Guest Blog

Another blogger, Michele Rosenthal, has a wonderful site about PTSD with lots of helpful hints in dealing with the condition. She commented on my site and requested I do a guest topic on her site. I am posting what I sent to her. Her website is http://parasitesofthemind.blogspot.com. Please check out her site because it has tons of helpful information about PTSD. It will take me days to go through all her information.

Guest Blog

Hi,…I am a Vietnam Veteran suffering from PTSD and Michele asked me to write something on her blog. If you are recently back from Iraqi or Afghanistan and you do not feel right mentally, seek help. If your wife, husband, or family thinks you have changed for the worse, seek help. You probably have the beginnings of PTSD so get help ASAP. When you get back from war, you should notice positive changes in your character. However, if the negatives out weight the positives, then seek help.

The VA is offering you returning vets 5 years of fast care in the system. Now what you and I think is fast is not the VA form of fast. At least, do not be afraid to try, and make an appointment to be seen by one of their many Social workers and Shrinks. They will very easily, in most cases, identify if you do or do not have symptoms of PTSD.

I believe that most forms of PTSD from combat manifests itself fairly soon after coming back from combat. We Vietnam Vets did not have that luxury because the mental illness did not exist in the books. The Vietnam Vet brought this problem to the forefront and now it is recognized.

The other form of PTSD manifests itself later in life. Mine took this form. Sure, there were little things that began fairly soon such as the inability to remember peoples names and a heightened sense of awareness of my surrounding. I was able to function in a job and keep jobs. Twenty-seven years later the flashbacks started to occur. Mine started while driving which in itself was a scary adventure. It turns out the reason was certain music from the Vietnam period would trigger my flashback. I would have one a month, and then a couple a month until near the end, I was experiencing two to three per day.

I was seeing body bags and faces of my friends that died. I would dream of “incoming” at night and end up on the floor to be low to the ground. Good sleep turned to bad sleep. The worst thing for me was the fear that I would hurt one of my employees during a flashback.

When I finally sought help, the shrink (she luckily did her internship at the VA) immediately identified it as PTSD. The facility where I worked and was Manager of a large department put me on long-term disability. Behavioral Services put me on medications and began therapy and EMDR treatment. I quickly started to show improvement but not enough to function in a normal world. Hyper-awareness, agoraphobia (fear of leaving your safe zone), depression, anxiety, were all part of the symptoms.

I stepped on a booby-trapped grenade in Nam and developed a fear of even walking in the yard for fear of another explosion. You literally cannot function the way you did before.

Do not let it get to this point. Seek help and get on medications, therapy, group therapy and EMDR. Get a good experienced EMDR therapist but I am sorry to say they are currently rare in the VA system.

Because it was not a recognized diagnosis until late after the Vietnam War, many WWII and Korean War vets developed and have PTSD. In my group therapy, we have one of each from those wars. One of these men had almost 50 jobs in 50 years. He is much better now with meds and therapy. My therapist calls my office in the basement, my cave or safe zone. Do not get stuck in your cave. Seek treatment from the VA immediately.

Next time I will talk about dealing with the VA and what a mess that system is or has been. It is getting better but needs a lot more work.

Semper Fi

Just A Little Cranky

It has been soooooooooo long since my last post. Guess I have been busy with doctor’s appointments, dental visits, helping my sister, playing games on Facebook, and other oddball things.

I developed a rash on my chest and back and the doctors could not identify the cause. Probably Agent Orange raising its ugly head. Two and a half months later, it is getting better but still itches like a son of a gun. The doctor will send me to Ann Arbor VA if it doesn’t improve soon. I just hate that long drive just to have some bumps checked out.

I guess the Benton Harbor VA will finally be getting a regular shrink so we will not have to deal with meeting with him via the TV. It is not a very personal way to deal with a patient via a little TV screen. Of course, the doctor that will be seeing us does not have a very good history with veterans. Some of these guys have been around too long in the VA system and do not have a caring attitude. We need doctors with good bedside manners.

Okay, now is my time to get on my soapbox and spout off. If the VA truly cared about the veterans, they would totally revamp the system. They need to let us go to local doctors, dentists, and hospitals. I have a state of the art hospital only 14 miles away but can only get treatment if it is a life or death situation. To go to the dentist, ophthalmologist x-rays and urgent care, I have to travel 85 miles one way. If I go for my asthma or dermatology then I have to travel 165 miles one way. Now if I need oral surgery, I have to go 225 miles one-way. Look how much they have to pay out just in mileage reimbursement (41 cents/mile).

One person in my group has three appointments this week so that is three full days shot out of his week. Some of us are lucky, we can drive but if you have to use the VA van for Ann Arbor VA that is a two-day trip. In addition, the government has to put you up in a motel for the night. What a waste of money by our government.

Do not get me started on the stimulus package. I will save that for another soapbox day.

Our Korean vet in the group is doing much better on his medication change. I was really getting concerned about his welfare. The new Iraqi vet is really having problems with the Army. He officially is not discharged but has a very high percentage disability from the VA. They made him re-up for another year and report to a base 700 miles away to be evaluated as to whether or not he can stay in the military. He is not able to function anymore in the military so why do they make him go thru hoops just to give him a discharge.

I know, I know, I am a little cranky today but guess I have been in the doldrums of late. All this changing of meds and dealing with the rash kind of gets me down. Do not worry, the guns are safely locked away and the wife has the key.

Late Update

Yes, I have been remiss in posting to the blog. Seems like we have been very busy after the holidays and have not found the time to blog. I did get the first two seasons of “The Sopranos” for Christmas and have been watching most of the 26 episodes. I enjoy that because I get to stay in my safe zone (the basement). As my therapist calls it, “my cave”.

The shrink doubled one of my drugs and that was not a good thing. After a couple of weeks at that dosage, I cut back to my old amount. The higher dosage was making me agitated and not really helping the depression. Now he wants me to increase it by fifty percent. That starts tonight so we will see how that works.

Another item that has been keeping me busy is I joined Facebook. I was hoping to find old classmates on it but most of the folks using Facebook are the younger generation. There were only about seven from my High School class on Facebook. Guess the older generation is not used to using computers. Some of them said their kids set them up on Facebook and they just use it to communicate with their kids. Come on you old coots, get with the computer age.

Not much more to update. Group therapy is still going well and we got another Iraqi vet in our group. That makes it now one WWII, one Korea, seven Vietnam, and two Iraqi vets in the group. The group has different percentages of disability from 40% to 100%.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Stan and Joanne.

Happy 233rd Birthday to the Green Side!

I'm a little late with these pictures but still wanted to post them on my blog.

Happy Birthday Dear

Happy Birthday to my dear wife Joanne. I will not tell you her age because then I might not see my next birthday. We went out to dinner with the kids and grandkids and my sister. Then Joanne and I went north to the Little River Casino in Manistee Michigan for the weekend. I think she had a great birthday. Love you dear.

Almost Thanksgiving Day

Well, I made it through Veterans Day and I did attend the dinner in Eau Clair. It was quite a shindig and well represented by all branches of the service. This is a fine example of small towns clinging to their guns and religion. They treat the Veterans the way they should be treated. It made me feel proud to be an American Veteran. There were a few tears but I got through it okay. My wife had to go to a meeting so I went with my sister. She also enjoyed the evening.

Joanne and I just got back from a weekend in Manistee, MI celebrating Joanne’s birthday at Little River Casino. I will not say which birthday we celebrated but it was traumatic for her. We came out about even for the weekend and had a great time. It started snowing heavily on the way back but the further south we got the better the driving conditions.

Went to Battle Creek VA last week to have me hip checked out. Guess it is doing okay according to the doctor. That leg is one quarter inch longer than the other is and my limp does cause a few problems with the hip. He said it will take time and that I should not be concerned with some pain. Only be concerned about a lot of pain continuously. I do not have the patience to wait. I want it better now.

The Benton Harbor VA is now officially a full fledge VA facility and not run by a contractor. I do not know if that is good or bad. We will wait and see. The one individual that I liked is not staying with the VA. Paul really seemed to care and I thought he was very good at his job. They have replaced him with a doctor via video conference. I do not think it is right for a physician to be able to analyze you via a TV monitor. Not sure how long this will go on with the TV. Maybe they will find an on-site individual.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving and then it will be time to start thinking about putting up trees for Christmas. Time sure is flying by.