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What To Expect At Initial Va Physical Exam

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  • HadIt.com Elder

What should I expect at my initial va physical exam at the local VAMC?

Well, first off you will be going to the lab for pee-in-the-bottle and bleed-in-the-tubes.

Secondly, you will be seen by your Primary Care Physician's nurse and you will be weighed and measured and spygmanometered and pulse-counted.

Then you will be seen by your Primary Care Physician and they will ausculate your breathing, ask if any thing in speciific is bothering you, and, if you are of a certain age and male, then you'll get the "fickle-finger-of-fate" exam.

(this first PCP exam will determine your basic med values (weight, blood sugar, cholesteral, etc.) and it will ALSO determine which specialists you need to see, and appointments will be applied for with those specialists.

This is the TIME to "get on record" any and all problems that you have, ESPECIALLY those that you think may stem from your time in service.

Make a list.

Use the list.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I recommend not drinking alcohol or taking any illegal drug for at least a week before going for the exam. They do a screen on you for these things when you pee in the bottle. It is so easy for the VA to document that you are drug user and it hangs around your neck forever. If you ever file for any emotional type illness they will not fail to mention dirty drug screen.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I recommend not drinking alcohol or taking any illegal drug for at least a week before going for the exam. They do a screen on you for these things when you pee in the bottle. It is so easy for the VA to document that you are drug user and it hangs around your neck forever. If you ever file for any emotional type illness they will not fail to mention dirty drug screen.

Good point, I didn't think to bring up.

NOW, after you've been going to the VA Medical Centers/CBOC for a while, then they willl have you ON drugs, and then you will get dinged IF, when you pee in the bottle, you DON'T have drugs in your system (they'll prescribe the drugs for pain, etc., and if you don't have these drugs that they have prescribed in your system then they will automatically assume that you are not using the drugs but, instead, are SELLING the drugs...................not good....). I spent the better part of a half hour explaining to my primary care physician why I didn't have ENOUGH codiene "on board".........then, when I asked him if he would want to be on the road, with me, in 8AM Dallas traffic, so that I could make it to the VA so that I could sit here and try to explain why I'm not doped up, then he lightened up, a little.:wacko:

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Good reason to have spouse drive you to the VA. The VA also notes if you have someone with you when you come for treatments. I am not sure why.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Good reason to have spouse drive you to the VA. The VA also notes if you have someone with you when you come for treatments. I am not sure why.

Only problem there is that said spouse works. Besides, I'm not at the VA just for my appointments, but, for other reasons also, so I just try to tough it out when the pain really gets bad. I've just fractured a bone in my real foot and that is making me use a little more "medicine" than normal, so I'll get The Nurse to drop me off at the train station and I'll ride the train in to the VA on Tuesday and Thursday until this thing gets better, I suppose. Only problem with doing that is that either she must go in to her work an hour earlier than normal, or stay an hour and half later, and I try really hard not to make her day any harder than it normally is.........................so, normally, I'd just suck it up, but this time I really screwed up my good leg/foot. Oy vey!

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