DO NOT CALL VA CRISIS LINE!!!!!

If you are a Vet in crisis and in need of help do NOT call the VA Crisis Line! Turn to a friend, family member, fellow vet, or look deep inside yourself. Because if you call the VA they will enter your "confidential" conversation into your records with arm chair diagnoses and use it for punitive purposes to the extent that they may deny health care that you really need. They will also use it to deny your rights under the constitution by labeling you and taking your rights to make decisions for yourself.

Just don't do it. It is better - and more noble - to die than to ask your government for the help that they owe us.

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The Verdict is in: The Veteran's Administration is NOT your friend

I have been trying - more like begging - for the Veteran's Administration to address a very real physical problem for several months, a problem for which I actually had documented evidence to support. I had a CT scan from a local hospital which clearly indicated gall stones almost an inch in diameter. The very reason that I went to the Emergency Room in the first place is because I had been sick and vomiting for weeks. The VA Primary Care provider that I went to referred me to a surgeon almost 250 miles away indicating that he suspect that the gall bladder was indeed causing me pain, nausea and discomfort.

The VA Surgeon in St. Louis, Jane Tenquist, decided upon reading all of the scurrilous and slanderous claims repeated over and over in my St. Louis VA records which indicate that in their professional opinion I am a danger to myself and that I have "major recurring depressive disorder" and "personality disorder" - among many other insulting invectives, that there was nothing wrong with me and that she felt I would be better served to have the VA stick a camera up my ass. EVEN AFTER VIEWING THE CT SCAN SHOWING THE GALL STONES!

I really have trouble understanding the VA compulsion to stick stuff up your ass! That seems to be their treatment de jure for anything that they don't want to face head on. But I digress....
I was so sick that I HAD to find SOMEONE - ANYONE - who might treat me for the problem. Which I did. This (non-VA affiliated) surgeon recognized immediately the seriousness of the matter and set up surgery for as soon as he could get me in. When he got inside of me and saw just how serious the matter had become he made the decision to document the procedure with photographs. The nurse told me that my gall bladder was "nasty" and that one of the largest stones had begun to traverse into the common bile duct. If you are uninformed on this complication, this can and likely will be life threatening!

When I returned from hospital I sent in a request for my VA medical records for the past six months. Those pages, when simple lab reports are removed, numbered somewhere around 30 and were riddled with fallacious statements made by "social workers" alleged conversations with me in person and via the telephone which painted me as a crazy person. And in those pages my alleged psychiatric condition is discussed more than anything else! Along with the allegations cited above they claim that I am a chronic substance abuser... without a shred of evidence to support those claims other than their word.

The simple fact of the matter is that, once again, the St'. Louis VA did all in their power to deny me much needed health care and treatment. I say "once again" because from '05 to '06 I complained of feeling as if "an elephant is setting on my chest". I had to ask help from US Congresswoman JoAnn Emerson's office to get them to recognize the fact that I needed emergency heart surgery.

Please stay tuned as I fully plan to post my medical records and pictures of this most recent surgery here. You don't have to believe me, you can decide for yourself.

But if you are a Veteran, heed this warning: The Veteran's Administration is the LAST place you need to go for help of any kind.

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Hunger Strike is over and canned Spam is better than the comments here

Yeah, I quit on the hunger strike after day six. Nobody gave a fuck. Especially the Veteran's Administration at whom it was aimed. I've sicked my State Representative on them. For all the propaganda that is pumped out about how much this suck ass country wants to honor and care for its Vets one could use it to build a causeway from Miami to Cuba complete with Circle K stops... and a few titty bars!

But the thing that I find most annoying is the spam comments that these posts have generated. This blog was linked to by CNN for over a week at one time. I had regular readers. I had thoughtful comments. I met wonderful people. Now, all I get is spam. I kind of like canned spam once in a while. But the crap that appears here (awaiting moderation as I have that option turned on) are nothing short of insulting.

Capitalism is sooooo wonderful. I'm posting shit about my health deteriorating and the VA doing nothing when it is contractually their obligation and all anyone wants to say in their comments is "come to my website and buy my shit". So, capitalism is doing exactly what it is created to do: benefit from the suffering of others.

I'm a heartbeat away from turning comments off completely. I tire of seeing that crap. If you don't have anything to say about what I am writing - good, bad, or indifferent - then simply move along. I don't care if you like me or agree with anything I say. And I don't care if you say so! But if you provide a link to some "buy my shit" bullshit in a comment IT WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED!

So, read or don't read. Comment if you like so long as your comment has anything at all to do with the post. If I keep getting spam I'll just turn the shit off... you blood sucking capitalist pigs.

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New Directions

I know of at least one veteran who has gone on a hunger strike because the Veteran's Administration won't treat him. On day 3 now.

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