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Those veterans who were ashamed have told me that, at their discharge, they were informed that they didn't qualify for VA benefits and wouldn't receive them if they applied. Because of its prevalence, this concept wasn't some aberration ordered by some lone nasty ol' sergeant but that it had come down from the powers-that-be.
This especially seems to have happened after the Korean War. I can distinctly remember months at a time when we had no veterans from that "police action" in our Critical Care units. We were seeing plenty of WWII vets and a smattering of Vietnam War guys but few from the Korean War.
Many thought that to ask for benefits was somehow shameful. Whatever the reason, at that time, I'm certain that the Korean War vets were under-utilizing the VA.
When one works in a Critical Care Unit, one doesn't have a lot of time to think about such things. Back in the early '90's after the VA publicized that care was available even (and especially) if the vet was homeless or addicted to drugs or alcohol, we suddenly started seeing patients discharged after the Korean War. Just as with the WWII vets, most hadn't had an easy life and they usually came in an emergency.
Heck, my own uncle who came to live with me in 2001 and who had flown bombers in WWII didn't know he might qualify for VA care and benefits despite having earned a Master's Degree in Engineering thanks to the GI Bill.(I know - not the same program.)
I had asked him to come live with me because, at 78 years old, he was living in a 50 year old ranch house without air conditioning or heat with winter approaching. He said his depression and fear had started with the 9/11 attack and was spending his days in bed mainly for warmth.
Once here, he refused to go upstairs to his bedroom, citing a life-long fear of stairs. That could be excused as simply a way a proud man was covering his inability to climb the stairs because of his health and age.
But, he also refused to take baths or showers and was quite happy to wash up at the sink just as he had for decades. I had to enforce standards of cleanliness since he apparently couldn't smell himself. All the clothes that he brought with him were soon thrown away because, despite multiple washings, the filth was too deeply embedded.
He'd been ill most of his life and now had symptoms very similar to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Leaky Gut, Chronic Lyme, and major depression with some Multiple Chemical Sensitivity thrown in. Of course, most of the family believed that he was a hypochondriac. Because of his physical symptoms, I identified with him.
All the income he had generated in his life had been spent going from one doctor to another without any improvement in his quality of life. One of the things he'd do when given a new prescription was that he refused to take it until he had been given a "shaving" of the new pill placed under his tongue right then in the presence of the doctor. So he bares most of the guilt for poor results from the many doctors and their care. That's especially true when at the first doctor he and I saw incurred what turned out to be his usual condescension and his out-of-control rage because the doctor hadn't cured him during the hour-long visit.
The next doctor we visited was a psychiatrist and that initiated a frequently changed series of prescriptions. He tried to pull the "I only take 'shavings' of a pill under my tongue in the doctor's presence" routine with her, too, and she gently helped him over that hurdle. Soon on psychotropic medications to ease his personality disorder, he only occasionally told us we were "killing" him since having some control over his thoughts felt very strange to him. Childlike, he often "palmed" or "chipmunked" his pills, so I stayed up with him after his nighttime dose in order to insure he'd ingested it. Months later, he told me that he agreed to the psychiatrist's prescriptions because he really never intended to actually swallow them.
Eventually, we had to revert to liquid medications and once he was on that consistently, he changed into a warm, witty, lovable, open man. Quite a significant change that now gave us the opportunity to continue identifying and adequately treating his physical ills. He was a delight to everyone, even to the doctors who met him. This personality change allowed us to start a remarkable taped diary of our family and a history of his wartime experiences.
One day, he woke with shortness of breath. When the ambulance arrived, he wanted to be taken to a local private hospital. An EMT asked him if had been in the service and as soon as I mentioned I had been a VA nurse, they strongly suggested the VA. During the ride, he kept arguing with the EMTs that he wouldn't be allowed in, but, of course, he was. He eventually was diagnosed with mesothelioma ( a cancer of the lung's lining) and given a 3-week "death sentence" which he outlived.
As a nurse who has worked in private hospitals as well as the VA, I am quite proud of the care he received while in hospital. Because he now needed 24 hour care, I was too sick to care for him at home and he was moved into a nursing home where the good care continued.
So why am I telling you this? Many of us are called upon to become caregivers. I've done it twice; first for my mother and five years later for my uncle. I found that role to be the most physically and emotionally draining thing I've ever done. Lyme was a new entity to me and long-term antibiotics had just been started. Caregiving continually caused relapses of my Herpes infections because of the stress on my immune system. None of the antivirals touched them. Thankfully, Dr. Nicolson's initial research on HHV-6 led me to Cytovene, a very strong antiviral. Without it, I would never been able to maintain the almost daily nursing home visits and his transportation to various appointments. And I availed myself of a psychiatrist to help with the pressures.
The other reason for this post is to remind vets and their families that the VA is available and ready to care for them. The vet will probably get the best care he or she has ever had, delivered by dedicated doctors and nurses. Most of the VA Medical Centers are associated with a College of Medicine and/or a teaching hospital. That means that the doctors are the same ones that anyone would encounter at the local private hospital. The VA's have the same Departments of Medicine as any other hospital. In addition, they often have very specialized departments for the veteran that wouldn't be found in a private hospital. The VA strives to have the same (or better) standards of care as those in private hospitals.
The vet who utilizes the VA's' services should never feel that he's somehow "less." The veteran deserves this care as partial payment for his/her service. Contrary to whomever told the vet otherwise, he or she has earned the right to this healthcare.
Get your vet to the VA as soon as he needs help so their family have a choice as to whether they have to exhaust all their funds paying for private doctors' appointments and hospital stays.
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