john999

Great slogans! When I recover from latest sleep study and really bored or angry I will get out my lawn chair and head for the VAMC. Will I get arrested if I park at the VA while protesting on the sidewalk in front of the VA? I would finally get a spot on "Channel 8 on Your Side" which has done VA complaints before when they cut off the wrong leg or something. John

VA is a welfare program for poor contractors. Pity the billionaire! One more reason to just give us a medical card and let us choose our own doctors. I think this will happen one day. This is the last gasp of a dying whale. Everything about the VA is antiquated. Their electronic records system does not even work because the doctors don't look at it and never talk to each other about our care. I have three doctors who deal with important aspects of my care at the VA. They will not talk to each other and their recommendations contradict each other and they are actually have a squabble at my expense. Why do we accept this crap? I will continue to write anybody who will listen about the quality of care we get at the VA. Scandal at my VA is rats and roaches infesting the place. It was flies and maggots a year ago. John

I had a sleep study done on Friday night. I spent two hours trying to get comfortable and finally took two sleeping pills and fell into a doze. If I have to have another sleep study done I am really going to be unhappy. I have lower back trouble and cervical trouble. I have my own bed at home rigged out so I can sleep. The situation with a sleep study is that you have all this crap hanging off you. You are in unfamiliar environment. The bed may be uncomfortable like mine was. I have no idea what the results of the study will be but I bet it won't be that good because if I had not taken a pain pill and sleeping pill I would just not have slept a wink. That has happened before with the damn studies. What is the VA sleep study situation like? Is it comfortable and quite, or miserable like most hospitals? I used a private lab that my pulmonologist sent me to. I would hate to have to use the Cpap after I had the Inspire system surgery. The VA is putting the pressure on me to somehow improve my numbers with the apnea. A 60% improvement is not good enough so they threaten to take away my pain meds. I am not taking another sleep study unless they can convince me I am dying. I have had at least five of them and every one means a horrible night of tossing and turning and back pain. The treatment of OSA is really in a primitive stage for a disease that afflicts 18million people. The cpap/bipap is just an air pump. You get a mask off the rack and an air pump and this is state of the art......God, I hope not. Inspire promised a lot and I hope they deliver because I was the first in Florida to get it done on FDA approved commercial basis. John

I am using Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation. This is the future of treatment for OSA. It is not working perfectly, but since about 90% of those who use the cpap eventually ditch it due to all the problems with it I feel there must be alternatives for people who have severe apnea and can't stand the high pressure cpap/bpap. I never found a mask that did not leak or one that fit my face. They get these things off the rack. Inpsire did reduce my number of apneas from about 40-50 an hour to 17 an hour. However, I still have oxygen desaturation at night. I am going for another sleep study tonight. The VA is saying I am non-compliant as well and threatening to cut off my pain meds. The VA care I get is so poor it is almost worthless except for pills. John

I can tell you that if you were to report symptoms of PN for example before you have a dx of DMII due to AO exposure the VA will say that since your PN proceeded your DMII dx then your PN is due to unknown causes. I had this problem because I complained about my upper PN before I had definite DX of DMII due to AO exposure. We are not talking years but months and the VA at first denied my claim for upper PN but granted it for lower PN because I complained about numbness and pain after I was granted SC for DMII due to AO exposure. I had an AO Registry Exam in 2000. It was really a good exam. The doctor said I had three AO conditions. The VA did not like what he said about AO victims because he was gone within months. He said all my nerves from my hands to my neck were affected by my exposure to AO. He said my glucose levels were abnormally high, but did not use the work DMII. That hurt me. The VA held off as long as possible in saying I had DMII. When they finally had to admit it I then filed for PN and for hardening of the arteries which they dx'ed as CAD. I got SC'ed for that before it would stand on its own for AO exposure. All I need now is PD, some kind of blood cancer and being blind( secondary to DMI) and I will be hitting a thousand for AO damage. The VA claims its doctors are specially suited to take care of vets, 99% of your PCP's don't know anything about AO and the other 1% don't believe AO causes anything to hurt humans. These doctors don't pick up on PTSD symptoms unless you fit every criteria for PTSD and tell them you are seeing Vietcong or Iraqis hiding under your bed.

Hmmmmm.....PN by definition works from the hands and feet upwards and inwards. I have 10% for my hands and feet. I have pretty bad pain in my feet and just about all the hair on my legs and feet is gone. I used to have real hairy legs and now my legs are bald and look sort of weird. Do you lower legs fee tender to the touch? When I grab my lower legs and squeeze I feel pain and tenderness. It is not normal . I think there are other symptoms with the feet that are important for a higher rating. It is all bad. The more numb they are and the poorer your circulation the more danger you are in of losing a limb to amputation. Also, the higher the numbness goes up the legs and arms the worse. Have you read up on the symptomology of PN and how it progresses? With the pain I have in my feet it goes way beyond 10% to me. That is subjective and a lot of PN symptoms are subjective. If it gets to the point you find it difficult to walk or grip then you should be getting a higher rating because how are you supposed to work if your grip is weak or you are dropping things all the time? Don't let anyone do anything invasive to your feet because you probably don't heal as well as you used to so there is danger of gangrene setting in from open wounds. I would not ever let anyone but very good podiatrist cut my toenails and I would not let them trim corns or warts or anything where there will be a wound. I got one of those deep shots to kill pain in my foot. I got a staff infection and almost lost my foot. You can look at the VA's way of rating PN and they have specific set of symptoms they look for to rate severity. Just from point that it harms your ability to work and your balance you should get more than 10%, but you have to be pretty bad to get more than ten percent. Is your PN result of service connected DMII or a back injury?

T The rating for PTSD should be based on severity of symptoms and not on any medals you got for combat. If you were in a combat zone and VA doctor says you have ptsd that is enough to get 100%. It is how your ptsd affects your ability to work and live normal life that touches your rating. Some guys have silver star and CIB and three PH's and don't have PTSD.

I I wonder if Dr. Bash could put together a winning claim for sleep apnea out of a service connection for DMII and CAD and anxiety and depression. I sure do have extensive medical history with the VA. I don't think there would be any money in it for me except another 50% added to my 180%. It would probably make me genuine 100% scheduler for what good that does me. John

When I first went to the VA pain clinic in 2005 I asked for one of those new drugs like Vioxx. Instead the VA gave me morphine and Percocet. I have that radiculopathy down from my neck into my shoulder. I have disc trouble in my lower back but no radiculopathy. My lower back just hurts when I sit in one position for a hour in my SUV or on a chair. I have had Lyrica and no help. The only help I get is from opioids and that is just for a few hours. John

Given the 95 degree heat and 105 degree "feels like temperature" in the sun you may see me on my own protest of VA health care. I am going to see if we still have the right of free assembly to protest government policy. I am going to get me a sign and a chair and just sit on the sidewalk in from of the local VA hospital, VARO or my congresswoman's office with some slogan to voice my disgust about the way we vets are treated by the VA. I have called, written or emailed just about everyone I know who can possible help. My feeling is no one cares about vets. Not the ones being paid to care for vets and that is for sure. I just need a good hat and suntan oil. Florida is just hot as hades in June and July. What we have is a "pretend" system to care for vets and disabled older vets in particular. The Choice Card, Caregiver stipend and all the rest of that is mostly hogwash. Vets since Korea have been passive and see what it has gotten us? No disability increases except COLA since WWII. When I got 10% disability in 1971 it was $28 dollars a month. My father got 10% from WWII and he got 8 dollars. As far as I know he never visited a VA hospital during his short lifetime. I may not be able to last too long in that heat or before I get arrested or bashed on the head. I will test it and see. Any suggestions about a good sign slogan that is got some punch but not too long so it fits on a hand held sign? John

With PTSD now I think if you can prove via your DD214 that you were in a combat zone like Iraq or Vietnam that is about all you need with a VA DX of PTSD. My good buddy, Pvt. Sills, who was with me for about 8 months in Vietnam got TDIU for PTSD. We did not have combat ribbons because he, at least did not have 11B MOS. We were both in situations where bullets. Every night on perimeter guard it often looked like the 4th of July. Yes, as a new guy I was plenty scared. Green tracers....red tracers, outgoing Arty and gunships with minguns like red ribbons in the rubber plantation looked like WW3 to me. Months later I barely noticed it except for damn 155's shooting over our heads at night. John

The VA needs to study potential and actual homicidal vets who have been abused by the VA. I don't feel so much suicidal as homicidal when I think of the care I have received at the VA.. When I think of the thirty years of appeals on my part and the lies on the VA's part I see big bombs of napalm dropping on the VARO. The poor patients at the VA hospital don't deserve to be crispy critters but the VA employees deserve it. If my wife did not still need me I don't know what I might do. I remember Commander Bob being afraid to be in the same room with VA employees telling his claims were bogus. I see his point. I get this feeling of hate in my guts. I know my life is worth more than that but I do pray some of these jerks die in agony for what they have done. I earned certain extensive benefits as a vet and I see them being blown away by lazy worthless individuals only concerned with CYA and their paychecks and pensions.

I made both a IG complaint about my care at the VA and sent emails to Hickey and McDonald. I have sent letters authorizing all my senators and congressmen to investigate the situation. I called the Medical Director and patient advocate. I called suicide prevention hot line to discuss my feelings of helplessness and hopelessness knowing my so-called VA doctors are looking for a way to cut my pain meds. I have strict guidelines I must follow for opioid contract but the VA can drive a truck through their side of the contract it seems. I may have to have an emergency meeting with my half-ass VA shrink to discuss the worsening of my depression due to the VA abuse of my medical needs.

The VA is intent on cutting off my pain meds in hopes I blow my brains out I guess just as not as long as it is on their watch. I am afraid to be in the same room with my pain doctor. I might lose my cool and beat her face into pulp. She, my PCP have cooked up a tempest in a teapot to justify cutting me loose from the pain clinic program and my opiate contract.

I emailed Hickey about my care at the Tampa VA. John

Buck you are covered for the dental. Now what are they going to do to replace the teeth they pulled?

They want me to go into a 6 week in-patient program and leave my wife at home by herself I guess. I am sure yoga and meditation will cure my spinal stenosis and PN. I will cooperate with them as much as possible and then I will go get a private doctor. I know there must be someone around who will prescribe for me. I am not asking for morphine or heroin. Just enough percoset to keep me able to sleep at night. I don't want injections. I might just try and find someone who can pinpoint where my pain is originating and find a surgeor to try and fix it. My neck is getting worse and I am sick of it.

I feel like it is time to get the Secretary of the VA involved in my medical care or lack of medical care. What is his email address again? I have written all three of my representatives, the medical director of the hospital, the patient advocate and even a sorry VSO. I am angry about being treated like a criminal by the VA just because I am disabled. I could not sleep last night because every time I closed my eyes I saw myself bashing in the face of my so-called pain doctor. I am afraid to even be in the same room with these people because I might lose my cool and start to strangle one of them. John

The suicide thing is why they VA is contemplating cutting me off my pain meds after ten years. Because I have sleep apnea, chronic pain and anxiety and depression I am a OD/suicide risk I guess. I called the medical director's office today to get somebody involved with the incredibly poor care I am getting. The VA blames me for being sick. I am non-compliant because I cannot spontaneously cure myself of OSA, mental health issues, and chronic pain. If I can find a private pain doctor who will prescribe for me I won't go back to the VA for that care. The thing is I earned medical care from the VA. Because the care is so poor I must pay for care myself. What is wrong with this picture? I want to cause the VA grief before I go to the VA cemetery.

If they are doing it to me and you then they are doing it to thousands more. We are not alone. There are many of us in VA crosshairs.

All the symptoms you describe could be secondary to PTSD. If he were SC'ed for any one of those conditions he could be TDIU or be 100% if it were bad enough. However, if he was involved somehow in a shooting on base I can see the PTSD DX has being a better fit. PTSD, depression, agoraphobia are all part of the same ball of wax. I would go with the DX that has the best documentation. In my day to get a PTSD dx you almost had to be in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. If you came home from the war and were having anxiety, depression or were acting funny they would just throw a DX at the wall and see if it stuck. I got DX'ed with schizophrenia. That was a misdiagnosis, but what did I know then in 1972. I was just lucky I made a claim during the first year after discharge or I would still be waiting. They treated it like a chronic condition during the first year after discharge so I got a rating. It took 30 years to expand that rating to TDIU and then P&T and housebound. Getting that foot in the door is crucial. John

The Tampa VA is trying hard to find some reason to break my opiate contract and cut me off from the opiates they have constantly prescribed for me for the last ten years. None of my other VA doctors are standing up for me. My VA shrink prescribes clonazepam for me and she is saying if I want to continue getting the opiates I have to get off the benzo's. My PCP started all this because I have sleep apnea. I know that some vets have died from Od'ing on opiates, but I have been taking them safely for ten years. No matter, I am now a drug abuser according to the VA (no evidence required except I take prescribed opiates). I have talked to patient advocate...worthless. I have called a news organization here called "Channel 8 on your side" and telling them the VA is on a crusade to get all us old guys out of the pain clinics and out of the VA's hair. Every time I agree to some compromise with the VA about the pain meds I take they want more. They find more reasons to find me a problem child. I am going to see my congressman. Just because some vets OD does not mean all million of us here in Florida are drug addicts and drug dealers which is what the VA thinks. John

I was told by the military that I had a personality disorder. The VA told me once that I had a PD. I got multiple IME's to overcome this opinion. A PD is a congenital disorder but most of it is just opinion. The military and VA see congenital disorder because they do not want to pay for a disability. It is the battle of experts. You get more and better experts to take you side. This is not hard since the VA and military doctors are often idiots who can only make it in the military or VA system because they are willing to screw soldiers and vets to keep their jobs. They suffer a moral disability sort of like a PD because they lack a conscience and don't mind ruining a person's life to keep their jobs. Big organizations like the military, government and the VA are full of people like that who only think about promotions, pensions and personal benefits at the cost of their honor. There are others who have honor and usually suffer for it.

Pray for war!

Did someone say that they believed Dr. Bash could write an IMO that would allow someone with SC DMII and CAD win a Sleep Apnea claim. I have apnea, chronic pain, anxiety and depression, CAD and DMII and PN. I developed the SA after all the other conditions manifested themselves. The VA is trying to terminate my opiate contract because of my sleep apnea. They say the apnea is dangerous because my shrink prescribes clonazepam and my pain doctor prescribed methadone and oxycodone. Now my pain doctor is shaking in her boots and wanting me to magically cure my anxiety and SA in order to continue getting the opiates I have been getting for the last ten years. The VA says my problems is that I am dependent on opiates even though they prescribed them for me for ten years. My VA shrink also prescribes the clonazepam and the VA blames me for using it. I follow the VA's medical treatment and then the VA turns around and says I am a drug addict and it is all my fault. Is this malpractice or not? John