Spent the morning at the VA hospital. No, nothing wrong, I mean nothing other than the dozen or so regular things. I was giving them body stuff for the long term study on Agent Orange affects on the troops. I did get a little concerned when the blood collector took out 7 large vials to take blood samples. Yes, she filled each and every one of them. I did notice all the old guys had caps on with their branch of service and wars displayed on them.
They have a little store there that sell all sorts of patriotic stuff. Maybe I can get one there.
It did remind me as to why I have avoided the VA lo these past 40+ years. It is very "Military". My wife went with me. No not to give me support and help. She went with me to make sure I actually got there, and then staid there and didn't walk out after the first encounter with....whatever...
It did seem as though for a place full of "infirm" hobbling old dudes everything was a long way from every other thing there. I worked out a hypothesis that what they were doing was testing to see if the patient could actually be helped or not. If the patient could make it around to all those places then they were healthy enough to be cured. If they couldn't make it then why bother with, them they were hopeless any way. I could be wrong.
Every time I got through with a specific clinic they would say, "Thank you for your service to your country". I actually heard that said more times today at the VA than I have heard it said to me otherwise in my entire life.
However, I don't really believe there was much fervor as they said it. Do you think they might be required to say that? It was sort of like the big sign over the front door that said, "Welcome American Heroes".
Yeah, right.
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Reality and Medical Thought: Before I was diagnosed with type II diabetes I had a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 30.1 which is at the fat to obese boundary. Ten years later having pretty much followed "the rules" I have a BMI of 47. My people at the VA tell me that if I could lower my BMI to the low 30's range I possibly could get rid of my diabetes. Once you have the effect they assume a standard cause. Neat huh?
So like a good citizen I was giving the VA Agent Orange group my blood and stuff to test etc.. What was strange is that they wanted to tell me what I was doing wrong and how to fix it even though I wasn't there as their patient.
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