This morning I made it only an hour at work before having to tell my boss that I just didn’t feel well enough to make it the rest of the day. Over night I traveled in bed through alternating waves of chills, fever and being bathed in sweat. I slept most of the morning after getting back from work. I feel somewhat better at the moment.
Looking back, I feel I must have been sick yesterday to not rant about my latest skirmish in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ personal war against me. Going through a particularly rough financial spot — even more than normal — lately I had expected yesterday a mileage reimbursement check to appear in my account electronically. That happened but the amount was slightly less than half the amount I had anticipated.
It didn’t take long to determine that the scum-sucking VA hospital in Dallas had — without any warning whatsoever — my federal reimbursement offset (a euphemism for garnished). Other than this being quite disturbing it became even more infuriating because I knew the VA hospital in Dallas and I had reached an agreement over the money I had owed them for co-payments that I should not have been paid for to begin with. After a short time I had talked with VA people from both Dallas and their outsource billing office in Kansas. Both had no idea why I had money stolen from me by the VA.
After all these years of realizing that life isn’t fair, it still rankles me that the VA can all of a sudden without warning and no reason take my money. But I just bet when they straighten all of this out, it will take them much, much longer to give me my money back.
I still don’t know what I will do. I mean, I know I will be eventually repaid by the VA but something needs to be done to stop the VA from continuing to steal money from veterans who need to live. And I am not the kind just to sit back and put up with such stupidity.