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cannoncocker

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About cannoncocker

  • Birthday 10/15/1954

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    Florida

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    70
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    Army

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  1. You hit some really important issues. There are patient advocates and advocate groups both vary widely from person to person and group to group. As you say though if you/I don't motivate either/both well they are hardly going to thumb through your records and say that wis wrong for sure. So yes one way or another it's on us to fix any problems. unfortunately some people by misfortune and no fault of their own are less adept at confrinting monolithic bureaucracies {read VA). Throw in when you are weakened by illness you're less able and inclined to mount a full on battle. Do they know it's not Cancer? Not unless they are psychic. What they have is a CT scan and the blood work/urinaysis specifically for this isuues. From the results they determined it needed to be referred to pulmonary. what i believe the problem is the pandemic has the pulmonary dept. overwhelmed. have my annual prescheduled lab and appointment with my primary care nurse which they have made it cleat they push the radiology recommendation for a pumonary consult. Cancer hasn't been discussed, then nothing has been discussed with me apart from the above. So yes, it is something and GI blee is poossible but less likely than pulomanary. Cancer, no clue. it is what it is and whatever happens is the answer. i would expect a biopsy, then that would require a demigod to spend some time on this which is clearly not a priority. if all they do is push requests to a 3 month waiting list why bother with the outpatient clinic hour drive appointment.
  2. Believe me when I say I hear you and agree. That is between bureaucracy users/victims... I/you/we are so frequently required to act like 7 year olds throwing tantrums to get any anything approaching reasonable service. That is however the system. I would be more moved to push for an earlier appoint but with my brother's recent medical experience, i.e. G.I. bleed unkoen source at the end of the first round they concluded the they have no idea of the source so let's begin with upper, lower middle endoscopes withe the pill camera again and track his hemogloblin bloodwork and top it off as necessary. my personal experience hasn't been better. I honestly can't recall when if ever I went in a came out cured. So my last msg to primary care Nurse was forwarded to the demigods in Gainesville Pulmonolgy expressing the efficacy of waiting 3 months. So they're going to cancel dinner appointments etc. and get me right in there. so even if/when i get in a chair cross from one of these guys it would be a first that I walked away cured. mainly i heart things like if you had just come in a week earlier, refering to another family member after which they died, after draining the system dor 60,000 bucks to keep us all in absolute miusery. Actually thinking patient advocate but the I think why bother? But for rattling the cage there are very limited access point to rattle said cage.
  3. that's entirely true and even more so from when I used them for opthamology. It, did work out. also I went from a VA Tallasshee Outpatient ER sent to a civilian Hospital ER. Arranged and called by the VA ER. When the bill came due the VA wasn't at home. I guess that worked out because the bill collectors stopped calling and I was no longer required playing go between for the Civilian Hospital and the VA. That pretty much covers this ball of malformed bureaucracy. Thank you all.
  4. That may well be the case but I thought this was all within the VA Health Care system. Due to the recent pandemis bing primarily respiratory they may have "farmed out" some of the consults. Otherwise why would they have me drive freom the Panama City Florida area to Gainesville for a non VA respiratory consult? That is another part of the problem, not explaining how this is going to work, why decisions are being made without my input or informing me of virtually anything. Such as radiology should have been able to provide some insight into the possible source but nope. I guess this pretty much covers it. Like everything else: whatever happens is the answer. I can go straight Social Security which I may default to if the best the VA can do is triage me to a nurse, provide no radiology based information and a 3 month consult date.
  5. That was fun, finished the post then about blank. So, round 2. Thank you for the very useful info and experience. Problem I have with masks is they reduce my respiratory function by half and fog my glasses. apart from that they're lovely. So how it alwaysworks for me I begin whingind about any issue and and answer pops up. notice I didn't say the answer. So I got an appointment with the Gainseville, Fl. Pulmonary in literally 3 months. the appointment maker said I had been limited to a choice of 2 physicians/clinics. No clue why or what that means. They didn't know. So I informed my primary care nurse and asked why the limitation of 2 specific choices. Then I asked about beginning the process for the community care route. I added if the physicians will acknowledge a patient with blood produced in their phlegm for months will not be adversely affected by an additional 3 months of blood loss then I will accept that and wait. no physician in their right mind would approve that. On the plus side a steady drip blood loss makes it really easy to sleep. Appreciate all of you for giving your time and knowledge.
  6. Hey there Knight. I was Germany for 7 years as DAC and Active Duty. It's true and you'd think it would be more work dodging it than just doing but O No! We are talking VA here but the civilian side really isn't any better in my experience apart from the civilian side get paid per action so it's in their interest to at least on paper act like they do a procedure. As mentioned above the VA has performed well, right up to the time I got old and stuff started to go wrong with me body, which required more than Blood pressure/temp. etc. on the civilian side my brother was hospitalized for unknown source of GI bleed. The administration took pictures of him to demonstrate how not to treat a patient, infected injection sites, wake you up every 3 hours for blood work and weight check. that's fun at 2am. both have problems.
  7. That was precisely what I was referring to but couldn't formulate how that worked since it has been a very long time since using that for opthmaology but that was less urgent and more frequently used/known. Odds are that is what what I'll have to do. I wish I could express how much I would prefer to just get a consult and get diagnosed... Then if it's medicine or hospitalization ...i'll decide how I want to play it. If it were flowing by the buckets, yes I have family members I am obligated to to to keep the ball rolling as long as possible. If They can't get it straight by next week community care based treatment seems most palitible which in truth nothing about this is palitable. Up to this point I've never encountrered a point of care provder poroblem si this is all new to me. I didn't know if the community care option was still available/operating so that is problem ridden in trading medical info. Additionally I don't have a primary care Doctor, Primary Care Nurse, yes, I do have one of those. So technically in days how long is a reasonable length to wait for a consult, after their ordered CT Scan and consult recommended by radiology before I can request Community Based Care?. Note, none of the abvove have mentioned an ER route. I've made it clear I am completely willing to go hospitalization so they are not/should not precluding ER/Hospitalization due to my unwillingness since I've made it clear I am willing to do whatever they need me to do, apart from waiting a year,on an unassigned consult, assuming I'm still sucking air. Failing that who in the medical oversight could I address this issue with, if anyone? Thank both of you for providing your experince and knowedge.
  8. I burned the search button out searching for the ideal /proper spot to post this so if any mod can improve please feel free to move this questrion. I presented to my local outpatient clinic in Marianna, Florida. No physicians, just nurses with blood in phlegm. They sent me to radiology (CT Scan). Radiology in turn requested a consutlt with Pulmonary. That is where the treatment ends. They told me 2 weeks ago they we looking for aa physician to assign this to. Didn't happen. Question: what are my options for getting civilian treament if they are so understaffed... or conversely who in this command chain can I go to for assistance with this? I feel it's not unreasonable at 65 and blood coming out of my mouth expecting timely treatment is not unreasonable. As they told a family member, if you had come in just few days earlier. well, it seems like he would never know in this scenario.
  9. That was my experience and recommendation as well, i.e. independent medical opinion indicating more likely than not.. That will take some work to find a neurologist willing to do a work-up but some will. It was very difficult at least at the time I was involved with this. I found one in 2008 for 365.00 but I brought all the MRI(discs)/Radiology reports/medical records... It ultimately got down to presenting the examiner with this: what would a reasonable person conclude this disability originated from? After a moment of consideration she was onboard. PS: may i add that the va in my experience will fight a back injury harder than any other disability. They will push back with every trick in their book rest assured.
  10. Vync, we/I am lucky you are active on this forum. I appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge and experience. It's pointless to me to pushback, aside from on principle that after 8 years of a prescription for a sc condition they throw me under the bus (is that reasonable to flip the switch and expect anyone to just be over that?). Not that they care but no way can I register, schedule an appointment, then get on some step down plan without months of cold turkey. I'll re-register in FL. I live outside 40 miles to the nearest va care facility but the choice option the last I checked is useless, i.e. they couldn't tell me what doctors were eligible nor tell me if I would be reimbursed until after the appointment. let me know how that is helpful because that eludes me. I really only intend to use any va facility as a medical emergency last resort anyway. That run around you got is precisely what I wish to avoid. I'm glad you ultimately beat them down but it's a toss up how that could have gone. You wuz lucky.
  11. thank you Vync. I knew it was basically a fool's errand to butt my head against the wall on the prescription so i gave them that one. the kiss off part is a bit on the harsh side but i expect no less. so they kinda can restrict me to emergency/urgent care since my actual current address is FL until the home on my NC property is completed. It's not a major gig but I did want to know precisely how heavy handed they are. still, I own residential property in NC but whatever.
  12. My question is who determines your choice for preferred VA treatment facility (your primary VA treatment facility)? I have been treated at a single VA Treatment facility in NC since 2006. I have property in NC and FL. I have been using my FL residence until the residential construction is completed on the NC property. Prior to this I rented in NC. My primary provider transferred so I was assigned a new physician a couple of months ago. It was going fine until his screening nurse noticed I had a temp address in FL. At that point she asked if that was temporary. I explained as above. The treatment stopped and right quick. I was told by her my treatment was restricted to: "urgent/emergencies". I had assumed this was merely a mask to push me off an opioid prescription (since 2008). I acquiesced that point but they continued their unilateral and abrupt virtual refusal to continue my treatment there. Is their refusal to continue my treatment at my designated preferred VA facility in fact within the scope of the nurse's/provider's authority? I won't bother with what that means to tell a person to tough luck, see ya, after receiving an opioid prescription for a SC disability (reconciled by Neurology consult). PS: if this is the incorrect forum please move.
  13. John , thank you for that, really thank you. Having worked as a Safety Speialist for the Army after service I have a sense of what you are saying and in large part that is exactly right. They have done nothing to me yet. Nor have they closed this out. In an IRIS msg. they told me to go through my sitting senator to contact them. They wrote all claims closed. Nope. IRIS msg told me to not go to qtc exams, firstly I had put in a change of address since I had moved and was 3 states gone, but called early and canceled saying I was withdrawing the claim. Dollar to donuts they are rating without med exam as we speak. My sense of this is they feel pretty much free to do as they please up to the point their supervisor comes in their office and orders them to slow their roll. I clearly have pushed them. but really to get my back SC I had to push, which is where the animosity originated. My DAV guy said I got this,no need for recorders or formalities, we did that, came down to his office, then he said they would deny it unless I had a Dr, tie an ER report, with zero assesment to my back problems now. Their own Dr. said nothing could be done with it. Hence I had an IMO. So seeing how the ball was rolling I went to a senator and explained, returned to the DAV guy then low and behold, "what made you think this was not approved",? When you told me it wasn't was my first clue. That is the history behind this, and spiraled from there. If I hadn't I would be out 30% so how can you win? This is not a tighten your belt scenario, life goes on either way. But I have a keen sense of big brother, or any other person /entity abusing their authority. So indeed this does bother me, alot. I have my mind fixated on how to push them back in the can. Problem is they run pretty much unfettered. Think about it, send a person that they can only communicate with the W-S VARO through a sitting Senator. Yes I think they are emotional about this. That is a problem. It is in fact personal with them. The best I can do is make the cost of that personal vendetta.greater than any personal satisfaction they might gain in the end. Thank you again for the analysis, and nobody made me genius, so you may well be right. That has always been my experience as well, to this point. If there is a bright spot they are not issued live ammo. Not to mention it is always best to move your head before the guillotine drops.
  14. In an effort to prevent a China Syndrome, I would appreciate any information regarding an organizational chart to find the chain of command for the W-S VARO. In my meager experience when all else stagnates and the focus becomes intransigent and vindictive a trip up the chain of command might prime the pump. There are bound to be ways to find the regional supervisor or however they have it organized and nomenclature used. Failing that any points of contat above the W-S VARO Plan on hiring a lawyer for the purpose of extracting the intentions from the office supervisor. One for the record books IMHO, in IRIS, there was an entry demanding that I communicate with the VARO via a sitting Senator. Now I am not Johnny Cochran, well because I'm not dead, but that seems improper somehow. What depriving me access to the VARO where they are on a mission to crucify me. Any suggestions for self defense? They didn't get off the chain, they ate it.
  15. I do not know what your experience will be in the clothing application process, but that is correct that clothing allowance is processed throught the Prosthetic Department. My experience is the head of prosthetics will schedule a doctors appointment who will determine if clothing allowance criteria is met. Don't have a clue to thecriteria but shooting from the hip: worn clothes, rashes of the skin, abrasions.... The reason I mention this, do not be fooled that you just fill out the paperwork then the register opens.
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