I thought being an Army spouse would be a piece of cake. No problems. My father was in the military, my grandmother was in the military. Most important, I was in the Army, had spent 4 interesting years serving my country. Being a spouse would mean all the the benefits, but no field time. Yeah, more on the back story later.
At this point, the only association I have with post is for health care coverage. And even that will be out the door as soon as I can scrape up a job with health insurance.
Earlier this month I had an appt to see my regular doctor (yes, somehow I managed a regular doctor on this post) just to get a renewal on my same old perscriptions. No dose changes, nothing new, just renewals.
When I got to the clinic, I was told that my appt had been reschedualed. The doctor had called out that day, and my appt was reschedualed for another day.
First, I take the bus to get on post, involving 2 hours each way and 3 transfers. Second, I had to miss a day of school to make time to get to this appt. Third, they called me after I left for the day, left a message on the machine, and never actually talked to me to see when I wanted my appt moved to.
After I repeated all this for the third time, to the third layer of staff/management/rank, they decided they would find someone to see me, just to get me to shut up.
The doctor that saw me would not renew my percriptions. Said I had to see my regular doctor for that, but she did give me a 30 supply of pills for each perscription, just to tide me over. So nice of her.
So my appt was for next Tuesday. The clinic called me today, saying they had to reschedual my appt again..... I'm ready to scream. Don't they understand I don't just sit at home, I have to arrange time off to make these appts, that its not that easy to do?
3 comments:
Hi - I found you over at the former feminist military spouse site.
This *must* be a hassle for you. I can't imagine going from active duty to spouse. My ex-wife-in-law did it, but, as is evidenced by the fact that she is no longer married to my husband, it didn't work out so well for her.
One thing I learned right away - the military assumes that spouses are not working. They have access to the statistics that disprove this theory, but old assumptions die hard. It made me crazy at first, but now it kind of rolls off of me. I guess I got tired of being angry all the time.
And Tricare is a HUGE hassle. But you probably know that. I think it is worse for dependents (and I really hate that term, btw).
Anyway, good luck! How long have you been out?
It is a hassle. If I show any sign I know whats going on, take deployments in stride, not fuss over extended field time, people say "Oh, you must be used to it. How long has he been in?" Like I couldn't possibly have any military experiance that isn't directly related to my husband. Don't they notice the women walking around post in uniform?
I normally refer to myself as a veteran when I'm identifying myself, never as a spouse unless I have to (tricare). I've been out right at six years now.
I have never figured out why the Army does that, assume that we aren't working - who could survive on that pay! When our units were extended, since we are Guard our DEERS registration had to be extended, and our ID cards redone. Our idiot rear det folks decided to have the hours for getting these cards - between 8 and 3:30 M-F. We got that changed, but it took a lot of screaming and yelling at the right people (full bird or above). most of the wives wouldn't do it... me, I got nothing to lose, so I did a whole lot of it! Now that we are going Active... I'll still do it. the old man is used to it.
LAW
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