Friday, February 13, 2009

Experiences with the VA

We'd like all of you who are VA patients to describe your experiences, good/bad, re: treatment in general and MedMJ in particular.

And yes, we do have access to Sen. Tester and YES, he is interested.
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2 comments:

Gyro Gearloose said...

well, where to begin? I guess the very beginning is a good place. When my number was drawn for the draft although I had protested against the War before this I was raised a cowboy and a patriot and so went and joined to assure myself of training and post that would prevent my having to take anyone's life. While I was in AIT I suffered a severe injury to my cervical spine and after months of demerol and muscle relaxers and PT I was given a medical discharge. When I was released I was addicted to the demerol and yet was not given any aftercare or rehab. I was soon addicted to heroin and it took me 4 years to kick. All this time the VA offered no treatment for either my injury or the addiction. I applied for disability with the VA but was denied as they claimed I had a pre-existing condition,I.E. Scoliosis from having polio as a child which of course was not true. I suffered varying degrees of pain all my life, continually growing worse until in about 1992 when I aggravated the injury to the point I had to be hauled into the VA in an ambulance. They had me shaved and prepped for surgery to remove my gall bladder when my wife who is a medical professional came in and said "Hold the Boat"!!!! Why are you taking out his gall bladder? Their response was that X-Rays and sonogram did not show anything but men my age often had kidney stones and so they routinely remove the gall bladder in these situations! Needless to say surgery did not take place, I still have my gall bladder and have never had any sort of renal problems. I was later diagnosed with Type C Hep. and multiple PET scans and MRIs revealed severe damage to discs at C5,C6,C7 in my neck that could have been treated early on and the damage greatly mitigated. I again applied for disability and was denied as I could not prove when the injury took place as my records seemed to have vanished. I appealed but as happens all too often in such cases I missed returning some paperwork or missed an appointment and so was sent back to square one. This happened several times per SOP before I was finally diagnosed with severe mono-polar depression due to living in unremitting pain and only after a suicide attempt was given a non-service connected rating and began receiving pain meds and anti-depressants.I am currently trying ONE MORE TIME to appeal this and get a service connection but still am unable to get my service records other than my DD214. Shortly after G.W.Bush was elected I was taking 4 60Mg Morphine and 8 tylenol #4 daily by dr's orders when my primary care doctor left and my new doctor at my refill appointment says to me "I don't believe in this narcotic treatment shit, you just need to learn to live with the pain"!! He gave me three Klonodine? tablets and five Bennidryl capsules and sent me out the door. No tapering off, no aftercare, no re-hab, just "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!" Needless to say I shortly had a severe heroin habit again after being clean for 20 some odd years. Four years later In spite of the heroin I was in the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. I went to the VA seeking help and was refused. A friend of mine who is a relative of Retired Admiral Service, last command the USS Enterprise got him on the phone and as I was speaking with him and he is speaking with the chief medical officer trying to get me admitted the security guard is telling me if I do not leave the grounds immediately he will arrest me. Admiral Service was telling me not to go but I would rather have died than go to jail! Long story short I was later taken by ambulance to a civilian hospital where I was found to have an infection in my Dura(brain sac) and quite literally within hours of being dead. I was care-flighted to a VA hospital where I spent 4 months on IV antibiotics. When I was discharged again w/out tapering me off or arranging after care they refused me treatment for the chronic pain. I was forced to go to a private doctor at my own expense and pay for my own meds. After eight months of spending $450/mo for this out of my $840/mo income I simply could no longer afford it and back to the heroin I went. After another four years of this I kicked cold turkey as I could not get into any kind of program-the waiting list at the VA was eight months MINIMUM! I enlisted the help of senator Tester and I got to see what I thought was a good doc at the VA with the intention of getting surgery, cutting an implant, ANYTHING to help with this ever increasing and debilitating pain. From the very first visit with Dr. Nevin I talked about the medical marijuana option, told him I was looking for a doctor to sign off for me and was told he didn't know anyone as most doctors he knew were afraid of problems with the DEA but good luck, there are some groups around who should be able to help me. Then he once again prescribed Morphine and Oxycodone, said he would not recommend surgery and sent me on my merry way. Then four visits and five months later I received the letter quoted at the end of this. If he knew he was going to react to my use of medical marijuana in this manner WHY did he start me on these narcotics again? He knew I had just kicked and was a suicide risk. Why would he choose to put me through another 6 weeks of hell? I sincerely think that these kinds of actions are a method of reducing patient load and cutting the budget! Anyway here is the letter:
Missoula Primary Care Clinic 2687 Palmer Street
Missoula, MT 59808 (877)468-8387
FEB 06, 2009
ROBERT DEAN PETERSEN 2035 S. 11th w.
MISSOULA, MONTANA 59801
Dear Mr. PETERSEN, Your recent urine screen showed positive for the presence of cannabinoids/marijuana products. I can not condone the use of this especially when you are on chronic narcotic pain management agreement. I am requesting you to have a substance abuse consult with our social worker/counselor here to further assess this. I will plan to repeat the test at our next visit adn if again positive you would run the risk of discontinuing the pain program altoqether.
Sincerely yours,
Donald R. Nevin, M.D.
Missoula VA Clinic, 877 468-8387
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Anonymous said...

My VA doctor told me he personally thought medical marijuana could help my chronic neuro-muscular condition but he could not sign the paperwork for the Montana MMJ program as a doctor in a federal system this could jeopardize his livlihood.

He did, however, note in my records that I had chronic pain and chronic muscle weakness from the condition which I was able to take to a private doctor who ultimately signed my recommendation.