New At This!

[Athena2]

Hello All,

First I want to thank you for having such a venue where veterans can come to get information and post their concerns. Now to my situation. I am a 38 yr old Female Army veteran. I served from 1992 to 1999. I was never in combat. I currently have a disability rating of 40% with an effective date of July of 2009. I have not been feeling good for what seems years and only feel like I am getting worse, which I told the doctor at my last medical eval. And thank to his advice I now have been seen a Rheumatologist (VA Hospital)since. It is obvious to me the Rheumatologist does not know what is wrong. All the blood test imaginable and otherwise have been performed and come back negative, I do have a positive ANA. I feel like they look at me like a trouble patient, and they do not know what to make of me, since according to them I am soo young. I am depressed, hurt all over like I just run a marathon, did I mention that doing the most menial task takes extra effort. In a nutshell I feel horrible. Well, I have been put through the wringer. To make matters worse. on FEB of 2010 I had emergency gall bladder surgery which was so inflammed and infected that I remained in hospital(VA) for a couple of weeks and of which I nearly died, surgery was supposed to be less than four hours mine was nearly eight. I have a big scar across the stomach as a remainder. The doctors were surprised to hear I have never had a gallbladder attack and that there is no history of it in my family. I believe in my heart this is connected with my inflammation and whole body decline. My health seems to me to be getting worse. I have no energy. The whole thing its so frustating to me, as I used to be very active and now have a hard time getting out of bed as it is. Every 3 months or so I see my rhemautologist, I also am seeing an Eye Specialist because of the medication I am on. I see GI specialist(also @ VA hospital) because I still have part of my gallbladder, which causes sharp pain on my right side and which ultimately they want to go back and remove, which is scary for me and I do not want to do as they are no guarantees I will take away the pain. But my choices are dwindling. I am on several differents medications: Hydroxychloroquine, ursodiol, omeprazole, meloxicam and just recently got prescribe amitriptyline because I cannot sleep and wake up in pain and exhausted. I also suffer from dry mouth and eyes and horrible headaches, which I never had before. I was one of those people that never even took aspirin. After a lip biopsy, they ruled out Sjogrens syndrome, but my rheumy doctor thinks I still have a form of it. (?) I am aware that it takes years to find any chronic autoimmune disease, which does not help at all. In the meantime I pray for health and hope someone will find out what is wrong before its too late to do anything about it. Last week after seen my rheumy dr. she told me I might have Fibromyalgia but still believes there is something else going on. I have made an appt. for 9JUN11 with a local VA Rep to see if I can get an increase on my VA disability. I am unemployed and at this time trying to use CHPTR 31 to go back to school. We will see how that goes I hope it goes well and am excited about it. I should also mention that while in service I was diagnose with Dequervain's tendonitis on both wrist for which I had surgery to release tendons on both hands. Inflammation problems again way back when. Also had pain in knees, but who doesn't in the Army right? Just like every soldier I also took Anthrax vaccine. Ultimately, this is why I am writing, I want to see what my options are to get an increase if any at all. Any help, suggestions or advice are kindly appreciated. Thank you.

My Current rating is 40% for the following: (previously I had 20%)

Retropatellar pain syndrome with limitation of motion, right knee & left knee: 10% (this is what change from 0% to 10% in 2009 evaluation)

Tendonitis, right wrist (major): 10%

Tendonitis, status post surgical release of first dorsal compartment, left wrist: 10%

Retropatellar pain syndrome, left knee: 0%

Retropatellar pain syndrome, right knee: 0%

Bilateral pes planus, status post bunionectomy: 0%

[jbasser]

Welcome to Hadit Where Veterans help Veterans. Someone will chime in here soon.

[Guest]

Please understand that I am not trying to be insensitive to your situation I am trying to help.

Unfortunately, fibromyalgia is a disorder that is very hard to diagnosed and even harder to treat. Medications that works for some people does not work for everybody and medications used to treat one symptom may upset another symptom. I would suggest that you try to see a psychiatrist for some type of metal disorder; chronic pain, Mood disorder, Anxiety disorder or something else that could be the result of your current situation. Also, a neurologist to treat your headaches and keep in mind that fibromyalgia is a multi-symptom disorder and each condition can be rated separately. Living with this disorder or any type of chronic pain condition can really drain a person and cause mental as well a physical stress.

5025 Fibromyalgia (fibrositis, primary fibromyalgia syndrome)

With widespread musculoskeletal pain and tender points, with or without associated fatigue, sleep disturbance, stiffness, paresthesias, headache, irritable bowel symptoms, depression, anxiety, or Raynaud's-like symptoms:

That are constant, or nearly so, and refractory to therapy 40%

That are episodic, with exacerbations often precipitated by environmental or emotional stress or by overexertion, but that are present more than one-third of the time 20%

That require continuous medication for control 10%

Note: Widespread pain means pain in both the left and right sides of the body, that is both above and below the waist, and that affects both the axial skeleton ( i.e. , cervical spine, anterior chest, thoracic spine, or low back) and the extremities.

[Mama Bear]

I can't help to much on the va part... I'm new to this all . But I can't help but draw conections with a friend I have. She had slot of the same problems you have. No doctors could figure it out. But by some mistake she happend to off load on to the right person. She was told to stop eating any kind of bread or pasta for a week. She felt so much better after that week. It turns out in her adulthood she has become highly allergic to gluten. ( I know it sounds crazy) apparently it would tear her up on the inside. And continue to do so even days and weeks after she eats the culprit. Her legs burned and she couldn't sleep because of the pain. Her husband was starting to think she was making it all up. Anyways I'm not saying you will have an easy fix like this but, it might be worth trying. Goodluck and I hope you receive the answers you ate looking for. The people here are awesome.

[Vync]

I can't help to much on the va part... I'm new to this all . But I can't help but draw conections with a friend I have. She had slot of the same problems you have. No doctors could figure it out. But by some mistake she happend to off load on to the right person. She was told to stop eating any kind of bread or pasta for a week. She felt so much better after that week. It turns out in her adulthood she has become highly allergic to gluten. ( I know it sounds crazy) apparently it would tear her up on the inside. And continue to do so even days and weeks after she eats the culprit. Her legs burned and she couldn't sleep because of the pain. Her husband was starting to think she was making it all up. Anyways I'm not saying you will have an easy fix like this but, it might be worth trying. Goodluck and I hope you receive the answers you ate looking for. The people here are awesome.

This is more common than most people realize. I believe it is called Celiac's or Hashimoto's disease. Diagnosis is usually very conservative at first, like changing diet, tracking symptoms or lack thereof, etc... A good way to detect it is to have a biopsy of the intestinal lining. If you have a colonoscopy scheduled, that might be the best time to check it out.

[Berta]

Athena 2

Good advise here and have you googled every med you take to see if any are contraindicating themselves (causing a reversal of what they were prescribed for)

or could have caused these problems as side affects from the Meds?

The VA gave my husband one med that was contraindicated by another med.Not being doctors ourselves I only discovered this medical error after he died.

So the initial medicine had no affect on his HBP at all (and the dosage was wrong) because the next med (given with no good medical cause) made his HBP increase.Sudafed prescribed by VA 4 times a day even after X ray revealed no sinus problems.

I think this happens more then we think.

COntraindicated meds can cause more problems than what they were originally prescribed for.

[retiredat44]

I suffer and have been from many many years of pain all over,, I have intestinal disease too.. the edoctors wrote Fibro in my medical records many years ago... the intestinal disease is part of the cause if not all, but I also have neuro disease ... I am just trying to say that if you have fibro, there is a chance you have more problems...

the problem with intestinal disease is that many times the cause will not show up in tests... you can feel so sick you are dying, but the test show you as healthy... and a really big problem maybe developing,, and there it goes festering until it all gets really bad...

hopefully, you don't have anything worse...

try different diets,,, you won't lose anything...

at least you are trying...

pain is soemtimes helpful because at least you can report that to doctors and get it into your records... and the doctors will not do tests unless there is something that forces them to look deeper into the cause...

look for blood, diahrea, constipation.... different symptoms from differnt food...

neuro symptoms, fatigue, weakness,, tremors... eye problems... fevers... antyhing else besides pain...

the length of time the symptoms go on,, weeks or years... if only a few weeks, thaen it could be a passing thing... which would be great!

just thinking out loud..

good luck..