My last post discussed the confusing world of disability claims, healthcare, and appointments within the VA system.  This post offers no clarity in that regard; in fact, I am now even more confused than I was before.

I have gone from being simply puzzled to a state of complete consternation.

Two things occurred in the last week that have a direct impact on my VA disability claim.  The first is that I actually received a call from the VA to schedule an appointment for an examination that is a part of the regular (and sadly quite lengthy) evaluation process.  That was good!  The next day I checked my status on the VA’s website (www.ebenefits.va.gov) and discovered that my case was officially closed, but that an appeal was possible.

Huh?

A call on one day to schedule an appointment the following month is immediately followed by a notification that my case was closed?

You can imagine my furrowed brow and skyrocketing blood pressure as I reached for the phone to call and find out what was going on.

Well, that did not unfurrow my brow or reduce my blood pressure.  Instead, It added a nervous twitching to the hand that held the phone as I navigated my way through automated menus that resulted a complete waste of time.  Call volume was too heavy said the automated voice, but I could call back later or request for a specialist to contact me at a later time.  Unfortunately, the call was terminated before I could request a callback.

So I tried again, with the same result.  Awesome.

So I am now more confused than ever, and in serious need to talk to someone about it.  I will be making some calls in the next few days to the VSO as well as the VA to see if I can get to the bottom of this new and incredibly annoying mystery.

I’ll tell you how it goes!  Wish me luck…