Vync

GuayasJim, that's great advice!

Congratulations on your well deserved success! I hate that you are having so many problems with people hating you

Drugs like Gabapentin can also cause weight gain.

Welcome to the 19th century

Is road rage in there?

Good points made

The last time I went to the VAMC emergency room I was in a serious amount of obvious pain. After five hours, they provided pain medication that actually worked. I asked what took so long and was told that they were trying to address pain by treating first with milder medication, moving up to the stronger medications. The side effects of the lesser medications caused me to get really sick and lose a couple of days of work.

The disorder name should include "never ending red tape"

Here is an important tip. After locating a site you wish to visit, be sure to call them! There was an Army reserve site just a few minutes from my house. I went there and, despite it showing on the list as an ID card site, I found out they were not an ID card site. I had to drive to the Air Force base on the other side of town to get my ID.

Hey Jay, I was watching Fox 6 news this morning and they said that claims and the 1-800 number would be part of the shutdown. I don't believe everything I see on TV, but you never know...

I tried the VA pain management clinic and they were so screwed up they forgot about me in the waiting room - twice. My VA PCP doc did set me up with some alternatives. I got a heating pad, tens unit, back brace, and some ice packs. I would not necessarily call it a robust pain management plan, but it was better than getting shafted by the pain management clinic.

Buzz, Congratulations on your win!

It could be possible, but due to all the scams out there, tell her to be careful about responding to the letter. Check directly with the VA with known legitimate means of communication. The easiest way to find out is to check the bank account to see if a treasury deposit was made for the said amount. She can also call the 1-800-827-1000 number, ebenefits, or check with her VSO if nothing arrived in the mail. I hope this turns out to be a legitimate win.

I went fishing in the Chatahoochee river a few times when my father was stationed at Ft. Benning. I think I was about 7 or 8 years old. Recently I talked with my mother and she said they were doing work on Martin. Here's a link to it: http://www.martin.amedd.army.mil/New%20Facility%20Website/New%20Facility.htm

Hey yellow, I hope you are feeling better. Things other than medication can cause someone to get backed up, especially if you ate a lot of food or took vitamins high in IRON. I had a problem very similar to yours. My lumbar was already a bit jacked up due to herniated discs. I went to a steak house and admit to eating more than my share of medium rare. I didn't need to go to the bathroom for a couple of days and then experienced increasing pain in my abdomen and lower back. The doc did x-rays and pointed out the constipation. Apparently I strained too much trying to clear things out and re-herniated my discs. The morphine IV was a big relief, but they sent me home with a bunch of laxatives after it passed. Unlike your visit, I did not have to endure ants. Those are the worst! Evil! If you see unsafe situations like that, make sure to notify the facility Patient Advocate.

It's time to update the old link from TBird stickied in 2007. Let's start with fishing... Before, if you were totally disabled your license was $1.00. Here is the new information for fishing only. Now it is $3.05 for everyone 20% and up. But read carefully... Yeah, that's right. Go where you renew the tags for your car. Don't expect them to know how to issue your discounted them either. It took them 40 minutes, not mentioning the long wait I already spent in line. Bring your VA letter showing you are 20% or more. P&T military ID won't work. They need to see the percentage on the letter from the VA. Also, if you have a disabled veteran tag on your car, you might have a letter in the mail telling you to bring in your VA percentage letter. They switched computer systems and all of the previously scanned copies are all gone. If you are going in for your discounted fishing license, might as well get them to knock out letter too.

The tests results came back. There were zero traces of active HCV, but they said I will carry the antibodies forever. However, if exposed again in the future, there is no guarantee that it will end with good news. I feel like a cat that had nine lives, but just spent one of them.

Yeah, no joke! I find that 90% of VAMC treatment for my SC conditions are being rubber stamped to be billed to my private insurance.

Asknod, All I can say is, Wow. That is a fantastic condensed historical perspective and was both very informative and educational. I hope the new medication will be released on schedule --- and more importantly available from the VA. Additionally, I hope you are first on the list to get it. Adjusting my risk factors: - I joined the Army in 1990 - I had an EMG with needle testing last year. I remember curiously watching the the doctor remove the needle from the sterile packaging, which had the brown sterile seal. I am planning on digging through my records to see if the VA ever ran those blood tests on me. Last year I signed up for the Million Veteran Program, however due to the usual restrictions of research studies, we will never know the results of any of the genetic/blood screens. I did spend some time on the VA Hepatitis web pages. They basically tell people to focus on looking ahead to healthier lifestyles and treatment instead of where they contracted HCV. However, I think that is bad advice because vets need to have the nexus to be SC for it, if they got it from the military or the VA. They did go into a lot of details about how it can take 10-30 years before things get really bad, but then they explain that by then your liver could already be half gone too.

Best of luck to you!

Hi Berta, I really appreciate the feedback. I checked the links you provided and the statins I took were a few years ago. I do have some of the common symptoms, but they could overlap with my SC conditions. I went to the doctor this morning, explained the situation, provided a copy of the letter, and got a few of my questions answered. I explained about the air gun vaccinations and her eyebrows raised. She said that a lot of soldiers have no idea what they are being injected with. She explained having antibodies means I was exposed to the virus. It is possible that my body fought it off, but she had a lot of blood drawn to do more advanced testing and find out were I stand. I expect the results back sometime next week. I also got to thinking of another potential risk factor. A while back I was using the VAMC toilet and it suddenly 'blasted' me underneath. Yuck. Yeah, last thing anyone would want to happen. I reported it to the closest VAMC nurse and they didn't do anything except tell me where paper towels were located. I went to the same doc I visited today and she did blood work and put me on preventative antibiotice. I am not sure if someone can catch Hep C from sewage.

Thanks JB, I am taking the letter to the doc first thing in the morning.

Jbasser's template is excellent. A reconsideration is an option in some cases. In a nutshell, you are telling the VA that they screwed something up and to take another look. It is important to realize that the with a reconsideration it is possible that the same analyst might look at it and not change their mind. The other problem is that with an NOD there is a time limit. Kind of like on the main topic you linked when you said that you ran out of time. Before the timer runs out, you must either change the reconsideration to an NOD or do a formal appeal, otherwise you could lose your effective date. Sometimes the VA might turn around a reconsideration before the clock runs out, but be prepared if things get close. An NOD is more formal and can preserve your effective date. You could also ask for a de novo DRO review, which moves your claim to a senior or more experienced rater and ensures that a different person looks at it. You can even ask for in person DRO review. I did that. I was able to plead my case to the DRO in person at the RO. I had great success, but was very well prepared. It did take about a year and a half before I got my appointment, but I was not experiencing a hardship situation. Be sure to check out the main hadit.com page. There are a lot of great links and resources about NOD's, appeals, etc... Also, be sure to read the extra pages that were attached to your decision letter. They should have included instructions about filing an NOD.

Hello everyone, I just got a letter in the mail and don't quite know what to make of it. Hopefully you guys can help. For the first time in my life I gave blood. I was always denied because I lived in Europe during the early 1990's, during the BSE/Mad Cow Disease time period. They recently relaxed that restriction to people living there for four or more years during a certain time period, but I lived there only 3.5 years during that time. The first time I gave blood was about three months ago and then again a couple of weeks ago. Today, I get a letter in the mail from the organization where I gave blood. This is what it says: Then they go on to say that I cannot donate any more blood for at least six months, and then I would have to also have to test negative to ChLIA too. I thought to myself about risk factors: - Never used drugs - No tattoos - No piercings - Mother and father are both negative to HCV - Married more than once - No STD history - Had several surgical procedures (one in the military), but never administered any blood - Was given only the first of three Hepatitis C vaccine shots. Did not need the other two because I was transferred and never deployed to combat - When taking cholesterol-reducing statins, like Lipitor, it jacked up my liver and I had to stop taking them - Never previously tested positive for HCV, but don't think I was ever tested for HCV antibodies Then I thought back to something I read on here a while back. What about the immunization auto-injectors when I joined the military? In 1990, I was processed in at the MEPS center at Maxwell AFB, AL, and went to Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, SC. I would have to dig through my records to be sure where, but I remember us walking down the assembly line and getting immunization after immunization with those air injector guns and having blood drooling down my arm just like everyone else ahead and behind me. Should I go to the doctor and get further testing? I'm already 100% P&T. If I do end up being confirmed positive, would there be any benefits of filing a claim for it? Thanks