKA Civilian hospital) and found out that I had in fact been carrying around a dead child that was starting to poison me, and as a result of the surgery, I nearly bled to death. Thank you base medical for ignoring me and my child.

2. Not only did it take them nearly 2 years to diagnose me with asthma, upon one visit to an internal medicine doc on base, I was told that I had no medical degree, and I didn't have asthma issues, I needed an AIDS TEST. Thank you ever so much for your kind and caring bedside manner, MORON.

3. I finally DID have a baby...my precious Eli, and the stupid base pediatrics clinic nearly killed him. I kept taking him in every day for nearly a week and a half, and I was belittled, made fun of, antagonized, and was sent home with them telling me he had a cold. Finally after he stopped eating and lost more weight, I took him to a CIVILIAN ER and he was admitted right away with RSV and lived in a mist tent with IV steroids treating him for over a week. Thank you once again WONDERFUL BASE DOCTORS.

I could go on and on with stories of active duty men going in for vasectomies and being operated on and forever ruined because the surgeon slicing them up was none other than a VET. Not someone who served in a war, but AN ANIMAL DOCTOR. Yep, that is our government at work folks. Or how about friends going in for wisdom teeth removal and waking up to find they had mistakingly removed the WRONG TEETH. Like I said, I could go on for a year...

So fast forward to today. I am supposed to have this "meeting" to turn in forms that my doctor had to sign. Let me explain more in depth...MY OFF BASE DOCTOR HAD TO FILL OUT PAGES AND PAGES OF NONSENSE, and today we had to take those papers in to the base. I started getting a tightening feeling in my chest once we entered that horrible place of a hospital. Once we sat down with the Airman and she started talking, it took all the self restraint I had not to come out of my chair... Not only is she going to TOSS all the papers that my off base doctor supposedly HAD TO SIGN, she proceedes to tell me that since I use an Albuterol Inhaler, I am now flagged SPECIAL NEEDS, and Norman will forever have this "Q" code next to his name. So it will affect where he can be assigned.

This is what is infuriating about the entire mess. After 3 years of dealing with inept medical personnel, we changed the type of insurance we had from Tricare Prime, to Tricare Standard. This allows the boys and me to go offbase for all of our healthcare, and never have to be seen by the uncaring, unknowledgable, crap staff known as military doctors. For THREE years, we have had fantastic care, and have never needed to stress out by going to base hospitals. Until today.

They REFUSED to help me when I was needing help with my asthma, and now they have me listed as friggin special needs because I have to carry a rescue Albuterol inhaler. They want my records. Am I giving them my records - NO! They want my children's records so they can micromanage them, and harass them in this way. Will I ever let them see my children's records? NOT IN THIS LIFETIME.

The bottom line is that now they have in their system that I have asthma. Before we can leave a base, they have to make sure that I am treating myself properly and am physically able to move, and before we can move to a new base, the new base has to approve me. WHY? I don't know. I refuse to get treatment from base hospitals. They don't even want to treat their patients with dignity and respect, and I am sure they are just happy to impose more pain, senseless paperwork headaches to the military dependents. So we have to go back Tuesday at 10:15am, and all I know is that I am calling my off base, wonderful, glorious angel of a man who is my doctor, and requesting a sedative, so that I do not come unglued on them...again.

4 comments:

  1. Honey,
    Your preaching the choir here. I know exactly what your living through and I know exactly how it is. They forced Ed to enlist us into EFMP and after months and finally completing the paperwork it hasn't done a darn thing for us. I despise our lack of health care and the civilians they employ at these hospitals are crass assholes!God forbid a soldier go in there and take up for himself they'd have him in handcuffs and in front of the 1st Sgt before he could blink!

    Take care girl.
    Kelly

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  2. Unreal. How horrible. I'm sorry you have gone through all that. You do stand your ground and do not give in to those bastards. It's just insane.

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  3. OH my gosh. I don't have any horror stories like that; I'm in shock! I'm so sorry you've had to go through this!
    I do know that the doctor I saw once on base was a huge jerk, didn't let me talk about my symptoms and interrupted me constantly. Then when I called for help later he said something very close to "I told you so" and refused to help me. In pediatrics they don't seem to keep track of anything. I asked at my son's 2 year appointment if he needed any shots soon and she said no, but I felt he must be due for something soon. So I asked the lab technician and she looked up his info (the same chart the doctor had) and said "oh yes, he needs this and this next month!" AND my husband got his wisdom teeth pulled last year and they couldn't correctly administer the IV - he was pricked 5 different times by different people (and nearly passed out) before they were successful! A basic IV!
    I am pregnant and the care I have received thus far has been terrible. The first couple of months I was so sick, like vomiting 20 times a day and losing weight. I was constantly in the ER, because perinatal wouldn't see me until I was x weeks, and even then I had to go through a slew of visits before I saw the actual OB. I ended up flying to CA (where my family is) and going to Travis AFB for my early care, because they actually realized that I was in fact going to lose the baby if I didn't get some help.
    Again, nothing horrible like the multiple things you've explained, but enough stupid little things to make me feel that they're completely incompetent. And of course I've had hell trying to figure out where I'm going to have my baby, because I refuse to have it at that stupid hospital. But Tricare Prime won't cover anything else, so we're having to do out of pocket for a home birth. I don't need those crazies messing everything up!
    So, there's my rant in complete agreement with your rant! I wish you all the best of luck at your new base, and we can only pray that they may be better. I am an Air Force newbie, though, so that may be "newbie wishful thinking" :)
    Lisa

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  4. Stacey, I'm so sorry - that is really horrible. Stand your ground - you know you better than any doctor will ever know you and your body. I'm praying that all of this will work out, try not to stress about it and once you get to Washington - well looks like you have a platform to work on! I'm sure the medical care in DC has to be better than what you (you aren't receiving at this point). It's terrible that our US Government has to put our Servicemen/women's families through this type of situation. I had no idea that you had been through all of that. Keep smiling - it will all work out!

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