As expected, the Discogram was positive. So, under my particular circumstances, we’ll open it up, clean out the mess, screw it back together with some metal pins, cross our fingers and wait a few more months. Longest goddamn hip replacement EVER. Here’s a little tutorial for those interested in more details about what I’m now facing.
And also as expected, my FOIA request(s) for information about the case turned up next to nothing, save one important exception. Dr. Sylvestri responded to my initial complaint – just not to me – stating he saw nothing wrong. I bet he doesn’t see much wrong with the gaps in VA healthcare that stole a year from my life (so far) and nobody seems to want to talk about, either. They hurt me. Bad. Over a long period of time, and it’s not over yet.
Early on in this fiasco, my general perception of the way I was being treated suggested to my paranoid intuition, that I was being deliberately deceived. It was just too blatantly unbelievable. Turns out they are simply oblivious – right up and down the chain, including everyone in between. Professional healthcare providers – oblivious to the suffering of one of their patients. Now I’m not sure which is worse. Maybe employee apathy isn’t real high on the radar.
I bet there are vets like me out there who might have given up. I’m suicidal, for chrissakes! Now I get it – the “VA thing,” that is. So they do studies to try and figure it out, then give you a phone number to call. Brilliant. It’s not working. My only question to the VA overlords might be: Why was someone like me sitting here on a badly torn L4-5 annulus writing blog posts about it all year instead of going to the head of the line for whatever they needed the minute something like this crops up? A satisfactory answer to that would be worth quite a bit to the next collateral damage victim.
The answer is right here, and I figured it out back in September. Some things you can’t put a price on. Epilogue coming in Chapter X – Formal Feedback – written down the way I used to give it face-to-face in the Air Force. It’s not going to be pretty, but pretty much exactly how it appears in some of the AF records “I” wrote.