I went active into the Navy in 1977 and got out in 1986. I have 2 bronze stars for deployment, a Navy Expeditionary Medal and a Meritorious Unit Citation. I was injured in a typhoon in 1983 with severe neck injury and medi-evac’d to Yokosuka Japan. I continuously had those long slim needles poked in all over my body. I think they were called EMG tests. I had several of those tests done in Yokosuka and several done at the Regional Hospital in Tokyo. I was sent to Balboa hospital and went on limited duty for about 2 years. A medical discharge was denied although my immune system was compromised because of previous nerve damage. I got out and then went to the VA where I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I have been rated by the VA at 40% for RA since 1986. I have been treated many times for RA over the years when the disease came out of remission. For instance: Cortisone shots and taking prednisone for a year or two.

I believe I have suffered from PTSD for quite a few years but wasn’t treated for it after I got out as a civilian. I have held a high level security clearance as a civilian working for DOD defense contractors for most of my life until recently. I lost my job to lay-offs and have been on unemployment for one year and several months now. Last fall I became very ill and knew something was seriously wrong but I no longer could afford health insurance so I went to a VA Medical Center.

This last November of 2009 I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C type 2b. My viral load is high. I go through days where I feel very ill, including brain fog, fatigue and other physical symptoms. Since I am physically ill, my defense against the PTSD is down and it has come back. Along with the anxiety of my financial situation, I am a wreck. And to add insult to injury the VA has now tested me as negative for Rheumatoid Arthritis!

I did temporary duty as a Master-at-arms and went on drug busts and handled syringes and other paraphernalia quite often. We had a big heroin bust go down when we left a port in France. The dogs came in and when they would hit a locker, I would open it up and reach inside and find syringes, spoons, bags and nose tubes. However I got the job of MAA because our command’s MAA dropped dead from a heart attack and the CO put me in his position until he could req in another one. I can’t find that in my file because it was not my primary job code.

Last Friday I went to DAV and they are filing on my behalf for PTSD and HCV. I already have a 40% rating for RA. I am in the process of getting my medical records and personnel files to them for the claim. I am thinking I should file for SSD as well. My situation has very quickly become quite complicated. I am trying to sort things out and work the priorities but I feel a bit overwhelmed at times.

1) I am out of money and need to pay rent and buy food

The corporate sector no longer considers me to be a “good-bargain” because I am a graduate with 25 years work experience in my field.

My state has no veteran’s preference for State, County or City government jobs.

Federal Civil service is extremely competitive now because of the existing wars.

No retraining programs are available for post-graduates.

That is if I am really physically able to work. That leaves me with VA Compensation and/or SSD as possible income.

2) I need to try and get this bug out of me

The prognosis for having PTSD and an auto-immune disease such as RA is not medically good. However the VA needs to put all of the pieces together for a good sound diagnosis for treatment. I have not been able to get good direction from them so far.

3) I need to deal and live with the liver damage.

All indications are that I have had HCV for at least over 28+ years. I could very well have cirrhosis or liver cancer now. However the VA won’t do a liver biopsy with Type 2 unless treatment fails. As far as I know (which isn’t very much) a biopsy is the only way to tell how much fibrosis there is, which is also a good indicator of how long I have been infected.

Actually the VA has not been very forthcoming about HCV or treatment. I have had to pound out every bit of information so far but then I don’t really know what information to ask. I would rather have some specialists evaluate my condition outside of the VA, but I can’t afford the high risk insurance for a pre-existing condition. I also can’t afford the medical routines or medications that are not covered.

Any suggestions on what I should or could do would be very much appreciated. All of you have had to deal with this and I can share your pain in that regard. I think this forum is good in that we can share our experiences just to be able to deal with this dragon! Thank you for reading this and I will try to read yours too! 🙂

And thank you for the prompt reply! 🙂

I found the pie charts at cmr by region quite useful for geographic dispersion by genotype. France, South Africa and Japan seem to be the top three by capita for 2b. The way I see it, anyone who was injured or wounded during Vietnam and post Vietnam is at an exceptionally high risk of HCV infection. The Genotype is related to the host country where that vet was treated.

I don’t like the way I am being treated here by the VA medical center. For one thing, the VA won’t do a biopsy for 2b unless the treatment fails and the enzyme levels don’t decrease. Well the fact is that I have most likely (not just possibly) been infected during my hospital stay in Japan in 1982. Now this was 28 years ago. The probability that I have advanced liver disease is high and I feel I should not only be compensated for that, but treated for it as well.

The other deal is that VAMCs test every HCV positive patient for HIV. They told me it is because 33% of all HCV + have also been infected with HIV. But is that data based off of just Vets with HCV or the general population of HCV in the USA? I am glad to get a free HIV test anytime, but it appears that they are treating vets with HCV like the other 2% of the total USA population.

The doctors at the VAMC were the ones who diagnosed me for HCV. I was really sick with relatively some bad symptoms but I didn’t know what was wrong with me. The VA doc did a rather extensive physical and found the liver enzymes to be rather high. She said my bilirubin was not high so I probably wasn’t chirrotic but that didn’t really satisfy my condition. They have a rep there who handles Hep and diabetes who coordinates my treatment. She ain’t a doc but just a liason I guess. I had to pound on her for two months just to get the genotype figured out. Then another three weeks to get the viral load which was high, whatever that means.

She said that since I have 2b that they won’t do a biopsy unless the treatment fails. They did all of the stress tests to see if I can handle the chemo but now I am in a waiting game. Obviously I have some rather nasty daily symptoms, so I didn’t just catch this bug yesterday. Now that I have read the great stuff posted here, it is obvious that they (VAMC) don’t want to give away anything that might make it look like I got this bug during service.

I would like to get a civilian doctor to see what stage I am in. Obviously I am chronic and I would hope that the amount of liver damage along with my age and having RA (autoimmune) needs to be factored in before deciding to get treatment. I should live so long.

I looked at my arms in the mirror and several scars there from the MUNJIs. You are going to Kenya, ok get zapped. You are going to the Persian Gulf, OK get zapped again. You are going to Malaysia and Thailand so take this one too! The guy infront of me was dripping, I was dripping, the guy behind me dripped. It was a walk by shooting! 🙂

The Japanese were some sadistic @#$%. They put in like 50 needles all over the body to check nerve transmission for my neck injury. They would pump electricity through the needles until I was flopping around like a dang fish! All I really remember was that every time I took the test there was a pile of needles laying there and it took more time to put them in then it took to take them out. It really freaking hurt.

Contrary to popular belief, The only squids that have gills are the frogmen (UDT) because they spend more time in the water than they do on land. I was on gators most of my time in hence, the avatar from Little Creek. My shore duty was getting shot at while putting up antennas in the elephant grass, that is when I wasn’t stepping on cobras. We couldn’t hold our booze if we had gills! LOL 🙂