Okay, I'm an American, born and raised. I'm also a major Patriot. I get my patriotism from those years that I stood by my husband's side while he went away on "field ops", on his six month deployment, or over in Iraq. I was always patriotic before being with him, but became a true patriot when I married him.
I remember, when Josh was in Iraq, I took on a second job at Barnes and Noble just to keep my mind occupied while he was gone. This was at the very beginning of the war and I worked at a Barnes and Noble by the mall. One night, one of the guys I worked with said "Hey, Erin. My wife and I are going to picit the protestors, care to join us?". I very cooly said "No thanks." When he asked why I told him, "my husband and his men are fighting for our freedoms right now, one of them being freedom of speech, so I'm not going to take away someone's freedome of speech." The guy, as I remembered it, was taken aback by my words.
When my husband was discharged, they did a medical evaluation before he separated from the service, and found him to be rated 40% disabled. He has various things wrong with him, but the biggest of all is his back (which he was only rated 20% disabled for). He has five degenterive disks, three hurniated disks, a buldging disk, and a torn spinal sack. To say his back is messed up is an understatement.
Josh can be fine for months, then, out of nowhere, he steps the wrong way, and is down for the count for at least two weeks. No joke. He can barely move to get into bed, and it pains him beyond anything to help with the kids and do meanial things.
A recent bout of this came like a month ago. Josh was playing basketball, stepped, and tweeked it to where he could barely walk. FINALLY, after begging with him to go to the VA several times, he decided to go.
Not that it mattered.
He couldn't stand straight, nor sit straight, but what did the VA Hospital do? They gave him a heating pad and told him that they could see him in May. Like WTH? Josh was in pain then, excrutiating pain. So, instead of covering medication for a military related disability, the VA sent Josh on his way with a heating pad and told him to come back in May. Of course, Josh couldn't wait that long, so he had to dish out over $100 for a doctor's visit and three different medications from his primary doctor.
Bottom line - the VA Hospital SUCKS. You would think that they take care of their own, but, by their actions to Josh this past February, they couldn't care less what he did for this country. Such a sad thing to second-hand witness. A sad thing that the VA Hospital represents vets at all.
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