Well, I had my VA appointment today. Now when I have these appointments hat require lab work I can’t eat or drink anything for 12 hours before they draw blood, which is pretty much standard procedure. I always go up the night before, get a motel room, get up at 5:30 am and get to the VA shortly after 6:00 am. I do this because if you wait until the lab opens at 7:00am, there will be 20-30 people ahead of you and you might not get blood drawn until after 8:00. This puts me going to breakfast around 8:30am. This makes around 14 hours without anything to eat or drink, and if you have ever had ulcers, you know this tends to irritate your stomach which makes me an irritable man which in turn makes everyone around me uncomfortable especially my wife. When my wife is uncomfortable, she makes me nervous which makes my stomach hurt. You get the point of how important breakfast is to me on these little VA outings. This morning I was there in the lab at 6:15 am. I was fifth in line. Some of those ‘old guys’ get up with the chickens and I just can’t beat them there. Still fifth isn’t bad, probably won’t take long. Wrong! The nurse called my name around number 7. I was a little irritated that 2 guys that got there after me got in before me, but I tried to be cordial anyway. Then she told me they didn’t have an order for lab work from Lipid Clinic! Now , if you know you don’t have it and you know where it should have been coming from, and that you’re supposed to have it, what’s the problem? Draw the blood, call down and say, “hey, you guys forgot to send the order for ‘ole Becks lab work.” And let ‘ol Beck’ go eat!! No! This is government! Never do anything the simple way. She says, “ Just go down to Lipid and tell them to send up an order and we will run you right in and get you done.” Simple? NO! I done told you this is government we are dealing with here. I go back down stairs, hike the mile and a half to Lipid and find that they don’t open til 8:00 ish. Now my throat is so dry by now I couldn’t talk if they had been there, and I haven’t had coffee. By now my wife is insisting that I have coffee! They can strain it out of the blood if they ever do draw it, but we both need some relief! I walk another half mile to the machine that takes your money and lets you smell some luke warm coffee. 80 cents and I get back a shot glass of luke warm coffee. That’s just enough coffee to make you mad. Well, at 8:00ish the lady in Lipid comes in all chipper and happy. She asks,” How are you doing today?” I didn’t tell her because I didn’t want to ruin her day as well, so I lied and said,” I’m fine, but I have a small problem which I explained to her in my very nicest voice. She was so nice, I almost forgot about that shot glass of luke warm coffee that I gave 80 cents for. My wonderful caring saint of a wife hadn’t forgotten. I must have mentioned in passing my displeasure in that machine ripping of our veterans who fought for it’s very right to rip us off.Anyway, she hiked the two miles back to the cafeteria and brought me a nice grown-up cup of coffee. Things were looking up! Wrong! I went back to lab and they promptly ran me in and sat me down to wait another 30 minutes before they drew blood. I went back downstairs to Lipid and said,” Here I am.’” Again”. The doctor said,” I’m so sorry, I’ll get right to you as soon as we get the results back on your blood work.” Good deal, Wrong! At 10:15 am he still didn’t have my results back. I think they were waiting til my blood quit boiling before they could test it. I told him,” Man, I got to go eat.” I’ve waited as long as I can.” He was apologetic and said that would be fine. We went to Waffle house and I had two of everything on the menu. When I got back, he called me in and said my cholestrol was nearly perfect. Good news at last! My ordeal was finally over! Wrong! I went to finance to draw my travel pay and the guy says I’m not eligible! I asked,” what changed, I’ve been eligible for fifteen years and today I’m suddenly not anymore?” He gives me the standard government answer: : “ I don’t know anything. I guess you made too much money.” I said, my pay hasn’t gone up but everything else sure as heck has, how can I have made too much money. Same answer.” I don’t know anything.” Well, I could tell that from the time he started talking, so I asked if there was anyone there who did know anything.” He referred me to another man. I waited for about 15 more minutes and he came and asked me what my problem was. I’m still trying to get along, so I didn’t yell out,” Government”! I used my inside voice and asked him the same thing I had asked Mr. I don’t know anything! He looked at my file and said,” No, everything looks fine.” He goes and tells Mr. I don’t know anything to pay me. Problem solved. And it didn’t take a computer to do it. Now the VA is a blessing to me. I love the way they normally look after me. Today was a train wreck from the bottom up and then from the top down even to that rip-off veteran hating money stealing coffee machine, but I’ve figured out why after fourteen years of excellent care from them today was different. Obama has been monitoring our face book and he knows I been talking ‘TRASH’ about him. I think IRS, Justice Department, Eric Holder and Homeland Security sabotaged my trip to the VA. I’m calling Glenn Beck. We have the same last name. Hell hath no fury like a coffee deprived and starved white haired old veteran.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 02:14:57 +0000