Thought I'd do a quick update. So far it's just been more frustration. After I had the EMG, the results were forwarded from the Dr back to VA (which took a week to get the results across town). Then another week for the Dr at VA to review them and tell me it would be well over a month to have the VA do the surgery so she referred me back over to the Choice program to get an appointment with a civilian Dr to do the surgery.

Getting the paper work from VA to Choice was supposed to take no more than a week, but ended up turning into 2 weeks because one or the other of the 2 bureaucracies dropped the ball (as with all bureaucracies the one thing they are very good at is pointing a finger at someone else. I finally got a call back from the Choice program who had tried to set up an appointment for the surgery but was informed that they couldn't schedule the appointment until I had a MRI. Of course I had to go back thru the VA surgeon so she can order the test. That request was made a week ago and when I checked on it today, it was still pending. Of course I was passed on to someone else to check the status and naturally my calls go straight to voice mail.

I am so damn glad that millions and millions of tax dollars are going to a newly formed bureaucracy that acts like every other government bureaucracy instead of being spent on Doctors and Technicians. I will say that every conversation I have had with one of the Choice program reps has ended with the person thanking me for my service........it would probably mean something if they were saying because they meant it rather than being told they have to say it......and they actually efficiently moved the paperwork thru the system.


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