Sunday, January 23, 2011

Happy New Year. INCOMING!!!

Hello again and Happy New Year. I took a bit of a break and now I'm ready to continue this journey with you. Tag along we all might learn something.
So, whats been happening in my Roadside Life? Ive had a few IED's of life. Job related stuff, sleeping is still a challenge, I'm up to 5 pills a day some days (Thank you VA docs). How about you? Any IED's of life blast at you this Holiday season? Lets face the facts, even for normal people the holidays are always a mad rush, and anyone who doesn't take mind altering drugs (prescribed medications for those who would take this out of context) should seriously consider it. If I would ever need to describe what PTSD is like to someone who doesn't know, well, stand in the middle of the mall 3 days before Christmas and try ask someone if they have the time. he he. Craziness. I have been spending loads of time going to oddly scheduled appointments for the VA. 1 day its at 3:30 in the afternoon, the next schedule is 3 weeks later at 7 am on a Saturday. With a different doc. For the follow appointment from the one 3 weeks prior. Madness I tell you. At least civilian doctors can schedule you with the same person, more than once in the same year. I also had the extreme pleasure of a Doctor tell me that my TBI diagnosis was, well, not really all that correct. Apparently the region that I had it diagnosed in does a different test to determine the diagnosis, and the region that I moved to does it differently. SO, I had to take a battery of screenings again. Only to find out that they will not count the screenings because I apparently scored to low on a memory portion of the test, in relation to the rest of the test. Which, is the exact diagnosis I had in the first place 3 years ago. Needless to say I will be appealing that decision when I get that rating back. Madness.

Well, on a good note, the VA is adopting a newer more stream lined approach to individual vet care. I hope it works, I really do. Many of us struggle with an overwhelmingly huge bureaucratic machine that attempts to do the right thing. Many vets do not have my experiences, or some of the experiences that you have told me about. However, it is all of our responsibilities to call out the deficiencies, help each other out, and demand that we get taken care of the way it was explained it would work right before we departed for the combat zone. I remember that briefing all to well, and I will continue to fight to get there.

How did everyones Holidays go? What was challenging? What went well? What didn't? Leave a comment or email me and tell us about it. I'm also still looking for a list of "apps" for those Smart phones that I can post for everyone.

Thanks,

4 comments:

amber austen said...

So glad to see you back!

Wife of a Wounded Soldier said...

Welcome back!

Unknown said...

Hello,
Just a little message to thank you for such an inspiring piece of work.
Trauma is a very strange thing and far too many times it is considered to be untreatable or incureable.
I came across your blog whilst looking for people with similar interests and it was a very well put together piece of work.
As you will see from my blog I am a trauma life coach working with the spiritual aspect of trauma as opposed to just the physical. For this reason I work from a spiritual but non religious perspective using non medical methods. Having experienced my own trauma and working with many people who have returned from the military, I am aware of how little is understood and actually how trauma is often viewed as a mental illness when evidence shows it is not.
If I can be of help please contact me on my e mail.
Thank you again for your blog it was refreshing, maybe you could check mine out for further info.

With respect Tenzin Dasal.

Just Glory said...

I'm a little late here, but the holidays are always the roughest time of the year for me. I don't have great memories attached to the holidays, just the stress of going back and forth between parents and grandparents and traveling for nearly two straight weeks to try to fit in everyone's different gatherings. Even now, at 30 years old, I cannot shake the sense of impending doom and the seeming unfairness of it all. I'd like to be able to create better Christmas memories for my own children, but I don't even know where to start. I don't know how to celebrate the holidays peacefully or joyfully. I'd like to sleep all the way through December each year.