The Army taught us that your perception is your reality. Well, thanks to you, my reality is fact and it’s too late to change it.

A lot of humble patriots believe that the military is oh so wonderful for taking care of their soldiers and how incredible the healthcare is. It might be for some, but what about the ones who aren’t so fortunate?

So, if you aren’t already aware, the Army has this thing called Sick Call. It’s a healthcare clinic where you get seen and you’re supposed to receive good care. If you go there a lot, sometimes get called a neat little nickname, Sick Call Ranger.

There are many soldiers that take advantage or abuse Sick Call merely to escape physical fitness training in the mornings or for whatever reason. But there are soldiers who need to be there to get checked out because something is really going on with them. Being a soldier gets associated with being a robot or not having feelings or not needing to get checked for injuries or pain.

Our bodies endure so much when we train or deploy and we continue on and push forward all for the sake of being “Army Strong.” That was my dream once, but then I grew up and smelled the shit.

The Army is really good about staying on top of who needs their shots, but when it comes time for someone to have a real injury checked out. There's a lack of people in the clinic and your wait time is prolonged.

I deployed to Afghanistan in 2014. Great and safe deployment. But when I got back, something happened to me. To this day I still don’t know what caused it, but I got what I believe to be Tonsillitis. My throat started getting white spots in the back and it started swelling up. It was getting hard to swallow food. I thought it wasn’t too serious, or that my body would heal itself in a few days, but I decided to go to Sick Call. By the way, this isn’t a thing I do often.

So anyway, I get a slip and get it signed and I’m on my way to the clinic. I arrive and wait nearly forty minutes to be seen. I get it. The wait time doesn’t kill you unless you’re dying when you arrive. Anyway, I finally get seen and the military doctor that sees me is rude to me. I can’t remember why because I didn’t do anything except for walk in.

So, he’s rude. He tells me he thinks it’s strep throat, but he isn’t sure. He asks a nurse what she thinks and she doesn’t know either. He gives me some mediocre medication and tells me to drink water and sends me on my way.

Later that evening, it got hard to swallow my own spit and it was difficult to breathe. I had no choice but to go to the emergency room OFF-POST. In my condition, I had to go to the emergency room because the supposed qualified doctor neglected to know anything about what the cause of the issue was.

Not only that, but if you hold the position of doctor, I’m expecting a lot more from you than a note that tells me to stay hydrated. Take that note and shove it up your hole.

I get to the hospital off base and I don’t wait as long there. I’m seen in an adequate amount of time. I’m asked to take a urine test and when I do give that sample, my urine is brown. Why? Because it was hard to eat or drink and I hadn’t eaten in three days due to the pain. I’m placed on a bed and I’m given nutrients. I receive the antibiotics. I stay in the hospital for a few days and get this, the military doctor who sent me away comes to visit me to apologize. Good for him.

Why did it have to come to this? I had to explain to my leadership that I had to go to the emergency room because the doctor who saw me on post was negligent and ignorant. Why did it take that long for him to believe something was wrong? I know my body. I knew something was happening, but he thought some ibuprofen and water was the solution to my problem. I ended up in the ER and then he felt bad. Good. He should’ve taken his job more seriously.

Even though I’m discussing military doctors and healthcare personnel, the civilian doctors didn’t know exactly what was wrong with me either. I am very opinionated when it comes to doctors, if you couldn’t tell. Nevertheless, they’re here for a reason and most do well. The problem is that there are too many stories like mine.

I have a friend. A NCO (non-commissioned officer) in my prior company who experienced something like this. He was having chest pains and he filled out a Sick Call slip like everyone does. He waited about forty-five minutes like everyone does. The doctor calls him in and listens to the explanation of the pain, then proceeds to tell him to go back to his company and to just “take it easy during PT.” Strike one. It was his very first visit to Sick Call and they were ready to dismiss him. He even told them, “I’m no Sick Call Ranger. There is something wrong with me, you haven’t even checked me out yet.”

They took him seriously after he said that. They listened to his heartbeat and then advised him to see the hospital off post. Why couldn’t they treat him at the healthcare clinic if that’s what it’s for? Why did he need to go off base to be helped? Are the military doctors not qualified enough? Do they not have the proper resources to be able to help our soldiers on base?

So, he goes to the emergency room and the doctor listens to his heart. They find out he’s got an irregular heartbeat. He had to go through all that trouble to find that out. Can someone please tell me why? If our military doctors can’t perform their jobs with the correct materials, then why are they there? I know we’re expendable, but damn. We’re still human. We deserve the quality care we signed up for.

Sick Call can work, but it’s rare. In the words of my friend, there are soldiers who abuse the Sick Call procedure. The doctors know that and it makes it that much more difficult for others with serious issues to get seen or to be taken seriously. It’s a big problem in the military. It’s hell when the good ones get the shitty end of the stick because half ass soldiers enlist with the intent of not progressing their career and staying in Sick Call for a free paycheck. I do not respect that.

But I digress.

I have another friend whose wife needed antibiotics and the military docs gave her ONE over the counter medication which did absolutely nothing for her. She ended up having the flu and bronchitis. She had to go to the emergency room to get taken care of and pumped with fluids. With the proper care from the hospital off post she got better within a week. Prior to that she’d been sick for a month.

Another case included a soldier whose hands had been hurting while they were still active. They went to Sick Call and then was told by the military doctors that nothing was wrong with her hands. It was only after she was Med boarded when she found out she had arthritis from the VA.

A different soldier had her ACL torn for most of last year and only recently did they “believe” her about her injury and they gave her an MRI.

It’s almost like the system thwarts off efforts to provide superior medical care. Oh, no. Wait. I don’t want to be called a conspiracy theorist. I’m just stating the truth of those experiencing this. I for one don’t want anyone to wait to be on their death bed to receive the proper healthcare service. To me, if you’ve waited long to be seen and you’ve complained about the pain for quite some time or you’re having a hard time breathing and you’ve been dismissed, you are being neglected.

Unfortunately, I don’t know how to stop that. If I could control it I would. If I could change the world I would. I’m sick of hearing about my military friends encountering these types of situations.

The Army does make you strong, but the current Army is not like how it used to be when my mother served. It has changed a lot and this dilemma we encounter in the healthcare facilities is only a small percentage of what’s wrong across all the Army. I can’t speak for all military branches, I can only speak for what I know I’ve seen and heard.

We’re not seen as humans, we’re seen as machinery that you throw away when it stops functioning properly. No. Stop. I’m not talking about everyone. This pertains to the ones who have dealt such a neglect or feel that they were mistreated or ignored in some way while they served. I could go on and on with testimonies from friends, but I don’t have the time or patience. I just know something has to change because we’re not trash.

We’re people.