mistakes that let everyone know youre a rookie

No.

Ex went to a walk in clinic locally tied to the regional hospital as a Vet. They laughed off her card and billed her retail billing from doc, tests, lab, and supplies to determine if she caught H1N1 or anything else after I went to ER that week.

I just finished paying about 400 dollars cash to her to cover her medical billing from that incident at the walk in. There is absolutely no protection or shelter for her VA card. She is IN the Priority One Pool which means within the System she should be allowed to go anywhere and show her VA card and Uncle Sam will take care of it.

It mirrors the last time we tried private care in the UAMS about 15 years ago. They billed 2000 dollars for a 40 minute visit with a specialist that the VA did not have for women. We managed to wrestle with the UAMS and the VA Billing Office in three locations for 18 months until Uncle Sam paid that one. It was a traumatic experience for the two of us even though we were prepared topay.

Never again in this life time. Talked with the ex and we agreed solid that if ANYTHING happens at all to her, I drive her to the VA ER and let them determine whats what. Shes already got everything on file there. DNR, advanced directives and so on. The VA in little rock has been absolutely free. And her lifetime care so far including particularly cancer chemo etc has exceed about two million to day. Her quality of life is pretty good considering. But she is one damaged Marine Sgt. In time the VA will have to do more for her when that time comes.

And thats a pernament decision.

 

Sorry to laugh, but it reminds me of this commercial.



(Plot twist: he's actually an amazing yet unconventional surgeon, if I've learned nothing else from Hollywood medical dramas.)

 

I had the wrong physical therapist!

 

We had a wonderful doc in the VA for a time. What do they do? Ship him to Cleveland VA where it's a tougher hospital in a bad city.

The sunshine went with this one when he left. The staff on that floor got kinda bad. It's easier to try and pet a mountain lion with a mean deposition than to deal with the staff.

One doctor however She made the mistake of crossing a line with my spouse. We were there to fix something or other medically and the doc was on the spot for that. Suddenly Religion entered the room in a hostile manner for one reason or another. And within a couple of minutes we visited the patient advocate and told him to find another doctor who will take care of the booboo without verbal religious hostility. Most all doctors normally take care of me and ex without a hint of religous issues even though it may be painfully clear that they are NOT the same belief system while doing it. Its all about medicine. And I liked them for the care they would provide. Good doctors. But you can bet if we were outside in public or visiting, the situation would be impossible outside of medical parameters.

One surgeon. I remember him. He irritated me one day. Nothing bad. Just barked one very simple sentance question that any 6 year old would understand yes or no?

WTF! I started that slow fuse burn, he smiled and said listen here carefully. Save that. I already know all these things you explained. Your answer helped very much thank you. Such a air of insufferable superiority. Almost a God complex.

It took some time before that slow burn eased. Ultimately he did a excellent job in surgery and I suppose I am thankful for his skill. But man, it must be a weight on his shoulders to go around with that complex.

I am to this day amazed how he was able to reduce a encyclopedia of medical boilerplate knowledge to a 6 year old format question for a yes or no. He has a gift that one.

 

the yard was covered in ice and snow and I was running late to work so a coworker hooked my tractor up.
I tugged on the 5th wheel, it felt good
so i exited the yard, made a left turn, drove about 1/2 mile, made another left turn, stopped at the red light. As i hit the first gear shift and go to accelerate....yep...the fully loaded trailer falls off the 5th wheel and lands in the right lane. It took me 15 minutes to crank the trailer up on low, high enough to back under.
The only damage was to my ego!

 

I always tug my trailers, even allowing the lockers to dig 1/3 of a spin on all 4 drives.

I lost a trailer once on the tydings bridge at Hav're De Grace southbound. Thankfully that one came down on my aft drive axle. My part time driver who did not know whats what followed instructions nicely and we hooked her back up.

Which is a good thing. Traffic was solid on that bridge it would have killed everyone. (Paraphrase...)

 

Dave! Long time no see!

 

Everyone's heard of "Here's your Sign"?

I had, "here's your door."

I ripped off a barn door on a recessed dock. (You know the type where you have to go into a garage door to hit the dock) I rolled up to the guard shack to show my bills to the guard, went to close the door (driver's side was fine, and that's the door you close first.) went to the passenger side and blanked for a minute. Like it didn't register, probably was pretty funny. I'm like, "what did I come over here to do again?" Then I hear a whistle and see two guys walking up carrying the door. "You dropped this!"

So being a rookie I'm having a "I'm doomed" moment. The guard is still standing right next to me and not missing a beat, I take out my keys and hand it to him and said, "welp, won't be needing these anymore. I'm fired."

(Honestly don't know how I kept my job after that. Rookie dumb luck.)