I've been viewing the site a while gathering info, but wanted to join on in.
I'm a the wife of a Vietnam era thru Gulf War era Marine Gunny who retired in 1994. He was a Helicopter Crew Chief and a Helicopter Mechanic for 21 years. Some of his service related issues will not be in his record book because of special ops.
When he was retiring, he had slightly elevated blood pressure, and the docs all told him to get it fixed or he would be put on a medical hold. He had a job waiting, and if he didn't cooperate, he would miss being able to support our family of 7. In other words, take a few days and relax so you can get out of here, so he did...and he did. Listing medical problems would have prevented his retirement - according to the flight surgeon. His whole career was medical treatment via the flight line visits, so much was undocumented.
He didn't know the importance of a VA evaluation the first year, and has paid dearly for that since. In 2008, after many strange illnesses and rapidly declining health, he went to the VA in Fayetteville, NC for an eval. They sent him to an "independant doctor" in Elizabeth City who diagnosed him in 15 minutes, declining most of his issues, accepting some at 0 percent, and recieving a whopping 10% total disability. Because a doctor "thought" he might have COPD and recommended a spirimetry test, his record shows him as having COPD. The spirimetry test indicated he had suddenly become asthmatic, and he has been treated for this. He was denied breathing problems because he was diagnosed COPD and so Gulf War does not allow diagnosed illnesses. After 3 years of rapidly declining health in all areas of his body and mind, we have gotten a DAV rep and he is stepping through the process. My husband has gone to so many doc appts this year with specialty testing and we think we know where we are going and I have been able to use some of the links many people have posted as documentation.
He was denied sleep apnea because it was diagnosed (even though he had sleeping problems a long time) after service. I have found the links to the Organic Chemicals and Sleep Apnea - thanks guys.
He was denied peripheral neuropathy, because he was now diabetic. Early neurapathy was listed in his record book (numbness in hands, etc.) He was diagnosed as diabetic in 2007 - suddenly - during the same series of diagnoses that lead to finding asthma. He was already living with the feeling of pads in his feet, etc prior to his multi-system failure in 2007. He has now had an EMG, and a neuropsychology review with cognitive testing. His Primary doc, his pain management doc and his neuropsych all believe it is due to the chemicals he was saturated in daily as a Crew Chief and Mech. I have found some of the studies to prove that also.
Our primary doc is reviewing the spirimetry tests from the base to determine if he can officially rule out the COPD. If so, he has fatigue, random strange rashes, muscle and joint pains that are "etiology unknown" and therefore point to Gulf War.
Our doc reviewed all his 0% and evaluated him as to whether he rates the next level (bursitus, limited knee functions, etc.) We started the first week of January this year getting all our medical in order and all our proof, and it has been a full time job. My husband had to quit working by the end of May because he did not have the energy to work more than an hour or two at a time, and he couldn't commit to that every day. He would have had to quit 2 years ago if he had not become an independant contractor, and myself and our son had not covered a lot of the customer service and phone calls for him to allow him to keep working. By then end of May his Doc said "NO MORE." It killed him to quit. We have filed for SSDI, and that is in process, but will take almost a year. We are filing now for the VA benefits, as they take a whole lot more proof (SSDI just looks at his medical records and accepts what they say, they don't care who is to blame).
His neuropsych said he has frontal lobe damage, most likely due to chemical exposures to dry cleaning solvents, jet fuel and trichlorotrifluoroethane, to name a few. Does anybody know of studies relating to this to prove it?
We are also trying to prove that the severe degeneration of his entire back is related to the work he did. Example: when the CH-46 rotar blades were recalled, they had one working set for 8 birds. Every day they had to change the blades repeatedly to keep each bird up. They would lift the 200 lb blades up with a couple guys, put them into the slot and bounce the blades into place, standing with their hands above their heads jumping to force the blades in. He had repeated entries for back pain, but they say they were "all resolved." This is just one example.
My super outgoing and happy husband is becoming a pain riddled, depressed, secluded man at 55 yrs old. It breaks my heart. I'm working full time to get him the help and support he needs to get any kind of quality of life he can. We are just barely surviving until we get help. Food stamps only gave us $121 a month because his retirement pay isn't "earned" income. We found a food bank, so we are doing better with that. Navy Relief helped us with a couple of things. DSS won't help because he isn't officially disabled without SSDI. It is killing my husband not to be providing for his family. He did get approved for the VRAP program, if he can sit through school without debilitating pain, but they sent the approval the day after the semester started, and there was no way to get all the paperwork through in time. So, maybe in January.
All my docs want me to do the write ups and put it on a thumb drive and let them review it and sign it on their stationary. They all agree it is at LEAST "more likely than not" service related, but they don't have time to do the research.
Question
MelanieS
Hi all,
I've been viewing the site a while gathering info, but wanted to join on in.
I'm a the wife of a Vietnam era thru Gulf War era Marine Gunny who retired in 1994. He was a Helicopter Crew Chief and a Helicopter Mechanic for 21 years. Some of his service related issues will not be in his record book because of special ops.
When he was retiring, he had slightly elevated blood pressure, and the docs all told him to get it fixed or he would be put on a medical hold. He had a job waiting, and if he didn't cooperate, he would miss being able to support our family of 7. In other words, take a few days and relax so you can get out of here, so he did...and he did. Listing medical problems would have prevented his retirement - according to the flight surgeon. His whole career was medical treatment via the flight line visits, so much was undocumented.
He didn't know the importance of a VA evaluation the first year, and has paid dearly for that since. In 2008, after many strange illnesses and rapidly declining health, he went to the VA in Fayetteville, NC for an eval. They sent him to an "independant doctor" in Elizabeth City who diagnosed him in 15 minutes, declining most of his issues, accepting some at 0 percent, and recieving a whopping 10% total disability. Because a doctor "thought" he might have COPD and recommended a spirimetry test, his record shows him as having COPD. The spirimetry test indicated he had suddenly become asthmatic, and he has been treated for this. He was denied breathing problems because he was diagnosed COPD and so Gulf War does not allow diagnosed illnesses. After 3 years of rapidly declining health in all areas of his body and mind, we have gotten a DAV rep and he is stepping through the process. My husband has gone to so many doc appts this year with specialty testing and we think we know where we are going and I have been able to use some of the links many people have posted as documentation.
He was denied sleep apnea because it was diagnosed (even though he had sleeping problems a long time) after service. I have found the links to the Organic Chemicals and Sleep Apnea - thanks guys.
He was denied peripheral neuropathy, because he was now diabetic. Early neurapathy was listed in his record book (numbness in hands, etc.) He was diagnosed as diabetic in 2007 - suddenly - during the same series of diagnoses that lead to finding asthma. He was already living with the feeling of pads in his feet, etc prior to his multi-system failure in 2007. He has now had an EMG, and a neuropsychology review with cognitive testing. His Primary doc, his pain management doc and his neuropsych all believe it is due to the chemicals he was saturated in daily as a Crew Chief and Mech. I have found some of the studies to prove that also.
Our primary doc is reviewing the spirimetry tests from the base to determine if he can officially rule out the COPD. If so, he has fatigue, random strange rashes, muscle and joint pains that are "etiology unknown" and therefore point to Gulf War.
Our doc reviewed all his 0% and evaluated him as to whether he rates the next level (bursitus, limited knee functions, etc.) We started the first week of January this year getting all our medical in order and all our proof, and it has been a full time job. My husband had to quit working by the end of May because he did not have the energy to work more than an hour or two at a time, and he couldn't commit to that every day. He would have had to quit 2 years ago if he had not become an independant contractor, and myself and our son had not covered a lot of the customer service and phone calls for him to allow him to keep working. By then end of May his Doc said "NO MORE." It killed him to quit. We have filed for SSDI, and that is in process, but will take almost a year. We are filing now for the VA benefits, as they take a whole lot more proof (SSDI just looks at his medical records and accepts what they say, they don't care who is to blame).
His neuropsych said he has frontal lobe damage, most likely due to chemical exposures to dry cleaning solvents, jet fuel and trichlorotrifluoroethane, to name a few. Does anybody know of studies relating to this to prove it?
We are also trying to prove that the severe degeneration of his entire back is related to the work he did. Example: when the CH-46 rotar blades were recalled, they had one working set for 8 birds. Every day they had to change the blades repeatedly to keep each bird up. They would lift the 200 lb blades up with a couple guys, put them into the slot and bounce the blades into place, standing with their hands above their heads jumping to force the blades in. He had repeated entries for back pain, but they say they were "all resolved." This is just one example.
My super outgoing and happy husband is becoming a pain riddled, depressed, secluded man at 55 yrs old. It breaks my heart. I'm working full time to get him the help and support he needs to get any kind of quality of life he can. We are just barely surviving until we get help. Food stamps only gave us $121 a month because his retirement pay isn't "earned" income. We found a food bank, so we are doing better with that. Navy Relief helped us with a couple of things. DSS won't help because he isn't officially disabled without SSDI. It is killing my husband not to be providing for his family. He did get approved for the VRAP program, if he can sit through school without debilitating pain, but they sent the approval the day after the semester started, and there was no way to get all the paperwork through in time. So, maybe in January.
All my docs want me to do the write ups and put it on a thumb drive and let them review it and sign it on their stationary. They all agree it is at LEAST "more likely than not" service related, but they don't have time to do the research.
Looking forward to getting to know some of y'all.
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