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mpara

Seaman
  • Posts

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About mpara

  • Birthday 04/29/1968

Previous Fields

  • Service Connected Disability
    90%
  • Branch of Service
    Army

mpara's Achievements

  1. All, It is hard to believe that twenty-one years ago this month the U.S. and coalition forces began the air campaign to liberate Kuwait. We too, were Soldiers once and young……………. I am proud to call each and every one of you my brothers and sisters who answered the call to fight what was supposed to be the “mother of all battles”. I would like to start a thread for people to report updated symptoms that either you or a loved one who is a Gulf War Veteran are now experiencing. Perhaps it would also be good to at least list your major command and anything you may be able to think of regarding any locations on the ground so as to see if there is any correlation between location and condition. I will go first: Unit/Location: XVIII Airborne Corps area of operation, under the 101st Airborne Division assigned to a supply unit under the coscom. Obviously Guarding City coming and going, an area that I think was called Bastogne which was about two miles east of the city of An Nuayriyah until the beginning of the air war then near a place called Rahfa . During the ground war we moved into Iraq but I couldn’t tell you where. Medical issues within the first five years: Immunity problems: Caught everything that came around Ear infections Recurring skin irritations that sometimes would cause blisters to form (mainly around wrists) Depression/Anxiety issues Medical Issues last five years: Continuation of immunity problems Continuation of depression/anxiety issues Pain, sometimes debilitating (doctors say that they don’t believe it is arthritis) in hip joints, knees, wrists, elbows Sleep Apnea Regular ear and lung infections 90% (estimated) loss in sense of smell ability Short term memory issues that I fear is gradually becoming general memory issues Problem with reasoning/problem solving abilities sometimes Trouble getting the right word out when communicating either written or spoken. (sometimes I just cannot find a word. Sometimes I will lose my train of thought in conversations or even sentences) Ringing in the ears Explosive ability to go into a rage High liver enzyme numbers (non-drinker, only take medicine for high blood pressure and acid reflux) Fingers sometimes lock or spasm for no apparent reason (Last several months) I have left out things such as high blood pressure and some other things that I am quite sure of are hereditary.
  2. This is very interesting. I have, only in the several years, begun to notice this also. The first thing I noticed was that when I would an email or something that I was leaving words out. I have also started fowling up spoken words or merely just not being able to get the word out. Kind of like my brain has a word to say but I dont know what it is. Lots more short term memory type stuff as well.
  3. mpara

    Wriisc

    Thanks so much Vetwife for such a great response! Great information for sure.
  4. mpara

    Wriisc

    Greetings all! Has anyone out there been to the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC) that can share any information? I have a Vet who is seriously considering attending for Gulf War Illness related conditions and am trying to help gather as much information as possible. Her concerns include: What is the average duration of stay?How effective are they in educating and assisting Veterans dealing better with their illnesses?Has anyone had their service connected disability percentage adversely effected by participating?Are they actually acknowledging and dealing with conditions better than standard VA Primary Care physicians?Can a Veteran receive any compensation while attending to offset lost income while participating?We would appreciate anyone out there who can answer any of the above or who may have any other insight or concern regarding participating in this program. Thanks much
  5. Pete, thanks for passing this information along!
  6. +Happy Anniversary! My wife and I were both in the D.S. and now our daughter is about to graduate basic training and probably eventually head to the Middle East. Forgive me if I can't remember all of my unit identifier I was a young wire dog (Commo guy) and was thrown in with a detachment under the 1st CSG, XVIII Airborne Corps. Nothing glorious or medal worthy but I was there all the same! November 2, 1990 - Mid April 1991
  7. Hey rmvtrebor67 , Thank you for your continued service! I am glad to hear that you are being treated for your conditions. I cannot tell you how many times I have wanted to kick myself for never going on sick call and not mentioning things on physicals for fear of messing up that "picket fence". Trust me when I tell you that it is a pain to try to show service connection from out here were all of us DD 214 holders stand. I really don't have any guidance for you other than to encourage you to continue to get everything documented right now while you are still in. You are among friends here. It is tough leaving the service. It is scary not knowing what you will do outside in the civilian world. Most of all it is very frustrating dealing with medical issues that are unexplainable or for which there doesn't seem to be much relief available. We all know what you are facing and are rooting for you. Just hang in there and take it one day at a time. There are a lot of really smart folks here on hadit (not including me, I am a newby) that seem to have lots of knowledge. Use all of your resources as you progress in your claim. Mike
  8. Good Morning Soaring Eagle A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away when I was in the Army we would always have to conduct After Action Reviews after every event. The lessons learned from those reviews could then be shared with others in an attempt for as many as possible to learn from our mistakes. I hope you don't mind if I share with you a few personal lessons learned from my engagements with the VA regarding Gulf War issues hoping that it may help. In each of these claims I assumed it was pretty much cut and dry due to the "presumptive conditions" stuff. I found out otherwise. These three are for conditions that I think are similar to some of the things you listed in your post. Hopefully these results may help you develop your "plan of attack." - Service connection for digestive dysfunction as due to an undiagnosed illness. - Service connection for musculoskeletal pain.....due to an undiagnosed illness. The below paragraph seemed to be the evaluators "boiler plate" response of the day to the above two as well as anything that was not in my official military medical records at the time of separation. "...service connection for (both above) remains denied because it is not shown to have been incurred or aggravated by military service. To fulfill the requirement for chronicity, the claimed illness must have persisted for a period of 6 months. The 6- month period of chronicity is measured from the earliest date on which all pertinent evidence establishes that the signs or symptoms of the disability first became manifest. Service connection based on Gulf War Illness is also denied because the medical evidence fails to show the condition persisted for a period of at least 6 months." So maybe if I had went to my doctor and had at least 6 months of chronic symptoms then I would have been good. I don't know; I just know this didn't work. What I had done was gone to the VA and talked to the VA doctors about these conditions. It was in my file but not long enough to be chronic? Maybe if I would have waited for 6 months to pass then they would have made it. Not sure. - Service connection for chronic fatigue syndrome as due to an undiagnosed illness. "..... We have denied service connection for chronic fatigue syndrome as due to undiagnosed illness. Although this disability is shown to have persisted for a period of at least 6 months, service connection for chronic fatigue syndrome is denied since this disability neither arose during service in the Gulf theater, nor was it manifested to a compensatable degree after the last date of service in the Gulf theater during the Gulf War. Service connection is also denied because the medical evidence does not show you meet the criteria for a 10 percent evaluation, therefore, service connection due to an undiagnosed illness must be denied....." This one still amazes me. Here I did have 6 months of chronic symptoms I guess but my symptoms were not great enough to warrant compensation. I would have assumed I could have gotten a zero percent service connection however it was a flat denial. Anyway, I wished I would have known about hadit.com before filing for the above as I am sure I could have gotten enough research as well as feedback from others to have been more successful. Berta's questions are very good ones. Oh how I wish I would have had better medical documentation and enlisted the assistance of a Veterans Service Officer. Trust me when I tell you that I am not done with these issues and when I go back into the ring I will have both strong medical documentation as well as a VSO in my corner. I hope this helps you in some way as the more of us who eventually receive service connection for issues relating to the Gulf War the less chances of our issues falling thru the bureaucratic cracks. Best of luck to you! Mike
  9. Hey Cachanilla73! I am not sure about dandruff but I know that when I took the Gulf War Registry physical I showed them some scarred areas around my wrists where I had scratched at groups of recurring small blisters/rashes over the years. The physician did seem interested at the time and referred me to the dermatologist for an open invitation to come in the next time the blisters/rash appeared. I went in and was seen; the doctor asked me questions about my environment and seemed very interested that I was at the time working in a plant handling car seat materials all day. His final assessment was that I had contact dermatitis from the materials and foam at work. (At least I didn't get the standard "you need to lose some weight" punch line for once) Here it is 13 years later and I haven't built a car seat in 12 years consequently having no contact with any materials but still getting the rash from time to time. Lots of G.W. Vets that I have spoken with have stated that they too have or at least at one time had rashes that they believed were the result of some kind of exposures in the Gulf. Gulf War Vets were exposed to so many different environmental "shocks" to the system. Everything from doing time keeping the "burn-out" latrines cooking to spraying those cans of industrial strength bug repellants directly on our body when the instructions clearly said "do not apply directly to skin," not to mention whatever was in the air setting off all those M-8 "false" alarms that we all came to enjoy so dearly. I can only imagine how hard all of our immune systems had to work in order to combat all of these different exposures/germs that had been foreign to our systems prior to going to the Middle East. I haven't heard about anything specific to dandruff but maybe others have.
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