OUT, DAMN’D SPOT! OUT I SAY!

images

We just got the news today that Gilead Sciences is unwilling to accept me for the Sofosbuvir trials as my Autoimmune Hepatitis is still active and busy at work. It was a known disqualifier when I applied but I had hoped the severe autoimmune response  from the Interferon might have abated and subsided to a dull roar.

The good news is that both Sofosbuvir and Daclatasvir will be available commercially in late 2013 or early 2014. Who knows? It could be a whole new family of “-avir”s will be coming in with even more promising results. The trick now is to figure out how to stay alive until then.

 Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!Shakespeare (Macbeth)

Out, damn’d spot! out, I say!
Shakespeare (Macbeth)

Posted in HCV Health, Medical News | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

FACEPAGE WEEKLY WINNER

This from member David off my social media disaster…

The art of PR

The art of PR

VA could use some of this innovative thinking.  VSRs could wear little lapel buttons that said “The Hickey on my neck does not imply support for  USB Allison Hickey.”

 

Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

GREAT ARTICLE ON GORDON ERSPAMER

gordie

Read about one of the giants in VA litigation. Gordon is taking time off from law to regain some of the things he needs to complete himself. I doubt we’ve heard the end of him. I wrote up a lovely article of what his mother suffered at the hands of the VA after the VJRA was instituted. His fingerprints are all over that one. They should be. VA tried hard to give her the deep six. Gordon has already led a storied career in his David vs. Goliath role for Vets. At 59, he’s still a youngster. We expect a few good Supreme Court  precedents for Vets before he punches out for good.

Posted in Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

APRIL FOOL’S DAY 2013

April Fool’s day in 2011 dawned with Mr. Heino’s pill-cutting shenanigans.

April Fool’s Day  2013 in Seattle and environs dawned crisp and clear- what aviators call CLAVU. CLear to Altitude-Visibility Unlimited. Upon checking my email, I discovered that Santa had been there. Bob, my Michigan rainmaker, true to form, has extracted what would appear to be as close as you can get to a “We’re on it.” from the good folks who serve Vets. The Joint Motion to Remand will send my problems back over to Vermin Ave. for a rebuild. Or so it is hoped. We never cross our “T”s or visit the Dodge showroom before our chickens are hatched.  As many know, Uncle Eric makes Will. E. Coyote look like a rank amateur. Just when one thinks he’s in the catbird seat, one discovers the kitty litter box. I read it and reread it and the only thing I can surmise is that nobody wants to hurt anyone’s feelings and make them feel inadequate. Thus there will be no sarcastic rejoinders about the lupine parentage and wet-nursing of certain employees of the VA.

I will also obey his wishes and refrain from any detailed analysis until I see some skin in the new, revamped decision. Simply saying you’re going to remand for a new look and repair those Reasons and Bases does not always guarantee the rebuild will be in your favor.

I guess the most humorous part is how this has wended its way to here. I filed exactly 19 years ago on April Fool’s Day. Imagine the odds that it would take that long but even more, that it would culminate on the same exact day almost two decades later. Lots of things were happening back then. March 26th – Half-brother of former President Bill Clinton and rodeo clown Roger Clinton (37) wedded Molly Martin (25) in Dallas. March 24th – Robert F Kennedy Jr divorced Emily Black. March 29th- coach Jimmy Johnson quit the Dallas Cowboys. March 31st – James Farentino pled no contest to stalking ex-girlfriend Tina Sinatra. Apr 7th – Vatican acknowledged Holocaust (Nazis killing Jews) for 1st time. Yes, 1994 was memorable.

Six months before this, on September 23rd, 1993 I had my Agent Orange registry exam in Tacoma. They never called me back for the face-to-face time with the doctor. I got worried. A year before that, Cupcake happened to overhear the disease Porphyria Cutanea Tarda mentioned as a complication of exposure to Agent Orange. Strange turns of fate and how they combined to create a tapestry with time woven in. Add in VA’s inherent inability to follow through on what they promised to do and you have the perfect storm of inaction. That it took so long for them to see it is still the conundrum.

Six weeks from now, we expect to see a glow in the east-the glimmer of the dawning of intelligence at the BVA. Hopefully the torch will be passed to the RO and justice delayed will finally become justice dispensed. $5 bucks says they still manage to get it wrong.

images

(quietly)

Posted in CAVC ruling, Remanded claims | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

CHECK YOUR VOICE MAIL GREETING

This just in from member JM. My God. What next? A VA PCP calls your house (like that’s ever going to happen) and decides your voice mail message is “queer”. This leads him to a)call the local police and b) ask them to do a “wellness check”? This is the stuff The Twilight Zone episodes are made of. Seriously. There’s a whole lot more here than is being admitted to. Doctors don’t call 911. Doctors’ hired help call the patient in and do an assessment if they think the Vet isn’t too tightly wrapped. Then they tightly wrap the patient in one of those really neat suits with the matching leather straps and buckles.

There is always a “procedure” for these things. First of all, a PCP who isn’t a psychiatrist is not trained to identify a “queer response”. On the off chance it was, he still is not allowed to violate the new HIPPA laws and sanction a hit on this Veteran. As for his being a Vet, that may be a wild hare. It may be that he is receiving all this undue attention because he lives in-yep-Connecticut. For those of you who have been out of the country for the last 4 months, there was another crazy-with-a-gun incident.

I have been taken in by fancy looking web sites published by certifiables so I attach this link gingerly. Take it with a grain of salt unless you know him personally. If you do, please comment below.

Posted in PTSD, vA news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CAUTION: “This document was published by CDC in 1984;…multi-use-nozzle jet injectors are discouraged”

CDC Don't use multi-dose nozzle jet injectors

DO NOT, WE REPEAT, DO NOT USE JET INJECTORS!!

Well, well, what do we have here?  Accessed today April 2, 2013 with underlines added.

“CAUTION: This document was published by CDC in 1984 to record the experience and lessons learned from applying epidemiologic principles to humanitarian relief efforts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The goal was to preserve CDC’s institutional memory for future generations of CDC responders to natural and manmade disasters. Although the epidemiologic techniques and general principles remain valid, the usage described of certain drugs, vaccines, and other specific health-related strategies may be obsolete. For example, consult more recent guidelines for drug-resistant malaria, antibiotic usage, presumptive treatments, and vaccination technologies (auto-disable syringes are now preferred; multi-use-nozzle jet injectors are discouraged).”

emergency book

Report cover

Example of what NOT to do today:

The “Pedijet” was used (page 52) to inject 9,010 children with doses of measles vaccine within one week.

Chapter 26  Vaccination Programs for Refugees (Page 138):  

“Miscellaneous:  A jet injector and 50-dose vaccine vials must be available if a large number of children are to be vaccinated in a short period of time.”

We don’t know how syringes were sterilized or how the blood bank conducted activities in these crowded refugee camps.  But at last, someone at the CDC is apparently serious about preventing the transmission of pathogens via unsafe vaccination techniques like the use of jet injectors.  

The spread of infectious diseases was the unintended consequence of mass vaccination campaigns meant to protect people in the past and that’s why the caution language is front and center before the download link to the pdf. is provided.

But CDC, the public has a right to know the details.

http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tsunamis/pdf/emergency-refugee-health-care-1984.pdf

 

jet gun image

The MUNJI: A deadly medical device

 

Posted in HCV Health, HCV Risks (documented), Jetgun Claims evidence, Jetgun Manual | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF I DIED?

images

This, too, from Jim of the Mekong waters.He of Swift Boat fame sends us some really choice stuff. Too bad I can’t publish all that Swift Boat humor about, well, nevermind.

A  Vet and his wife are sitting quietly in bed-she reading and he watching the 11 PM sports-when the Wife looks over at him and asks the question. You know. That question.

WIFE: “What would you do if I died? Would you get  married again?”

HUSBAND: “Definitely  not!”

WIFE: “Why not?   Don’t you like being married?”

HUSBAND: “Of course I do.”

WIFE: “Then why  wouldn’t you remarry? ”

HUSBAND: “Okay, okay, I’d get married again.”

WIFE: “You would?”  (with a hurt look)

HUSBAND: (makes audible groan)

WIFE: “Would you live  in our house?”

HUSBAND:  “Sure,it’s a great house.”

WIFE: “Would you sleep with her in our bed?”

HUSBAND: “Where else  would we sleep?”

WIFE:  “Would you let her drive my car?”

HUSBAND:”Probably, it is almost new.”

WIFE: “Would you  replace my pictures with hers?”

HUSBAND: “That would seem like the proper thing to  do.”

WIFE: “Would you  give her my jewelry?”

HUSBAND: “No, I’m sure she’d want her own.”

WIFE: “Would you take  her golfing with you?

HUSBAND: “Yes, those are always good times.”

WIFE: “Would she use my  clubs?

HUSBAND: “No,  she’s left-handed.”

WIFE: — silence —

HUSBAND:   “shit.”

This is ample proof that you should mute the TV or put the paper down in the morning and l-i-s-t-e-n to avoid this kind of occurrence. J1VO, mind you.

Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NEW PRESIDENTIAL LIMOUSINE PICTURE RELEASED

This just in from Brownwater Jim who’s relatives work on the Lincoln/Mercury line over in Detroit. I think it has class. It says “Second Term, Babay!” The govt. is reputedly gearing up the line for 50 of these at a cost of $2.5 million apiece. Don’t they get a Fleet rate?

New presidential limosine

Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

HERE’S ONE FOR YOU-NINETEEN FOR ME

Sen. Feinstein at West LA VA campus

Sen. Feinstein at West LA VA campus

Here’s an interesting article from member Shawn that bears reading and passing on. Please excuse the political drama at the end. We have yet to get any administration “behind” us and our problems-ever. Face it, immigration and free medical-for-all are going to crowd out our agenda until we form a Bonus Army and ride into DC. In the interim, seeing Senator Feinstein steal Veterans’ property held in sacred trust is  par for the course. It would have really have been the straw that stirred the drink if it happened up here in Senator Murray’s back yard.

Sen. Murray and her "Pet Vets"

Sen. Murray and her “Pet Vets”

Posted in vA news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

VETS AND MEDICAL CARE

Here’s a hot one for Vets’ spouses to check out. Not all of us have that gold-plated 20/80 medical /dental plan. Many have less or none. Vets and their wives are at an even greater disadvantage until they get to a meaningful rating. Even then, the spouse is often given the cold shoulder.

Good advice and great data. Thank you Randy.

Posted in Medical News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment