The story behind the Story. Mike was my best friend since we were toddlers. We pretty much thought the same way, liked the same food, the same sports and took pretty much the same meds. He was 6'5 and I thought that he would live a long time more than me.
In September Mike called me and said he was in Hospital and he thought he was going to be diagnosed with cancer. After one week in Hospital an Army Hospital used by VA for emergencies. It turned out he had something called psoratic arthritis and was very anemic one of the symptoms. He also had high white count in blood and the VA gave him anti biotics that caused major problems.
Over the next four months he made quite a few visits to er mostly to get morphine for pain. By my count he went to hospital or er probably a dozen times. All the time they kept juggling medicine and their diagnosis. One day he would have kidney stones and shortly he would not have them.
Mike kept telling me that he could not tolerate the pain. Just beofre my birthday he called and told me that he had been in an ambulance for over 11 hours while VA and Army fought about who was going to take care of him. I begged him to go to any place but VA as he had regular insurance.
By Christmas Day Mike had given up on any kind of proper care or relief and shot himself in the head when his wife went to Kitchen to make breakfast. She found him and called me.
I have been devastated and so has his family. I swear if it is the last thing I ever do I will help his wife sue the VA.
My advice to anyone who uses the VA is to be careful.
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Pete53
Re: My Brother Mike passed on Christmas Day
The story behind the Story. Mike was my best friend since we were toddlers. We pretty much thought the same way, liked the same food, the same sports and took pretty much the same meds. He was 6'5 and I thought that he would live a long time more than me.
In September Mike called me and said he was in Hospital and he thought he was going to be diagnosed with cancer. After one week in Hospital an Army Hospital used by VA for emergencies. It turned out he had something called psoratic arthritis and was very anemic one of the symptoms. He also had high white count in blood and the VA gave him anti biotics that caused major problems.
Over the next four months he made quite a few visits to er mostly to get morphine for pain. By my count he went to hospital or er probably a dozen times. All the time they kept juggling medicine and their diagnosis. One day he would have kidney stones and shortly he would not have them.
Mike kept telling me that he could not tolerate the pain. Just beofre my birthday he called and told me that he had been in an ambulance for over 11 hours while VA and Army fought about who was going to take care of him. I begged him to go to any place but VA as he had regular insurance.
By Christmas Day Mike had given up on any kind of proper care or relief and shot himself in the head when his wife went to Kitchen to make breakfast. She found him and called me.
I have been devastated and so has his family. I swear if it is the last thing I ever do I will help his wife sue the VA.
My advice to anyone who uses the VA is to be careful.
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