Member Mark sends us this daisy. The meat is towards the bottom.

After HPV, in order of magnitude, according to the study, new STIs in the U.S. in 2008 included 2,860,000 new Chlamydia infections; 1,090,000 new Trichomoniasis infections; 820,000 new Gonorrhea infections; 776,000 new Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2) infections; 55,400 new syphilis infections; 41,400 new HIV infections; and 19,000 new Hepatitis B infections.

Sounds like a VA study, doesn’t it? Ignore the latest holding from the CDC that HCV is now (finally) considered a sexually transmitted disease? A good study encompasses all data that can be assimilated. Perhaps there was no way to discern the path of infection so it was discounted. Were that so, how do we reconcile the HIV data?

Mark, by the way, had his C&P Tuesday for an increase on the initial ratings insult he got when he won his claim. As is VA’s wont, they hired a proctologist for the C&P to probe around where only proctologists like to poke and probe. He did a miserable job trying to pretend any knowledge of gastroenterology.  How this will relate to Mark’s HCV Fenderson staged ratings game is any Vet’s guess. Had he been a podiatrist, he would have examined his feet and toes for signs of HCV. Mark didn’t say but I wonder if they did the wooden stick and say ahhhh thing. I wonder who they’ll hire for his DM2 exam? A  psychiatrist, perhaps.

It took everything I had to not jump over the desk and kick that doctors ass, right away he down played my symptoms… this is the guy that called me a drug addict 10 years ago.

As you can gather, Mark has been fighting in the trenches with VA for a while. We know we’ll get him to 100%. That isn’t in doubt. The question is- will they play chess with him for 5 years before they sacrifice the queen and finally concede checkmate? Stay tuned to Mark TV. He’s one of my oldest “Vets” I’ve worked with in terms of years spent. There certainly isn’t anything finer than the smell of Napalm down at 810 Vermin Ave. NW in the morning.

If proctological poking is what it takes, so be it. The way I figure it, Mark, is after you win, publish his name and VA telephone number in the Gay and Lesbian Weekly in San Francisco. What’s fair in love is fair in war (or shortly thereafter).  It is absolutely essential that you keep your sense of humor intact. Remember, April Fool’s is coming up…

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