Hurting

I guess that I will have to check and see if I have gone crazy! Pain is definitely something that can drive you crazy!

Thanks Chuck. My meds have already lapsed. I have been doing without for quite a while now. Hurting and very limited as to what I am able to do everyday. Just really tired of missing out on the important parts of my children's life and of hurting.

I don't see a shrink.

I have had multiple health problems that caused pain I rate differently. I had a heart attack which was one type of excruciating uncontrollable pain affecting multiple areas of my body. Also I have had pancreatic problems which is another type of serious pain and last but not least there is my chronic pain in my back in which I have to live with everyday. By far the most excruciating pain was the pancreas but that was taken care of and done and over with. Same with my heart but still hurts a little but not like it did. Problems are that my heart and the damage in my back is so close together. The bone structure pain, stiffness, and sensitivity does not go away nor does the pain from the messed up muscles in my heart. They both need to be treated and I am getting jerked around and having to live with the lack of mobility, constant pain in my back and neck and the stiffness that never goes away (not saying anything about missing the majority of the best years of my kids growing up). My back is what I am service connected on and I don't see how they can legally ignore the problems and pain associated with my service connected disability. Really pisses me off that they would do this after finding out what works to make me able to function in society and then strip it away and cause me to start out again at square one like after the accident.

When I spoke with Smarta_ _ Dr. Sommerville he looked in my records and saw that the majority of the time I rated my pain from T8, T9 and T10 in my back at a 6 or a 7 and used that as an excuse to cut me off all my pain meds. By saying apparently the pain meds are not working and he did not prescribe me anything else period at that time. He prescribed me Phenyltoloxamine after a month of me complaining and doing without. That was with me calling at least 2 times a week speaking to the telephone unit and the nurse. They would all say I will leave him a note in the computer and I would receive a call back. Now after a month of me calling that was the only call back I ever received from anyone at the VA. I have called many times after that and all have gone ignored! This new med was great for my bowels but did absolutely nothing for the pain in my back. After that I was hospitalized 3 days in my local civilian hospital due to my chest pain and they come to the conclusion that I was ulcerated from all of the Ibuprofen I had been taking to try to alleviate the pain. They gave me a new presription for Etodolac and sent the script and a statement with me to the VA that said that if this new med did not work that they should re-prescribe my pain meds due to the additional health risks of the ulcers. But it went ignored too with the exception of them prescribing the new meds.

I was offered the Pain Clinic by the Patient Advocate and she transferred me to the telephone unit so I could request going to it. So I jumped at the chance but they are in no big hurry to get me in there.

Problem with the Private Sector, I went to the ER at Local Hospital and told them what they had done to me at the VA and that I was needing a Referral to a Outside DR. and I was told that I would have to go to the VAMC and ask my Primary Care Dr. for one. I asked out there and was told that they would not do that. O'l and got a $1200.00 Bill from Private Sector Hospital. I have Medicare too.

Thanks. It takes a lot of little things to make any big plan come together.

The Patients Rights also say that I have the right to be a active part in the decisions of my treatment. All statements in those rights are just posted for image purposes only!

I will give it a try. Thanks

Apparently I am getting the Va Shaft By Getting All of the But Kissers for Docs. Its a shame too because I am not the only one suffering for their decisions and actions. Its my kids also for having to miss their father participating in big parts of their life. Its my job to protect and teach them but with the limitations that this has caused me it has really impeded the protection aspect of my family and my ability to go out and interact with my children for the teaching side of that.

Being exempt from state medical board explains why the doctor working under him Dr. Stemple had an expired Medicine Dispensing License too. Thanks

I noticed that the link to the West Virginia Board of Medicine did not work properly so I if you need to go there the here is the link www.wvbom.wv.gov and on the left side of the page under Miscellaneous click on the Licensee Search and search for Troy Donald Sommerville.

I doubt that suing would work, only if the lawyers would collect a large sums of money. Its Highly possible it would fall on deaf ears. In Huntington WV we have a severe drug problem and Federal, State, County and Huntington Police Department are all cracking down on narcotics and other drugs in the area (which I think its great to clean up the community and get the trouble making thugs out so our children can again play in their neighborhoods but the Dr.s should not be aiding Enforcement Agencies by cutting "needy patients" out of vital medications that keep them functioning). Most of Huntington's Doctors and Lawyers are on the band wagon with the crack down. The Doctors that do see the need for the patients and do prescribe narcotics are afraid due to possibly losing their licenses or negative repercussions in the community. The Drug problems we are having in our area is so bad that our State Leaders (Senate & House & Governor) is in for backing the clean up. I emailed a copy of the info I had documented about my medical treatment at the Huntington VAMC to Governor Manchins Office, Nick Joe Rahall's Office, Senator Byrds Office, The Joint Commission, PRN Newswire, The Associated Press, WSAZ News and Fox News with only a reply from the Joint Commission. The Joint Commission told me that for them to do anything I would have to let them use my name in their investigation and I feared of even more repercussions with my family's and my medical care. So I have resorted to pleading with my doctor, nurses and the patient advocate (Rep) which has fallen on deaf ears. My Doctor (Dr. Sommerville) does not want to prescribe pain meds of any potency to "anyone" (I wonder if it is has to do with practicing with a expired medicine dispensing license? http://www.wvbom.wv.gov/licenseSearch.asp?QueueNumber=0&Radio=1&keywordLast=sommerville&keywordFirst=Troy&profession=&Category=&Descending=&CurrentPage=1&TotalPages=1&PageSize=20&IndividualID=7105) and the Patient Advocate doesn't want to do as much as to even advise the patient of what rights they have nor to give them advice on what steps needed to be taken to rectify the problem. All they say is that they cannot do anything because they (the VAMC) are not allowing patients to change Dr.s due to the fact they do not have enough Primary Care Dr.s. The Patient Advocates are on board with the cleaning up of the Huntington West Virginia's Veterans Administration Medical Centers Image. Understandably they cannot prescribe meds or change the Dr.s minds but they won't stand up for the patients even though they are hearing the same story from patient after patient. It seems to me that at some point they would say enough abuse is enough and stand up and go public with what is actually going on out the at the Huntington WV VAMC. The Patient Advocates (REPS) are being paid by the VA. If they go against the VAMC and actually help the patient they could lose their jobs so they prefer to be on board with the butt kissing and protect the VAMC Image. I spoke with one of the Patient Advocates Today (LISA which I have spoke to many times before) and according to her they are Documenting in my records that I am refusing to do anything in the way of the treatment they suggest to include going to the pain clinic. "May I state for the record I had never refused any treatment at all until I was cut off of my medication and left to suffer in pain also I was never offered the opportunity to go to the pain clinic. The only things I have refused as far as my treatment was the shots in my back and the unnecessary MRI Procedure. Now recently after 8 months of trying to contact my Dr. though the nurses and the telephone unit without response and continuous ignoring I am refusing to return to see this Dr. Sommerville because I feel he does not care about myself nor his other patients." I had to go to Dr. Sommerville (Dr. Sommerville is a real arrogant smarta_ _) for a Check up it was then when I was told by him that the only pain med he would prescribe was shots in my back in which I refused. I had read and heard to much about this treatment and additional problems assosiated with it. At that point I was told sarcasticcally (by Dr. Sommerville) that if I got to hurting bad enough that I would come in and get the shots in my back. At that time he wanted to do another MRI and I told him that it was unnecessary for that procedure because there had been no change with my back since the last MRI and there was no need to milk my Medicare Card with unnecessary procedures when he has all the information he needs to make his decisions about my care in the computer all he had to do was read a little. (with the shortage of Primary Care Dr.s and such tight scheduling of patients that takes to much time). The shortage of staff is resulting in neglect of patients which in turn leads to abuse and so on because they do not have adequate time to spend with each patient to hear what the patients problems actually are. Any place else would have already been sued. All I ask and have been asking is to be as pain free as possible so I can interact with my children and the community and to be able to control my medication instead of it controlling me! I don't know how you all see it but the way I look at it you don't take a wheel that is not broken and try to fix it. Everything was working great until I was forced to go to these new Dr.s (Dr. Stemple & Dr. Sommerville) because of Dr. Almond getting a promotion. By the way I don't treat my dog the way they have me and if this was one of their family members being treated like this anywhere else they would not stand for it. As far as being left to suffer inhumanely its just par for the course for the Huntington West Virginia VAMC patients to suffer whatever the VAMC wants to dish out to improve their image. While speaking with Lisa the Patient Advocate at the medical center today I mentioned what does it take me going in the big office up there and letting the big wigs see what kind of pain they are leaving their patients in or going to the media and she then asked me if I wanted to set up a appointment with the pain clinic to passify me. Of course I jumped at the chance to be seen by someone whom may be able to stop some of this EXCRUCIATING CHRONIC PAIN! I am on this board now because of the mistreatment, neglect and abuse getting great Input and Advice, also placing a World Wide Record of how they are treating me, other veterans and their families at the Huntington WV VA Medical Center. If anyone would like to link this posting to any other blogs or sites please feel free to do it. The more links the better. This may be the one of the best ways to get out the story of the "Deliberate Mistreatment, Neglect and Abuse of the Veterans and their Families by the Huntington WV VAMC for Facility Gain" to the general public. Just maybe we can get the other veterans and myself the proper medical treatment we deserve!

It wasn't the pharmacy that changed my meds. it was my Primary Service Provider. Primary Care Dr. in other words.

By the way the pain medication I was on originally was oxycodone which was working fine with Dr. Almond and then I was told that 3 out of the 4 plants that made that particular medication had been shut down and caused and National Shortage. So I then was given Morphine Sulfate and a new PSP. When I went to the new PSP I requested to be put on something else because the Morphine Sulfate was slightly to strong and that it controlled me not me controlling my medications. My New PSP took me off of the Morphine Sulfate and lowered it to Lora-tabs. Which was fine until I saw on the bottle that they were decreasing dosage for discontinue. Ever since discontinue I have been given pain meds that do not even come close to touching the pain level. I will call my PSP and not get a return call back and then I will call the Patient Advocate and I get the same old dance that they cannot do anything about it and that the final medicine decision is up to the PSP. or I get an answering machine and again will not get a return call or I talk to someone and they tell me they will find out something and call me back, I sit waiting for a call that never comes. Again

Thanks for moving this post to the proper location. Yes these are new PCP's that I have been stuck within the last year. First it was Dr. Stemple which shortly after her starting to decrease my dose for discontinue I requested another Dr. and the VAMC gave me her Superior Dr. Sommerville. The reason the Dr. Sommerville gave me was that my pain levels were on the high side even with pain med. I have had multiple health problems to include a Heart Attack, Pancreal Attacks, my broken back ect... I have lived long enough with my health problems that I know that every pain is different and that there are many different levels of pain. I being honest about how my back bothers me under is hurting me in more ways than I ever thought it could. Dr. Sommerville wanted to do some shots in my back and I would not let him. Which in turned pissed him off. I told him that I was already having more than my share of hurt out of it and that I was not comfortable with someone shooting me in the back with needles. As far as the RX Levels in my system I have always tested with levels within the normal range for the dosage I had been prescribed. My first Dr. was Dr. Almond and she had been with me through my Heart Attack and my Pancreal Attacks and was a very good Dr. But she got a promotion within the VAMC and I was given a new PCP which was Dr. Stemple. This lady Dr. made everyone she saw sign and contract and begin cutting them off of their pain meds. She had made all of her patients mad and Now I hear she has since been transfered to another VAMC in Hawaii . Pretty nice huh. (Just goes to show that the old saying goes. You scratch my back I'll scratch yours. Help me clean up my VA's Image and I will make sure you get a good job in Hawaii) This is a pathetic shame because it is the veterans that risk life and limb for our country that is suffering. A media outlet let it out that the VAMC in Huntington West Virginia prescribed more narcotics than any other medical facility in the nation. And also they are being sued for the treatment they gave Rev. Flippin after botched Brachytherapy treatments in Philli. PA VAMC. Its not uncommon for a VAMC in this area to prescribe more narcotics than any where else because we have more people volenteering to enter our Armed Services than any other area in the US of A. With that being said it stands true to say that we have more wounded soldiers to attend to and of course they would need to prescribe more pain management drugs. DA! I wish the VAMC in Huntington WV would do the right thing and rectify the problem they have caused for so many of the Brave Soldiers that Served their Country Proudly and got Injured for Life. The treatment the Huntington West Virginia VAMC is providing its patients is nothing more than Torture, Mistreatment and Abuse.

From: Hurting They are being sued by a group of people who have had Brachytherapy treatment in PA. There was also a news article stating that the Huntington WV VAMC prescribed more narcotics than any other medical facility in the nation. In order to improve their image they are cutting off patients off of their pain medications left and right. The following is a web address in which you can listen a little to Pastor Flippin one of the patients suing due to botched Brachytherapy Surgery. Pastor Flippin sought treatment at the VAMC in Huntington WV after the surgery in PA. Surgical Errors at Philadelphia’s Veterans Hospital VAMC Malpractice Now due to these lawsuits and media publications it is the needy veterans paying a very high price by living in pain for serving their country and getting injured because the doctors are improving the hospitals image and taking away needed medications. The patients who desperately need pain medication on a regular basis is unable to get it due to this image restoration process. I had T8, T9 and T10 crushed while I was on active duty and am now living in pain and unable to go out and enjoy life with my young children. I have missed my Daughters High School Graduation due to the inability to be functional with the increased pain factor. Not having pain medications have affected me in the following ways, I have tried to do the Ibuprofen thing and caused ulcers and also I am now having problems with my chest hurting (Bronchial and Lung) all the time and lack of energy, I have gained 50 lbs which is not good on my heart and with the inability to get out and exercise to get the weight off it is opening the door for more heart problems. I am unable to go out and enjoy life with my children. I have contacted the Patient Advocate without any help I keep being told that the Dr. has the final say when it comes to medications. Also I have requested another Dr. and was told that I could not get another one for 2 years due to the fact that I requested another dr. when they started cutting my medications I had another doctor Dr. Stemple who worked under the doctor I have now which is Dr. Summerville. I have never tested positive for drugs other than what the VA prescribed, my medication levels were always in line and have never caused any problems at the medical facility nor was I having problems with law enforcement due to being on Chronic Pain Medication nor was I having problems with Depression or family life. Now due to this Dr. Summervilles decision to cut me off of my chronic pain medication I am suffering like may others here at the Huntington WV VAMC. Due to the image restoration they are trying to do for the hospital. If anyone has any suggestions to help please send me info at safety1st@mail.org The following statement (in bold and underlined) in the lawsuit filed has created most of the fuss. Doctors then prescribed narcotics. “It was just a succession of painkiller after painkiller after painkiller’, Pastor Flippin said.

Is it legal for a Va Medical Center Doctor to pull a 100% Permanent and Total Service connected Veterans Pain Medication (which seemed to be working fine without adverse affects) without good reason after 15 years and other Va Doctors prescribing it because they felt it was necessary?