The VA

[sandance2]

A lot of the veterans utilize the VA. Many have good experiences - I know that my husband who went to the VA his last five years was very happy with his care. I usually drove him there and waited for him and I can say that the Dallas VA is very clean and orderly. They have to have thousands in there every day.

My brother on the other hand has had a terrible time with the VA. He really needs back surgery (fusing) and they have put him off for years. He has Degenerative Disc Disease and Spinal Stenosis. The VA has had him on oxycondine for years and 15 months ago they added morphine to his meds. They have turned him into an addict. They've told him on several occaccions he has to gain weight & stop smoking, but the morphine takes away his appetite and at the same time stimulates the seratonin, which is the part of your brain you need to shut off to quit smoking. He is in a catch-22. He desperately needs the surgery (fusing his vertabrae) but he's been to Sacramento and Travis Air Force Base and has been getting the run around forever. Recently they misplaced his prescriptions and he didn't receive them in the mail when they were supposed to be delivered. He went into terrible withdrawal for many days. His neighbor finally drove him to Sacramento to get the meds. While there he made a comment that if something like this happend again they could just shoot him in the head and put him out of his misery. He didn't think he would be able to survive another withdrawal episode. The security people threw him up against the wall and accused him of being a terrorist and proceeded to humiliate and abuse him for hours in front of the staff and patients. My brother may weigh 110 soaking wet (he used to weigh 180) and he can't get around without a cane.
Talk about over-reacting!

[wackychick]

I have a friend who has had both good AND bad experiences with the local VA hospital. He has ongoing problems stemming directly from his time in the service, but on top of that he had a horrible car accident in which he was actually run over by an 18 wheeler after being thrown from his car! Everything up til the accident went well for him at the VA hospital. Everything since the accident has gone very badly and the result of which has been multiple surgeries that subsequently turned out later to be unnecessary.

It's too bad that the organization designed to help our retired and former veterans with their healthcare sometimes causes more health problems than the individuals originally started out with. doesn't seem right to me.