Eric’s Blog

Today, I spent roughly six hours in the car driving to and from a 15 minute doctor’s appointment.

I’m not kidding. It took me three hours to get to Annapolis, MD and another three to get home for a 15 minute appointment where I never even saw a doctor. Instead, I met with a friendly LPN who apologized over and over again for the fact that I had to come all that way just to verify they had the correct paperwork for my retirement.

Let me explain, we never went over any of the medical status that is affecting my retirement from the Navy in 76 days, they just wanted to ensure they had all the paperwork that I’d submitted digitally one month ago.

The only thing that was wrong with my paperwork was that my HIV test expired two days prior to this appointment. The Navy requires all service members have an HIV test every two years. When they told me that my results had expired two days ago, I pointed out that I had an HIV draw at my civilian provider a month ago when I was completing all the required paperwork for retirement. The LPN noted that the test my civilian provider used was the same test that the Navy uses; she went to ask if my lab results would suffice. The answer was a resounding no. I would have to have another HIV test while I was there.

I cannot believe I spent all day in the car, paying for my own gas, tolls, and refreshments driving to and from this appointment where I never saw a doctor and for what could have been a phone call.

But hey, it was a really nice clinic, so I guess that’s a positive thing. Is this a government operation or what?