i am am 1st. Gulf War Vet. 100% disabled. I've had 38 surgeries and am in bad shape. my left foot for 6 months has been bad. Started off with gout, it has swelling and getting and burning ever since. they have me on Indomethacinand Allopurinol . nothing working at all i am in so much pain. i have been to ER 7 times for and no use in going for this anymore. if anybody could please help me, I would be thankful
Jerry
Sorry, I put my note in your picture comment.
Hi there Jerry, i wish i could take all the pain away from you, it must be dreadful, and i expect you also have abit of PTSD too. I have PTSD but for different reasons, but thats another story. Sometimes i dont think the ER is the best place to go always. They dont know everything. I am in the Uk and have been in the Casualty department, only to be left all weekend until my actual specialist comes in, as they dont have a clue about my disease and as i am a complex case as they have put it, its way too much for them to deal with, so all they do is monitor me until my actual specialist comes in on the Monday morning. I prefer not to go to the hospitals here anyway, i dont know if you are aware of what the UK's hospitals are like now, but they have alot of superbugs and last time and the time before when i had to go in for different things, i caught MRSA and CDif, the vomitting and diarrhoea bug. The MRSA which i am sure you are aware of has eight different types, i was just lucky that the strain i got was able to be cleared up with antibiotics but i had to take them for three months which as you can imagine wasnt pleasant. Another friend of mine went in with a routine hernia operation, came home and had to go back in, as he caught the bug Necrosing fascilitis, which is a flesh eating bug which was in the operating theatre where they didnt clean the instruments or the theatre well enough and ended up having alot of his stomach removed, poor bloke. But listening and reading your symptoms does sound as though you have also got some sort of auto-immune disease, i was a nurse but now retired through my illness, and the gout, and swelling and buring indicated inflammation as you probably already know and obviously poor circulation which can be associated with many auto-immune diseases but the trouble is there are so many of them. Maybe you should see a doctor at a health centre or something, you dont have to go to the ER for everything do you? I am sorry i am abit ignorant of how it works for you out there. Do you have any other symptoms like being really tired all the time, keep getting different infections regularly or anything that you can tell me about, it would help me have a think. Anyway take care, hope you feel abit better soon, thinking of you, hugs Astrid40xoxox
I was problems years ago everything just keep getting worse. it started with hands hurting all the time, these days they numb. I really have started to loose the of left hand. I am very fatigued anymore. My breathing has very erratic now. I have very bad of PTSD from a friendly firefight I was involved in. that has left some very and nightmares. nobody seems to get it reasons why I don't sleep! It is scary to llay on a bed and worry about falling asleep and have to deal with that. I got staff year before last and i think between that the chemicals and if at all imune systems I seem to live at the hospital anymore this is just no Quality of life now. I tried suicide in Feb, this year. just nobody gets it. but right I am dealing this foot and it is just killing me. Like said it has been 6 months now. I just don't where else to turn. It burning so I have to get off this and lay down.
Jerry
Hi Jerry, i really do feel for you. There is certainly some infammation going on whatever the doctors say about this. Have they done any blood tests at all for inflammation tests. You need a blood test with the letters of ESR and CRP written on them, these codes are for the indicators that show up in the blood when there is something that isnt right with the inflammation levels, the ESR is a good guide normally to what is going on. Roughly a normal person with no problems ESR should be around 25, but it varies from person to person, it shouldnt really be above 40, so that might help if you can get this test, but unfortunately sometimes it doesnt always show, but from what you are saying im sure it will. Trouble is when people have PTSD the medical proffession seem to put everything down to being psychosomatic, i had this problem 10 years ago when i had the PTSD first, i had 7 years of therapy, that gives you an idea of what i had gone through in order to need that. Anyway any time i went to the doctors with an ailment of pain etc, they seem to put it down to depression which was really annoying, it wasnt until i had to change doctors as i had moved that i got someone who was actually listening to me and who said at the end of the consultation that he thought he knew what was wrong with me, but wouldnt say until i had had some tests, so i felt more reassured he was listening and he immediately before the tests came back put me on some meds which had some effect after a week, so it proved his theory really. The tests came back positive that i had several illness, none of which can be cured but can be eased with medications, so i thought at least i will be feeling abit better now. But sometimes i do believe that doctors make the assumption there is nothing wrong if someone has any sort of mental issues whatever they are even with PTSD. I used to have nightmares every night, i still get them now and shout out in my sleep, its not nice as you know, and like you say you end up scared to go off to sleep, i find reading something helps me, but sometimes i dont know if thats the answer, as these things lay in our subconscious anyway, so there isnt any way of escaping whatever at the end of the day, its a matter of time and therapy i found. I also tried suicide a long time ago now, and know how desperate that feeling gets when you feel alone and not getting anywhere with anything. Its not nice to feel as though you have no quality of life. I really do think you should insist on some more tests, tell them the pain is making your life a misery, make them listen. Go to someone else if they wont, thats the only answer sometimes, a fresh look sometimes helps. If at first you dont succeed, try, try and try again, its your life and they are supposed to be there to help you. Dont ever feel like you are being a nuisance even if they act as though you are, you need help and should be able to get it. No-one should be in this sort of pain not nowadays with medicine as advanced as it is. One other thing which might help, have you tried a tens machine, a Trans Electrical Nerve Stimulator, it works on providing the bodys own pain killers on the body, i used one for a while and it did help me abit, it wont take away the pain but it might help lesson it. They are around £20 in the UK now, because they are being more used more frequently now, so the price has gone down. I borrowed one initially from my doctors surgery to make sure i didnt spend out without knowing if it would work or not, thats just one option, and heat wraps too, even a hotwater bottle, simple things like these that we dont think of when we are in such pain. When you go to see someone tell them you have tried all the basic remedies so they dont come out with all the usual, and make sure they realise how bad it is. I really cant imagine what you went through in the Gulf, it must of been horrendous to say the least. I knew someone else who was out in Isreal at one time and they still g
Hello Jerry!
I have just recently joined Ben's friends, not sure if you are still checking in but wanted to say hi! I am not a vet, but I married a Nam combat vet, so I do know just a little bit. Before I was 'banged up' I traveled with him to Gatlinburg to meet his buddies from all over the country that after 30 back, got together for the first time, I don't travel well anymore, and I don't want him to miss his time with the guys, so I tell him to "go, have a great time"!
From what we, the older generation have been told, you guys don't care to be thanked in the same words as the old guys use, but whatever the term may be, I want to thank you for all that you and yours gave to the life of my grandkids! I feel that by what you have all done overseas, that you help to keep the kids here safer, much safer.
I can only wish you confort and friendship. I would be glad to hear from you anytime, and so would my husband.
Keep reaching out, you can find me on Psoriatic Arthritis site. I am SK, and I am so glad to know you.