VA

I've always been suspicious of the stories coming out of the Arizona Veterans Hospital because I have been so well treated by our Lee County, Miami and St. Pete VA. Since they have opened the new Outpatient Clinic in Cape Coral/North Fort Myers, I feel even better served.

 During the off-season months it is possible to get an appointment within days but in-season the available appointments are far apart. When you drive through the expansive parking lot in front of the nearly new, huge OPC the reasons for the difficulties are evident.

Every other auto has out-of-state plates and these snowbirds vets show up and slow up Florida and Arizona facilities. They have every right to be here and get care but why they bitch so much about wait times is ironical. It is self-evident that older men are cranks. Some younger ones, too but a lot of that is PTSD related.

What do I mean by 'cranks'? Some people are cranky all the times and a little paranoid, too. They feel that they are treated unfairly and sometimes we all are but they take it harder and louder than most. Just the other day I was waiting on an appointment when a young vet began speaking loudly and extremely negatively about the employees of the VA.

He didn't swear and I think he had a viable point about some employee who had gone to lunch just before his time even though she should have known he was waiting. Since the young vet (35?) had a service dog with him I assumed that it was for psychological reasons. I was willing to give him a pass because he really wasn't nearly as outspoken as I've seen and heard in the Miami Hospital.

Obviously there were others who objected in fact two elderly women and an elderly man told him to keep it to himself. I don't know who called them but two VA cops quickly showed up, the young vet had already calmed down. I suspect it was the clerks who must have direct lines to the police. In Miami, no one would have even turned around.

That is why I prefer the Miami Hospital, that and their private rooms and pretty young Puerto Rican nurses. If a young woman gets hired in any VA facility she can transfer to any other facility without passing state licenses. Miami is a favorite which shouldn't surprise anyone.

In the Miami VA hospital there is noise and strife and laughter and wonderment. Over the year that I was in and out of that hospital, I got to practice Spanish and made a lot of friends. My wife OWNED the place. Every morning no matter how many tubes and IV's were hanging off me, the smiling nurses would cheerfully ask me, ”Where is your wife or how's your wife?”

“Oh, they don't wake them up at 5:30 in the morning at the free to Hospitalized veterans families, lap-of-luxury, 4 star Fisher House right next door. They wait until the gourmet Brazilian coffee is perked and the fresh fruit and bagels are delivered,” I would say truthfully. “This afternoon they are having a catered luncheon sponsored by the Miami Dolphin's Football Team.” In other words, if you want to see her, be here between 10:30 and 11am. LOL.

Al kidding asides, I've been treated well in the majority of cases because I've suppressed my grouchy inner self and smiled and said thank you. Mostly because how quickly my wife makes friends out of the most overworked people!