Stuff

Thinking back from the start of this fiasco, it all makes sense now – particularly the part where they start withholding pain med to help gauge your take-home prescription.  That is permanently seared into my memory.

It’s so easy to slip through the cracks.  I feel like I’ve been fighting a losing battle against the system all year and gotten to the point where just struggling through daily life and trying to deal with this at the same time has left  me so physically and mentally exhausted I’m ready to throw in the towel.  After seeing the KMS gatekeeper Dr. Knight Tuesday, we’ll do the EMG test, and see what they say about that.  I imagine it will be either inconclusive, or find some unrelated issue I don’t care about, like the carpal tunnel last time.  Guess what she said when I told her my pain was getting worse and definitely not chronic but acute?  “So this has been going on since January, huh – looks like it’s chronic now.”

Fortunately, the first real ray of hope since July came Thursday with Dr Thieman, my new PC out of Loveland.  I’m not a religious person, but by some miracle apparently, he was familiar with something at least similar to my issue and and is sending me to see a spine guy who might recognize it as well.

After the MRI finding was made back in June, I’d have let Brinkis get away with blaming it on me!  All he had to say was something like “…occasionally we see this in older patients with weakening structures due to disc degeneration, etc.  It’s not too serious, just takes a long time to heal, so now we need to…”  And that would have been the end of it.  This is starting to feel like an “innocent until proven guilty” proposition where nobody even wants to look at the evidence.  They are maintaining my toxic annular tear innocence at all cost.  Too bad I’m the one paying the bill.

Yeah, I definitely got crushed.  I’ll be going for a 3rd with my new PC next Thursday.

So the other Longmont spine doctor named Dr. Smith wanted to do some injections to isolate where the pain is coming from – after I told him.  Multiple times – along with a rehash of everything else for the umpteenth time.  I didn’t bother asking him to explain how making the pain go away with anesthetics and steroids would better help find it.  That just seemed a bit too insulting to both of us.  Ineffective and unnecessary diagnostics appear to be an important bottom-line booster.  Gerlach got x-rays.  This gentleman gets paid only for another useless office visit, despite trying to get more x-rays and some injections.  Seriously?  You could cut the diagnostically bereft dishonesty coming out of this guy’s mouth with a knife.

Seeing the overall healthcare picture from this perspective is disturbing.  It’s probably the biggest reason why I like the VA – they are certainly not in it for the money – but that engenders other issues.  In any event, apparently patients are not the best source of information about their maladies these days, regardless of who is writing their doctor’s paycheck.  My view of doctors is dimming at an alarming rate – probably normal for someone my age.  They are after all, just people.

And I have no problem with people making mistakes.  The problem comes when they don’t own up to it, followed by lies of deceit and omission.  This one particular mess of a therapeutic misadventure is now becoming clear.  They let little things slip from time-to-time.  Smith knows or at least knows of Park.  They also seem to know they have a problem, and it’s not my back injury.  Stalling probably works in most of these cases, just not this time.  This type of dishonesty appearing to be an acceptable course of action is stunning, to me.  How naive I must be.  Orthopedic surgery outcomes like this are a not uncommon occurrence, so they just try to ride it out, hoping the patient gets better?  How many more doctors do I need to tell I still haven’t recovered from the January surgery?  Next up:  MKS on the 1st.

Maybe I turn up with some morbid complication?  Depending on what turns up in other areas, they better hope I don’t need another surgery because of this.  If I find out they knew about it and were just trying to wait me out, I’m thinking max-dollar tort against the government.  That’s how it’s gonna go if we find some REAL bullshit going on.

The only thing I can prove right now is they knew about it for sure in June – if anybody was paying attention.  There’s strong indication in the record they should have known about it in January, right after the surgery.  Patients aren’t the only ones signing release forms.  Probably not even worth it after the state, feds, hospital and lawyers get their cut.  I’m sure there are legal time limits well-aligned with the delays.

The long slog through numerous failed attempts at getting my VA-Inflicted back injury treated was a foregone conclusion nobody was ever going to tell me about.  Of course my IRIS complaint inquiries were probably investigated, at least to some extent – none of the findings of which (if any) were ever communicated to me.  And thus the cover-up began in earnest at that time, with the following utterance:  “Dr. Park doesn’t work here anymore.”

Interesting.  I don’t recall ever asking if he did, or if I could see him again, because frankly it would have been a bit uncomfortable.  But that was the 1st thing Brinkis said to me as we walked into his exam room.  Scary to think, but it’s probably just a stock response to this sort of routine issue.  I kinda doubt suspected bad doctors just get fired and that’s the end of it.   Seems rather presumptuous to believe a stranger like me is really that stupid, but I guess that’s the preferred approach.   I was actually quite well impressed with Dr. Park, from what little interaction I had with him, and suspect the only thing he may be guilty of is inexperience.  Whether or not anyone actually knew or realized what happened to me that day became basically irrelevant once the systematic denial and mistreatment began shortly after the surgery.

So I’ll take a liberal tack and investigate the investigation starting with several FOIA requests.  I wonder if a smoking gun of malfeasance on my case turns up at the new Aurora VA facility.  What happened to me is incontrovertibly recorded in official VA medical records.  VA’s response to that information remains highly dubious.  Brinkis’ consult written for “lower back pain”  not “L4-5 annular tear”  was useless.  Under the circumstances, I presently believe everybody knows what the problem is – they just refuse to diagnose it, hoping I’ll get better and go away.  So referral to the outside providers was met with nothing but reference to chronic low back pain, despite my clear, detailed description of the symptoms not being chronic, with acute pain from that one, single spot.  All Gerlach did was improperly collect a co-pay and some x-ray fees, none of which was legitimate, because I don’t do copays, he did nothing, and the VA imaging I carried with me on a CD was higher resolution anyway.  He was just collecting money.

I’ll be trying to get a 2nd opinion with the bad consult on the 24th with a different spine doctor.  There will be no x-rays, or detailed diagnostic interview.  They will either order an L-4-5 discogram, or our visit will be quite awkward and brief.  Then, depending on that outcome, I will re-tell the whole story to a VA PT doctor once again on the 1st.  My new Primary Care Provider was initially scheduled for the 27th.  They got sick, then see below.  That would have happened yesterday, but they had to reschedule due to an administrative SNAFU.  For me at least, it’s gotten to a point with the VA, to where I just expect delay and screw-ups.  All I ever wanted was to know what happened and get my back fixed.  This is what I am dealing with in terms of VA scheduling:

I’m pretty sure somebody will eventually end up going in there to clean it up, because it’s in the 3rd or 4th different stage of whatever it’s doing and definitely getting worse – “festering” would be the layman’s term.  Only questions are how to find an interested Dr. and how much further damage ensues over this lengthy course of mistreatment.  Starting to look like all of 2019 is down the proverbial tubes for me.

(Late Update 09/19) Almost on cue, I got a call from the Loveland Clinic this afternoon to re-schedule yet again.  Story was, Denver input the PC change wrong.  So they re-scheduled the appointment with the wrong doctor last week, then fixed that yesterday and re-scheduled again – each time getting further away. LATE UPDATE 20231220: Upon review, I am now certainly convinced they knew exactly what was going on – just performing the cover-up.