It has given me something to focus on and stay busy with at times over the past year while nursing my newfound sedentary lifestyle. Painful, hard lessons are well-learned, but always trying to find the silver lining, nonetheless.
The larger issue of VA administrative and operating practices related to my hip surgery January last year has obviously taken a few twists and turns. It ultimately landed on the VA Director and Colorado Senator’s staff desks. I’m now freely using the term “criminal,” WRT my understanding of what transpired. Nobody involved has yet challenged one statement or assertion I have made, except to deny the source of it, in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Sound familiar? Once I realized what they were doing, it stopped being about just me. The personal hurt and insult is of course deep and raw. But that is overshadowed by the knowledge that this is just VA business as usual. I hope it doesn’t get any uglier before things are sorted. There’s a whole lot of people (~1% of the population?) with a current crop risking their lives around the world every day, deserving better.
Some central themes always seemed to carry across from one case to the next in the internal government investigations I was privy to: It’s pretty typical for someone to eventually crack. Dishonest and dumb people tread fearlessly on the dark side. Then when the hammer comes down, they spill the beans, crying like babies, begging for forgiveness. When we find out staff discussed the pre-determined course of my post-op treatment it will no longer be an HR issue. Not sure if the summons will come from the County or State, under these circumstances. U.S. District? I guess it depends on who we go after, and why. There are several options to choose from. We’ll see what the lawyers have to say…