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allan
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Posts posted by allan
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GORDON DUFF: TWO WARS LOST, AN UNGRATEFUL NATION NOW TURNS ON ITS VETERANS
September 3, 2010 posted by Gordon Duff at http://www.veteranst...n-its-veterans/
CONGRESS PLANS "STEALTH ATTACK" ON VETERANS BENEFITS
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
A week ago, we marched out of Iraq, leaving 50,000 "administrative" troops and tens of thousands of contractors behind. They perform no useful purpose of any kind, no more than the original attack which Secretary of Defense Robert Gates now openly refers to as unnecessary and wrong. The war that never should have started cost America 3 trillion dollars, much of it unaccounted for. Along with the thousands of American dead and the untold devastation in Iraq, the war also cost America health and welfare of up to 400,000 of her veterans, America's children. A generation of young adults, another generation of our best and bravest stand betrayed.
We have money for fraud of every kind, projects paid for but never finished, weapons stolen, defective or never delivered, buying poisoned water for our troops at 5 times the cost of French Wine, I could go on for hours, the list is endless.
This week, when Senator's Alan Simpson, the "wild talking" Wyoming Republican and now formerly a stalwart veterans advocate Daniel Akaka talk about saving money, it is to come from payments to veterans for "presumptive" illness. Don't believe its just these two, its the whole gang of them, with few exceptions, and its not the first time. When Bush gutted funding for Veterans and up to 9 million disability claims related to war wounds and the endless environmental crimes against our troops shredded or shelved, even our "mainstream" veterans organizations stood behind him.
I spent two hours on the phone with a Vietnam veteran I have known for 35 years. He has both a son and son-in-law seriously wounded from Iraq. His 30 years in government and 28 years in the military, many years working with veterans, gave him the skills to help his own family negotiate the minefield of bureaucratic insanity servicemen and women are faced with when returning from war, used up, smashed, maimed or poisoned, discarded and left to die.
How many veterans died with claims in processing? How many died of undiagnosed poisonings or waiting for that medical appointment that never comes? It isn't thousands or tens of thousands. Is the number as high as a million? It may be, we aren't allowed to know.
This is America's real patriotic tradition, with network after network talking about little but election year hate issues like immigration, the "Ground Zero Mosque and our "Muslim" president. Do they really think we don't all know that the only non-atheists in Washington are the Satan worshippers and pedophiles? Every time I hear a politician call to his personal god for support or drag out a bible, I wait for the lightening bolt. Washington is a cesspool and every "reformer" begging for a chance to clean it out only plans to jump in and enjoy the stench.
Alan Simpson Anti-Veteran Politician
The boys who own our government, all the governments, simply pretended to have money that didn't exist, pretended to lose money they never had and then went to the government to recover their "losses" when pretend money didn't "spend" anymore.
The government then started up the printing presses to make the super-rich even 'super-richer." The end result means you have a job you may lose tomorrow, you house is worthless, social security may fail, you retirement account is dead and now congress wants to take away the meager veterans pension your son or daughter receives for what was done to them by Bush, Blair, Wall Street and, especially, our very good friends in Tel Aviv. Don't forget them.
Congress knows nothing about how many parents cry themselves to sleep.
America can't really be trusted with an army anymore. Would you give a baby a laptop or a three year old a shotgun?
I just saved you four useless years at Harvard Business School.
When will Glenn Beck, the warmongering demagogue voice of Israeli owned Fox News cry his first tear for a wounded veteran? Even when Sean Hannity and Oliver North promised to send the children of all Iraq and Afghanistan vets to college, something that seemed to hopeful to many, it turned out to be a hollow political ploy.
Let's talk about the first attacks on veterans, attacks against what congress believes is the weak underbelly, "presumptive illness."
Senators are now focusing on the tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans, about half in "claims processing" for 20 to 30 years, some paid a few dollars a month, some paid a few thousand. The goal is to strip them of this money as quickly as possible.
Is this a joke?
Agent Orange compensation is only paid to veterans either close to death from cancers, diseases that already killed so many we will never be able to count or those with clearly defined maladies that it took medical science, the worst and slowest minds in the world decade after decade to establish as results of dioxin exposure from Agent Orange.
Dioxin has long been known to be as poisonous as arsenic or cyanide.
What really motivates our Washington thieves to go after our veterans? It's easy. The service organizations that used to represent our former military are now grown fat, complacent and are focused on political infighting and are toothless, useless and more part of the problem than even congress itself.
They "cherry-pick" newsworthy issues aimed at their "conservative" membership, political issues, and ignored the dozens of scandals that have destroyed hundreds of thousands of veterans. At recent hearings in Washington on Gulf War Illness, our service organizations in their seats of prominence, not only brought nothing of value to the table but proved they were more than unfamiliar with the issues themselves.
They knew nothing and simply didn't care. However, you can be assured, if something is done, they will stand up to take credit as usual.
With the most powerful advocacy group in Washington the AIPAC lobby, pumping money into, not only Israel, but the real power in keeping America's military debt machine at full speed to support the aftermath of our national attack of post 9/11 delusion and self destruction, veterans don't stand a chance.
Expect benefit cuts, medical treatment cutbacks.
Expect continual attacks on veterans in the corporate media, replacing their usual silence. Veterans are a threat, competing with Israel and the war lobby for the last pickings from a bankrupt America.
Veterans have always been an easy target, patriotic to a fault, easy to fool, easy to exploit, and always led by hucksters. Read any mainstream veterans publication. The signs of assumption are there. Veterans chose to serve, even when their country was dead wrong. Now veterans are being forced to pay. Congress calls it justice.
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Recent VA News Releases
To view and download VA news releases, please visit the following
Internet address:
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel <http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel>
International Study Led by VA-Harvard Physician
Yields Insight on Risks from Fatty Arteries
WASHINGTON (September 3, 2010)- An international study of clinical data
led by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-Harvard University
cardiologist found that patients with deposits of fatty plaque in their
arteries are at especially high risk for life-threatening cardiovascular
events if they have diabetes, disease in multiple arteries or a history
of heart attack or stroke.
"This study was an impressive international collaboration that may hold
important clinical benefits for Veterans and others with cardiovascular
disease," said VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. "The results, presented
both in a prestigious medical journal and at a major international
cardiology meeting, are likely to be of great significance to
physicians-particularly cardiologists-in VA and worldwide."
The findings, from a study of more than 45,000 patients in nearly 30
countries, was published online August 30 by the Journal of the American
Medical Association and will appear in the journal's September 22 print
edition. The results are also being presented this week at the annual
meeting of the European Cardiology Society in Sweden.
According to lead author Dr. Deepak Bhatt and colleagues, the findings
may guide future clinical trials and help doctors decide which patients
need more aggressive treatment. Bhatt is chief of cardiology at the VA
Boston Healthcare System and director of the Integrated Interventional
Cardiovascular Program at VA and Brigham and Women's Hospital, a
teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
The four-year study included patients who had at baseline clinical
evidence of atherothrombosis-in which fatty deposits break off from
artery walls to form clots-or who had risk factors for the condition.
Ruptured plaque deposits can form clots that block blood flow to the
heart or brain, resulting in heart attack or stroke.
Depending on their medical status and history, different groups of
patients in the trial were at higher or lower risk for stroke, heart
attack, or cardiovascular death. On the low end of the risk scale-7
percent-were those with no diabetes and only risk factors for
atherothrombosis. The risk rose to as high as 25 percent for those with
clinical evidence of atherothrombosis in multiple arteries and a history
of heart attack or stroke. The presence of diabetes also raised the risk
considerably.
"Even stable patients with a previous heart attack or stroke are at
particularly high risk of recurrence if they have plaque build-up in
several different arteries or if they have diabetes," said Bhatt. "These
types of patients need aggressive preventive efforts to keep history
from repeating itself."
Knowing that "not all atherothrombosis is equal," write Bhatt and
colleagues, can help doctors target therapies such as plaque-reducing
and clot-busting drugs to those patients who will benefit most. VA Chief
Research and Development Officer Dr. Joel Kupersmith adds, "this study
illustrates the importance of basic clinical information in determining
the best care for the individual patient."
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Wings,
due to the help of Meg and hadit members i've never had trouble getting my meds on time.
I only get breakthrough Oxys for pain(30 day supply), but as long as I call two weeks ahead there always on time.
They don't mess we me anymore. Meg told the facility that kept loosing my meds that she was a friend of mine and that she knows me well and that i'm crazy. Maybe that scared them. They send them on time now.
Wings is dead on about useing healthyvet.gov to order your meds. Mine have never been late using this site.
You can not order pain meds through this site is one problem. You must call 10 to 14 days before your prescription of pain meds run out. Calling sooner may give them the impression that you go through your meds to fast and are to eager to get more. Atleast this is what I've been told by a VA employee.
Payment and Reimbursement of the Expenses of Medical Services Not Previously Authorized
I have been trying to get reimbursement for my ER and three days in intensive care for diabetes last Jan.
I filed, than appealed, than appealed again, than appealed again.
I sent the codes and the presidential order that vets are to be reimbursed that came out last Feb/2010.
All I get out of them is that I have medicare and that they won't pay for even what medicare won't pay.
They refuse to pay anything. It doesnt matter if you notify them or not.
I tried to get in as a walk two weeks before the ER because I was passing out.
All they would say is the soonest I could get into the VA clinic was a month out. They sent me to the local ER or said to drive the 170 miles to Spokane VAMC ER.
By the time I made it to a local, private ER I was bearly concious.
The Dr said I wouldn't have made it another two hrs and would have never made the trip to the VAMC ER in Spokane. It was by the grace of God that my wife got me to the local ER on time or I wouldn't be here to type this.
Save your life no matter what. But expect the VA to blow you off when it comes to reimbursement for local ER treatment, even if you give notice or they send you there. I remember when they recommended I go to the local ER, they said," if you have your own insurance coverage or a way to pay for it, just go to the local hospital". No one ever said the VA will or can or may reimburse you.
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TBird,
I was going through rage and not able to sleep for up to three days for many yrs. Than they put me on Depakote for my bi-polar and busparone. I don't have the rage anymore. Still have insomnia. Only sleep around 4 hrs at a time at the most. I can sleep more if I take benadryl. But get so tired of adding another pill to my long list, I generally don't take it as long as I can atleast get 4 hrs.
Sorry to hear you experience this also. Rage is not good on your heart and blood pressure thats for sure. The only thing I've found to control it is medications. Folks can tell you that you can control it yourself and I know it doesn't work that way. Imbalance due to toxins or something. But tryng to meditate and relax doesn't cut it when it's brain injury or an illess like PTSD.
My best to you,
Allan
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I had been going through periods of the pharmacy forgetting to send a months supply of morphine about every other month for nearly a yr when they forgot to send all my meds for a month.
Morphine, Gabapentin, Paxil, Busparone, muscle relaxant, ashma meds, my whole supply.
A week went by and all I got is the Dr didn't sign off on your meds. Then the Dr said he signed off, the pharmacy had it wrong and screwed up. Another week went by. I was getting to be a complete emotional and mental mess after sudden withdrawal from all my meds. Another week, than another. No meds and no reply. I was near suicidal one night & drove to the VAMC ER 150 miles away on ice covered roads.
When I got to the ER the nurse said she wasn't about to break into the pharmacy and get "DRUGS" for me. Blew my off like I was a street addict and refused to give me any treatment..
I headed from Spokane to Medical lake near Seattle through the night. Slept in below freezing temps at a rest area for a while. First time in days I got any sleep due to the lack of bi-polar meds.
Ended up at a private hospital in Everet after I met up with my daughter. I was so messed up I didn't know what I was doing or where I was.
Not long after that the Spokane ER let a vet die outside their window after refusing to treat him.
Do not waste your time at any VA ER. If it's an emergency and your life depends on seeing medical help now, I would go to a private ER.
Call your team nurse or VAMC PCP and ask to see a psychiatrist right away. Explain to the Dr that your going through sudden withdrawals and ask him to prescribe something for the pain or to renew your pain med. Also get it documented how all of this has caused increased emotional stress and depression if it has.
Don't wait like I did. Go there during working hours and see if you can see one as a walk in.
At my VAMC clinic the Dr won't see you as a walk in if your dieing, so call ahead to see, but the psychiatrist might.
I hope my experience saves you or another Vet from going through this.
Allan
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I would like to add that Dr Bash's 3 medical opinions on me were based on my service records, medical records since service and a radiology MRI film I perchased from the VAMC showing lesions throughout the white matter with one in the corpus callosum.
With the first IMO and diagnosed MS, the BVA refused to give it any weight. They said he didn't review the "entire" C-file since I never requested a copy of it. I sent the BVA over 30 yrs of requests for my c-file that went unanswered. Than I recieved a copy just one yr prior to Dr Bash's IMO and sent them a record in my C-file of the request and the date they sent it. So they requested Dr Bash view the entire record of evidence again after that.
This time in a reply to the BVA's request, he wrote his medical opinion is the same and unchanged after viewing the copy of the c-file the BVA sent.
The PVA and Dr Bash went to a hearing before the BVA in Washington, DC a few months after this other IMO and gave testimony as to his opinion. They still denied it and put it on hold until my other issues were decided in 2010.
I'll hang in there. i know they can play their games, but at some point in time they have to look at the truth and properly review "all" the evidence of the record. If not now than at the CAVC. If I live so long.
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Alan Simpson sure has demonstrated with his own mouth, just how much of an enemy of US Veterans he is.
Keep voting idiots like this in government positions and we will all see our VA and Social Security benefits disappear.
Two yrs ago billions were spent in corporate welfare. Today it's make the Vets, disabeled and seniors pay for it.
Maybe we should stay out of the business of fraudulant wars. They get to be expensive finacially and with the lives and bodies of our military personel.
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Thanks Philip,
Another 5 yrs sounds right. I don't expect anything but a remand and more C&P's from the BVA. All my issues before the CAVC stim from the same car accident as the award the BVA granted for my shoulder last yr. They awarded after getting a favorable IMO from the VA orthopeadic clinic I was treated at. The issues before the CAVC are there due to the BVA not including the remaining issues in my service records with the ortho IMO they granted the shoulder issue for.
So it strings the rest out another 5 or 6 yrs, thats all. But I'm sure i'll win in the end. So is my attorney, or his law firm wouldn't have taken the case.
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What a crock of sheet - and just what c8CFR Reg did they use to support this ? ? ?
Carlie, after being denied SC for MS and VA Dr jacking me around, I went to Dr
bash for an IMO to find out for myself if I actually had MS, since my
signs/symptoms for it were so consistant for decades.
In 2005 Dr bash diagnosed me with having MS. I turned the IMO over to my Dr at the time. A month later I was assigned to a nother VAMC Dr at a local new clinic. This Dr said the VA informed him of this. He acuused me of paying a dr to say what ever I wanted him to say. He than removed all currant medical diagnoses on the VA computer and cancelled all medicines I recieved through the VA at the time and said to get my health care through private Dr's.
Before changing Dr's, the previous VAMC Dr at the other facility said I should go to a private dr to get my oxys for pain since the VA no longer carried them. This is in my records. He said I just need to inform my Dr of who I get them from so they can cordinate with each other over the pain meds.
Well, this new VA Dr accused me of trying to get pain meds from two different surces at the same time after I faxed my private dr'd contact information to the VAMC facility and the new VA's Dr's contact information to the private Dr. I was all on top of being honest about it. But he took it as another issue he was trying to prove I was a lying thief thrying to get benefits and drugs through the VA.
It didn't work. I filed a complaint against him and I proved in my complaint what he did to me. All my diagnoses and medication treatment were restored. One of thos diagnoses in my file now say Multiple Sclerosis.
The Va Neurologists also said I have a TBI. But I never see that listed as a diagnoses, nor do I recieve treatment for it.
He lasted abut two yrs at this clinic after that and moved back to a southern state.
Never the less the BVA didn't except Dr Bashs IMO's & the attorney I have now says their not likely to either.
The PVA refiled for MS in 2005 after reading Dr Bash's IMO. This claim was put on hold until 2009 when the BVA made a final on my other claims.
The MS claim went before the Seattle VARO in June 2009. This last May/2010, without being prior notified, the examiner I went before for other issues aparently did a neuro workup. I later recieved a letter from QTC saying a neuro problem was discovered during the exam and recomended I discus it with my current Dr.
I just recieved a copy of my C&P and it shows the RO requested an exam for MS during the other schedualed C&P exams.
Since they've now done performed a C&P for it, found neuro problems and i've had a diagnoses since 2005, they may reconsider Dr Bash's IMO's as atleast have some kind of weight. The QTC examiner didn't comment as to wether the MS was SC or not. My guess is due the the VARO rater not asking him to answer this question.
Where I am now is anyones guess. I sure can't figure out what their doing. Why order a C&P for MS, but not have the examiner answer the question is this more likely than not service connected? This is just the same game i've gottin from the appeals center and the BVA for more than a decade.
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John,
My case went to CAVC in June/2009.
According to my attorney, timetable results from 3,000-4,000 cases filed each year, seven judges to deal
with them all.
It can take up to next summer before my case gets before a judge. Another year sitting in remand is likely after the judge sends it back to the BVA . New C&P's will likely be ordered, if favorable another year or so at the VARO waiting to be rated. Another year after that with a NOD because of the low ball ratings is also likely.
It's either delay or deny. Why is there such a back log of claims? Mine should have never taken 13 yrs to get to the CAVC.
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Politico, Webb, Principi In my usual self controlled self I have responded to this Mr. Rogers of Politico regarding this dribble put out by Webb and Principi. When are these reporters going to learn in this issue if their lips are moving they are lying. I am finding out from everyone that more and more of these so called reporters are putting out bad information provided by the what seems to be now the Webb/Principi connection of BS. It is time someone told our side of the story in no uncertain terms and I did not leave much out as you will see. I did not even broach the lies on birth defects as it is too long to begin with but I felt I had to at least try and put these egg sucking dogs in their place on this issue. If you agree even though it is somewhat tempered on what I really wanted to call these bums please send out to your respective groups. It looks like this meeting in September is getting more and more attention. I can tell you this. If we lose this one then all is lost for the rest of the legacy which is what they are after anyway. I think they see the handwriting on the wall finally even with the birth defects and quite frankly I think it scares the hell out of them. http://www.2ndbattalion94thartillery.com/Chas/morecommittee.htm By the way I do not want to hear the word PAYGO out of any of these disgraceful human beings. While they were denying all impacts for almost 28 years there was no PAYGO. They were just sorry human beings.
Kelley
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1) [did you have any evidence in your Service Medical Records that would help point toward a diagnosis of MS?]
In the IMO's I recieved from Dr Craig Bash, he found flucuating vision, ocular inflamation and hearing loss he said was specific to MS. Eye exams in service show changing between 20/40 to 20/50 and back to 20/40. It was 20/50 when I left.
In separation exam it was noted defective vision, defective hearing. This I found out when I recieved a partial service medical record in 1997.
2) [if there was some evidence in your SMR and/or VA examinations or other medical records shortly after discharge,]
I was discharged in 1973. I traveled alot after service and can not get any medical records any sooner than 1977.
From 1977 until now, according to the IMO's there is medical evidence showing neuromuscular signs and symptoms.
Complete absent of reflexes, Muscle spasms, Short leg syndrome, Urinary incontinance, Chronic neuro pain, Double vission, Ocular inflamation, Nystagmus, Vertigo and the list goes on.
This is how I was able to get a diagnoses during the 1997 C&P exam for Pension. I became T&P disabled in 1993 from this according to my SSDI records. VA was the first to reconize the symptoms of MS and send me for a diagnostic workup for 13 yrs. But I had to go outside of VA to get it resolved of wether I actually had MS or not.
I suspect the RO will deny this once again since the BVA refused to reconize Dr Bashs IMO's. They said if they order it thats one thing, but for a vet to pay for it, thats another thing.
I have a very good attorney working my claim thats at CAVC that i'll try to use once they deny. I won't make my self sick over their refusal to reconize primary evidence from a reputable an experienced neuroradiologist like Dr Bash.
I'l lat an attorney explan it to them next time.
Allan
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This was taken from the proposed rule changes TBird posted.
I have a current claim with the VA for Multiple Sclerosis. The VARO rater has recently asked that I show medical evidence that I've had MS, "continuous" since separation in 1971.I've sent in service medical records showing signs and symptoms of MS, a current diagnoses and three IMOs by a neuroradiologist stating a link or nexus in medical terms. Do I meet the requirement of subjective and objective evidence? VA was the first to provide a diagnoses of "neuromuscular disorder of unknown cause, probable multiple sclerosis"T&P, during a C&P for Pension in 1997.I didn't receive a firm diagnoses for MS until 2005 from an IMO.
Allan
[Federal Register: September 1, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 169)][Proposed Rules]
[Page 53743-53771]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr01se10-19]
if the chronicity
provisions do not apply, VA will grant service connection if there is
competent evidence of signs or symptoms of an injury or disease during
service or the presumptive period, of continuing signs or symptoms, and
of a relationship between the signs or symptoms demonstrated over the
years and the veteran's current disability. See Savage v. Gober, 10
Vet. App. 488, 498 (1997).Current part 3 refers only to ``symptoms''. We would add ``signs''
because the contemporary view of the medical profession distinguishes
between signs and symptoms. A sign is ``any objective evidence of a
disease, i.e., such evidence as is perceptible to the examining
physician, as opposed to the subjective sensations (symptoms) of the
patient.'' Dorland's Illustrated Med. Dictionary 1733 (31st ed. 2007).
A symptom is ``any subjective evidence of disease or of a patient's
condition, i.e., such evidence as perceived by the patient.'' Id. at
1843. Subjective and objective evidence are equally relevant to
establishing continuity of
[[Page 53750]]
symptomatology, and the inclusion of more specific terminology does not
represent a departure from current VA practice.
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Don't go feeling bad. Most don't reconize Navy Vets as serving in the military. we're used to it. Expecially Army officers for some reason. Maybe it's their hat size.
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Im not sure why this article has no reference to why MS is common among Gulf War Vets at all or just how many have it.
It's common and thats it?
Has there been any studies on Vietnam vets to show if it's also common with them and if military vaccines used during Vietnam and Gulf war may have caused it?
So since it's common, is it a presumptive ilness among Gulf War Vets?
We don't know. We only know the symptoms and that its common. Not very informitive is it?
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Philip is right.
Shake it off. It's nothing to stress over.
I've been here since 1998 and the date didn't carry over to the new boards. They've changed many times.
TBird can't be expected to be on top of it all. It's enough to keep the board up and running for us all.
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[We need more people to write fast letters and we will reassign a few hundred seasoned claims raters to study the problem.]
Thats the reality we all experience Sledge.
Year after Year the same thing. Congress votes the funding in and the VA spends it on frivalous studys and waste.
If this government really wanted to give us good health care and cut costs they would give us a medical card to use at any local, private facility, Dr or hospital of our choosing. Do away with these VAMC's, and sell the property. I see nothing they provide that the private sector doesn't already have.
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Make sure to send it certified, return, reciept. Seattle is great at loosing or misplacing forms and evidence or claiming they never recieved it when it's under their noses.
A quick way to get it settled it request a local hearing. Get a copy of the TDIU form from your SO and stick it right in front of the rater at the hearing and show them by actually pointing to the date with your finger of when they recieved it.
You can spend months playing cat and mouse until it goes missing out of your folder.
It's all about retro back to when you filed.
Requesting a local hearing is your best way of getting it resolved. You won't get travel pay and with winter looking like it might be early in Washington State I would send in a written request soon.
Sometimes they will just blow you off until you nail them down.
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I would't put any faith in the accuracy of an EMG test. They often come out normal and seldom show what is really going on with nerve damage.
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It seems to be expensive for Oxycontin Controled Release no matter who you go through.
I see a highly respectable MD for the prescription after he examines me and checks my records out. This Dr and my VAMC PCP keep close taps on what I take.
Than I pay hundreds through Walmart or a local pharmacy for the prescription. So if you go to one that hands it out like candy without an examination or checking your records, I guess it just makes it a little easier, but the proceedure of paying for the Dr's appointment and the prescription out of pocket is the same. I get a break on the Dr's`appointment by useing my medicare, but I also pay a hundred a month for it. I make to much to get any break on medications I pay for is what Medicare informed us. It comes to a fourth of my disability income just for this one pain med. Expensive? Yes. But I don't have much of a life without it.
All this just to take a drug that doesn't make me sick and only dulls the pain. I have many hot, searing ice pick stabs that it doesn't seem to have much of an effect on. It wakes me out of a dead sleep. Usually wakes me and startles the crap out of the wife when I jump up out of bed.
Some days are better than others. The more active I am the more pain I have. Than theres always the weather.
Another alternitive is to try medical marijuana if your state allows it. Although this isn't a cheep form of pain relief either.
It does work were some drugs don't, without having an effect on other medications.
Allan
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John,
Maybe much of what is decided at these facilities concerning pain meds is location.
I'm not finding as much difficulty in my area. Just that they no longer carry the long acting on formulary.
Maybe where there are a high number of drug and alchohol abusers at that facility, they may be more paranoid about prescribing even if others are not abusers.
Also I may not be getting as much trouble with having severe pain due to a neuromuscular disorder. I know that the psychiatrists i've seen have had alot to do with my pain meds. I've never been to a pain clinic.
They asked me to attend one once one winter. They wanted me to travel 600 miles round trip every monday to watch films. All I said was are you crazy? Would you do that on ice covered roads? That was the end of that. They never asked again.
I go to a small local VA clinic now. But I don't think they have a pain clinic or my Dr doesn't think I need to attend it maybe.
I'm so sorry to hear you have to go through this. I know others are as well.
Allan
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They don't want any more claims than they already have sledge.
Deny until they die is how they will likely rate most any claim outside of Vietnam. Even most of those claims where a vet can prove in country, they have denied.
You are right. Almost any military base has AO or other chems and heavy metals, radiation, bioweapons.
If a vet has an ilness that has been connected medically to what has been used in their enviroment, no matter where it is they should be service connected in my opinion. But I can tell you also just how much my opinion counts in the realm of things.
Resently my NSO asked, with all the illnesses i've been diagnosed with, have I ever been exposed to agent orange?
I said it was used on the Naval base Treasure Island I was stationed on. So I asked if he thought VA would be granting benefits for AO for US bases soon?
We agreed probably not in my life time.
Allan
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"We--DoD and VA--simply cannot afford to be less than aggressive in our
effort to identify, treat and rehabilitate TBI victims," Shinseki told
the approximately 1,000 military"
I was diagnosed with having TBI in 2004 and have not seen any sign of treatment for it yet. I'm not an Iraq or Afghanistan vet so maybe this is why.
I think my TBI was either caused by a head injury I had during a car accident, artillary trauma during live fire practice or exposure to high levels of vanadium and fuel oils from marine boiler repair and operation. All occured during the Vietnam era. Since I served in the regular Navy, 7th fleet, the TBI maybe doesn't count as far as treatment or compensation. I've had no other injuries or exposures that could have caused it.
I'm not sure if Vietnam combat TBI vets even qualify for any of this, since I never hear if anyone but Iraq and Afghanistan vets qualify for treatment and compensation.
Why is TBI treatment & benefits limited just to these vets?
-
Recent VA News Releases
To view and download VA news releases, please visit the following
Internet address:
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel <http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel>
VA Secretary Addresses Traumatic Brain Injury Conference
WASHINGTON (August 30, 2010) - Recognizing the longstanding, integrated
collaboration shared by the Department of Veterans Affairs and
Department of Defense, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki gave the keynote
address Monday at the fourth annual Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Military Training Conference here.
"We--DoD and VA--simply cannot afford to be less than aggressive in our
effort to identify, treat and rehabilitate TBI victims," Shinseki told
the approximately 1,000 military, VA and civilian health care workers at
the conference sponsored by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center
(DVBIC).
The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center was established by
Congress in 1992. DoD and VA together offer clinical care, research and
education on traumatic brain injury. DVBIC is the operational component
of the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and
Traumatic Brain Injury.
In praise of the collaborative DVBIC model, Secretary Shinseki said it
should be replicated for all military personnel transitioning to VA
care, and not just for TBI or burn care.
"When it comes to DoD's patients, there is a network of information and
hands-on human care," the Secretary said, "that helps a wounded warrior
transition from one system to the other-- from the battlefield to our
polytrauma centers."
There are DVBIC researchers assigned at each of the four VA Polytrauma
Rehabilitation Centers (Tampa, Richmond, Minneapolis and Palo Alto)
where they gather information regarding care of patients with TBI,
analyze and translate this information into recommendations to improve
care, and educate providers in implementing those improvements
clinically.
DVBIC and VA have shared, and continue to collaborate, on many
significant initiatives. Recent examples include developing and
implementing:
* Joint DoD/VA clinical practice guidelines for TBI;
* Materials and information for families and caregivers of
Veterans with TBI;
* Integrated education and training curriculum, and joint
training on TBI of VA and DoD heath care providers;
* A Congressionally-mandated 5-year pilot program to assess the
effectiveness of providing assisted living services to Veterans with
TBI;
* The TBI Screening tool used for all Veterans who served in
Iraq or Afghanistan and are receiving care within VA; and
* A specialized Emerging Consciousness Care program at the four
polytrauma centers to serve those Veterans with severe TBI who are also
slow to recover consciousness.
Alan Simpson Has His Knives Sharpened For Agent Orange Victims
in VA Disability Claims Research
Posted
Alan Simpson Has His Knives Sharpened for Agent Orange Victims
September 3, 2010 posted by Michael Leon ·
- Oh, I’m sorry, are our veterans’ illnesses inconvenient for you, Alan Simpson? -
By Steve Benen in the Washinton Monthly
MAYBE ALAN SIMPSON SHOULD ENJOY A LITTLE QUIET TIME FOR A WHILE…. It was encouraging to see the Obama administration make it easier for veterans affected by Agent Orange to receive disability payments. This is a worthwhile move, and it reinforces the fact that this administration is committed to doing right by those who wear the uniform.
It was far less encouraging when Alan Simpson decided it was a good time to start mouthing off again.
The system that automatically awards disability benefits to some veterans because of concerns about Agent Orange seems contrary to efforts to control federal spending, the Republican co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s deficit commission said Tuesday.
Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson’s comments came a day after The Associated Press reported that diabetes has become the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans, even though decades of research has failed to find more than a possible link between the defoliant Agent Orange and diabetes.
"The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess," said Simpson, an Army veteran who was once chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Oh, I’m sorry, are our veterans’ illnesses inconvenient for you, Alan Simpson?
Simpson’s opinions matter, of course, because he’s currently the co-chair of the White House’s bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which is considering a variety of areas of the budget that may need "trimming." It’s also the second time in as many weeks as the former Republican senator has caused a stir with his big mouth — last week, in a letter he later apologized for, Simpson compared Social Security to a "milk cow with 310 million tits."
While I appreciate this was arguably a crude take on a common metaphor, the remarks raised legitimate questions, not only about Simpson’s temperament and judgment, but also about his commitment to the Social Security system.
And now he’s at it again.
As for the substance of Simpson’s concerns, Zaid Jilani notes, "Given that the VA estimates that providing care for veterans exposed to Agent Orange would cost only $67 billion over the next decade, it is difficult to imagine why Simpson would see the program as prime for cost-cutting."
Source: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/09/03/alan-simpson-has-his-knives-sharpened-for-agent-orange-victims/