augoldminer

Does the VA have a form for freedom of information act request or do you just wing it. I know that some of the gov agencies (US Forest Service and BLM) that I have dealt with over the years have forms and some dont. And if they have a form and you do not use it it takes a lot longer to get the info you want.

That site tells some but is written by a doctor who does not have fibro. Take care in believing everything it says. It is better then some sites. but is what doctors want you to hear. Your treatment may very and some may not work for you. There list of medications is poor. Very few people get relief from OTC pain meds. Anti depressants work on about 30% of people with fibro. and there is some question if some really have fibro.

Figure this one out. Some of the vets i know have found out the criteria for the pain management contract in SoCal is that you have to go through the system of the contract, If you are a cigarette smoker. A ex drug addict, Or a drinker. And by a drinker they mean two beers or more a week. Or have mental health conditions. LIKE DEPRESSION. And many people that have a chronic pain condition are depressed. Even if you are not depressed you are automatically labeled depressed just because you have a pain disorder. AND I AM NOT DEPRESSED BUT LABELED AS DEPRESSED BECAUSE I HAVE FIBROMYALGIA. Other wise you do not have to sign the contract. I have fibromyalgia but i am lucky that i found on my own a med that works (gabapentin) that is not a narcotic. I know that many VA doctors think that fibromyalgia is a somatoform disorder and ignore all the research that shows that it is a central nervous system neurochemical disorder. I am a emergency medical technician and have been since 1978 and have had to use my training to trick the VA more then once to get the meds i needed.

Sally Satel is a front for the insurance companies that have been paying ever increasing payouts to cops firefighter and EMTs/ paramedic's for PTSD. Due to the criteria set by the VA years ago the courts have been ruling in favor of cops firefighters and EMT/Paramedic using the same criteria for these people. Sally Satel is also one of the insurance company hacks that think fibromyalgia is a mental disorder even though the research in the last few years show that it is a neurological disorder. Most insurance companies only pay out for 2 years for mental disorders but would have to pay disably for many years for someone with fibromyalgia if its called a neurological disorder. I AM BOTH A VIETNAM VET AND A EX EMT/FIREFIGHTER and a CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS MANAGEMENT/PTSD DEBRIEFER

I hope i get this right Was this shoulder pain in your left shoulder. If yes this may have been a sign of a mild heart attack that affected the right side (right ventricle) if your heart(swollen feet and legs) and the AV Node. damage to the AV node causes a condition called a Atrioventricular Block. (AV BLOCK)and bradycardia. the Av Node is also on the right side of the heart The cause may be in what you wrote. That you were constipated and had gout. These are signs of possible dehydration. Dehydration can cause clots that can migrate to the heart. were you working in areas like the flightline and not getting Enif fluids. I have bradycardia but mine i believe is due to damage to the trigeminal nerve and the vagus nerve due to exposure to trichloroethylene. I also have sleep apnea and gerd. Control of the muscles of the throut, acid levels, and heart rate are all controlled by the vagus nerve. and it is feed from the trigeminal node. G.E.J. EMT-B

I have had the doctor put on my record that i denied being in pain. when i got copies the nurses notes for that appointment it show my b/p, temp, heart rate, and my pain level as a 7 on there scale. Always check the nurses notes and see if they match the doctors. If you have pain look up the VA pain scale it is not what most people think and most vets under report there pain level. Look out for odd letter groups on doctors notes. I have seen doctors use codes on there notes like "goomer"(get out of my ER)or "pad"(patient a drug-user) now some doctors are using numbers to code there remarks due to lawyers that have found out about this code. The PCP that i get stuck with at my local clinic work for a company that the VA hired to staff the clinic and they are the dumbest doctors i have ever been to. In the last year I have not seen the same PC doctor twice due to the firing rate at this clinic. Oh i am a trained emergency medical technician have been since 1978. I never tell this to my PC doctors only the UCLA specialist that i go to.

windy If you have fibro and sleep apnea. The fibro is caused by neurochemical abnormalities in the central nervous system. That causes the autonomic nervous system to malfunction and not hold the throat open when you are asleep. Fibro causes sleep apnea not sleep apnea causes fibro. In very few cases will fibro go away by treating the apnea as the neurochemical abnormalities are still there. Being overweight is not the cause of apnea if you have fibro. It might make it worse but not cause it. You are overweight because of the pain of the fibro and also due to your endocrine system being disrupted by the fibro. A lot of research has linked PTSD causing fibro. Now that i have given that info. You will find very few doctors at the VA that understand fibro or will even look up the newest research on fibro. Many doctors still believe the studies that the insurance industry paid for that fibro is all in your head. Or that fibro is caused by depression. I have a very rare autoimmune disorder Castleman's disease that caused my fibro that caused my sleep apnea that caused me to have a heart attack. I also have neuropathy and restless leg syndrome. And i believe it all was caused by my exposure to Trichloroethylene in the navy back in the early 1970s Try to get the VA to understand that. I have the research papers to prove it for trichloroethylene from the EPA. NIH. and other studys That links it all together. now i am starting to do my form 21-4138 and the va thinks it will take 15 min to fill out this form. and i have no idea what i am doing. i will just blame it on the fibro fog. Anyone out there with fibro is welcome on the menwithfibro.com site there are many vets there.

With the high ANA you most likely have a autoimmune disorder of some type if it is not lupus then one of the other autoimmune disorders. if they rule out lupus you may have to push them to find what it is. Since with the high ANA the fibro becomes secondary fibro. You may be able to link the depression to the yet not DXed autoimmune disorder. In the march 2007 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN there is a article called New Predictors of Disease that states that many people that get autoimmune disorders have auto antibodies years and some times a decade before the autoimmunity causes a clinical disease. Another research paper that i have found the researchers went back and checked on 25 people with primary fibromyalgia and found that all the cases later showed that the primary fibro was later found to be secondary fibro. And that these people had later developed a autoimmune or other disorder. And that the auto antibodies had triggered the fibro before the autoimmune disorder had become clinically symptomatic.

What i remember was 5 gal od green cans with the label trichloroethylene cleaning solvent. This product has had many names outside the gov. As for proving that i used this chemical that may be easy as i have the email addy of a few of the guys i served with. Now i have more qustions after reading www.va.gov/vatapp03/files/0329542.txt why was castleman's service connected is the VA not telling me something. For a disorder that is so rare [ About 80 new cases DXed in the US per year as per castleman's disease.org] i have found over 10 vets with castleman's. this is a high number. The Doctor that i go to at the VA is treating 5 people with castleman's and that is just one VA hospital. About 30% of the people with castleman's also have fibromyalgia. to show the fibro is service connected i am linking it to castleman's as a secondary disorder As for the doctors linking the castleman's to any thing all the va doctors at the va i go to will not ansure any questions like that. I know I have asked many times. most of the doctor at the VA that i go to have never even heard of castleman's much less know what might cause it. What i have heard is that some VA hospitals have told there doctors not to link disorders to any cause unless they are trained in environmental medicine. AND YOU WILL NEVER GET SENT TO THEM.

Has any one tried to get a service connected for trichloroethylene exposure. I have Castleman's disease a very rare auto immune disease. Fibromyalgia a central nervous system disorder. Sleep Apnea. Restless Leg Syndrome. in march i had a heart attack and 5 way bypass am trying to get them to check me for sjogren's syndrome as i have the symptoms of it. Used trichloroethylene cleaning solvent on almost a daily bases as a electrician's mate in the navy. 1970-74 It is now baned by the gov. because of it's health effects. Many of the effects are of the same as my health problems. Central nervous system damage. Auto immune disorders. Tricloroethylene has also been linked to parkinson's disease. and cancers. In Nov i filed for service connected. i have been on non SC disability from Nov of 04. Gary J WOODEN SHIPS AND IRON MEN USS Enhance MSO 437

Sleep apnea can be caused by fibro, as fibro now has been shown to be a disorder of the Central Nervous System. [Many va docs do not know of this research as they do not keep up on the latest research] If you have fibro you need to get a DX of fibro. I will bet that your fibro did not get better after you started using the c-pap. By nerve pills do you mean anti depressants. anti depressants seldom work for fibro. On being depressed, Do you feel that you are depressed or is this something that the doctors told you. many of the symptoms of depression and fibro overlap, But having fibro does not mean that you have depression. My fibro started in 2002. Was DXed with castleman's diease in 2003. [a very rare autoimmune disorder] that i believe triggered the fibro. DXed with sleep apnea in 2005. heart attack and bypass surgery in 2006. I filed for service connected disability based on the fibro and castleman's being caused by my use of trichoroethylene cleaning solvent in the navy in the 70s. I also claim that the sleep apnea was due to the fibro.the fibro triggered by the castleman's disease. the heart attack due to the sleep apnea. I have been researching it all on the Internet and have about 1500 pages of the latest research studies that link it all together. GARY J US NAVY 1970-74