tdiu TDIU Claim Related - Doctor suddenly "unavailable", or will not return phone calls.

[commodog]

I'll try to keep this short and to the point.

I have two other posts, on here in the TDIU section, wherein I stated my VA doctor had agreed to write a letter for me.
This is what she actually wrote, and is taken directly from my notes within BlueButton in MyHealtheVet:

Quote

(2) Therapy: - education on psychotropic medications provided; and supportive therapy provided - Will write a support letter for his application of Total disability and individual unemployability upon receiving his signed authorization of releasing information
 

The authorization was signed and delivered to her over 4 weeks ago.
Release of Information has been very communicative with me, and has politely informed me that they have never received the letter.

Worse than this, the doctor is now obviously avoiding contact with me.
The last response she sent to me via secure messaging, was over 3 weeks ago, despite me messaging her once the following week, and "Secure Messaging" showing me that she had read the communication (a feature it has), but has not replied.

I am running low on a particular psychotropic, and I have 0 refills remaining in MyHealtheVet, and was hoping we could avoid the whole withdrawal thing, and therefore requested a refill.
She has read several requests I wrote her, informing her that the supply is running low.
She still refuses to correspond with me.

I contacted the clinic coordinator, and the front desk now knows my voice and name distinctly.
The front desk has been exceedingly polite, and when I stated the doctor has not been returning my calls, the receptionist said, and I quote directly, "That does not surprise me at all....".
The clinic coordinator has been polite, and both her and the front desk have reached out to the doctor, telling the doctor to call me, via secure message, instant message, and in person.
The doctor told them she will call me immediately after her shift.
She never called me, but says she left me a voicemail.
I offered to share my call logs, or print them off, as I never received a call from said doctor, despite receiving numerous phonecalls from other individuals that day, mostly for the wife's medical appointments.

This has been occurring since the middle of last week.

Today (3/27/2017), I got a hold of her for about 10 seconds on the phone, but she immediately stated she was with another veteran and could not talk, but would call me after work.
I understand that, and do not want to take precious therapy time from my brothers and sisters.
I have, as of yet, not received a phone call, and am not entirely of the belief that I will.

I think she decided to say "I'm not writing this letter in support of TDIU...", or got it in her head that I am chasing benefits, despite making this request 8 years deep into therapy, and attempting multiple jobs since then.

Is there any recommendation you can make to me?

Do any of you with hospital experience have any clue why she would avoid me so obviously, or not take time to correspond with me?
Any recommended course of action?

I'm getting kind of pissed about this...

[Vync]

Hey Commodog,
I hope this information helps you out. I have been going to the VA for more than 20 years and my wife is a surgical RN who did her residency at my VAMC (now she realizes I was not bullshitting her about all the stories about VA red tape).

Most important - focus on this first: Regarding your medications, you do not want to run out. Double-check to see if the scripts you need have been renewed. If not, the first thing I would do is try to get an appointment before you run out. You can also go to the clinic as a walk-in, but it might cost you an entire day. You might be put with a Nurse Practitioner or another doc instead, but you need your meds renewed. Please keep in mind that some meds are worse than others when you run out.

Don't give your doc the only copy of your documentation and don't assume it will make it to the records office either. I submitted some medical release medical records authorization forms and learned later that they got lost in the mail. I went directly to my VAMC's Release of Information Office and signed new copies. They did let me know it would take them a little bit to get it scanned into the system.

Many docs have assistants, nurses, or students/residents who are designated to read/respond to secure messaging. My VA primary care doc never responds to my messages, but her RN does.

At my VAMC, I have had horrible docs, nincompoop docs, scatterbrained docs, overworked docs, unorganized docs, and even some great docs. Please realize this doc is offering to do something nice for you. Having a doc offer to write a statement on your behalf is very reassuring, but for something like this I would not rock the boat just yet.

It might be worth it to go through your progress notes to see if your doc wrote your recommendation in an addendum or documented. If you were asking her to fill out a DBQ, that might take a bit of extra time because it is a very field heavy document.

Good luck!

[commodog]

Hey Vync, thanks for the reply!

I developed a rapport with this doc, and really liked her ability to listen to detail. However, it's been 3 weeks, she has stated she is going to call me on 2 separate occasions, and has not.
She also knew that due to my pending TDIU claim, I was hoping to have it by the 30th so I could submit it before my final C&P for my current claim.

I know the docs are overworked, but to my knowledge that has been a fairly consistent truth within the VA, and I have never had correspondence issues before. Usually if you give them a few days, they will reach out to you.

I'm also dealing with my anisocoria worsening, and nobody being able to tell me why, or that my MRI looks fine, so it must be "nothing", even after I send them photographic evidence we capture.
So I'm kind of stressed about that too.

[commodog]

Well whaddya know, she contacted me.
Turns out external access to the VA from her area has been awful for the past few weeks, and by time she gets back into the office she has to catch up on tons of message she can normally stay on top of. I was really worried, because she has been a great provider (good medication advice, etc.), and this was really weird.

[Buck52]

If some veteran don't have PTSD  they will have it after dealing with the VA  few years!

[pwrslm]

Symptoms sometimes make mountains out of mole hills.

[Vync]

12 hours ago, commodog said:

Well whaddya know, she contacted me.
Turns out external access to the VA from her area has been awful for the past few weeks, and by time she gets back into the office she has to catch up on tons of message she can normally stay on top of. I was really worried, because she has been a great provider (good medication advice, etc.), and this was really weird.

Awesome! Most VAMC MH docs are seriously overworked. Glad she was able to contact you!