Unbased First Published on 11/18/2015
I’m not going to write about my tremors again. At least not directly. Going to try to use them to illustrate a problem though.
October 6th just past, I saw Dr. Caroline Armstrong in Petersburg. A regular checkup on progress since my blood clot was diagnosed by a Veteran’s Administration (VA) clinic doctor in March, 2014. She was attending physician at Grant Memorial Hospital emergency room when they first wheeled me down the hall from ultrasound and admitted me. She kept track of my Protime INR test results and adjustments to Coumadin medication I take until I recently switched those chores to VA control.
I’d seen her regularly since first clot diagnosis. She has checked overall health each visit, including problems with type 2 diabetes, and now these tremors which are worsening. Due to her regular assessments of tremor’s progress, she advised me to consult a neurologist. There’s no VA doctor now who has seen me two consecutive times and can make comparisons of tremor’s progression.
I try to consolidate health care under the VA system and decided to work through them for a neurological appointment. I called Petersburg Clinic to set one up with the Neurologist in Martinsburg VA Medical Center (MVAMC). I found out their man had just retired.
If I wanted neurological consultation with VA, I’d have to go to either Washington or Baltimore VA Medical Centers. OK. I’m seventy, almost seventy one years old with tremors. My driving has been limited to Hardy County with brief forays to Winchester, Martinsburg and Harrisonburg in recent years. I don’t want to go speeding around Washington beltway to find proper exit, then through several intersections and a parking lot big enough to hold Moorefield to find proper entrance, department and office.
Even if I take Roger Champ’s experienced advice and just catch a bus from Martinsburg, I still don’ like the hullabaloo of spending all day in unfamiliar circumstances. Worse yet, this neurological business sounds like multiple consultations and I’m too contrary to like the idea of putting up with a bunch of long distance travel with people I don’t know maybe once a month or whatever from now until.
Turns out there’s a new VA program I could apply for. An opportunity to consult a physician outside the VA system. Have to meet certain qualifications to be accepted though. Mountains to cross or bodies of water to navigate and/or excessive travel distance are among qualifiers. I think my way into the program was excessive travel. I asked for an appointment in Winchester, Harrisonburg, or Cumberland, all more reasonable distances and familiarity.
It has taken nearly six weeks for my request and resultant administrative processing to work its way through the VA system. Doctors who didn’t know me had to approve the need for neurological consultation. Administrators, too whom I’m just another name and number, had to process my request for outside consult and decide if it fit program specifications. Now the electronic “paperwork” has caught up with and been married to my request and I’m instructed to call for actual appointment on Monday, November 16th. I hope I’ll get one in Winchester soon.
Whole process flow might have been smoother if I’d waited until next regular VA clinic appointment to make initial request, but no idea if I’d see a doctor who’d ever seen me before and might agree I needed outside help. Petersburg clinic has gone from three available physicians and physician’s assistants plus administrative staff operating in conjunction with Grant Memorial Hospital down to a new facility without hospital capabilities or visible regular professional staff except Jason Hinz on the front desk and Charlie Moore, nurse, both good, efficient, caring people.
Since November 4th this year it is impossible to call Jason or Charlie direct. ALL calls must go through Martinsburg and be placed to Petersburg clinic by following telephone prompts described by a cute little high pitched female voice I can hardly understand, because Vietnam training shot the top off my ability to hear high pitched sounds. The other day, attempting to straighten out my appointment situation, I spent three quarters of an hour listening to generic elevator music and telephonic ringing tones while trying to contact any office who could help me.
I know I’m getting old, irrelevant and hard to deal with, but still, if my recent experiences are indications of medicine’s future, I worry for my children and theirs.
