Feb. 8, 2011
Welcome to my blog. It's a week late in getting started, but I guess better late than never.
I wanted to start this blog primarily to document the care of this veteran at the VA hospitals. I've been paralyzed from the armpits down since August 31st, 1980 after being shot through the chest, and have had so many occasions where something needed to be done to resolve a medical problem only to have the VA doctors decide that it was "too radical" until the damage I'd wanted to avoid had been done, and THEN have them do what needed to be done along with trying to repair the damage caused, it's ridiculous.
For those who advocate for US government run health care, you can't find a better example than the VA health care system. It's a model of inefficiency, medical mistakes, people covering their asses at the expense of the patient, neglect, waste, etc. Don't get me wrong... The large majority of doctors, nurses, techs, and aids do their best to help their patients, but there always seem to be the few that are in key spots in the tangle of red tape and bureaucracy that manage to screw things up royally in spite of the other’s best efforts. Almost all of the medical problems I’ve had to deal with, and this has involved 12 major surgeries to date and having spent more than 1/6th of the last 30+ years in the hospital, can be traced directly to previous mistakes made by the VA in my care.
I've started this blog primarily to document how the VA system works AS it is working, rather than going back later and trying to explain to people how this system has screwed up and made problems worse, sometimes catastrophically so. I’m dealing with the after effects of one such screwup right now, as I start this blog. This blog is simply an introductory blog, (as much to learn the way the “blogspot” website works as to give pertinent information.
Along the way, since things don’t happen on a daily basis, I’ll be writing about past mistakes that have ultimately led to my current hospitalization and situation, writing about various non-VA related things in my life, talking about some of the people I’ve met and meet who just blow my mind with their courage, some who are immoral/amoral individuals who are the dregs of society, others who don’t really stand out in a crowd but still make life more fun for those around them, and sometimes just some of the funny/weird stuff that goes on in the VA system and in life in general. (For example, up on the pulmonary floor, they have a sign outside one clinic that says, “Walk in clinic. By appointment only”)
I will also no doubt end up posting my thoughts about various other subjects, such as current events, a movie review if some film I see strikes me as either very good or very bad, and so on. Basically, this will hopefully be another way of keeping my mind occupied and active, as well as it’s primary purpose of relating the quality of care a 100% R2, (second highest rating possible,) disabled veteran is provided by the wonder that is the government provided health care system.
The only rules for comments that I’ll have here are that people aren’t allowed to start flame wars with each other. Vigorous debate is fine, but I’ll cut it off if things get out of hand and start into personal attacks, revealing personal information about other people, especially if it is intended to hurt them somehow, etc.
So… The show is officially on the road, and I’ll be writing up my first real entry, (rather than this introduction,) starting in just a few minutes. I hope y’all will find it both informative and entertaining.
Dave
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