My name is John in Columbus OH. I have been diagnosed with Carcino Sarcoma by
the local VA Outpatient (Quackhouse) Clinic here in Columbus OH. I refer to
them as quacks simply because my treatment plan consists of missing many days
from work without pay, an enduring and uncaring attitude about my current
financial and occupational status, and just an overall level of mistrust.

Below is a recent event in getting adequate treatment. While I await such
adequate treatment, if that is plausible for the uninsured, I am quasi-addicted
to 800mg Ibuprofen to relieve pain. Maybe soemone out there can help give me
support. Hopefully, they will be a good friend, possibly in Ohio or the
Columbus metro area.

I have one glimmer of hope--the VA Medical Center in Huntington WV. Maybe a
3-1/2 hour trip to get treatment will be worth my time and effort.

Thank you,

John

*************
My swan song with a screeching violin:

I must work all the hours I can. My present employer during the daytime hours
does not compensate me for lost wages for personal leave. Also, with my tight
budget and lack of gainful employment, I cannot afford to lose time on this
particular job that I have Monday through Friday.
My performance on this particular seasonal job will be a benchmark for future
considerations as I try to gravitate to a better paying more gainful job
hopefully with medical benefits. My goal is to be on some insurance plan, but
for now I am thankful for the VA. However, I experience contention when medical
issues are in serious conflict with me emerging out of professional maladies of
the past. I do not feel for a moment the VA wants to cooperate at all with my
tight schedule.

I received a call from her mental health nurse, "Jeane", on Friday morning. I
am truly thankful that there is such concern for my medical and mental health
concerning the Carcino Sarcoma issue. But what the VA fails to fully understand
is the financial rock and hard place that I am caught in by losing an entire
day's wages that would be found in sending me for an Oncology consultation of 15
minutes in Cincinnati.

The trip to Cincinnati is at best two hours each direction accomodating for
local traffic issues and urban driving The consultation is 15minutes. That is
four hours total time. To really and pragmatically account for the entire trip,
including bureaucratic waiting and malingering indigenous to the VA (admit it,
in government it happens! - I have bee around it all my life with my father's
military service) we are looking at 5 to 7 hours.

Little does the Chalmers Wylie VAOC realize but that is an entire day's pay
for me that is not recompensated through a personal leave benefit the federal
and military workers receive. As well, I do not receive any subsistence or
financial compensation from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

What's more, the Columbus metropolitan area holds several oncology related
clinics, including the prestigious James Cancer Clinic at University Hospitals.
Many of my fellow veterans and taxpaying citizens cannot figure why the VAOC
cannot send me somewhere locally so I do not lose an entire day's pay. My
instinct tells me service connected veterans can go there but non service
connected veterans connected.

Service connected veterans almost always receive a monthly benefit check from
the VA. Non service connected veterans, like myself, do not receive such
compensation. I am just trying find some financial and bureacratic balance
with my medical issues and right now the VA has no understanding that I do not
receive personal leave pay for being off work.

That loss of income affects my ability to meet cost of living expenses,
maintain a budget, and have some discretionary income. But does the VA really
care? No--or the VA would find a way to resolve this problem without the risk
of me losing income or possibly my job. Losing a job definitely makes anyone
unhappy, thereby triggering mental health problems and then possibly more
bureaucratic pressue of the VA from the patient.

If I was working a second shift job I would go to Cincinnati job in a
heartbeat to get this addressed. However, I really want this carcino sarcoma
removed as soon as possible. Four months have expired, five biopsies, and
three dermatologists are all encompassed on this 1/4" red sore with fungal
matter.

Nurse Jeane in Mental Health wanted me to come in Friday afternoon. To be
honest, I do not trust the VA much since the last two past visits to the
Chalmers Wylie Clinic proved to be disasterous: (1) waiting 45 minutes for an
8:15 appointment in Dermatology in early February and (2) not being properly
consulted about having radioactive isotopes injected into my body for CT scan.
Yes, the dermatologist, Dr. Chen informed me of the CT Scan. But it would have
made professional sense that someone sit down with me about what a CT Scan
encompasses

I do want to work with the VA in a cooperative manner. However, I cannot
afford the loss of an entire day's pay and run the risk of being terminated for
this reason. I am trying to bounce back from the engrossing malady of over five
dozen different jobs spanning over two decades of civillian life. Please meet
me halfway at some point by providing some treatment services more congruent and
more local to my residence so I do not entail economic and professional losses.

There has to be a better way the VA can be patient friendly rather than
manifesting a dictatorial, royal red bureaucratic image.

Thank you,

John Rovenolt



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