helpvet

 *****Under Construction*****

     Currently rated at 10% for TBI. Injury resulted from the major concussion I revived the first time getting blown up. Lost conscious for an unknown period, initial disorientation, memory and cognitive loss. A few days of dysfunctional equilibrium and short term memory function. Some oozing from the ear lobes first week (though it was said to just be from the burns). After two months I was return to duty and back to full missions.

     Long term problems have been migraines, hearing and vision loss. With no baseline for before I honestly have no way to prove any cognitive or memory loss now, though it took years to adapt to present function level, it is something I had to do on my own as the VA was too busy denying my claim to provide proper medical treatment. It took years for the VA to even approve the 10% for TBI, and sense then, not one single appointment to address it. The VA keeps setting up appointments for compensation and pension, but that is only for a rating board to increases the rating, not for medical treatment. With a combined ratting of 140% and 100% compensation, I am more worried about treatment than a meaningless number on a paper.

     Within the first week of the injuries I underwent a lot of testing (all the records of which I do not have even with over a dozen attempts to retrieve the records, and I have not found any records from the VA relating to the records). The two that I remember best were an eye test and a cognitive function test (because you get the results then and there, not like MRI’s and CT’s where you just do the test and that’s it for then), I went from 20/20 vision to failing the eye exam (but was told It was possible/probable to regain full function, which never happened), but on the cognitive test, I scored better with a concussion and heavily medicated than the constant, or average for a person with no head injury and not medicated. May sound good, but last IQ test I had (6yrs old. Was adopted from a bad situation, social services kept tabs on me) had me go from the IQ of a 18mth old at 4 and a half to borderline genius. And it was only up from there…well until I got blown up. So while I can still test well, I know I lost a lot of my potential.

     Processing out of the Army brought up the hearing loss. Before, when entering the Military, hearing test put me above average, not sonar operator level, but better than most. Well I failed my hearing test completely, so had to retake it two more times until I met the “minimum standard”, which was honestly quite shady in of itself, by the third time I was given… a touch of help so I could pass and be out-processed. No need to keep me on the payroll longer as broken goods, but they wanted to pass the buck to the VA instead of taking care of problems themselves.

     As to the VA, not a single hearing or vision test though requested over a dozen times. No discussion of it whatsoever. The migraines, they have given me different medications for, some non-effective, some counterproductive, but nothing positive. I’ve tried everything over the counter I could think of, plus all the new age treatments or herbal remedies, supplements I could find. Currently taking Aleve, not anything that helps for bad ones, but sometimes it helps curb them if taken before. Of course all this is out of pocket, my pocket, on a VA system that not only refused to let me have input in my treatment (medications) but anything I could find that worked even a bit better I had to pay for because it could be bought over the counter, which doesn’t sound like any sort of medical coverage at all. I’m a Disabled Veteran, labeled unemployable by the VA itself and yet I am paying out of pocket for medications they can and do provide (it goes for other sections also, not just medications for the head).