BVA– LAST DECISIONS OF 2014 POSTED

Posted on December 21, 2014 by asknod

download (3)The BVA just put up the last of their decision for this year. Quite a few that were favorable for HCVets finally on the jetguns. It seems there must have been some reason the US Military decided to up and quit using those spiffy jetguns back in 1997-98. We all know that cheap expediency and budgets drive choice in the military medical. Thus, if someone in the Puzzle Palace poohbah level decided to quit the jetgun program which was very cheap to inoculate with and begin using plastic disposable syringes with individual needles, it means something was afoot.

Sanitary protocols have since been shown to be nonexistent and unattainable with jetguns short of building a disposable one-shot which would be prohibitive financially. Nevertheless, there was no comment when they converted-merely a new day and a new way.

BVA judges are also beginning to notice that the 2004 FAST letter also said it was “plausible” that jetguns could transmit HBV,HCV and HIV. Transmitting HBV was not only plausible but actually happened at a weight loss clinic in Southern California. Justice will continue to evolve on this until one of two things happen. Either we all die of it and solve the litigation enigma or the new protease inhibitors like Harvoni etc. cure us all. Either way, the CDC and the VA are never going to do their homework and commission a study to find out the truth at this late date.

And wonder of wonders. I got old LawBob Squarepants involved in Hep claims and he won one! Besides mine, of course. http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp14/Files6/1448280.txt

Likwise, there are some horrible decisions still coming down that are classic examples of rational fact finding gone berserk. Here’s a decision from the guru of HCV claims-none other than Virginia Girard-Brady. She appears to have hit the proverbial wall many of us do who find themselves plumb out of evidence with which to reopen our claims with. What she and her claimant have overlooked was a liver biopsy. It is one conclusive way to win a claim by showing the age of the infection via the Metavir or a similar medical classification.

Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. Here Ms. Brady is focusing on a losing proposition. Submitting new and material evidence is going to have to consist of SMRs or some medical link to the contemporaneous situation at the time of service. Bolstering the c-file with the current progress of the disease is pointless. Also, one can see the fingerprints of VVA or another gomer VSO all over this. Hep C from AO? Come on. That went out with the Alien abduction theory.

The newly added evidence, in pertinent part, consists of VA treatment records which document treatment for hepatitis C. See, e.g., a VA treatment record dated October 2013. While these medical records are undoubtedly new, as they were not of record at the time of the April 2004 rating decision, these records essentially replicate the medical evidence which was of record at the time of the April 2004 rating decision, namely that the Veteran has hepatitis C. Such evidence is not new and material, since the existence of the disability was known in April 2004. See Cornele v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 59, 62 (1993); Mintz v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 277, 280 (1994) (stating that medical evidence that merely documents continued diagnosis and treatment of disease, without addressing the crucial matter of medical nexus, does not constitute new and material evidence). These records do not document hepatitis risk factors during service or establish or suggest that the Veteran’s hepatitis C was incurred in military service, to include herbicide exposure. There is no evidence which has been added to the record subsequent to the April 2004 RO denial which suggests that the Veteran’s current hepatitis C is related to his military service or that he was exposed to hepatitis risk factors during service.

A liver biopsy is indisputable medical proof of the age of a HCV infection. No one can refute this. It falls into the category, as does a new nexus, of truly new and material evidence that has immense bearing on the etiology of when the infection was acquired. As such, it is the winning ticket for this battle. Unfortunately, this must be produced at the AOJ or BVA before a decision is entered. Ms. Brady is going to be hard-pressed to add new evidence should she take this to the CAVC. In fact, I doubt a JMR would be attainable here because the BVA Veterans Law Judge sewed this up tight. Her legal game plan may have to involve refiling if she and the Vet hope to attain service connection.

Here’s another attorney’s futile effort in the same vein. It really should not be so hard to put these things together cohesively and win them if the biopsy is a matter of record and supports the proposition.http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp14/Files6/1446754.txt

Most Vets do not comprehend that all the evidence has to be in by the time you get to the CAVC.

Here’s a good one on jetguns:

http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp14/Files6/1444711.txt

Posted in BvA HCV decisions, IMOs/IMEs, Jetgun BvA Decisions, Jetgun Claims evidence, LOD and willful misconduct, Nexus Information, Tips and Tricks, VA Medical Mysteries Explained | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

CAVC–‘TIS THE SEASON OF MANDAMUS

Posted on December 17, 2014 by asknod

10392280_10152392503010896_4229550156761211357_nSorry for the absence, fellow readers. I’ve been busy doing my Ho, Ho Ho. imitation. Mailing out boxes to the Bruce Almighty back east. Returning some of the overwhelming abundance of goodies Vermont Frank sends out in kind as well. This has been a banner year for Vets and some of you claimants. I foresee it getting better and brighter for a number of reasons.

VA claims in the HCV sector have suddenly been experiencing a surge of wins. I’ve recorded some of them here as we find them in the BVA decisions but I hear of even more at the Agency level locally. Some Regional Offices are resorting to actually reading the claims and rating based on the facts. My lawyer friends tell me this is due to the VBMS word-searchable function in the .PDFs. If so, it reflects how lazy the raters are.

One thing I do not think anyone will quibble with but will be sorely missed is the old way where you could file a NOD on a paper towel if necessary. If DBQs mean more wins sooner, who are we to fight with Allison Hickey over it. We want speed, accuracy and quick resolution. VA can only want the same if they ever hope to get out of the hot seat with Congress. Make no mistake about it. You take those bonuses away and everyone suddenly has to work for a living and pay for their TIVO.

1002373_10152333326790896_1266638566636393123_nThis year we have seen people in high places apologizing for some of the darnedest things… and then we’ve also seen them denying there were any Vets dying from schedulers gaming the books. Regardless, this shines the light in dark corners that have never seen light. If Jeff Miller keeps this up, we may get some relief. What’s more, we’re due for a brand new Senator in January to start ignoring us. We can’t let that happen.

I’m going into a full court press myself on January 2nd. I hope to file electronically at 0001 hrs electronically at the CAVC and bag that first number of the New Year- CAVC Case # 15-001. I want this to be as memorable as Erspamer, Harvey, Pousson and Groves- all rolled into one.

Mrs. Jean Erspamer, mother of Gordon the Enlightened, spent a goodly portion of her adult life ministering to Gordon’s dad as he lay dying and more after he punched out. It’s probably why Gordon became a rainmaker and began helping Vets. She turned the VA on its ear at the dawn of judicial review and her case still has some marvelous cites to choose from.

Pousson in 2009 was a hoot. Eric the Red lost his c-file over at Eye Street in the bowels of the AMC black hole. The OGC miraculously recovered it- or claimed they did but it was strangely much lighter. I notice Jim Pousson never showed back up at Indian Ave. NW. so some modus vivendi occurred over at 810 Vermin Ave. that we’re never going to be privy to. That silence speaks loud volumes.

More recently Mr. Cleveland. D. Harvey drew blood after VA ignored him for far too long. Oddly, they really didn’t owe him a dime but refused to tell him so. When Eric the Clueless was finished losing, they suddenly owed him money again. My case actually parallels Mr. Harvey’s closely as you will soon see.

And now we come to this amazing extraordinary intransigence again with Mr. Gene Groves, the pro se wonder from Shafter, Texas. The BVA took his remand from the Court and dropped it in the circular file. Which might have been okay except he reminded them about 8 times. The icing on the cake were those little USPS green cards. Not only did Gene write to the Whacko, Texass VARO. He pestered the BVA and even Allison and Eric. Nobody even bothered to get back to him so he wandered on over to 625 Wagonburner Lane NW and told his sorry tale there. Well, boy howdy did that ever stir up the hornet’s nest. When you get that deep into it, there just isn’t any excuse. Best to bend over, pull the pants down and take the spanking. One of these days VA may figure that out.

Here’s the JMR to fix my problem. I. too have the magic green USPS tarot cards.

My Joint Remand to fix 1994

Which brings us to me. Mrs. Jean Erspamer was neglected for ten years. Mr. James Pousson for about eight years from his filing in 2001 to his seminal case at the Court in 2009.  Gene Groves only waited two years from March 2012 to last month for his injustice to be righted. Harvey was the same- several years. This one ought to be a daisy. VA is due for a shellacking. I filed in 1994. VA finally ponied up in January after 19 years and ten months but still could not bring themselves to give me the third and last piece of the pie. I am now over twenty years into it and Call me Bob’s gomers foolishly gave me that special treatment they reserved for Jean, Jim, Cleveland and Gene- bogus justice followed by a stern laissez faire “Get lost”.

The CAVC has begun to discern a notable disdain by the Office of General Counsel. It’s one thing to pretend to be stupid and another to start using it as a ploy to gain time. The VA has long begged for JMRs, vacates and set aside and remands to offer what should have been proffered all along. That they get caught cheating at the CAVC and are forced to do the right thing has, for years , been given a blind eye by past judges. The theory was “Gotcha! Now, go fasten a better noose or don’t come back.”

After twenty years of this, the lines are drawn. No more can the VA continue to commit Colvin violations. The CAVC is also getting wise to one VA examiner doing the flat foot C&P, the L5-S1 orthopaedic C&P and lastly finishing it off with a “less likely than more likely that the PTSD/ MDD is due to military service”-all in one visit. Hell, nobody has that many hats.

And, with the lines drawn on what excesses the Court will permit these days, I’m going to go out on the little branches and say they are not going to be enchanted with how the Secretary has had twenty years to get this right but for some reason just never figured it out. Twenty years. Clinton hadn’t even met Monica yet. Jesse Brown was the VASEC. Newt Gingrich was getting ready to take over the House. And I had just filed for Agent Orange and Hepatitis. What happened?

The comedy of errors continued upon reopening it in  February 2007. They accidentally let the cat out of the bag and granted my tinnitus back to 1994 but mistakenly dropped the Hepatitis and Porphyria claims when they granted it. In October 2007 I discovered the screwup. VA granted my new Hep claim in June of 2008 but promptly dropped the Porphyria claim again. Finally, in October, they managed to grant that but the effective dates were oddly not back  to 1994.

After six years of fighting, VA quickly begged for a JMR to give me the 1994 date. That was what we thought. The Veterans Law Judge, Mark Hindin, just could not write the Porphyria in and carefully exorcised it out of his forced do-over grant. Considering we’re talking about heeding the dictates of the CAVC as well as the OGC, I’d say that sawed off runt (He’s about 4-10 and wears those ridiculous built up heels) has golden cojones to disobey them. This epitomizes what the CAVC calls piecemeal justice that frustrates judicial review.

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I take no pleasure in dragging Mark Hindin through the mud. As an attorney, he sucks-granted. But as a human being he is vindictive. Most judges would keep their poise and right the injustice. Mark took it personally as an affront to his judicial acumen and manhood. Hell, maybe that Randy Newman ‘Short People’ syndrome kicked in and he wanted a tit for tat moment. We’ll never know. I wonder how it will play out. Will the Court force him to write BVA decision #3 and admit total ignominious defeat? Will they simply reverse or order a decision following their specific recipe? Will there be a choir of amicus curiae in the loft filing briefs as well?

As could be expected, LawBob of the Squarepants will be my shield bearer and I the aggrieved party. The best things about Writs of Extraordinary Bitchslap are that they are done in a month or two. Pousson’s dragged on because they couldn’t find his c-file. The others suffered the indifference or ennui VA is so famous for. Everything is done on my claim. All the adjudications are complete.  The ratings are written and all that needs doing is  selecting the right date. Well, that and another big check to right the financial boat.

One niggling detail stands out like a zit on the VA’s nose. Two out of three claims filed in 1994 are done. They both have the same effective date. One claim, secondary to the big one, is mysteriously stuck in the future- in February of 2007 and no one wants to address it. No one wants to restart that 1994 clock. VLJ Hindin went so far as to build a corral around it with no gate to get in or out.

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This is definitely going to be a Shakespearean dish best served chilled. Stay tuned, folks.

And while we’re at it, I’m throwing in the Independent Living program AWOL greenhouse, all my other unadjudicated claims and SMC S all the way back to 1994. In for a penny-in for a pound.

 

 

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RACIAL PROFILING TRACED TO THE MILITARY

Posted on December 12, 2014 by asknod

The Alamo 1960The date? March 6th, 1836. Location? The Alamo in San Antonio. Few people know the truth about this so I will illuminate it for you. My cousin Denise was kind enough to share this historical perspective with me. I had no idea Texans were so racist.

Early in the morning that fateful day, David Crockett arose from his slumbers in the bunk room on the main floor of the Alamo. After grabbing a cup of chicory, he ascended to the observation post on the west wall.

Colonel William B. Travis and James Bowie were already there sipping their espressos and gazing out at an immense horde of Mexicans advancing towards them. David joined them and, as they sipped their Joe and observed, wrinkled his brow and asked

“Jim, by any chance are we having some landscaping done this morning?”

 

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FACIAL CAT HAIR

Posted on December 11, 2014 by asknod

14674_570606346302156_447643773_nIt never fails. Some HCVets member loves cats and sends me these. Thanks, Brenda.  I’m a dog person and always have been. Until I married, I never suffered the indignity of felines. Nevertheless, I find them invaluable down in the barns for mousing now. For the big rats I still have dogs. 

 

 

 

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Posted in FACE HUMOR | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

CAVC–WALKER V. MCDONALD–NOT THAT WALKER

Posted on December 11, 2014 by asknod

VetCourtAppealsPromoRarely do you see Judge Lance in this good form. Enjoy it. It’s rare. He can’t get past the middle of page three before tooting his own horn on the Kahana v. Shinseki (Lance, J. concurring) cite. Some egos are born early in life and others are carefully nurtured and continue to grow enormous along with the narcissistic dolts who manifest them. A proper education at a good private school would have cured that proclivity. Let’s be glad Monsieur Juge Lance reversed here and examine where the BVA stepped on their necktie. It’s a memorandum decision but  it is a lovely teaching moment.

Justice at the VA is an intriguing enterprise. The model most often cited is presenting a claim to GEICO for a fender bender right on up to a total loss. GEICO adjusters are no different from VA raters other than being honest and forthright. Their word is usually the last word and the check is in the mail. Drag that out for a decade or two, add three signatures for a totaled body and you have the exact same duplicate VA process.

GEICO has an M-21 1MR as well but their version has the  “customer is usually right” widget installed. Small things like a bumper or left front quarter panel are no brainers. VA does this too-throwaways like tinnitus  but only after a four year quest to the BVA to move from 0% to 10%. Thus when you arrive with some cock and bull story about being in Vietnam and coming down with prostate cancer, you better have some damn fine evidence or a doctor willing to opine as much. Oddly, Mr. James B. Walker had just that. All of it. To no avail, unfortunately, until he arrived at the Court. Once again, Danny Krasnegor argues what really doesn’t need repeating.

Walker Reversal 9-9-14

Great name by the way. I wonder if he had any Confederate Army on his daddy’s side? Anyway, Jimbo Walker filed way back in October of aught six for the weenie problem. VA didn’t give him much grief and in March of aught seven he got the rating. He mulled this over for a while and filed a NOD for an earlier effective date in December of that year. Obviously the Jimster had been reading up on 38 CFR §3.114(a)(3) and began a conversation with his treating physician Dr. Tinetti. Dr. Tinetti obligingly wrote him a beautiful letter that incorporated the magic quantifiable phrase

Our belief is that it was most likely that the prostate cancer was present in the 1995-96 time frame but masked somewhat by inflammation and prostatitis.

This was penned in late August of 2009 and submitted to the VA/BVA.

Since the dawn of judicial VA review time there have been several panel COVA decisions that have set the tone for how the Board shall conduct itself. A very early one was enshrined in Wilson v. Derwinski 1991  (COVA 90-673). The paint on the COVA sign out front wasn’t even dry. The Panel opined that the  regulation [§ 3.303(b)] requires continuity of symptomatology, not continuity of treatment.  This little Late July reminder was  underlined by the seminal Colvin reversal which arrived barely seven months later. In concert, it put the BVA chucklehead Judges on notice that the old habit of “Denied” had to be more substantive. Federal Judicial review now demanded all Texas Necktie Parties performed over at Vermin Ave. NW actually provide a reason for the denial. Not only that, the VLJs were admonished to quit watching reruns of Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare. General Hospital was declared right out.

To this day this propensity of VLJs to do the Voodoo “read dem bones” still seems to cause much confusion as it apparently did here. Mr. Walker has stepped forward and desperately tried to fill the gap with a well-reasoned nexus letter to supplement any ambiguities in prior ones. Dr. Tinetti did a bang up job with a confirmed belief buttressed by sound reasoning. Since they are doing a look back, they and only they (doctors) can be the objective observers. BVA judges do not have the required expertise to opine on matters medical ever since Colvin but somehow find it irresistible to inveigh on these things. And yes, the Court has handed down some newer Colvinesque decisions that enunciate the same bright line rule. Perhaps if Secretary McDonald actually enunciated it in to 38 CFR § 19.15…

Veterans Law Judges as well as Acting Veterans Law Judges will refrain from the practice of pretending they have a MD after their names. Closer inspection will reveal it says “JD”.

CaptureMr. Walker is legitimately entitled to an earlier effective date of one year and one year only from his filing date for SC for his prostatitis under AO-friendly  38 CFR §3.114(a) (3). No one in their right minds can argue otherwise,,, but why would they? We’re talking financial peanuts but the OGC is manning the ramparts as if this was in danger of upsetting the whole benefits applecart. Shoot, they pissed that away in 3 seconds at the last Superbowl game on the advertisements no one bothered to watch.

The whole enchilada finally boils down to the Jandreau test :

downloadMoreover, in Jandreau v. Nicholson, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit noted that identifying a form of cancer was an example of when a lay person—in this case, the Board—would not be competent to identify a condition. 492 F.3d 1372, 1377 fn 4 (Fed. Cir. 2007). Therefore, the only competent opinion as to the onset of the appellant’s prostate cancer is Dr. Tinetti’s August 31, 2009, letter, which dates the onset of the appellant’s prostate cancer in 1995-96. Cf. Buczynski v. Shinseki, 24 Vet.App. 221, 224 (2011) (“[T]he Board may not consider the absenceof evidence as substantive negative evidence.)

It seems insulting on it’s face that after the December 1990 Colvin bitchslap reversal, Mr. Jandreau had to endure the same thing seventeen years later. Compounding that with interest, here we are in September 2014 with a wet-behind-the-ears Acting VLJ (K. Millikan) blowing bubbles about when Mr. Walker took to his bed. At what point is a critical review of the evidence instituted with an eye towards the benefit of the doubt? It seems so easy to lay all this out on a table in analog form and use yellow highlighter on the important parts. Winnow it down, chuck the extraneous stuff and do the GEICO customer -friendly test. Why waste valuable judicial resources on these defective defensive pleadings?

As a postscript, Acting Judge Millikan can’t even cite to the proper CFR. His decision is limited narrowly to looking at 38 CFR §3.114(a)

§ 3.114 Change of law or Department of Veterans Affairs issue.  (a)Effective date of award. Where pension, compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or a monetary allowance under 38 U.S.C. chapter 18 for an individual who is a child of a Vietnam veteran or child of a veteran with covered service in Korea is awarded or increased pursuant to a liberalizing law, or a liberalizing VA issue approved by the Secretary or by the Secretary’s direction, the effective date of such award or increase shall be fixed in accordance with the facts found, but shall not be earlier than the effective date of the act or administrative issue. Where pension, compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or a monetary allowance under 38 U.S.C. chapter 18 for an individual who is a child of a Vietnam veteran or child of a veteran with covered service in Korea is awarded or increased pursuant to a liberalizing law or VA issue which became effective on or after the date of its enactment or issuance, in order for a claimant to be eligible for a retroactive payment under the provisions of this paragraph the evidence must show that the claimant met all eligibility criteria for the liberalized benefit on the effective date of the liberalizing law or VA issue and that such eligibility existed continuously from that date to the date of claim or administrative determination of entitlement. The provisions of this paragraph are applicable to original and reopened claims as well as claims for increase.

Unfortunately, 38 CFR §3.114(a) does not end there and also has a codicil in (a)(3)

(3) If a claim is reviewed at the request of the claimant more than 1 year after the effective date of the law or VA issue, benefits may be authorized for a period of 1 year prior to the date of receipt of such request.

Who let this Milliken gomer off the reservation without a minder? And why weren’t Tammy Kennedy’s vaunted OGC watchdogs all over this thing like white on rice after Gunn retired departed  moved on?  Eskinazi should have pulled this back out of the Rocket Docket pile and given it to somebody who can read the CFRs. Could of, Would of and Should of. That’s the sign over the entrance to the 027 Bat Cave.

download

Justice Milliken

 

 

Posted in CAVC Knowledge, CAVC ruling, Earlier Effective dates | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

312th AIR EVAC–CHU LAI 1968–POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE

Posted on December 9, 2014 by asknod

door gunnersA Huey door gunner wakes up at the 312th Air Evac. surgical ward in Chu Lai late one night. He’s in great pain and sees a lot of tubes and medical gear over his head. He vaguely remembers the pilot yelling “B 40 incoming! Hold on!” You also know the feeling when your stomach tells you the rotors are no longer pulling pitch and the jungle canopy is rushing up to meet you. He carefully raises his head and looks down to survey what’s still there and slowly lies back with a sigh. It appears a wheel chair is going to be a big part of his new life. The monitor starts to beep.

A gorgeous young Butterbar nurse notices the movement and comes over to check on him. She carefully leans in close, turns off the alarm and makes eye contact with him.  Slowly, she repeats  “Hiiiiii, there. You…may…not…feel…any…thing…from…the waist…down.”

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His eyebrows rise slightly as he struggles up on the gurney. His gaze breaks from her eyes down to her chest. In a low, measured voice he urgently mumbles into her ear through the Demerol haze “Can… I…feel…your…tits…then?”

Humor aside. American nurses in Vietnam were something to behold. Their GI name was “a round eye nurse”.

And here are some who served in country.

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As a last rejoinder, I’ll add this. When I wrote the joke, I had forgotten about the B 40s that hit the 312th and killed Lt. Sharon Lane. She was a bright light in a dark era of medicine in Vietnam. It happened a year before I arrived.

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Posted in All about Veterans, Humor, Inspirational Veterans, Vietnam War history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

VARO RENO–7.62 RD. IS NOT RELATED TO YOUR NAVY CROSS

Posted on December 7, 2014 by asknod
Capture

Fake Veteran Steve Lowery with toy M-16

Documented proof now exists that there is a glitch in the VA’s Cray M21-1MR super computer in Reno. The latest VBMS update apparently disabled the 38 USC 1154(b) logic circuits and no further awards for Vietnam Veterans will be processed there. According to the Veterans Service Center Manager, there simply are no more Veterans of the Vietnam Boundary dispute living in Nevada. The computer said so.

Steve Lowery, a Marine grunt once upon a time, had the misfortune to file a claim at the biggest little RO in the world. This one was a no brainer but it stumped those RVSRs cold down there. Too many free casino drinks and the high altitude combined to short circuit old Steverino right out of a rating or two. It didn’t matter if he had a fistful of medals. Besides, I hear some of these stolen valor types have even shot themselves to inflict fake GSWs.

Capture 2

You could almost find it humorous until you start reading the denial. VA’s logic was cut and dried. They sent off for the records at the NPRC and got the outpatient/sick call folder. No attempt was made to get the military file or the hospitalization records from Yokosuka. Claim denied. After he thought he had it straightened out, they did the Phoenix “what C&P exam?” bait and switch. Funny guys those VA chowderheads.

I often warn Vets to be careful with rescheduling or canceling appointments for these C&Ps because VA is notorious for saying you a) failed to appear for no good cause or b) cancelled it and never rescheduled it. This allows them to deny by proxy. It doesn’t mean you are denied even though it says as much.

A great read for Pearl Harbor Day. Navy Cross recipient accused of lying- gets bitchslap from VA.

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A warm thank you to Stevemeister for his service to our country. We’re glad he’s not on the Wall with CMOH winner Robert Jenkins Jr., his fellow service member that fell on a hand grenade that day to save others. A warm thank you to Maple syrup Frank for sending us this inspiring VA rating. Looks like “A. Bittler” VARO Reno boss will be getting his first star and a transfer to Vermin Ave. NW for this rating. He sure saved the VA a ton of money for a year or two.

P.S. Here’s and update

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/military/postwar-vet-fighting-battle-benefits

 

Posted in Inspirational Veterans, vARO Decisions, Vietnam War history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

SOVALDI–THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE

Posted on December 7, 2014 by asknod
2014-12-07 14.30.01

Sovaldi- Breakfast of Hep C atheletes

Today, besides marking a day seventy three years ago that will live in infamy, also celebrates a milestone begun June 15th of this year. This is my first day post-Sovaldi in the 168-day treatment regimen. I’ll receive my pest infestation report from my Hep minder Tobi next week as to whether the bugs are gone. Another test in March 2015 will confirm it one last time. I expect they’ll do another in a year just for shits and grins.

Do not be dismayed at the picture. The eighteen tablets in the foreground, worth an additional $18,000 dollars, are surplus. The six bottles of 28 tablets each, represent $168,000.

My fellow Veteran Mark, who was forced to drop out of this prophyalxis in his fourth month, graciously gave me his unused portion after brain fog caused me to eat two doses one morning. This would have technically left me one short of the magic daily dose. For that, words cannot thank him enough.

Fellow Vet Randy of Colorado, also fell prey to the same fog and it caused him to slip up and forget to eat it on four occasions over a two-week period. Sadly, the error provoked a relapse in his disease process. The truth be told, Sovaldi in conjunction with Ribavirin is not very effective on Genotype 1A. In both instances, the Sovaldi did reduce the viral load to zero for a while but a sustained virologic response (SVR) did not continue. The rapid return indicates to many that Sovaldi, by itself, is most effective on Genotypes 2 and 3. I have Genotype 3A so I am hoping my cure “takes”.

With the advent of Harvoni, a mixture of Sovaldi and Ledipasvir, the hope is finally realized for a drug that is 99% effective against 1A and 1B-unarguably the hardest to eradicate. The upside is remarkable-it doesn’t cause blindness, Diabetes Mellitus or thyroid cancer. Our good friend WGM, of whom I have written numerous times, just began his Harvoni treatment in Texas. Next up are Mark and Randy again. There seems to be some foot dragging on the insurer’s part over whether they will grant retreatment to Mark. I feel certain he’ll get it either via Medicare or the VA. Being 100% P&T now, he’s in Group 1 medically. With the addition of being Stage 4 and sick as a dog, he’s in the red on the VA’s triage meter.

As an aside, the VA doesn’t trust us. Randy reported they made him drive 45 miles (one way) every two weeks for a new prescription of 14 pills. My prescription was for every 28 days-only marginally better. What did these folks think we were going to do with it? Go down to Needle Park in Tacoma and sell it to junkies for a 1000% markup? We will not venture into VA logic today.

Having a new potential lease on life is a strange feeling. Gone are the forebodings of never getting to see grandchildren as yet unborn. Gone, too, are the preparations for the bucket list, the writing of a bulletproof will that would prevent a slow agonizing, prolonged death at the hands of some idiotic doctor hell-bent on trying to keep me away from the bright light.

I think that bright light analogy deserves an explanation. Operation number two had a hiccup on May 2nd, 2009.  My heart wasn’t up to the septal infarct. It seems when you fill the abdomen up with feces for eight days, strange things occur beside looking like Octomom.Octo-Mom-s-Baby-Belly-nadye-suleman-5635283-918-1222 As most know, when you start to do the chicken they hit you with that two-handed taser in the OR. That son of a bitch makes the ones the police use look like piezoelectric BBQ igniters. The bright light is the one over the table where they’re cutting on you that you see when your eyes pop open a millisecond after the 35,000 VAC jolt. I don’t care how much Propofol or Versed you have in you. Your eyes are going to bug clean out of your noggin. The jelly on the paddles is to keep your skin from being burnt by the high voltage. I think they ought to issue Vuarnet sunglasses under these operating room conditions.

With the introduction of Harvoni, any of you folks still holding stock in Interferon or Ribavirin pharmaceutical companies would be advised to dump it and take a loss. It’s rumored they’ll be combining both with rat poison soon because rodents are attracted to it.

 

rat-poison-3

Posted in Medical News, Sofosbuvir, VA Medical Mysteries Explained | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

STOLEN VALOR–DUMB AND DUMBER

Posted on December 6, 2014 by asknod

downloadImagine having TWO stars on your CIB. That would require you to have been in three conflicts as an 11 Bravo line Infantryman. Three conflicts in which you traded fire face to face with the enemy. Three recognized conflicts I might add and the Afghanisraq Olympics only counts for one. That means, Vietnam, Gulf War I and Gulf War II. I’m not clear on this but it seems this fellow has THREE stars he”s pointing to. The Vet asking him is unaware three stars would have to either involve Grenada or indicate the Korean War as well.

Even if you were an 11 Bravo 10 grunt plinking away up in Da Nang or CRB in the last minutes of April 1975 and had signed up with a Pink Slip Daddy in mid 74 (on your seventeenth birthday), you would be a little long in the tooth by now- about seven years younger than me- or 57. That’s pretty old for humping a full sack and a 16. If you were poking around Seoul in 1952 at 18, that would make you 78 minimum.

I wonder if these Stolen Valor types think this through before emailing an order in to Medal of America? Meet SSgt. Yetman. Nobody at Ft. Lewis  has ever heard of him. Bad recordkeeping? The 2nd of the 75th-(Death From Above). Wasn’t that Rambo’s outfit? Fort Bragg, right? This guy couldn’t jump out of bed.

Capture

SSGT Yetman,  a slightly out of shape but very youthful looking fifty seven year old a Ranger in no apparent distress (yet) .

P.S. But wait. He was also a dead cop!

http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/news/communities/man-at-center-of-stolen-valor-case-once-impersonated-dead/article_6ab42a91-eb66-5e11-8269-95c0fe4721d8.html?mode=jqm

Posted in Stolen Valor | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

VIETNAM: WHAT WENT WRONG IN SIX MINUTES

Posted on December 6, 2014 by asknod

img_0354.jpg_thumbnail0America is becoming more and more enamoured of it’s former warriors than ever. Each day reveals a new commission, a new museum showing or another commemorative gun from one of those outfits that advertises in American Rifleman. This month they’re pushing the longest barrelled .45 Thompson you never saw on the Indochinese peninsula. That thing’s begging for a hacksaw at the foregrip.

Member Tombo of the USS Long Beach Marines, sent me this very interesting link to the War. As most know, I viewed this close up from 64-73 first as an Air Force brat and lastly an enlisted man. I watched as a lot of my school friend’s dads went off to Nam and never came home. A lot.

The synopsis was that we were going to fight the war Detroit style. X numbers of  hand grenades, bombs and bullets would be produced and it would require X number of each to erase the bad guys. To be safe, the Defense Department over-ordered by a margin of .00002% to allow for exigencies. The exigencies had eaten up everything by Fall 1966 and shortages of everything were beginning to surface, Large amounts of assets were pulled into the black hole from other theaters while we geared up for a real “war” as opposed to a “police action”.

Capture

Materiel needs began to stabilize by 1968 just after Tet. And then popular opinion began to drive the discussion. This brief piece confirms what I always felt over there. Every CBU-26, every MK-82 and every canister of nape had to have an address to send to if you expected to keep procuring it. Senator Fulbright’s remark toward the end seems to be the signal moment in what critics prior to now have genuinely felt were shortcomings in strategic far thinking caused earlier by McNamara and the Grand Poobahs of Fort 5 Sides.

LBJ’s prompt response to the USS Turner Joy fiasco was pronounced and misguided. It accelerated a war we were ill-prepared to prosecute. Up until then our Special Ops guys out of Fort Bragg enjoyed it for training purposes and  MACV was an early winner in funding requests. The Montagnards were in high cotton because they’d traded in their muskets for M-1 carbines. RVN’s  indigenous “Indians” suddenly became a cutting edge military outfit under our SF tutelage. Much like our Hmongs up in Laos under Gen. Vang Pao, they initially enjoyed broad support and training. All this came crashing down when we left. Both tribes have since been decimated, hunted to earth and a concerted effort made to eradicate them which has ensued for decades. That’s probably the downside to SF training a force with no allegiance to anyone but their benefactors.

One is compellingly drawn to the same set of circumstances in Afstan and Iraqiville. Our government is sounding the all clear as the NVA tanks roll into Cholon again. Substitute Karbala or Kabul and Kurds in lieu of Hmong if you will, but chieu hoi is in full swing. America’s finest field grade and senior enlisted cadre are being boarded out or RIFed. Generals who do not toe the party line are discovering their pink slips in their paycheck. This does not bode well. Used to be every fifty or so years we needed that wake up call to restore our reputation overseas and restore our military might. You can feel the Rip Van Winkle effect beginning anew.

Just imagine what this will look like a year or five from now. A bunch of gay drone operators demanding Officer Flight Pay, Distinguished Flying Crosses, Air Medals and the right to unionize and strike.

Speaking of Montagnards, here’s a preview of the the present I’m sending to Bruce back in Geee-orgia. He never got to play up country so he missed the weekend outings to the Pleiku Flea Market. These Montagnard crossbows were hot sellers in 70 when I went through. These were the ceremonial ones and much larger than the ones we shot Budweiser cans with at night after work.

put the cursor on it and click. It's shot with megaglixels

put the cursor on it and click. It’s shot with megmegapixels

The dogs alerted to this glob of opium used to hold the arrows when I put them in hold baggage.

The dogs alerted to this glob of opium used to hold the arrows when I put them in hold baggage.

Detail of inlay

Detail of inlay

2014-12-06 15.02.40

bamboo arrows

Posted in From the footlocker, Independent Living Program, Vietnam War history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments