My recent VA experience

[unhappycamper]

I joined the VA last November because of eye and ear and hip and knee and foot problems.

My eyesight has been declining for a number of years now, and I can't hear shit because of loud explosions. (Try four months of a fire base with a 15~20 meter hill with a battery of 8 inch howitzers on the top. Toss in a really big explosion from the Chu Lai airbase ammo dump going up in a really big mushroom cloud in Tet of 1968. Automatic weapons, rockets, mortars and RPGs did not help. )

I had my first appointment about three weeks ago with my primary physician. About three days after that I had my first appointment, with the eye clinic last Friday. The young (everybody looks young to me) resident gave me the best eye exam I have ever had in my life! Period.

It turns out that I have cataracts. The one in my left eye has covered most of the cornea (asymmetrical) and my right eye isn't nearly as bad. After some discussion she went to talk to her boss; both of them came back into the room in about five minutes. The boss did the cataract stuff again and said she would refer me to the cataract clinic for further treatment.

Wowsa!

I hope things go equally well with the hearing.

[MADem]

1. I hope you'll be able to spot a pimple on a fly's arse at fifty paces in no time...

And hear that fly fart, too!!!

[unhappycamper]

2. I'd be happy to hear the blinkers in my car, let alone a fly fart.

I'll let you know about the pimple on a fly's arse.

[MADem]

3. Hee hee--I have that blinker issue, myself...I can relate! nt

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Blinkers make a noise?

In my case, it was 106 mm recoilless rifles that got my hearing. That plus just the general loud noises of combat.

They blew our main ammo dump (1st Cav) at Camp Evans a couple months after Tet when it was all loaded up for our coming assault on Khe Sanh to dig out the Marines. It was kinda loud too, especially when the four 50,000 gallon underground helo fuel tanks blew up, one after the other. Those babies go up with a mushroom cloud that was visible at night from the glow of burning fuel. I had been sitting on a sandbag bunker some distance away, watching the pyrotechnics, and literally thought we had been nuked when the first one of those big tanks went off. "Omigod," I thought as I rolled backward off the bunker. "They had a nuke in there. I been fried!" This panicky speculation was not quite as crazy as it now sounds. There was a tactical nuclear warhead for the 8" gun, and there had always been a Strangelove element of our military who wanted to use nukes in VN.

[unhappycamper]

6. Picture this: The day of the Tet attack January 31, 1968

We usta get daily convoys of 500-lb bombs from Da Nang for the Chi Lai airbase. The daily convoy arrived later than usual and a really (not) smart person parked all 17 S&Ps (flatbed trailers) of 500-lb bombs together in the center of air base ammo dump.

Rockets started coming in sometime after midnight. As luck would have it, one of those 122mm rockets landed in the airbase ammo dump. BOOM! Twas the biggest explosion I've ever seen in my life. We were 2 1/2 ~ 3 miles away from the airfield and the shock wave knocked me on my ass. The blast also threw a few F-4s on the maintenance pad thru nearby hangers.

From Chu Lai south for at least 15 miles China Beach was covered in burned gunpowder. Black sand.

Too bad we didn't have digital photography in those days.

[Glorfindel]

8. I was lucky...I left RVN shortly before Christmas in 1967

So I wasn't involved in anything that happened during the Tet offensive. I'm glad you're getting the care you need from the VA. Keep us up-to-date, please.

[pangaia]

13. There's so much I would like to say...

Well, the most important is that I am glad you are getting great care.

I am 70 so that tells you how old I was during Vietnam. To tell the truth, I was teaching at a university and turned 26? the year they started the lottery.They never reached my number. It was very high. I don't know why I told you that. Do I feel a guilt for what you went through that I didn't? I can't say.

All I can say is that for the last year or so I have been reading/studying everything I can about the Vietnam war. Where did that urge come from?

One of the books was by someone at Chi Lai when that ammo dump was hit. Small world.

I have a close friend who was on a hospital ship at Da Nang. A nurse, or something. He still has PTSD.. just from what he saw on that ship. Nightmares sometimes...

He gets very good care at the local VA here. My former PCP, who is also a good friend of mine, 'retired' from his private practice and went to work at the VA because he thought it would be less hours and less stressful. Boy did he find out different. He is an excellent doctor and a very caring human being. He is impressed with the care given at the VA where he works. Everyone is overworked, but they never give up--- work all kinds of hours...

I had cataract surgery on both eyes last year-- piece of cake. took like 5 minutes for each surgery. Most of the time is waiting in prep. In the prep area next to me was.. a Vietnam Vet. He said things just like you...He only said that the VA nearer to him was not quite as good as the one where I live so he comes here.

I wish you all the best

[MADem]

9. You must have been shitting bricks--I know I would have been.

Day-um!

[MannyGoldstein]

4. All tracked by the best electronic health records system...

Reasons why US health care sucks, part 118

Sorry to hear of your woes, but I'm glad that there's soshulust health care to make things better. It's the least our country can do after your service.

[tom_kelly]

7. I've been getting care from the VA

for the last 10 years. I have zero complaints. Everyone should have access to government run healthcare!

[MrScorpio]

10. My wife (Army vet) and my own experiences have been excellent as well

Personally, I think that we're both going to one of the best VA hospitals in the country, here in Detroit. I can't speak highly enough of their wonderful dedication, service and professionalism.

[newfie11]

11. My husband has severe hearing loss due to Vietnam

He is very pleased with the health care from VA. The hearing aides are incredible and we could never afford them .
Because he is 100%va disabled I qualify also under champva.

[VA_Jill]

12. My son

is an Iraq vet with PTSD who is now getting care from the VA(for the most part). He's been pretty pleased with them, all told, which I'm happy to hear.

[Plucketeer]

14. Maybe I should go try for VA care again

I was not impressed the couple times I did go. I have hearing loss and screeching tinnitis from our maintenance station being situated right between two jet run-test pads. Think HOURS with military jets running in and out of afterburner not 100 yards from where I set waiting or working on aircraft.

[unhappycamper]

15. You really should go back again; tinnitis = 10% disability

And they have really good hearing aids.

[Plucketeer]

16. Thanks

I think I'll make an appointment this month.

[unhappycamper]

18. If you're going for a hearing disability, you will also need to file a claim.

The local DAV did that for me when I signed up last year.

[Plucketeer]

19. Thanks again

I understand that the VFW and AMVETS can file one too.

[unhappycamper]

17. 3/4/2014 update

I received a call yesterday from the JP VA cataract unit yesterday wanting to know when I could in for an evaluation.

My first appointment with them is Thursday, two days from now. Damn, they're fast.

[denbot]

20. My dad was diagnosed with glaucoma at the VA

I don't know if this will apply in your case but he gets his eye glasses through the VA now.