Gwv's: Please Join The Fight!

[sleeper692]

I want to share my experience in helping with getting congressional support for GWI research funding and let everyone know that we need more GWV's in the fight to get funding for research. We also need more help in convincing Congress to hold hearings about the VA's blatant ignorance of research findings and possible treatments for GWI. This also includes the incompetence at the VARO level in rating claims for GWV's which should be important to every one of you.

Yesterday was the deadline to get Congressional support from State Representatives on a "Dear Colleague" letter requesting $25 million for GWI research funding in FY13. The effort was spearheaded by Anthony Hardie (91outcomes.com) and Denise Nichols, a Vietnam era Air Force Nurse. They got a group of us together on Facebook and asked us to start calling not only the representatives from our own state but representatives from all over. As a group, we made numerous phone calls and emails to staffers asking for their Rep's support by signing onto the letter.

It was my first time doing more than simply contacting my own Congressmen. At first I was slightly intimidated but after the first couple of calls, I got my feet under me and was able to politely pressure the staffers for a response. Many did respond, calling me back to let me know that their Rep had signed on to the letter.

The campaign was a success as you can read here: Record Level Congressional Support for Gulf War Illness Treatment Funding as Kucinich-Roe Sign-On Deadline is Reached (Thanks to Anthony Hardie at 91outcomes.com)

Coming up very soon, we are going to have to do the same thing on the Senate side. It will be yet another opportunity for us to join together as a force and put as much pressure as possible on every Senator we can reach. There are some scrooge Republicans that definitely need to hear from more veteran's than they ever knew existed.

We also need letters describing the problems you've had as a GWV with your VA doctors not having any knowledge of all the research findings that are out there and denying that GWI even exists. We need letters describing your claims mess because the raters and C&P examiners don't understand GWI.

We are making headway but we need everyone's help. It's easy to write a letter or make a few phone calls and that is all that is needed in most cases.

If you want to help yourself and other GWV's, please go to the Facebook group: Gulf War Illness: Taking Care of Business. It is a closed group so you will have to request entrance. If that doesn't work for you, contact Kelly Staples McKenna or Denise Nichols on Facebook and they can add you to the group.

If you have letters about your VA experiences and the VA's ignorance of GWI on the medical and/or rating side, send them directly to Denise Nichols at DSNurse1@yahoo.com. She will forward them directly to Capitol Hill. She told me just last night that the congressmen are reading them and are alarmed at what we are having to go through in dealing with the VA. We need more letters so Congress will be convinced to hold hearings about the VA's incompetent treatment of GWV's and GWI.

The VA isn't going to do this for us. We have to fight the good fight and keep making sure our voices are heard on Capitol Hill. As yesterday's victory demonstrated, if we shout loud enough they will listen.

Don't bunker down and just hope things get better. Pitch in as you can. Even if you only make one phone call or send one email, it will help us all.

Pete

[Gulfvet45]

I know Denise Nichols for she was on our BOD. Please do not send anything to her, send it to the House and Senate your self with your letter and to your own Congressman and Senators.

Sending any thing about your claims, or any other type of problems to someone that means well but has no self controal, is not a safe. It could be used in ways you did not want it to be.

[kimmig]

i will support this 100%. i am the wife of a persian gulf veteran whom died in october 2011 at the young age of 43. i have recent first hand knowledge of how unskilled physicians are when it comes to the Gulf War. I think the majority of these phsyicans whom VA contracts view GWS as a form of malingering rather than a real medical condition. Its so much easier for them to give big bottles of narcotics rather than get to the real root of the problem.

So count me in!