You may remember Michael back when Michael had a toothache which started on March 9th and the VA couldn't get him in until March 21st. Then he tested positive for Covid on the 18th and couldn't be seen. The urgent care gave him meds and told him to be seen in 5 days. The VA wouldn't see him for 14 days. By that point the antibiotics had tamed the pain and they decided they didn't need to do anything urgent, they would write a referral for him to be seen by a specialist off base.
We waited. We were never called from the civilian dentist.
Michael's tooth began to hurt again on Saturday, the 16th of April. Of course, he had to wait until Monday to call and then he discovered they HAD NOT SUBMITTED THE REFERRAL. WHUT? At this point he'd already had sleepless nights with ice and round the clock Tylenol and Ibuprofen.
He couldn't be seen until the civilian dentist got the referral - he finally drove to Anchorage Thursday 21 April to see the civilian specialist only to find....
"Oops, we can't deal with this. It's bad enough it simply needs to be pulled now."
Michael stopped in at the VA clinic and they are submitting another referral - this one to an oral surgeon. He just got a call (Friday, 22 April) to go to the local hospital on MAY 3rd for a consult with the oral surgeon and will schedule the extraction after that appointment.
This is Michael on anti-biotics and OxyContin....still in pain...7 days later...I am not sure who to speak to, but this is simply a local fail of the VA dental clinic. I do note the VA clinic offers no help other than, "Suck it up, we can see you in 3 weeks," while both times it's been civilian practitioners that give him antibiotics and this time even pain meds.
I totally understand the bad timing of the tooth and covid. BUT if the VA had submitted the referral the end of March this would have been dealt with already and Michael wouldn't have had the past week of pain....maybe they would have saved the tooth, maybe not.
AND WHY does every referral go to Anchorage when we don't LIVE in Anchorage?????