Question of the week: How do you cope as a family member of a service member?

Not really, you can go to VA hospital if you can drive yourself to one. You have to get sick on the set appointments or go to ER. If you have no transportation or cant drive. You have had it. You cannot go to local human resources or indigent health and ask for help to get to local doctors or hospitals. They have a long way to go before it works.

i was a navy wife for 20 years, i seldom saw navy doctors, i took my children to private physicians because i wanted GOOD care.

I am ex-Army myself, joke that the first tattoo I got (a small heart over my heart) was so the Army doc's would know which side my heart was on. (Raised in a military family) I was 91A now I believe known as 68W which is a combat medic. I married the military and spent the first year fighting Tricare/Champus over taking my son and myself to our doc's we had for years. I won luckily - they wanted me going to the local Prime location, but after what they did to a friend I wouldn't. Lucky me though, I came home after my Desert Storm service and married up here. Even when DH was on patrol 9-12+ weeks CG, I had family, friends, knew the city/resources. When I was in the Army down south I had no one - that was HARD. My friend is on his 3rd deployment to Iraq as an Apache pilot - he hasn't spent more than a few months with his family and I have only seen him once in the past 5 years. :(

That said.... I knew what I was going into, I feel bad for those who don't have a clue.

Hello.

Just stopping by to tell you that I noticed this article is featured on Gather's homepage right now!

Here's a 10 rating & have a nice day. :o)

That's a really hard one... I don't have any one in service, but I feel for those who do.