Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Careful Review (Life After The Army)

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted an update. Not a lot has happened in regards to the army or the VA. I’ve been living my normal civilian life and loving it. I really like my job, I do I.T. work all day everyday. I also enjoy the fact now that it’s getting a little colder outside I can decide if I want to wear a sweatshirt, long sleeves or even a coat if I want. I don’t have to stand around in a stupid morning formation freezing my ass off in shorts and a t-shirt because some NCO decides it’s not really cold enough to wear winter PTs yet.

About my health not a lot has changed. I’m still in pain almost every single day to some degree and I’m popping pills daily. A little over a month ago I asked my VA doctor if he could write a referral to a local massage therapy establishment so I could use my civilian insurance and start utilizing their services. My VA doctor said they do not do massage therapy referrals, but they would write up a referral for chiropractic care. I was already going to the chiropractor on my own, but I gave them my chiropractor’s information and didn’t think too much about it.

It turned out that I didn’t need a referral from my doctor to use my civilian insurance for the massage therapy. So I have been getting a massage once a week and going to the chiropractor twice a month. I totally forgot about the my VA doctor’s referral until I received a letter in the mail from the VA. The letter stated that after “careful consideration” they have rejected my VA doctor’s referral for chiropractic care. The reason…because I’m still active duty. LOL. That is some “careful review” from the VA. I’ve been out of the army for 5 months! I then sent my local VA doctor an email letting him know about the letter and stating that it seems as if the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. The local VA clinic said that I need to call the VA to get it all straightened out…I think not, I didn’t even ask for the referral for chiropractic in the first place. It doesn’t really matter because I’m using my civilian insurance, but it just makes me glad that I don’t have to depend on the VA for much. In truth I try to stay away from the VA as much as possible. Dealing with them is similar to dealing with the army…so much paperwork and so little common sense.

When I think back now about my time in the army from a professional and technical standpoint, I see that I really fell behind. When I joined, all my peers in the I.T. industry kept moving ahead, while I actually moved backwards. With technology, you have to be hands on and in the middle of all the ever changing trends. When I got out of the army and started my civilian I.T. job, I had to do quite a bit of catch up in order to get back up to speed. It’s been about 5 months now and I’m finally feeling like my head is above water. Instead of hitting the ground running, I had to crawl for a while, but I’m getting back up to speed slowly. Luckily I landed a good job with a great company.