Thanks for everybodys reply.


It’s been an ongoing battle but I finally got an appointment at VA to look at my Carpal Tunnel. My normal Dr at VA retired at the beginning of the year and VA put me on the Choice program. What a zoo (the choice program). I had my first appointment with the civilian Dr on the 9th of Jul. When I was there I asked for a referred back to the VA for the carpal tunnel, which they said they would do. Having had surgery at the Tucson VA that is where I want to have my wrist taken care of. After about 3 weeks of not hearing from the VA I finally contacted the Dr and they hadn’t sent the referral!!!

That started a month long battle with the Dr to submit the referral (with the Choice office also getting involved). Finally on the 27th of Aug Choice got the referral from the Dr. After a few days I contacted the Choice office and found out they were trying to refer me to another Choice provider instead of referring me back to the VA hospital as I had requested several times. I finally was able to get the VA hospital involved who contacted the Choice office at the Hospital and got my appointment for the surgery clinic.

Basically it ended up taking 2 months for the Dr/Choice program to submit the paperwork to VA just so I could get an appointment…..something that should have only taken a couple of days.



In the meantime I got some improvements taken care of in preparation for having the surgery done. When I had surgery on my arm a couple of years ago I wasn’t able to open the garage door for over a month so what was in the garage ended up staying there until I healed up a bit.


The old door was used and had seen better days when I installed it 25 years ago. I was heavy (weak spring), and no insulation. That being said it filled the hole for 25 years and did go up and down (manually). I don’t have any good pictures of it so this one will have to do.




Door 2 by M Patterson, on Flickr

I really wasn’t planning on changing the door this year, but with the surgery coming up I figured I’d just go ahead and bite the bullet on it.


The new door is insulated and really makes a difference in the temperature at the back of the garage in the afternoon. Of course the opening had to be reframed before the door could be installed but all in all I’m pretty happy with it especially having a remote door opener on it.

D! by M Patterson, on Flickr




D2 by M Patterson, on Flickr



While I was at it I also decided to do something about the gate into the shop. Years ago when I was running the shop full time I’d just open the gate in the morning and close it at night. Over the last few years, on the days the wife works I started closing the gate when I leave if I’m going to be gone any length of time.

Old Gate by M Patterson, on Flickr


Jumping in and out of whatever I’m driving to open the gate, drive thru, get out, close the gate and repeat was something that got old a long time ago. Of course the days that Cade’s around are not too bad, I grin and he frowns and I usually tell him “cheer up someday you will get to be the granddad”



Yeah, I can open the gate one handed while my wrist heals up, but why pass up a great excuse to get a new gate and opener.


NG by M Patterson, on Flickr





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