[ajspine]

Hey Mark,
Thanks for the reply. I guess there aren't too many Vets on this board. I am active on another Board, HadIt.com, as in "We have HAD IT", it is a forum for Vets. But it is not specifically spine related as this one is.
Update: After Our conversation the other evening, the VA Medical Center's Patient Advocate gave me a call. He took down all of my information, looked up my records and forwarded everything to the VAMC's Chief of Staff for review. The Chief is my Dr's boss and the ONLY Dr that can fill meds for me while my Dr. is out sick or on Vaca. He asked me to please come to the VAMC Yesterday morning to meet with him and the Chief of Staff. This is a 2.5 hour drive, one way, and my pain is NOT controlled right now. We went but he had forgotten to tell me where to check in. So the front checkin desk told me to go to the ER.
This is where the degradation began. The nurse did not listen to me the first time and walked right out side my room to speak to the Dr. that didn't have the Balls to come and see me herself. he comes back and states that my meds were mailed out the day before. I told him again I was here for a med change and to see the Chief of staff, he walks out and I can hear the Dr talking, back in he comes to offer to admit me and give me a shot of Toradol and that no one can fill any meds for me because I am in a pain contract with my Dr. I asked him why the shot? And repeated again who I was there to see.
Finally they listen(or I made them angry) and make me ride in a wheel chair up the 5th floor Patient Advocates office and he was expecting me. The looks of disgust I received from the ER Staff had me in tears.
My patient advocate is amazing, he was already on the phone with the Chief of Staff and they asked me a few questions. 5 minutes later the Chief entered in enough of the pain medicine I was previously on(the one that actually works for me) to last a week, until my Dr. comes back from Vaca and called my Drs office set up an appointment for me at 2pm on Monday.
The VA Has put me through hell the past 12 days. I have had to take an incomplete in one of my Grad school courses due to this treatment. I have another phone appointment with the Patient Advocate today to make sure that my Fee Basis request for outside Pain and Rehab Medicine is approved and to talk with him about my letter to my Congressman. I should not have had to go all the way to the Chief of Staff for my pain medication, nor should I have had to make a 5 hour trip in order to fill it when there is a VA Pharmacy right here in the town I live. I am fed up and will be sharing this story with every Vet I know and if they have been through the same thing then we need to stand together and demand to be treated as individual cases and not disregarded because of a new Pain pill policy.
I apologize for the rant and I know that most everyone on here has their share of trouble when trying to get the medication they need in order to actually live their lives. We must stop letting the DEA act like they are the Medical Doctors of this country.

AJ