I am a service connected disabled veteran receiving care at the Veteran Administration Medical Center in San Francisco. I have received years of physical therapy and have regained most of my physical functionality. But this Diary is not about physical impairments, it is about a much more persuasive thing that is swept under the carpet, the dirty little secret that no one talks about, I am writing about Psycho-Social issues and recovery brought on by military service!
I just attended Day two of the PRRC program, and want to share some of what happened there, the good the bad and the ugly. This is a Diary written in the first person, from a real person, and discusses my unique view of the world! Please note that I am VERY Thankful to be able to take part in this program, my issues are more with the VAMC being turned into a Teaching Institution and the Continuity of Care and Quality of Care going DRAMATICALLY down hill!
You can learn about the PRRC Program here http://www.sanfrancisco.va.gov/...
It's a tortoise life for me - Author Unknown.
o If walking/Cycling is good for your health, the Postman would be immortal!
o A whale swims all day, only eats fish nd still is fat!
o A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years
* A tortoise doesn't run and does nothing, yet it lives for 450 years!
Its a tortoise life for me!
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That came to mind today as I sat in a PRRC class where the facilitator was dishing out his wisdom to the group attendees, in absolutes and platitudes. I finally nearly threw-up when he said, "do you know what insanity is?” ARG! Dude you need new material! (I thought!)
Finally he got to me,his was my first time in the group, but that did not stop him form bestowing upon me his platitude that he wished for me, which was that he wished I would be able to us my past experiences as sign posts for future growth and achievements. ARG! I had had enough!
I said that I certainly hoped that I was not dumb enough to let my past limit my future, and I hope that I was strong enough to grow past the limitations of events of the my past and I prayed that I was so blessed that I could be to be more than a collection of the events and experiences that have happened to me.
I explained to this platitude spewing facilitator who wanted more to tell his own story than to listen to ours, that I was not going to allow the events of my past to limit how high I could soar, or how far I could run, or what I could achieve.
I explain to the loser that there was far more to me than a collection of my past achievements and events I had survived, and as far as I was concerned my past was nothing but memory, and in some cases mistakes that I knew not to make again, or doors I now knew should not even be opened! I explained to him living life with a eye on the past did nothing but limit one's future, to dream BIG like I want to one has to be willing to let go of all the things that hold one back, like the past, and just take that leap of faith, and dream SO BIG that it takes a MIRACLE FROM GOD to achieve it, that was the kind of life I was wishing for!
He became all flustered and back peddled at that point, and the other facilitator jumped i to say "what he meant to say was..." Yeah right is all I could think, what he meant to say was what he said, or he would not have said it! Geez this is the end of the quarter and his dude is making newbie mistakes, sitting there in his white lab coat and spewing forth wisdom and platitudes that he has no connection to or with, and which have no meaning to him. He means to sow comfort and hope with his empty platitudes, but is so stupid he doesn't even realize the harm he is doing forcing people to have to listen him spew forth his story, instead of spending OUR VALUABLE group time practicing active listening and having the group participants she THEIR stories!
This is what one has to endure when one is in a TEACH Facility, which the San Francisco VAMC has become when it joined wit UCSF Medical Center. When this merger happened Vets suddenly became lab rats for Medical Students. Instead of getting good quality care the Vets deserve they now have to be pawed over by medical students that have no real world experience and expect the VETS to teach them their chosen career! This is TOTALLY UNFAIR to the Vets, who have no choice BUT to go to the VAMC if they live within 50 miles of it! A Civilian at least can chose NOT to go to a Teaching Hospital if they so desire, but for Vets there is no choice but to be a lab rat for these frigging Medical Students!
Now being tied to a Medical Schol, unfortunately the VAMC also became care has become “quarter based” with new students coming in every Quarter, and the Good Ones leave to replaced with DUDS!. And for the next 6 weeks after the start of a new Quarter the Vets are forced to give their histories all over again, and basically go back to square one!
I can assure you this had a huge impact on me in my Physical Therapy where I basically every 3 months HAD TO TEACH A NEW STUDENT WHAT I HAD TO DO! There was no progress made during these learning time, because they were clueless what needed to be done, stretched, worked or encouraged! After about 6 weeks we finally got up to steam, for about 6 weeks till the quarter ENDED progress could be made, AND THEN the quarter would end, and a new student would arrive and I would start all over! Over the next 6 weeks I watched any progress gained evaporate!
There is NO CONTINUITY of care, in this School Quarter driven system that now is more interested in making sure the “Class opportunities exist” for students rather than the therapeutic needs of the Disabled Vets!
When I got to PRRC and saw how well set up it was, all the classes they had, I thought I was finally off the roller coaster that is the VAMC-San Francisco, only to find ut all the classes and groups would be changing 1 January with the start of the new quarter.
The nice thing is that the platitude spewing jerk that I had today will be gone in a couple of weeks, only to be replaced by someone even worse, I AM SURE. One learns in the VAMC System that one has to be one’s OWN ADVOCATE, and one has to make a stick to get a good quality of care. You have to FIRE a lot of interns and Residents before you find a good one! I fear for the Community and the standard of Medical Care having seen “so many of the rising stars” … There are a ot of incompetent, pot smoking, stoners studying to be doctors. And remember I am seeing the CREAM OF THE CROP, UCSF is a nationally ranked Medical School, and I have seen Surgical Students smoking Crystal Meth in the Hospital Parking lot!
I certainly hope that I am correct that they send the worst of the worst to the VAMC to learn, because if the Crystal Smoking Surgical Resident is the Best of the Best, we all need to be VERY Afraid! We should also be asking why Surgical Students ARE NOT DRUG TESTED! If you get surgery done at VAMC I would make sure your Student Surgeon is SOBER at the time!
And if he is the Worst of the Worst, as I suspect, one has to ask why are Vets being given such substandard care, and why has the VAMC become the dumping ground of the UCSF Medical School, don’t our injured Veterans DESERVE BETTER?
9:09 PM PT: I have been doing so into Drug testing of students at UCSF, so taken was I about seeing the Intens in the Parking lot passing the glass pipe! Seems that if you are in sports you get tested, but Medical Students, students dealing with human lives in their hands DO NOT GET TESTED!
So to catch a Pig Skin filled with Air you HAVE TO BE SOBER, but to assist in open heart surgery you can be high on Meth! Awesome! I do feel so much better about my care at the hands of UCSF Medical Students! Suspected Drug Use was probably the reason these students were transferred out to the VA anyways!
Really, no one sees a problem with this?