BVA-4TH QTR DECISIONS POSTED TODAY

Posted on January 17, 2014 by asknod

Hot off the presses. The imageslast of the BVA 2013 decisions (or so they claim) are up. 

Posted in BvA Decisions, vA news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

M-21 1MR NEW GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING EVIDENCE

Posted on January 17, 2014 by asknod

downloadVA has gradually been revamping their procedures for approval/denial in their M-21. It would probably behoove your to brush up on their new, improved techniques for politely denying your claim. Attached is the latest Chapter 5 list of  “How to let the Vet down gently” or “Everything you wanted to know about how to deny but were afraid to ask”. 

I downloaded it for you here. I suggest you read and heed, ladies and gentlemen. It gives you a window in to the process and how tilted it is towards fencing you out.

pt3_sp4_ch5

Posted in M-21 info, Nexus Information, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

RAINBOWS IN GUAM

Posted on January 16, 2014 by asknod

downloadHere’s a great site about Agent Orange. It’s unique in that some of the gentleman’s documents are not in circulation. This one is a classic example. While the site deals mostly with Guam and environs, there is some excellent source material for all of you to delve into on the six weedkillers. 

I’m quite fond of this one.

For all recommendations, the wash containing the diluted Orange, White, or Blue should, if possible, be diverted into pits or settling basins for incorporation into soil. It should not be directed into a stream or river.

It’s perfectly safe but we don’t advise brushing your teeth with it. The author of this site, Ralph Stanton, had this to say in an email below. I exercise my right to perform the Nixonian “expletive deleted” triage in order to keep the site a family one:

I just loaded up some of my best herb(icide) documents, some I haven’t loaded before. If you see anything you like, better go ahead and download them just in case. They called me and wanted me to take the site down, they said people were using the info to make up false claims. I told them to get        f —ed and hung up. I figure the safest thing I can do is get as much of the stuff out there to as many people as possible.  

P.S. the reference to the Rainbow is the six herbicides that were called the rainbow defoliants. The CHECO reports also contain a good accounting of this as well.

Posted in AO, Porphyria Cutanea Tarda, Vietnam Disease Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

MARINE BOOT INSPECTION

Posted on January 16, 2014 by asknod

Semper Fi[1]When this photo was first published, the ACLU was told it was nothing more than a snapshot of Marines looking down at their shoes and contemplating how dirty and unpolished they were. Later, when informed the troops were on Federal Property, on government time and actually praying for the continued well being of their military branch, they came unglued.

Said Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU “These are federal employees,” “on federal property and on federal time. For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately.” Just so, Lucius.

When asked about the ACLU’s charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), “Screw the ACLU.” GOD Bless Our Warriors. Send the ACLU to Afghanistan !

What is the world coming to? Illegal immigrants demanding Social Security. Veterans Charities presidents charging $353 K a year to disburse their donated funds. What’s next? Socialized medicine? Oh. Nevermind.

Posted in Complaints Department, Inspirational Veterans | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

FACE THE PAGE–BUILDING PERMITS

Posted on January 15, 2014 by asknod

1549298_10152204666122962_1890249453_nThese are my kind of people. Deny you a permit to build a horse shade barn? Why, build a table and some sittin’ chairs. Hell, Paul Bunyan and Babe might drop in and sit a spell. Who can say? $20 says it was a Veteran.

Posted in FACE HUMOR | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

FROM DA NANG TOMBO’S LIBRARY

Posted on January 14, 2014 by asknod

securedownload I love Tom’s humor. He’s a Marine through and through. I think they just ran out of slots for Air Force enlistments in 1968 when he signed up or he would have become a zoomie. Check this out. 

Jerry asked Earl, “At your ripe age, what do you prefer to get – Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s?”

Without so much as a pause, Earl replied  “Definitely Parkinson’s. Better to spill half an ounce of Jack Daniels, than to forget where you keep the bottle!”

Spoken like a Proud Marine.

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Pediatric HCV reporting in U. S. “grossly inadequate”

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Laura

downloadFlorida requires health practitioners and labs report all cases of acute and chronic HCV into a database called MERLIN.  A 2012 study (link below)   showed that only about 12% of children infected with HCV in Florida had been identified between 2000-2009.   Nationwide, only about 4.9% of children with HCV had been identified.  The study  concluded that “the identification of children infected with HCV in the nation as a whole is grossly inadequate.” 

To make matters worse, in Miami-Dade County, only 1.6% of children identified with HCV were being treated by gastroenterologists.  The American Association of Pediatrics doesn’t allow open access to their Red Book on infectious diseases so I can’t see what their recommendations are.  Their advocacy section is silent on HCV.

How do children become infected? Mother-to-baby transfers? Community-acquired: hand hygiene issues? Household contacts? Health Care Associated infections (HAI)? Certainly there are many possibilities.

The AAP does have some 2009 webinar slides online on HAIs that are worth looking at.  The health practitioners in the WHITE states (in 2009) can keep their health care associated infections a secret.  North Dakota is certainly protecting health providers there with regard to their current HCV outbreak in Minot.  But its hard to keep 44 cases from a one common source completely quiet and unethical to boot.

states HAI reporting

slide 19

Slide 36

Slide 36

This slide is interesting because it indicated how easily “extrinsic” organisms on skin can transfer infectious diseases during invasive procedures.  The four lines are hard to see.  In the case of jet injectors,  skin to > (Next!) skin to> (Next!) etc….plus the multi-dose vial contamination, other unsafe injections, the dirty blood supply, is it any wonder that military “boomers”  constitute the largest known on-going outbreak of HCV in the U.S.?  But given that HCV is a non-issue for most public health officials, we really don’t know.

We now know that HCV is a serious threat to children as well.  Testing is cheap and easy. What’s the hold-up?  I’d like to see the VA and Tricare show leadership in making universal testing available across age groups.

Study: Delgado-Borrego-J Peds-2012-Expected and Actual Case Ascertainment and Tx Rates for Children Infected with HCV in FLA and USA

Posted in Guest authors, HCV Health, HCV Risks (documented) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

HOW TO CONTACT YOUR VA RATER

Posted on January 13, 2014 by asknod

downloadIn what is increasingly becoming a struggle to get the VA’s attention when they really should be working your claim (or profess to be actively doing so), my attorney has finally given me the “secret handshake”. I am now one of ordained. In just a day or less, I can make my presence known to the gentleman(men) actively engaged in adducing the M-21 crystal ball on my behalf.

The secret to this will soon be moot in 2020 when VA converts over to the new VBCS or Veterans Bar Code System. It will be paperless and utilize a bar code scanner for your C-files. It was deemed unwise by the hierarchy to try to switch the whole VBMS paper system over to one that didn’t still require 20/20 visual acuity to read the name on the CD boxes. Old dogs, new tricks. You understand. Besides, this might make some of their jobs superfluous so it was deemed technically impossible to mate up a bar code label to a clear CD disc container due to the bright reflection and the refractive error rate of the reader. A solution from the VA’s Central Office-Wide Virtual Suggestion Box (VACO-WVSB) to use an opaque container was found impractical because it would be impossible to determine if a CD was, in fact, inside the container as CDs are known to come in all manner of different weights.

In the interim, while we wait for this modern miracle to be invented and to arrive at ROs everywhere, lawyers have discovered how to penetrate the major ROs and get answers in a relatively short time. Using any standard VA form, be it a 8940, a 21-22a, a Form 9 (these work well), or the new 21-0958 (excellent bait), the VA’s mail room is bypassed. You’re going into the Command Post where the faxes come in. 0958 NODs and Form 9s are perishable items. DBQs are often an excellent choice, too, because they have to check each one to triage it. If your claim is out on the floor being actively worked by a decision of the Court(s) above, they know your last name and probably have your last 4 memorized that week.

If someone peels it off the teletype and announces a “What the hey? Why didn’t he use a    21-4138? Send this over to Bob. VACOLS says it’s his claim.” then the message goes instantly to the MAN.  Of course, by 2020, you’ll be able to flash your ID on the touch screen, scan in your personalized bar code and leave a message for the gentleman(men) to return your query.” A vast improvement indeed.

Have Gun Will Travel

Have Gun, Will Travel
Wire OAK1DRO in 2020

Posted in Tips and Tricks, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

GAMMA GLOBULIN SHOTS

Posted on January 12, 2014 by asknod

unnamedRemember those nasty boogers? They refrigerated the serum and then blasted you with it in the arm or upper butt with it. It was like jamming a popsicle under your skin for an hour and the volume was enough to hurt in it’s own right. So now what do we come to find? It was masking the effects of HBV and HCV all along.

Is that a hoot or what. Nurse Sylvia sent me this a while back and I’m trying to get her to post this valuable stuff here . She’s not holding up her end of things. Some of us filing for HCV from the sixties and seventies (and eighties?) need this kind of stuff to win claims with. Granted, the number is dwindling dramatically due to the lethal nature of HCV and cirrhosis but there are still quite a number who come here to find the Holy Grail.

Gamma Globulin shots were pounded into us every time we switched continents. If you got a transfusion it was automatic as soon as you got near an Air Evac Unit with a refrigerator. This crap was like popcorn at the theatre. They always had it and were more than willing to blast you at a moment’s notice. I remember a payroll detail that landed at our Operating Location had a Pecker Checker on board and a LIST one day. No shots, no payroll. Go to jail. That was my first encounter with unreasonable authority. Even though I’d had Hepatitis and hospitalized for six weeks, they insisted on blasting me again. This was on top of the one I got four and half months before after the transfusion. When I got back to the world-yep-you guessed it. “Sgt. Nod report to sick call and get your shots up to date. You’re overdue for a GG.” Hell, by then I could have had a raging, acute presentation of HCV and no one would have been the wiser for it. I’m sure the rationale would be  “Can’t be Hep. He’s up to date on his GG.”

So here they are. Documentary proof that they knew as early as 1960 and had a very clear understanding by 1965 that injection of Gamma Globulin would mask all the telltale signs like icterus (jaundice) and some of ther other symptoms such as dark urine or clay-colored stools. Brilliant. And they kept on using it anyway. Say, did anyone pass this on to VA yet? They’re probably working on their 1999 stock by now.

Gamma Globulin Prophylaxis Willowbrook trials

Annual REport Hepatitis Group 1961 to 1962

This is important knowledge to have at your disposal for a claim, most especially if you had hep. in service. Alternatively, with the vast quantity of evidence now assembled that most of the Gamma Globulin immunoglobulins were harvested from the blood of prison inmates, the chance of a double whammy increases that you may have gotten the Hep from the GG injection AND it masked the symptoms.

Posted in HCV Health, HCV Risks (documented), Vietnam Disease Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

HCV IN DENTAL SETTINGS EVEN TODAY

Posted on January 12, 2014 by asknod

downloadHere’s an important risk factor sent in by “Pop” Smoke. Just when we think the CDC has briefed everyone and it can’t happen any more, along comes one of these or the Minot, North Dakota outbreak. HCV is a lot more mobile and virile than anyone, especially the VA, would have you believe. Add this one to your risk factors as evidence that it does happen. 

Posted in HCV Health, HCV Risks (documented) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment