My Ordeal

Ok back in May hubbs was denied orders because I am supposedly sick. A lot of phonecalls, faxes, doctors appointments and scrambling later we managed to get me cleared by the hospital in Japan. This was all due to a misdiagnosis. On May 21st I was cleared and hubbs applied for orders. At the end of June/beginning of July he received orders to Japan. WOOHOOO!!! Now that is the back story. Here is where it gets fun.

We went on vacation in the middle of June. He did not have “hard” orders when we left but I made the docs appointment anyway for overseas screening. When we got back my screening was the next Wednesday, June 27th and we had until Friday July 13th to get everything complete. And so it begins.

Go in on the 27th and this lady who has been a pain to me for months acts like she is God as far as my screening is concerned and then proceeds to tell me she can’t do anything because we are Navy. This lady is the EFMP coordinator at a JOINT command yet she acts like she does not have reason to help Navy family members. No big deal, the doc signs and coordinator gives the almighty stamp. I argue with both about tests I KNOW I need done and they tell me no. Thursday I learn an important paper was left out. I call the EFMP coordinator. She is not in, she does not work on Fridays and screenings are only on Wednesday which is July 4th. I schedule the screening for Wednesday July 11th, just in case. I also scheduled my own tests because no one would listen. I continue calling Friday, Monday and Tuesday and got nowhere. I talked to the coordinator’s supervisor a few times and that did not help either. Thursday, I got frustrated and went down to the hospital. The nurses there had seen me quite a bit since May when all this started. I told them my latest issue. One of them helped set me up with my tests and the shots I needed to get. They could not get anything done about the screening; it was just one headache after another. Friday they had me get one test. Monday I went back and had it read. Tuesday I had a health exam. Wednesday I had the screening. Now mind you the hospital in Japan has accepted me so this is mostly a formality. The doctor does not feel comfortable signing off on some things and I think “ok I can respect that.” He was confused by the wording as he had never seen the form before. This was at 8 or 9AM. He did not however tell me that he had not checked whether or not I am suitable for overseas. I found that on my own at 6PM! If I had not looked at it, I would have sent in the paperwork incomplete. I took it back to the hospital, first thing in the morning with some further supporting evidence, most importantly documentation that the gaining hospital had accepted me. That was not enough so I went back later with further documentation that afternoon. I was told come back in the morning for the paperwork. Friday morning I returned around 10:30AM. My paperwork still was not completed and I was asked to not return until I had been called. I guess my camping out for the last 9 business days was not appreciated by him, the nurses and I got along fine. At this point I had also contacted Navy Personnel in Charleston, SC and Tennessee and had been given the distinct impression that this was the doctor being overcautious or overzealous. At 2PM on Friday I received a call that it had been completed. I picked it up and we now believe it is all complete, hopefully the sage will not continue.