My journey to Hell and Back.

Today I saw what hell must be like. Mom and I took a little trip to St. Louis, MO which is only about twenty minutes from our home in Illinois. She has all her medical needs taken care of by the veterans affairs hospital so when she has an appointment we pile in the car and take off for horrible traffic and a possible carjacking (last part is really only in E St. Louis). I truly do love this city. It is beautiful and has tons to offers every type of person. The VA is just not my favorite place. Hospitals to begin with leave be wanting to run my nails down a chalk board for relief but if it is a VA hospital I add broken glass under bare feet to this little analogy.

My hatred for the VA is really the fault of the Overton Brooks VA in Shreveport, LA. Mom had a knee replacement surgery there that resulted in a staph infection so horrendous that they thought she would most likely die if not loose her leg. She did neither, what a trooper. So after the infection is cleared up, she realizes her knee feels arthritic. You cannot have arthritis in a plastic knee. We go back to find out that the doctor from the first surgery never removed the knee cap but rather just put the prosthesis over it. Brilliant! Really not all his fault since during the infection three different doctors opened up her knee again and never seemed to see anything alarming. Our nations hero's and they get medical care that makes what third world countries get look like gold.

Back to today's' hell. We were supposed to be there for a total of thirty minutes. Rory and I sat in waiting room no. 1 for an hour and a half. Teething, being woken up too early, and waiting do not make toddler happy. Poor kid whined and fussed the whole time. Bless his heart he tried to be good but he was just not feeling the day's agenda. I asked a Doctor so go back and see how much longer we had to wait for mom to be done. Seemed to work since she was out in less than 10 minutes after. They had sent her to see the Doctor and then the nurse practitioner so that each could talk to her about diabetics and healthy eating. My mother is 5o something years old. This is not a new diagnosis. She was a nurse in the navy. She is one of he most brilliant people I know. She she does not know that eating a large bowl of sugar cereal is bad for her then she needs to quit now. BTW she will still eat that cereal at 3 a.m. if she is hungry and that is all there is available.

Well I see mom and think "Joy! The nightmare is over." not quite. NOW we have to got to the pharmacy and then up to lab. I think in this moment I felt my hands curl tightly around an invisible neck. Mom suggested I take Rory out to the car. Sounded good in theory but turns out was a very nasty idea. It is hot and humid and the van does not like to idle. Besides we sat out there another hour and even a brand new car would have died after that long. I threw more quarters in the evil parking meter and marched myself and Rory back through the gates past Cerberus ( three headed dog in hades) and met mom in the lobby. She was coming to tell me that she still had to wait for her RX to be filled. I have a bald spot where I ripped some hair out.

Mom said she would have been out sooner but she is deaf and the man who calls the numbers yells from his office down the hall. She missed her number and waited an extra 30 minutes before barging in front of someone else. We did not get to head home until noon. My son cried the entire 3 1/2 hours we spent at the VA. Mom has decided in the future she will make these little trips alone. Rory and I thank her dearly.