Heavenly Teddy's blog: "Controversial Sh!t"

After all the run around that we have gotten in the past two years, finally something is going to be done.

We had a second opinion appointment in San Diego today. We spent the entire day down there reviewing all of his medical records and getting their recommendations as to what they feel needs to be done to help resolve all the issues with my husband's knees and left elbow.

Their recommendation after sending him to Xray to get films on both knees and elbow are as follows:

***The elbow diagnosis is ulnar neuropathy (ulnar nerve needs moved). This recommendation to have surgery needs to be done as soon as possible.

***The left knee needs to have a scope done to clean out the bone spurs that have re-occurred to minimize further damage to the miniscus and prolong having to require a complete knee replacement at this time.

***No longer going to keep adding narcotics to therapy as a "preventative option" to surgery.

With all that being said, the specialist that we were originally seeing in Loma Linda we will be going back to as this was just a second opinion appointment. As of right now, they now have the recommendations of another specialist that informs them that these surgeries are a necessity and they won't give us the run around anymore.

Finally, someone has made a decision and going to do something instead of backing off and being afraid to do their job as a medical physician.

I am completely infuriated about the healthcare that US Military Veterans are receiving as of late. It really disturbs me how they are treated and handled with such blatant inconsideration.

For example, I have seen nurses mistreat veterans on several occasions, man-handle and verbally brutalize them. It sickens me beyond belief. They are shown absolutely no respect as a person, let alone the veteran that they are. Furthermore, the treatment my husband has been receiving (or rather, lack thereof) at Jerry L. Pettis Veterans Memorial Hospital is in such disregard of what they should be doing that it is deplorable! The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, for starters. They have several doctors set up to see the Veterans. That is all well and good, but when you are seeing several doctors for the same problem, this is where it becomes plaintive.

My husband has been going to the VA for the last two years for orthopedic reasons. Both of his knees are in crucial need of replacement. They have told us on different occasions several different excuses as to why they have not done the knee replacement surgery.

One doctor told us in August 2008, “You are much too young to have knee replacement surgery done. I would prefer you to wait until you are 50 to have to knee replacement surgery if you can wait that long and you aren’t in a considerable amount of pain. On the record, the VA will make you wait and do a lot of other therapies before they will consent to do the surgery. Off the record, I suggest you do what you can to completely tear up the knee and make the VA do the surgery. As of right now they will only do a scope as a last resort.”

Note: The surgeon that scoped his knees back in 2005 told him then “You will need to have both your knees completely replaced in the next 12 to 18 months.” (This is a surgeon that takes care of the Texas Tech football team and is very credible in my eyes.)

Another doctor (one week later) informs us, “There are a ‘few’ things that we need to ‘try’ first before resorting to surgery.” I am thinking to myself ‘great, now my husband gets to be the living guinea pig for these people to experiment on!’

After five or six visits (now into December 2008), we manage to see one particular doctor for six consecutive visits. Here was the plan of attack, as he so put it. First we tried knee braces. Oh, come on now, for pity sakes! He has been using braces for his knees for going on 4 years. This has got to be a joke!

Next on the list that we tried was Hyalgan injections. Well, that was uneventful. This was supposed to last “indefinitely” to help his knee (mind you he has already had 4 cortisone injections into both knees and was told you shouldn’t have more than 2 cortisone injections ‘period’). This requires three injections into each knee for three consecutive weeks and this is supposed to last infinitely. Yeah right! It lasted a whole two weeks after the last injection and he was right back where he started with the knees. They are still unstable and weak.

In amongst all these few appointments, his elbow begins to act up and losing feeling in his left hand. The plan of action now is to put off the supposed knee surgery until they can get the arm functional. In the meantime, he can continue to receive the Hyalgan injections every six months. They will give him another set of these injections in June 2009.

They give him antibiotics “in case the elbow has a virus”. Umm, can anyone tell me what that means? The elbow can catch the flu? You have got to be kidding me! Well, that was a waste. He took the medications as directed. They do blood work only to find out there was no viral infection in the elbow. Well, duh! I am not a doctor and I can tell you that! Good grief!

Next they give him cortisone shots into the elbow for pain. That helped for about two days and we were right back at square one. Which then they give him steroid pills to take for a week to “try and strengthen the elbow”.  Here we go again. I am beginning to think my husband has to become the dancing monkey in a circus to jump through hoops with all this “experimenting” that it isn’t funny. I am waiting for the organ grinder to show up for one of his appointments so I can totally lose it.

This doctor refers him to a ‘specialist’ in January 2009. The specialist finally sees him (March 2009) and does a few in-office tests and states, “I am pretty sure that we are going to have to do surgery to fix this, but I want to you have a nerve test done first. It sounds to me like the ulnar nerve is irritated and we may have to do surgery to move it.” In the meantime we had to go to the occupational therapist to get an elbow brace that will limit the movement of the elbow while he sleeps. That didn’t help.

My husband then goes to see the neurologist to do the nerve testing (end of March 2009). He hooks him up to electrodes and sends electricity pulses through the arm to test the nerves. The neurologist informed us, “You don’t have major nerve damage, yet, but it most certainly can’t remain like this or you will most certainly incur nerve damage and possibly use of the arm.”

We go back to the specialist with this information from the testing (April 2009). His response is now the complete opposite of what he informed us not but three weeks ago. He now believes there is “nothing wrong with the elbow”, but doesn’t understand how he has lost range of motion in the arm and why he is losing feeling in his hand. He wants to see my husband back in three months (mid to late July 2009) to ‘see if there is any improvement’.

It has all gotten progressively worse each time he has went to be seen for these two issues. Each doctor wants to “try” their own experiments and tests instead of taking the word of the previous doctor as well as that of my husband. We keep playing the game of jumping through the hoops and yet still nothing has been done to improve my husband’s physical health since dealing with the Veteran’s Administration regarding healthcare.

If seeing what my husband is constantly enduring and coping with is any measure of what other veterans like him are dealing with; it is a gross injustice and disservice to the veteran and their families. Enduring health issues like noted here and the treatment they receive from the hospital staff in charge of their well-being; I can see where some veteran’s chose not to get treatment and suffer in silence versus going to a place where medical personnel treat you like you are contemptible. It is utterly disgusting! The military and veterans (at one time) had the highest standards in healthcare and medical facilities you could ever ask for. Then came all the cut-backs and the military hospitals became clinics (only useful if you have a cold or such simple illnesses). Now, It disgraces me to realize that all the cut-backs hit the military and veterans first in the healthcare system. Why would anyone want to be military when your healthcare coverage and benefits are worse than that of people living on welfare?

I am tempted to begin writing letter upon letter to each and every government official that has anything to do with veteran’s healthcare. That is to include the hospital administration, Governor, State Representatives and all the way up to and including President Obama. I am completely disgusted with how veterans and their families are treated with such contempt when it comes to their health and physical well-being.