This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veteran Health Care

  • Sully, President Bush’s service dog, trains for work at Walter Reed

    sullyGeorge H.W. Bush’s service dog Sully recognized for his service.
    By Nicole Darrah | Fox News

    Sully, former President George H.W. Bush’s service dog, has temporarily moved back to his birthplace before he heads to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center next year.

    The 2-year-old service dog, who captured Americans’ hearts after the 41st president died late last month, was welcomed back with open arms and a round of applause by America’s VetDogs on Wednesday.

    “We’re very honored that we had the opportunity over the course of the last six or seven months to work with former President George H.W. Bush,” John Miller, president and CEO of the organization, said at a press event in Long Island, New York.

    Miller said that Bush and his family, along with their team, “were first class in every way and worked very hard with us to make sure that Sully … served the president the best he could.”

    Sully’s final trainer and service dog program manager, Valerie Cramer, said she was the one who received the call from Bush’s team in April inquiring about a service dog for the onetime president.

    _ _ _ _ _

    When Bush died, “it was his wish that Sully serve other veterans,” she said. Bush’s wish will be granted sometime around February, when Sully will provide animal-assisted intervention at the military medical center in Bethesda, Maryland.

    Sully will visit with injured veterans and help to provide comfort during rehabilitation sessions, Cramer said. “He will be fulfilling President Bush’s request.”

    Several labs have been family members at la Casa de AW1Ed. They are friendly, loyal, playful, and don’t be fooled by that somewhat goofy personality; they are one of the smartest of the working breeds. What a great gesture of 41 and family. I can’t think of a better place for Sully to be.

    Read the article in its entirety at: Fox News

  • Flu and You

    This is the latest CDC report on influenza cases as of 12/21/2018:

    https://www.cdc.gov/flu/spotlights/flu-activity-elevated.htm

    From the article: “CDC monitors and analyzes key flu activity indicators every week. After sustained elevated activity is observed across key indicators for a number of weeks, flu season is said to have started. Flu activity met those criteria for the week ending December 15 (Week 50).

    Influenza-like-illness (ILI) activity, which had hovered at or slightly above the national baseline of 2.2% for the previous three weeks, jumped to 2.7% nationally, with 8 out of 10 regions of the country at or above their regional ILI baselines. [Over the past 5 seasons, the peak of ILI has ranged from 3.6% (2015-2016) to 7.5% (2017-2018)].

    New York City and 11 states are experiencing high or moderate ILI activity.

    24 states and Guam are reporting regional or widespread activity.

    The percent of respiratory specimens testing positive for flu at clinical laboratories increased from 6.5% during week 49 to 11.0% during week 50.

    To date, influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses have predominated nationally; however, over the last three weeks influenza A(H3N2) viruses  have been most common in the southeastern United States (HHS Region 4: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee).”

    The remainder of the report is at the link above. If you didn’t get your flu shot, you should. They are free at VA clinics and FHCCs. Even so, the Corpsman who gave me mine told me that this time, the flu shot is effective against only 26% of the flu viruses available.

    And of course, now, I have a cold that comes and goes and I spilled hot tea on my keyboard last night and had to get out an old one, so between coughing and sneezing and feeling like someone  stomped on my head, my life is just crap right now.  And it’s all YOUR fault.

  • The Spanish Flu 100 Years and Counting

    This link will take you to a full article (not pay-walled) on the Spanish flu pandemic, which may have originated in China as avian or swine flu, but erupted in a virulent way during and after World War I.

    https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/1/05-0979_article

    From the article: “The impact of this pandemic was not limited to 1918–1919. All influenza A pandemics since that time, and indeed almost all cases of influenza A worldwide (excepting human infections from avian viruses such as H5N1 and H7N7), have been caused by descendants of the 1918 virus, including “drifted” H1N1 viruses and reassorted H2N2 and H3N2 viruses. The latter are composed of key genes from the 1918 virus, updated by subsequently incorporated avian influenza genes that code for novel surface proteins, making the 1918 virus indeed the “mother” of all pandemics.”

    Prior to World War I, the causes of influenza were unknown. There were no separate strain names for the various types, such as swine flu or bird flu. Anyone could catch a “congestion of the lungs” and subsequently die of pneumonia after recovering from the “congestion”.  There were no vaccines for it or anything else back then.

    The post-war flu pandemic resulted in 50 million to 150 million deaths worldwide, although there was no actual census count. But we had another serious scare in 2006. Remember the bird flu pandemic? The research for the 2006 pandemic had already started at CDC in 1995, with researchers reconstructing the virus’s structure from autopsied materials left over from WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic.  Shortly after that, the 1997 H5N1 avian influenza A pandemic broke out in Hong Kong. The finding that H1N1’s descendants include swine flu and avian flu RNA resulted in corporations like the one I worked for at the time offering flu and pneumonia vaxes while at work, for a modest fee.

    Here’s a 2006 article from American Family Physician regarding the 1997 outbreak and the 2006 pandemic:  https://www.aafp.org/afp/2006/0901/p783.html

    The UK had a popular TV series titled “Survivors”, which was about a worldwide pandemic caused by a combined RNA flu vaccine which was supposed to stop the flu, but instead it became as aggressive as the bug in Stephen King’s “The Stand”, which was based on the same idea. Both “bugs” were recombinant shifting antigen viruses constantly seeking new hosts for survival.  In both stories, the surviving populations were sparse, and if the viruses shifted into new hosts such as dogs or cats, humans were doomed.

    All I’m saying is, get your flu shot because the swine flu and avian flu viruses mutate and combine at will, always on the search for new hosts so that they can spread.  It’s survival. Oranges and lemons help repel it. Must be something about ascorbic acid, eh? That, and bacon.  And your VA flu shot is free, too.

    Let’s just help the flu bugs not survive, because if there were two major episodes of flu in less than 10 years (1997 and 2006), with air transportation the way it is now, it will happen again.

  • A Message From the DAV and DAV Auxiliary

    The DAV and the DAV Auxiliary have sent this notice around regarding H.R. 6959 The Burn Pit Registry Enhance Act. I’m posting their message here, for your information.

    On September 27, 2018, Representative Raul Ruiz (CA) introduced H.R. 6959, the Burn Pit Registry Enhancement Act.  This bill would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure that the burn pit registry may be updated with the cause of death of a deceased registrant.

    In June 2014, the VA launched the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry to allow eligible veterans and service members to document their exposures and report health concerns.  As of September 26, 2018, more than 157,000 veterans and service members have completed and submitted the registry questionnaire.

    DAV strongly supports H.R. 6959 as it will enhance the burn pit registry by including diseases related to a veteran’s cause of death.  This legislation is in accord with DAV Resolution No. 090.

    Please use the prepared electronic letter or draft your own to urge your Representative to support and cosponsor H.R. 6959.  As always, we appreciate your support for DAV and your grassroots activism in participating in DAV CAN.  Thank you for all you do for America’s ill and injured veterans and their families.

    At the link below, the electronic letter is available. You can also go online at the DAV’s website and access it there. Just do it, or those two Marines up top will find you and take you to task over it.

    Take Action

     

  • Army veteran withdraws from Kansas City mayor campaign to focus on depression and PTSD

    Army veteran withdraws from Kansas City mayor campaign to focus on depression and PTSD

     

     

    Jason Kander (Photo: Whitney Curtis/Getty Images)

    Jason Kander, army veteran, former Missouri secretary of state, and current Kansas City, Mo., mayoral hopeful, announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing his candidacy. The reason for his withdrawal has sparked messages of support and kindness from people who want to see more attention paid to mental health awareness.

    Kander, a Democrat who was seen by many as the favorite to win the 2019 election, issued a statement on his websiteand his Facebook page announcing his decision to withdraw and to instead focus on his treatment for depression and PTSD.

    Kander served on a four-month tour in Afghanistan in 2006 as an army intelligence officer, investigating activities of al-Qaida and the Taliban. He told himself that he couldn’t “have PTSD … because [he] didn’t earn it.”

    Despite those feelings, four months ago he contacted the VA for help. “I went online and filled out the VA forms, but I left boxes unchecked — too scared to acknowledge my true symptoms. I knew I needed help and yet I still stopped short. I was afraid of the stigma. I was thinking about what it could mean for my political future if someone found out,” he wrote.

    He buried himself in his work, but despite becoming a best-selling author, leading an effective Let America Votecampaign, and finding out he was on track to raise more money than any Kansas City mayoral campaign ever had in a single quarter, Kander still found himself troubled enough to call the Veterans Crisis Line, where he acknowledged he had suicidal thoughts.

    “Instead of dealing with these issues, I’ve always tried to find a way around them. Most recently, I thought that if I could come home and work for the city I love so much as its mayor, I could finally solve my problems. I thought if I focused exclusively on service to my neighbors in my hometown, that I could fill the hole inside of me. But it’s just getting worse.

    So after 11 years of trying to outrun depression and PTSD symptoms, I have finally concluded that it’s faster than me. That I have to stop running, turn around, and confront it,” he wrote.

    He hopes that his honesty will help “veterans and everyone else across the country working through mental health issues realize that you don’t have to try to solve it on your own.” He added, “Most people probably didn’t see me as someone that could be depressed and have had PTSD symptoms for over decade, but I am and I have. If you’re struggling with something similar, it’s OK. That doesn’t make you less of a person.”

    Messages of support and gratitude are already pouring in.

    I do not know Jason Kander, I am glad he is seeking help.  I detest it when anyone makes a public spectacle out of being victimized by their service in the military.  I guess he will be seen as a humble hero for being so brave.  Raising “awareness” is a tough business.

  • When they start pimping out the corpse of a dead veteran for votes…everyone should lose.

    When they start pimping out the corpse of a dead veteran for votes…everyone should lose.

    The corpse of Jason Simcakoski seems to be popular fodder for political grazing these days.  Jason died in 2014 while in the care of the VA.  Now,  Leah Vukmir and Tammy Baldwin are using his death in their respective campaign adds.

    The parents and widow of a Marine veteran who died at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center appear in a pair of television ads that debuted Thursday praising Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and calling attacks against her “shameful.”

    The spots are an attempt by Baldwin to counter one of the main criticisms of her lodged by Republican opponent Leah Vukmir and conservative groups. Vukmir has charged that Baldwin failed to respond quickly enough to the crisis at Tomah, where veterans were being over-prescribed opioids leading up to the death of Jason Simcakoski in 2014.

    Simcakoski’s parents are in one new Baldwin ad and his widow is in another. In both, they praise Baldwin for working with them to enact a law that toughened opioid prescription guidelines. They also call for attacks against Baldwin on Tomah to stop.

    “When I see these attack ads against Tammy Baldwin, using Jason’s death, I think it’s shameful,” his widow Heather says in one ad. “Tammy has literally been there with us every step of the way for three years. She’s the one helping us do right by our veterans.”

    It’s not bad enough that two politicians are using his death for political gain…now his widow and parents have jumped into the ring.

    In an ad released Wednesday, Vukmir attacked Baldwin over her response to the Tomah crisis. It was the latest in a series of spots by her and conservative groups that have spent millions attacking Baldwin on the issue.

    “You knew about the opioid crisis at the Tomah VA and you did nothing,” Vukmir said in the ad.

    Baldwin’s office heard from a whistleblower about concerns at Tomah in March 2014. It received a report in August 2014 about its 2½-year investigation into Tomah that cited concerns over the prescription of opioids at the facility, which is about 100 miles northwest of Madison.

    Simcakoski died the day after Baldwin’s office received the report.

    The family of Jason Simcakoski became effective activists and were instrumental in passing the  Jason Simcakoski Memorial Opioid Safety Act.  They were also awarded $2.3 million.  The practice of treating veterans at “Pill Factories” needed to be addressed.

    Everyone is diminished when they are drawn into petty political fights.  Vukmir and Baldwin are political parasites feeding on the dead corpse of a veteran.  Shame on his family for jumping into this fight.  Vukmir needs to STFU and Baldwin lacks the dignity to ask this family to stay out of this petty fight.  The lawyers were all paid, the family was paid, even the doctor that was in charge of Simcakoski managed to get his back pay.  Now, these two political hacks seek to profit from his death.

    I hope my family has the dignity not to pimp out my corpse.    Maybe one day they will all find the dignity to let my brother rest in peace.

  • Veteran Suicide Data Report

    Veteran Suicide Data Report

    The VA published this year’s suicide data for veterans.   According to their raw numbers, there were 16.6 veterans a day who committed suicide.   If we deduct veterans suffering in pain from some terminal illness who decided not to end their life in a puddle of their own piss…that number gets dramatically reduced.

    Feel free to read the study yourself HERE.

    The WSJ published an article about it.

    “If any other population of 20 million people were exposed to these threats it would be considered a public health priority,” said Paul Rieckhoff, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which has many younger veterans as members. “There has never been a national call to action.”

    Quoting Paul Rieckhoff on a veteran issue is like quoting Mikey Weinstein on veteran issues.  They both have self-serving interests that promote the stereotypical image that veterans are victims of their service to this nation.

    IAVA and Paul Rieckhoff continue to have problems with integrity.

     

    Any veteran group that associates with a Valor Whore like Megan Morse, or whatever name she is going by these days, has no creditability with me whatsoever.  Paulie leans so far left he wouldn’t understand an objective opinion if it were spoon fed to him.   Just look at some of the IAVA events and see who is attending.  Steven Colbert is the keynote speaker at one of Paulie’s upcoming events.  Colbert defines what being Libtarded is all about and is not admired by the vast majority of veterans.   Paulie is pimping him out anyway.  But I digress… let me get back to those that canceled their birthday.

    In 2016, 58.1 percent of Veteran suicides were among Veterans age 55 and older.

    So about 7 veterans who are too young for AARP choose self-murder on a daily basis.    What does the CDC have to say about suicide rates in the general population?

    The principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned on Wednesday that suicide is on the rise in the U.S. among almost every age group.

    “Suicide – in all ages except for young children and the elderly – is one of the few conditions that’s getting worse instead of better around the country,” Anne Schuchat told “Rising” Hill.TV co-hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton.

    Suicide is a leading cause of death in the U.S.

    Nearly 45,000 Americans have lost their lives to suicide in 2016, and suicide rates have spiked more than 30 percent in half of states across the country since 1999, according to the CDC.

    Wait…What?  Suicide in the general population has spiked 30 percent?  The article on the CDC results is HERE.  But, but, but, I thought to serve this country in the military resulted in…victim related stuff.

    Look, I do not want to make light of those who are in legit pain and struggle with emotional dysfunctions.  There are over 45,000 veteran-related charities in this country.  All this do-gooder charitable work really sucks at preventing people, who are victims of protecting this nation, from wanting to self-murder.  I have told people for years to stop giving money to these groups.  Let veterans take care of veterans.  When I hear someone pimping the “22 A Day” thing,  all I see is a huckster or an idiot.

    Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Mental Health

    and Suicide Prevention. Veteran Suicide Data Report, 2005–2016. September 2018.

    https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/data-sheets/OMHSP_National_Suicide_Data_Report_
    2005-2016_508-compliant.pdf

     

  • Enough is enough already.

    Enough is enough already.

    How many Veteran Charities are there?  Would you say 1,500?  Maybe 15,000 or more?   According to the IRS there are more than 40,000 Veteran Charities.  At what point will we as a Veteran community tell people to knock it off already?

     

    Link HERE

    This does not include the myriad of Local, State and Federal government organizations who support Veterans.  It seems that there is a constant roll out of new programs to assist Veterans these days, even the Shitbirds.

    The Veterans Health Administration in 2017 offered to treat vets who don’t normally qualify for care because they earned a less-than-honorable discharge. Almost no one used the program.

    Now veterans’ groups are hoping a change in the program will help that group of veterans when they struggle with thoughts of suicide.

    Roadside Bomb

    At his home outside San Diego, former Marine Lance Cpl. Josh Onan keeps some photographs next to his TV. The photos are from his days as a Marine. In 2006, he was in Ramadi, Iraq when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb.

    “I remember laying down in the truck. Waking up, there is dust and debris all over me,” Onan said. “And there was an Iraqi colonel, who is sitting in the truck with us and he’s just screaming, screaming and I don’t understand what he’s saying. So, that’s when I realized, ‘Oh here we go, something big is happening.’”

    During the next year, Onan would be in and out of trouble: small infractions, which he chalks up to the amount of medication prescribed for his head injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Then, while on leave, he was caught with a small amount of cocaine. That was it. He was kicked out of the Marines.

    Onan looks at a picture of himself in his battle gear.

    “I’m 32 years old now, and this guy is 20, and I look up to this guy,” he said. “I know it’s me but I miss everything about him. Sometimes it’s hard to find this guy.”

    Onan is one of the thousands of veterans who have other-than-honorable discharges. They don’t typically qualify for VA benefits, even though vets like Onan have a high suicide rate.

    To address that, the VA last summer started a new program: this group of veterans can come into the VA and be treated for mental health issues at least for 90 days.

    KPBS asked the VA how many people used the program in the first year. The VA figures show nationally 115 veterans used the program. Advocates said the number is a fraction of the veterans who would now qualify for mental health care. Twenty-five of those patients were in San Diego.

    “They came in saying they had an urgent need and they were evaluated and received care for that urgent need whether it was a substance use disorder or suicidal thoughts,” said Dr. Neal Doran, of VA San Diego.   Article HERE

    So now the VA has the mandate to search out and identify the people who could not manage to honorably complete their military service.  Everyone should join the military for at least a few days so they will be taken care of for the rest of their lives.  All any veteran has to do is say they have thoughts of canceling their birthday and the sky will open up.   I would debunk the “22 A Day” myth again but why bother people with facts when they have already made up their minds.

    While a certain Jew-ish Lawyer type keeps stuffing his pockets with money donated by gullible denigrates, the people he tends to attack are stuck in the trenches trying to deal with these problems in real time.

    Chaplains discuss their history and experiences working with suicide cases at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Feb. 11, 2015.

    Article HERE

    Honestly, with all the VSO’s and Charities out there…one would think enough is enough already.