Full Review and Details of WRIISC

[DocC03]

Chaplain: This appointment is not a bad idea to go. Regardless of your beliefs. You will meet with a chaplain that may not be your religion, if you have a religion. It only takes a few minutes. We did not really talk about a whole lot other then the very basic mental health questions. 

Just know that the notes from this meeting DO GO in your records. 

I would meet with them again if nothing more then to kill a few minutes and to have another contact at the V.A. in case of emergencies. 

 

 

[DocC03]

Pain clinic: This is a normal pain clinic appt if you have ever been to one. In my case we reviewed my MRI of my neck and talked about the pressure on my spinal cord. We reviewed meds and treatments I have tried for my pain. They WILL NOT give you or prescribe medicine in this appt. They will however suggest strongly in your medical records that your primary care doctor try a certain medicine or treatment and then its up to you to work with your doc back home to make it happen. Keep in mind that this hospital is in the middle of the silicon valley and is very up to date on new treatments so there might be something that you and your doc back home have not heard of. 

I would go to this appt again without a problem. If nothing more to just review anything that docs have found so far in the week.

 

 

[DocC03]

Yoga/Aquatics: I am going to bundle these together. Yoga is offered a few times during the week. Aquatics is at your own leisure. You have to have a quick orientation at the pool and then you can use it at your own time during open hours. 

I did not make it to either of these. Yoga was always during other appts and I get skin infections and do not swim in public pools. Maybe I am overly cautious about public pools but after getting so many skin infections I just don't to risk it. 

These are leisure activities that might be worth doing because you do have a lot of downtime in the week. The appts are not tracked as far as I could tell and I am confident that yoga could be a benefit for some people. I am actually going to try yoga at a studio at home to see if the studies I have read about it being beneficial for fatigue and PTSD and grey matter in your brain are true.

 

 

[DocC03]

Social Work: What can I say about social work. Nice lady in my case. She was surprised to learn that not all of the information in our records are in MyHealthEVet. She was shocked when I explained to her that our V.A. back home is so hard to get appts. I feel like social workers at the Palo Alto V.A. will be a good contact to have. She gave me her phone number and let me know that I could call her with any problems and she would help the best she could. 

One note is that she was pushing the whole can you pay bills questions and stuff. You know the questions that determine if you need someone to manage your money for you. The questions that if they check the box that you can't pay your bills then you are not allowed to own firearms. Just keep this in mind. Sometimes when talking to docs a person may tell them how they feel on their worse days. And why not....that's how you feel on your worse day so why not let them know. This is one of the situations to really think about. Maybe your wife/husband pays the bills all the time. But if push comes to shove, could you pay a bill if you had too???? Maybe not on a bad day but on a day that you are feeling halfway decent could you make a phone call and pay a bill??? Maybe you order something from Amazon once a year or you buy a beer....i mean soda once in a while. You can manage your money right?? Ok..Just keep that in mind. 

I would go to this appt again. It was a good appt. Good contact to have. Answer some questions that maybe you have not got covered yet. 

 

 

[DocC03]

MRI: This is your typical MRI testing on your brain except with a 3 Tesla machine. Very detailed. Should put your mind at ease if you are wondering if there is something going. At least a person would think. I had an AVM in my brain. AVM's do not go away that I know of but for some reason it did not show up in this MRI. Maybe I was misdiagnosed in the past and had an Angiogram for no reason but I am thinking it is more likely that the doctor that read this recent MRI just missed it. I was told it was small so maybe he overlooked it. 

I would do this again. 

[DocC03]

Review: At the end of the program you will sit down with the director of the program and review everything. This appointment took 3.5 hours and was well worth it. He reaffirmed to me that the neuropsychological testing that I did not agree with were not always a direct reflection on your cognitive abilities at the time. Other factors such as PTSD, sleep, stress, being uncomfortable in a small room with 2 people you don't know, all have an affect on the tests. 

This is where all the questions that might not have been answered in the other appointments should get answered. In my case I still have a few unanswered questions. Not because he could not answer them but because science has not figured out what is going on. 

Edited February 11, 2016 by DocC03