I am a cold war veteran with physical and mental issues. I started seeing the VA doctors about ten years ago because I couldnt afford health insurance. My physical issue started out as a knee injury that I received during duty on a FBM submarine and after I was transferred to a submarine tender I started having stress panic attacks. These were documented and were duty related. I need a knee replacement very badly but the VA decided I was too young at the time. Since that time, I have not been able to do much in the way of aerobic exercise or maintain work. I have gained over one hundred pounds and am now at 340 pounds. Now they tell me that I need to lose weight before they will replace my knee. The knee injury has caused back and hip problems over time due to my right leg being shorter than my left due to loss of cartilage and I am now on Social Security Disability (full and total) due to my leg and back issues along with my sever depression and anxiety problems. It is almost impossible to afford to live off of the SSD but if the VA would deem my injuries service connected, I would get VA Disability and be able to take care of my family without my wife, who is a diabetic and has not had medical insurance for over fifteen years, to have to work two jobs and even then we always come up short. Even though the Social Security Administration certified my disability as full and total, my VA doctor will not approve a handicap placard. When I began having problems with mobility and was having to be sequestered to my house because I couldnt walk more than fifty feet without my legs and back hurting, it was the decision of the mobility board at the VA to deny that I had any need of a power chair or scooter. This was probably due to my doctor denying I have the pain that I live with daily. The VA has also thrown pain management out of the window. The medications that the VA provides for pain now are ineffective. They dont work at all. This part changed a couple years ago. I was prescribed Lortab 10/100 and they stopped this medication and gave me Ultram. Ultram does not work on me for some reason. When my Submarine brothers on our Facebook group saw my post about needing a mobility aid, one of them gave me a power chair and another helped get it to me and another paid for my gas and new batteries for the chair. I had to buy a ramp to put on the back of my vehicle out of my own pocket. That caused us to have problems paying all of our bills that month. I am very disappointed in the way the VA is treating me and other veterans. I also have to drive twenty-five miles to go to the clinic and over ninety miles to the closest VA hospital for any procedure. I suffer from sever clinical depression and sever anxiety. I cannot work but I do try to keep my mind sharp by donating repair and cleanup of other veterans and elderly persons computers.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 15:13:31 +0000
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