AND NOW, A GOOD WORD FOR THE HARLINGEN V.A. CLINIC

By Juan Montoya

When I was honorably discharged from military service in 1974, it never entered my mind that I should register for Veterans Administration benefits such as health care or other services.

I was 21, full of piss and vinegar and had never been sick – except for the usual childhood illnesses like the measles, etc. – for a day in my life.

The next 40 years were the same. Except for a little bang up I received as a result of a car crash in the 80s in the upper Midwest, I had never been hospitalized. I was lucky.

But when I turned 65 and I registered with the Social Security Administration, I was told that under Obamacare I also had to register for Medicare and with the V.A. clinic in Harlingen as part of the government-mandated health care provisions. I did.

I went to renew my driver's license and found out that – unnoticed by me – I had developed cataracts in both eyes, most severely in my right. The V.A. paid Raulito Peña to remove them with a laser two years ago. He did.

Then, after the mandated follow-ups every six months over the next two years, the V.A. ophthalmologist, Dr. Reagan McMillan, detected a wrinkling of the lens sac – a not uncommon result of cataract surgery –that was making vision in my left eye cloudy. 

I had spoken with the doctor a month ago that I felt fine and could continue without any surgical procedure. But as the weeks went by, I saw that if I closed my right eye, the vision in my left was fuzzy. (He is, he confessed, a reader of El Rrun-Rrun. Can you believe that?) 

The problem was that I wasn't scheduled for a follow- up until April 2023. I called up the V.A. Ophthalmology Department in Harlingen and told them this past Tuesday that I was having problems. Could they fit me in to take care of it in-house, the sooner the better?

After checking with the doctors, the receptionist told me to come in the next day – on Wednesday – and they could squeeze me in.  

This past Wednesday, after the cursory check up, I was given eye drops to dilate my left eye, waited for them to take effect, and then was led to his office where McMillan removed the wrinkling eye sac with a laser. It took all of five minutes and I was out the door. The result of the surgery was instantaneous. I don't even need my glasses to read now.

I have read many accounts of veterans waiting for years for medical treatment from the V.A. facilities. I want to tell you that my first-hand experience with the Harlingen V.A. clinic was the total opposite. They treated me respectfully and courteously, made every effort to make the experience bearable, and performed the procedure quickly and efficiently.

Where can you get an appointment for professional medical treatment from one day to the next, have the procedure performed by consummate professionals, and be out the door in less than an hour?

My hat's off to the staff and medical professionals at the Harlingen V.A. clinic. They are an invaluable asset for local veterans and should be congratulated for a job well done. Things, for me at least, are looking up.