Tag Archives: VA

What’s Happening

Posted on by 3 comments
002

Going Up

It’s Friday the thirteenth.  The moon is full.  The sun is giving off huge solar flares.  Mercury is retrograde.

Maybe this explains our week.  Our refrigerator icemaker quit for the second time.  The oven went black and the door is locked from a cleaning cycle for the second time.  Parts for the oven are on order.  A driver forced Carol into the curb in the alley by the bank and a trim strip got torn off the side of her car.

I went to work at Four Mile this morning and the group that was scheduled to come with 110 kids went to History Colorado instead due to some mix-up.  One of the horses is lame.

I went to buy electrical conduit for our garage project, bought the wrong stuff, went back, and they didn’t have everything in stock so I had to go to another place.  I thought the electrician was going to install the conduit, but he is busy and then I forgot about it until the day before the City Inspector was due to come.  The conduit is in and inspected.  No more deep trench across the back yard.

The old garage door opener we saved won’t work, so we have to have a new one.  The muffler fell off the lawn mower.  It is LOUD.  In the process of setting the forms for the concrete, the sprinkling system piping got cut in two places.  I had to go to two places for parts for that.

On the positive side, the garage walls are up and the rafters are being built.  We will have lots of storage space above our cars-no space robbing trusses.  Ed, the contractor on the garage is a joy to work with.  His business is Colorado Craftsmen.

Carol’s neck and shoulder hurt.  My wrist hurts.  I am not sleeping as well as usual.  The last installment of Cosmos has come and gone (if you haven’t seen it, do so).

I am waiting on a letter from the VA about my disability since I won the appeal.  The DAV told me they usually take around 60 days.  It has now been 70 days.  Well, actually, I applied in March 2009, so it has been more than 70 days.

Enough complaining.  All things considered, life is good.  We are going to have a secure garage for our cars, we will have a nice patio, and lovely brick walks.  The garden is doing well,

Posted in Current Activities

My Experience With Department of Veterans Affairs

Posted on by Leave a comment
Veterans Salute

Veterans Salute

I am a U.S. Army veteran.  I served from 1962 to 1965, so missed all the fun in Vietnam.  I spent a year in the States training as a radar repairman and two years in Germany in a unit that provided support to a Hawk missile battalion.  I didn’t like the army much, but enjoyed Europe and the people I worked with.

In basic training, I fired the M1 Rifle.  In Germany, it was the M14 rifle.  Both rifles are .30 calibers and loud, more powerful than the .223 caliber our military now employs.  It took some time for me to get promoted past Private First Class, but when I was, I got the honor of leading a .50 caliber Browning machine gun crew.  The Browning Machine Gun Caliber .50 M2 HB is a serious piece of machinery.  On its tripod it weighs 128 pounds and fires about 650 rounds per minute.  It is big, powerful, and very loud.  All three weapons are loud, but the .50 takes loud to a new level.  We had no hearing protection.

After firing, my ears rang for days.  After firing the .50, the ringing never stopped.  I knew I had hearing loss as well.  Working for Denver Water, the hearing tests showed significant hearing loss and the tinnitus (ringing) was worse.  Finally, in about 2008, I went to the VA after learning the VA provides hearing aids to any veteran with honorable service.

The hearing aids are a big help, and I applied for a service connected disability for the tinnitus and hearing loss.   Not long later, I received a 10% service connected disability for tinnitus, but was denied for the hearing loss.  In March 2009 I appealed the decision.  After a long wait, the appeal seemed to have gone away.

Carol is persistent, keeping me on the case, and asking a retired VA nurse what we should do.  She had Carol contact a person at the VA regional office who got the appeal going again.  It was again denied, so I asked for a hearing before an administrative judge.

In March 2014 I had the hearing, with representation from the Disabled American Veterans.  The judge apologized for my having to come in.  There was case law in my favor, and I won.  I am now waiting for a determination of my hearing related disability and benefits retroactive to March 2009.  The DAV tells me I should hear soon.

During this entire wait I have seen VA physicians for my prescription medications ($8.00 for three months).  I also got my medication for ADD and saw a VA psychiatrist for the prescriptions.  I am on my third set of hearing aids from the VA.  I have always been happy with the service providers at the Denver VA hospital.  The VA bureaucracy is another matter.

As more Persian Gulf and Afghanistan veterans began using the VA, wait times increased, and I have spent lots of time on hold for the pharmacy.  When I first got hearing aids, there was little wait time for an appointment.  The wait times have steadily increased.  The VA has always been underfunded, and that has increased dramatically with all the returning vets from the Middle East.  The current scandal is a direct result of the VA trying to do its mission without enough money.  There is also a lot of money spent on bureaucratic bloat, money which should go to service providers.

The largest health network in the country is simply overwhelmed.  Managers had bonuses tied to wait times for appointments, so they cooked the books.  Who is losing out?  The veteran.  I had good help in negotiating the bureaucracy and my appeal took five years.  What about the vets who do not have an inside contact and the DAV working for them?

Most of the blame lies on the source for many of the nation’s current problems: Congress.  The current scandal may result in changing the VA bureaucracy and may produce increased funding.  Our nation’s veterans deserve the health care they are promised.  I hope the care improves.

Posted in My Story, Veterans and the VA