I deployed to Mosul, Iraq from 9/11/04-9/15/05 with 1/25 Infantry brigade as an intelligence noncommissioned officer. Since returning I have seen a slow but steady decline in my physical abilities. It has now gotten to the point that I am in a near constant state of exhaustion. I have been out pushing myself to try and get my run time down but I can typically cannot do better than very slow jogs. As my wife and I both exercise she seems to be capable of improving her run times while I have been unable.
I have worked in nursing for almost 9 years since my end of time in service, most of which have been in various facets of critical care. As my abilities have decreased I have had new problems starting such as not being able to catch my breath, wheezing, numbness, tingling, and most recently the inability to use my hands for about a minute. Trying to get a diagnosis in a health care system that doesn’t have a real sample size for my problem has been elusive. Many care providers attribute my problems to anxiety. As someone who has had anxiety but always been able to function through it I can say this: My problem is not anxiety driven. It is a real physical problem.
Given my experiences working in health care I feel that I have had many opportunities to see where it thrives and where it has room to grow. One such area is the inclination to write off veteran issues as psychological. From a Military Times article quoting Dr Anthony Szema:
“It’s important for troops to get answers,” he said. “It’s terrible to be told there’s nothing wrong with your lungs, that you are crazy. What happens then — you get sent to a psychiatrist and put on psychotropic meds? How right is that?”
This blog is to outline my journey through our medical system trying to get my answers and hopefully a treatment. It is intended to be written for anyone without medical training to be able to understand while showing why the medical system why it responds the way that it does.
Burn pits, Sand and IEDs 