OK I'm Pissed

My husband has been trying for nearly a month to schedule an appointment for a consult. Last time he went out to Womack he was seen in the Pain Clinic. They entered consults for him to have an MRI on his back (long-term problems there) and another exam that he never had after coming back from Iraq. He was able to get the appointment for his MRI scheduled without many problems. However, the other consult has been a different story.

He's been trying since July 5th to get his consult appointment scheduled. He called the front desk of the clinic he has to go through, and they told him there's a specific line he has to call for it. So he's been calling it, getting only an answering machine. He's left numerous messages and nobody has ever called him back. His goal was to be able to get that consult done the same time he had his MRI, which was yesterday, the 25th. When he wasn't able to get anybody on the phone, I advised him to actually walk into the clinic where he has to have the consult done to see if he can schedule the appointment by talking to somebody face to face. It's kind of hard for them to ignore somebody that way. Well, by the time he was finished with the MRI, he was hurting pretty badly (had to lie on his back perfectly still on a board for about 45 minutes), so didn't go by the other clinic. I can't say that I really blame him.

So today he decided to try to get in touch with the other clinic again. He called, got the answering machine, hung up, and tried again. I guess he did this for about a half hour. FINALLY, an actual person answered. The hubby let him know exactly what he thought about the fact that he'd been trying for three weeks to make this appointment, and that he would not be hanging up the phone until he got his appointment.

He got his appointment. The date? September 5th.

That's just bullshit. If somebody had answered the freakin' phone when he tried to call three weeks ago, he'd have probably been able to get an appointment much sooner. I'm beyond pissed!

I'm sorry, but it just pisses me off that this is the kind of "care" that our servicemembers receive here. I can honestly say that this is the worst care my husband has had since he's been on active duty. Maybe it's because he's in Recruiting and they don't have their own unit PA. I know that's what he's used to. And the even scarier thing is that once they're no longer active duty, it only gets better (much sarcasm here).

I'm so frustrated for him...although I know my frustration doesn't come anywhere near matching his. Not knowing what exactly the future is going to hold for us (depending on the medical stuff) is pretty scary. I'm trying not to worry, because I believe that things will work out the way they're supposed to, but the insecurity where that's concerned is disturbing.