Bad News

**Update below**

We were told today that our waiver was denied. Bob asked the secretary if we could meet with Col. Canestrini so that he could explain his bad decision to us before we appeal it. She said he would call us tonight, but he did not. Bob then called again to ask if we could set up an appointment to meet with Col. Canestrini to discuss this, and she said she would call us back when she had looked at his calendar. She never called back either. Hmmmm. . . And all this after waiting 3 weeks to hear. I'm beginning to think they don't care.

So we are going to pack everyone up tomorrow afternoon and make the long journey to Fort Belvoir to try to see this elusive god-like Col. Canestrini, supreme ruler and decision-maker of the waiver department. I mean really. Time is sort of of the essence here. I'm already 14 or 15 weeks along and have seen no one, and with the appeals process sure to be a long, drawn-out thing, there is really no hope of seeing anyone in the near future, especially if we can't get all the info we need to actually make the appeal. We tried to get Constance the secretary to fax us a copy of the denial, but--how convenient for her--she doesn't have it. No, apparently the document leaves with lightening-quick speed, unlike anything else that happens in the office, and goes to some other office, and those people were not answering their phones. I am sure that Col. Canestrini will not be there tomorrow, and probably neither will Constance, but at least we can make our objections known in person and also try to set up appointments to talk with whoever up his chain of command we need to talk to for the appeal. Since the Fort Belvior hospital is apparently full of people who do not return phone calls or even answer their phones, it appears that the face-to-face approach is going to be the way to go. And then we will have a clear report on the amount of time it actually takes to get from our house to the hospital, albeit in non-rush hour traffic. Of course, there's always the drive back too, and that probably WILL be in rush hour, so we are sure to get good sample data.

**Update: We didn't go to Belvoir this afternoon. Bob had hoped to be able to be home by 1:30, but it was after 2:00. Since it's an hour to get there, we figured the Col. might very well be leaving, and his lazy secretary (who never did call us back, by the way) would no doubt be off getting her nails done or something too. So the new plan is to go Monday afternoon, when hopefully we'll be able to get an earlier start on things. Which just leaves the weekend for me to stew.