A pain in the ass

Is there finally a break through from the VA?
Jan 2010 my doctor at the VA seems to have finally taken notice of my complaint of unexplained horrendous stomach pains. Most of the time it is just aggravating other times it feels as if I have a pineapple working its way through my gut. I have complained about this at almost every doctors visit for the last few years. And by complained I mean explain it in a new and exciting way that might get the doctors attention. For years I just assumed it was just another side effect of my medications. Over the years I became use to it, both mentally and physically. When it would flare up I would mentally tell myself don't worry it will be over in a week or two. All this time the one thing I never considered doing was taking my temperature during a flare up, it was this that I THINK, made my doctor sit up and take notice. after tracking a low grade temp for three days, I discovered that as the pain increased the temp would also.
Ok this is a start and I will come back to write more later.

I totally stole this from Dani Babb on facebook

A teacher asked her 6th grade class how many of them were Obama fans. Not really knowing what an Obama fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for little Johnny. The teacher asked Little Johnny why he has decided to be different. Little Johnny said, ‘Because I’m not an Obama fan.’ The teacher asked, ‘Why aren’t you an Obama fan?’ Johnny said, ‘Because I’m a Republican.’ The teacher asked him why he’s a Republican. Little Johnny answered, ‘Well, my Mom’s a Republican and my Dad’s a Republican, so I’m a Republican.’ Annoyed by this answer, the teacher asked, ‘If your mom was a moron and your dad was an idiot, what would that make you?’ With a big smile, Little Johnny replied, ‘That would make me an Obama fan.

You actually have to write shit down

I have discovered there are no blog fairies contrary to popular belief blogs have to actually be written by live human beings. Drat. so what is new today, finally found out that the numbness in my right hand is caused by C6 -C7 ( the doc at the VA was not much more specific than that. ) being out of place, His fix is to do low level physical therapy. In other news I woke up this morning with a nasty cough and slight fever, yeah I know I never blog about fun and exciting things but then what's the fun in that.

Strat Brats musical break

Semper Fi and the Bird

While sitting on the train eating breakfast I hear someone yell Semper Fi.  I look up to see an old man shooting me the bird with a huge grin on his face.   I expected him to be a Korean War Vet sailor or something, I knew the gesture was in fun but was not expecting to find out he was a Marine from World War 2.

 

This is what I learned from our short conversation in the dining car.  Irving was a Bronx Jew who joined the Marine Corps in 1942,  5 months later he was on Guadalcanal.  He attributed his survival to the fact he was only 5’6” tall, saying the jap snipers shot the tallest marines first.   He told a story of  once pouring liquid penicillin on the wounds of a Marine, as he was doing it a corpsman came up and told him he would take care of the guy.  Irving didn’t think twice about it until 3 months later in the chow line the same corpsman said that the guy had survived and wanted to say thank you.  Irving found that marine and got his thank you from a barely alive man.  Irving said he cried like a baby.

Irving was 20 when he joined the USMC which in those days was old, he skipped being called pops only because there was a really old guy of 21 in his Boot Camp platoon.

 

He was in the 1^st Marine Division, and while not part of the initial landing he landed sometime later.   He spoke of how the initial landing force was very ill prepared when they went in because among many things they had spent the whole time in Australia chasing  the women instead of training.  He said that he landed with 550 in his unit, and when they finally left there were only 50 still standing. 

 

He landed somewhere in Philippines and as the only Spanish speaking Marine SGT got to have dinner with the Mayor of the towns family, the one and only time he says he sat down to eat in that situation in the 33 months he was in the Pacific. 

 

Irving also spoke of nearly getting into a fight when he told the Christians in the platoon that jesus was a jew.  Guess that was not so well known back in the old days.  He said he was eventually backed up by the Chaplain Father _____ ( sadly I didn't write down the fathers name.)  Even his story about the chaplain was good.  This chaplains father had been a Marine in World War One, but the Father had felt the call of the church,  he apparently had even planned on being a Navy chaplain because one of his first posting was in the vatican so that he could learn hebrew. ( this is Irving's memory not mine I remind all you readers.)  No matter what led up to it Irving said he was very surprised when the Chaplain came to him and said hello don't worry I am going to be your rabbi.

The VA Today

1.  I had scripts to pick up from yesterdays visit and being the good patient I am I went to the VA early to see the pharmacist so I could get the blue slip approval.   After speaking with the pharmacist I was told the script would be ready in about a hour which was fine since I had another appt at 1PM ,   this was 12:10 pm.  

2.  I was 30 minutes early for my 1 pm appt, which of course meant I didn't see the doctor until 1:30.

bottom line at 230 I went back to the pharmacy waited in line for 30 minutes and was told that there were no scripts.   long story short, the system kicked my scripts out I was eventually given them at 345.

So the  whole point of todays visit was to discuss with a psychiatrist the option of taking adderrall to combat fatigue associated with HIV.  There have been studies done outside the VA and I even know a couple people who are taking it locally and seemed to be having good effects.  I wasn't really expecting the VA to actually consider it but was willing to give it a try.  Needless to say the doc didn't let me down.  Totally changed the subject.  Said because I was sitting with my arms crossed I was (((  insert touchy feely bullshit here)  I assured him that I usually sat with my arms crossed and to not fucking read into anything (( thats a joke people, I did say it but to show I still had a sense of humor).  Then we discussed prior bouts of depression which I assured him I had a handle on, in fact the only thing that ever really got me pissed off was dealing with the VA. ((not a joke pretty much the truth)   After the intro interview he said he was thinking about Wellbutrin, which immediately set off my radar as being on the list of things discussed previously and for some reason ruled out.   He assured me that there were no bad side effects and even showed me a ipod touch app that said NO when asked if there were any known side effects between Atripla and Wellbutrin.  I knew from past experiences that his mind was set and that was the "NEW" pill I was getting.  

So with the adderral out of the picture I said fine and don't worry I would be keeping good notes on how I reacted to it including blogging all about it. so here it is the start of the wellbutrin blog. more later

I will finish this up later

VA today

So none of the doctors are responsible for any scripts, One doc says it needs to be inputted by another  then one nurse says she cant do it even though for the last 5 years they HAVE been doing it.  Also she doesnt have computer permissions to read back far enough in my file to understand why I was even given something in the first place.   Say YES to Universal Health Care and get EVERYONE IN THE US on this crappy ass Excuse filled system.