It's called Scheduling

[Traveler]

You got to love the VA medical system.  No one is waiting excessive periods of time for an appointment, it’s called scheduling.
September 16, 0800 hours. report to VA clinical  lab for annual wellness blood work. 
September 17, 0800 hours receive phone call from VA primary care doctor, concerned with lab results.  “your liver is failing”, “you must come in and see me right now”, “are you in any pain?”,   “Stop all medications “.  Doctor, should I drive over right now, “no, I”ve scheduled you for 1530 hours, September 19.”
September 19, 15:30 hours, “please provide urine sample  and the doctor will see you next”.  VA Doctor:” These tests are very bad”, “are you in any pain”,   well, I”ve had a slight discomfort just under my right rib cage area.  “well, I think your liver is damaged, we need to determine just how badly”.  “I’m going to schedule tests and you need to see a gastroenterologist”,  “VA Gastro can add you to their schedule for October 21,  at that point they will schedule you for imaging perhaps in October or early November and will look at your liver and gallbladder.”

September 20, 0300 hours, I woke with pain, nausea, when I looked in the bathroom mirror, I looked like one of the Simpsons.  I decided to seek 21 century medical advice, the internet, right, webMD.  According to them, I was having a gallbladder attack, in the form of a blocked bile duct.  I needed to have the blocked bile duct cleared and my gallbladder removed.   
September 20, 08:00 local Non-VA Gastroenterologist met me at his office and drove me directly to the ER.  0830 hours, all bloods drawn, Imaging perform an abdominal ultra sound followed by  an MRI.  1500 hours the Gastroenterologist perform a procedure to clear the bile duct.  I was introduced to a Surgeon who would attempt to remove the Gallbladder Laparoscopically within the next 24 hours.  Unfortunately that procedure had to be changed from a laparoscopic to an open procedure midstream.  But all is well, I’m on the mend.  I returned home, September 26,  1400 hours.

It’s not the VA’s fault or so I”ve been told, that is a pile of pure bull.  Of course it’s their fault.  They exist in a 1950’s environment, practicing state of the art 1950’s era medicine.  The VA for Gallbladder surgery doesn’t even consider laparoscopic surgery.  They have added so many levels of unneeded unnecessary bureaucratic  administrative procedure that make doing anything with the VA a nightmare and at the same time add no value to the process.  Now I’m trying to cancel my appointment of October 21, with the VA Gastro department and all I can contact is what the VA calls “Schedulers”  Using the VA phone network and waiting your turn to actually talk to  medical personnel, just doesn't happen, you see if you get scheduled for a procedure and you cancel, you get a black mark on your record. 

[Oldman731]

But all is well, I’m on the mend.

Good to hear. 

Next time you're having health issues, post here.  I'm certain we can rapidly gather a team of experienced AH pilots to descend upon you and perform surgery, frequently at little or no cost.  We value the experience.

- oldman (btw...what's your favorite alcoholic sedative...?)

[mbailey]

Wish I would have known this Oldman, my son just had his Appendix out 2 weeks ago....your only right down the road from me, would have saved me the deductible on my insurance. Maybe you doing the cutting, and Molsman passing you the instruments  Im thinking Makers Mark for all of us for the anesthesia (minus the kid, we can klunk him on the head)

 On a side note, he was in the ER, diagnosed, on the table for surgery (laproscopic) and in his recovery room in a total of 3 hrs. (was on the table within 1hr of getting to the ER)

Traveler, glad to hear your ok...sorry for the headaches you ran into, but at least its a happy ending sir. Hope your up and about and on the mend quickly 

[Puma44]

Glad yore doin better, Traveler.   They are going to put a black mark on your record?!  The VA medical system is one huge black mark

[FLS]

Glad you're better Traveler. 

The VA serves itself. They should be required to have ex military in all managerial positions.

[KCDitto]

If they passed a law that made congressmen have to use the VA, it would be the best run best equipped medical system in the world........ over night

[USCH]

If they passed a law that made congressmen have to use the VA, it would be the best run best equipped medical system in the world........ over night

well.... Let's not go too far, after all they are our current government right? But I do agree with the point you're making.

[Traveler]

well.... Let's not go too far, after all they are our current government right? But I do agree with the point you're making.

Or give the Vet the same medical care plan as our congressman, I never heard of a congressman dieing while waiting to be scheduled for a medical appointment.  Yet that very same thing is still happening to Vets everyday.

[Vulcan]

September 20, 0300 hours, I woke with pain, nausea, when I looked in the bathroom mirror, I looked like one of the Simpsons.  I decided to seek 21 century medical advice, the internet, right, webMD.  According to them, I was having a gallbladder attack, in the form of a blocked bile duct.  I needed to have the blocked bile duct cleared and my gallbladder removed.   
September 20, 08:00 local Non-VA Gastroenterologist met me at his office and drove me directly to the ER.  0830 hours, all bloods drawn, Imaging perform an abdominal ultra sound followed by  an MRI.  1500 hours the Gastroenterologist perform a procedure to clear the bile duct.  I was introduced to a Surgeon who would attempt to remove the Gallbladder Laparoscopically within the next 24 hours.  Unfortunately that procedure had to be changed from a laparoscopic to an open procedure midstream.  But all is well, I’m on the mend.  I returned home, September 26,  1400 hours.

You're lucky. In 2010 my gallbladder got blocked up. Ambo took me into hospital in massive pain (I got morphined up the eyeballs). Doctors decided to put a drain in and put me on antibiotics. Having the drain inserted was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life, and that was when I was heavily sedated on morphine. They send me home for 4 weeks. I do a big of medi-googling and find out this is standard, though there is a split in the medical community that says take the gall bladder out straight away.

Turns out my gall bladder was busted, dead. At the 3 week mark I lost the plot again. Ambo comes to take me to hospital. Get pumped full of morphine. A few ultrasounds later doc says my glallbladder had 'exploded'. I get rushed into emergency surgery (full swashbucklers cut, you'll know what I mean now traveler), after which they tell me it had gone gangrenous.

Then about 6 hours after surgery I get told I've picked up Ecoli-EBSL - one of those antibiotic resistant bugs. I get dropped into ICU for 24 hours while they try to find something that kills it. Luckily they did.

I've heard that the laparoscopic procedure can be hard to recover from as they inflate your belly with a gas.

You will need to be careful not to lift stuff while you recover, as they've cut your belly muscles you'll be at risk of hernias in that area.

You will also need to change your diet. Avoid 'rich' foods, stuff like chocolate mud cake, cream in any form, very fatty like bacon (if I eat bacon I get my missus to virtually burn the stuff so its very crispy). Your bile now feed directly into your stomach, you have no extra cache of it to use when eating such foods, but also at night it keeps feeding into your stomach regardless of whether you eat or not. So be prepared to have small snacks add odd times to soak up and pass the bile through.

[Shuffler]

If they passed a law that made congressmen have to use the VA, it would be the best run best equipped medical system in the world........ over night

Unfortunately Congress decides what we have to do and does not serve us as they should. Worse is they are not held by the same requirements place on us.

[Traveler]

You're lucky. In 2010 my gallbladder got blocked up. Ambo took me into hospital in massive pain (I got morphined up the eyeballs). Doctors decided to put a drain in and put me on antibiotics. Having the drain inserted was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life, and that was when I was heavily sedated on morphine. They send me home for 4 weeks. I do a big of medi-googling and find out this is standard, though there is a split in the medical community that says take the gall bladder out straight away.

Turns out my gall bladder was busted, dead. At the 3 week mark I lost the plot again. Ambo comes to take me to hospital. Get pumped full of morphine. A few ultrasounds later doc says my glallbladder had 'exploded'. I get rushed into emergency surgery (full swashbucklers cut, you'll know what I mean now traveler), after which they tell me it had gone gangrenous.

Then about 6 hours after surgery I get told I've picked up Ecoli-EBSL - one of those antibiotic resistant bugs. I get dropped into ICU for 24 hours while they try to find something that kills it. Luckily they did.

I've heard that the laparoscopic procedure can be hard to recover from as they inflate your belly with a gas.

You will need to be careful not to lift stuff while you recover, as they've cut your belly muscles you'll be at risk of hernias in that area.

You will also need to change your diet. Avoid 'rich' foods, stuff like chocolate mud cake, cream in any form, very fatty like bacon (if I eat bacon I get my missus to virtually burn the stuff so its very crispy). Your bile now feed directly into your stomach, you have no extra cache of it to use when eating such foods, but also at night it keeps feeding into your stomach regardless of whether you eat or not. So be prepared to have small snacks add odd times to soak up and pass the bile through.

I have no diet restrictions and the way the digestive system works bile is always pumpted into the small intestine , not stomach, always has been and pretty sure it always will be.  Early man needed a gallbladder to store the bile when not able to eat, remember earlly man ate once or twice a week,  either because food was not availabe or it all out ran him.

[mbailey]

How ya feeling Traveler? Hope your on the mend

[Randy1]

The problem is veterans benefits exceeded the mandate of taking care of the disabled Veterans after WW1.  It went from lets take care of our Veterans to what can we do to assure we get their votes.  That is when the VA went bad.  Too many benefits for too little budget.
Congress cannot cut back the services or they would be run out of town but they cannot budget enough money to make VA right as it stands now.  The true catch 22.

[redcatcherb412]

Traveler, you did the right and only thing not waiting for the VA and going private.  Did they cover the Emergency procedures or did they make you pay since it wasn't 'service connected' ?  I have never yet had an ER visit paid even though I am 4 hrs away from a VA hospital ER, always because of non service connected issue.  I went thru roughly the same thing as you and like you it was all scheduling.  They didn't pay for it either even though it was service connected and they considered it non emergency.  My body was rejecting a 35yr old chunk of shrapnel in my leg and developing a very fast growing tumor in my leg.  It was marble size when they found it and by the time I saw a VA surgeon 3 months later had grown to the size of an orange and I could barely walk.  Like with you, VA surgeon said they have to get it out asap so the closest surgery date I could get was 11 months away. Went to a local hospital, saw a surgeon, he removed it in day surgery 2 weeks later.  Was worth it since I don't know how big it would have grown the speed it was going.  I'm glad your surgery was successful as your liver was going to shut down on you eventually.  I was just major pissed off at VA because I had a service connected issue and they still let 'scheduling' stand in the way, the doctors were ready to go to work on it just couldn't get the facilities faster.

[Shamus]

Kinda sounds like moving the VA into medicare would be an improvement.