Exposure To Explosions

[Jon1371]

Greetings all. I have been searching this site for the last couple of months, and just joined.

I was just told by the VA that I can't get screened for TBI because I wasn't in an explosion or in a vehicle hit by an explosion. I got out in 03 right after getting back from Iraq and back then there wasn't any talk of TBI. Heck, I didn't know what TBI was until last month to be honest. I keep getting asked if I was exposed and I always answer yes but nothing happens. After researching TBI I asked my Dr about it and she said I had to hit my head.

I was a 1371 Combat Engineer and helped EOD clear the airfield we took over. Lots of UXO including dud 500 # bombs.

Anyone else close to explosions but not injured(shrapnel) and get TBI?

[Jon1371]

Just received my whole and complete, I think, file from the VA. Turns out I screened positive for TBI back in 06. Some of my paperwork says that I deny having TBI, which I thought your vehicle had to get hit or your person hit by shrapnel, and that never happened to me. My paperwork from my PTSD screening and diagnosis stated back in 05 that I avoided any and all news involving the OIF/OEF wars, so I wasn't reading about IED and TBI. Do the doctors and therapists read the previous appointments notes? I just really found out what TBI was a couple months ago and earlier this month I got a TBI pamphlet from the VA hospital. If they had given me something on TBI back in 05 I would have told them then that I had experienced numerous mild TBI's and I still experience the residuals. I never knew until I started getting my paperwork from the various VA hospitals I used that I even tested positive. Why do they write stuff down and document it and not tell the patient? Not any follow up with anymore testing. Back then my brain was working much better than it is now and if I had been told that I tested positive, I would have done something about it 9 years ago. I would have done any and all tests that they wanted and I would have filed for service connection then, and I would have made different choices with my life. PTSD is an anxiety disorder and TBI is brain damage. It makes me really angry that they have known about this for so long and did nothing.