AZAFVET

You can also go back farther by selecting VA Blue Button, Custom and the specify the beginning date and the end date. Simple as that . I have found that all notes from older visits are not found. To save printing costs and your printer, you can go to the records clerk at the VA and request your records by department, date/s, and you can also request copies of your X-ray, CT Scans and MRI's performed at VA facilities. The different scans will be mailed to you or wherever you want them to go.

How does one distinguish between being addicted to Opioid drugs and being addicted to the pain relief Opioids bring? When someone asks me if I am addicted to Hydrocodone I answer that I am addicted to pain relief.

I am now "addicted" to Vicodin thanks to a VA doctor prescribing it for me more than ten years ago. I am now 70% disabled according to the VA for complications brought on from being struck by a vehicle and receiving a lumbar compression fracture fifty years ago. The hydrocodone does help me function and now the VA wants me to get off of the drug but, as yet, offer any replacement therapy to counteract my pain. I have tried accupuncture, two laminectomy surgeries, epidural injections, spinal neurostimulator trial and the VA Pain Clinic was offering distractive therapies such as art and model cars as a way to reduce chronic pain. These did little to relieve my chronic pain and were certainly not a replacement for my Vicodin. My civilian PCP told me that I would never be pain free and that I would experience pain for the rest of my life it is just the degree that it can be reduced. The VA introduced me to opioids and made them readily available for the past ten years and I am now "addicted" to the relief they bring and the ability to function as well as I do. The VA now wants to withdraw them from me, I want to know whether this addiction and now withdrawal can be listed as a disabling condition and worthy of a compensation rating. I am convinced that some of my problems that are chronicled in medical files such as kidney problems, ED and so on are related to my ten year usage of hydrocodone. Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences with this issue? If so, I would appreciate any input. Thanks