Sunday, December 3, 2017

UK:Police officers talk about their battle against PTSD

Police officers talk about their battle against PTSD


December 3, 2017

Sgt Suzie Randall struggled with her mental health after working in traumatic circumstances
More than half of all police forces in England and Wales have told the BBC the number of officers having to take long-term sick leave because of mental health problems has been increasing over the last six years. 5 live Investigates has spoken to officers struggling to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) brought on by some of the disturbing things they've experienced during the course of their job.
"I remember just before Christmas going to the death of a child," Sussex police sergeant Suzie Randall recalls.
"If you can imagine walking into a house with a massive Christmas tree and the child's siblings sobbing their hearts out, the family sobbing their hearts out. That was the first incident when I think I suddenly became not very well."
Suzie was an experienced officer with many years in the job when her mental health began to suffer.
Unsure of quite what was wrong and determined not to let the public or her colleagues down, the 44-year-old didn't immediately seek help.
"I carried on and over a three-month period I dealt with some horrific incidents. A samurai sword attack, a double murder - just awful, awful things." 
read more here 

Don't Let This Story Break Your Heart--Make a Miracle!

Marine's son might not be able to keep his prosthetic arm

10 News ABC
Hannah Mullins
December 2, 2017

TEMECULA (KGTV) - When the school year started, Kaleb Evans made up his mind to join the orchestra. 
“I was worried,” his mom, Tiffany Evans, said. “My first thought was how?”
He was born without part of his arm. 
“He’s got so much courage,” Tiffany said. 
His dad, who is an enlisted Marine at Camp Pendleton, knew they would find a way. They had a prosthetic arm made, and he quickly learned to play his first song.

Fort Hood Families Holiday Express to Make Memories

Holiday Express: Train ride a treat for military families

Temple Daily Telegram
Melany Cox
December 3, 2017
“It’s important, because we get a chance to show the military families how much we appreciate all the sacrifices they make for all of us.” Carl Ice, President and CEO of BNSF

Santa hands out Christmas ornaments to the Wagner family during the annual BNSF Holiday Express train ride. Melany Cox Telegram
For the past 10 years, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has honored military families with the Holiday Express train trip, a free, festive train ride for families of servicemen and women. This year the train is making its way through Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. The tour included a stop in Central Texas.
On Wednesday afternoon nearly 350 members of families stationed at Fort Hood boarded the Holiday Express at the Santa Fe Depot in Temple for a round-trip ride complete with complimentary snacks, hot chocolate and a visit from Santa.
“It’s important, because we get a chance to show the military families how much we appreciate all the sacrifices they make for all of us,” said Carl Ice, President and CEO of BNSF.
The Holiday Express features 15 restored vintage railcars, and is powered by two of BNSF’s newest locomotives. Passengers exclaimed in delight as they boarded the passenger cars, which were lavishly decorated with garland and lights.
read more here 

Did The Cure For Pain Kill Iraq Veteran?

He survived the Iraq War, then lost an ugly battle against opioid addiction

Buffalo News
Lou Michel
December 3, 2017

“Don could walk, but he could not walk well. He was in pain...He was given a shot in the spine to block the pain. I think the shot gave him some relief but he should never have had to go back to Iraq.”

Capt. Donald Peterson, of the 98th Division of the Army Reserve, hugs his daughter Christina, 4, before heading off to Iraq in 2004. (Harry Scull Jr./News file photo)
The war was just beginning for Donald Peterson when he returned home from Iraq in 2005.
A traumatic brain injury, herniated discs and post-traumatic stress he suffered in battlegrounds overseas were his new enemies.
Opioids became his crutch.
As Peterson slipped into addiction and other medical problems arose, his wife and two daughters became fearful of the Army Reserve major. They moved out of their Amherst home for their own safety.
Then the 52-year-old combat veteran died alone last March in the Klein Road house he had remodeled for them.
His death certificate listed heart disease complicated by diabetes as the cause of death. His wife believes he might still be alive if he hadn’t become addicted to opioids, an addiction that started in the military. She blames Army doctors, veterans affairs physicians and a local pain specialist.
“When Don was at Walter Reed Medical Center, he told me they handed out the pain pills like Chiclets. He said he had become dependent on them,” Rosemarie Peterson said.
While much attention has been given to young people becoming addicted to opioids in recent years, little heed has been paid to the many military veterans showing up as addicts.
Between 2001 and 2009, military physicians wrote nearly 4 million prescriptions for painkillers to treat combat injuries and strains from the wear and tear of multiple deployments, according to a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs often ends up treating these veterans when they leave active duty, and the numbers show opioid addiction remains a formidable challenge:
• Some 68,000 veterans are being treated for “opioid use disorder” by the VA. 
• About one of every 10 soldiers who returns from Afghanistan and Iraq experiences problems with alcohol and other drugs. 
• Nearly one out of three veterans who seeks treatment for substance use disorder suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
read more here 

If you are having a hard time understanding what this pain is like, I am going through having shots into my spine right now. Back in April, I had the first round of needles being stuck into my spine.

While MRI and X-ray films show proof of the damage to my body, there are no machines to figure out what living with pain is like.

I take one pill in the morning so I can go to work, but my body has pretty much had it. I can't stand or sit for a long time. Laying down helps if I can stretch out. Not many jobs you can do in that position.

When you're in pain, you do whatever you can to make it stop. If your doctor tells you to take this pain med, you take it and hope it makes things better. You don't fear it will make it worse.

Same thing with PTSD. That is a type of pain you can't see but you can see the physical changes to your brain with a special scan. Still, when you have that pain, you just want to make it go away.

Days are a constant battle and nights are even worse. I do not know what it is like to have PTSD but I do know what it does, what surviving trauma did and I've seen what it is like when they start to heal.

As for this Major, the pain he must have been in should have kept him out of being deployed but not keeping him out of living the rest of his life with his family.

Back to the story, pay close attention to this part,

“In the period from 2001 to 2009, they issued 3.8 million prescriptions for pain reliving medications to the troops in the combat zone,” he said. “When these troops return home, the Department of Defense conducts random drug tests and some of those individuals were given other than honorable or dishonorable discharges."
If I am having such a hard time doing a desk job, think about the kind of pain they are risking their lives with while serving this nation. Is this justice for any of them?

Add in one more personal story that may make this easier to understand. I was so upset attending veterans events when news crews would show up, but veterans never saw the video on TV, that I went to College to figure out how to do the same thing for the veterans. I spent over $22,000 getting certifications in Digital Media. I have over 200 videos on Youtube. Since last year, I hardly ever go to the events because my body cannot take standing for long periods of time or walking too far. Going to the events was like fuel to my passion for veterans. 

I can't do it anymore even though I really want to and it is like torture for me.

They invest months of training, and then more training. They endure hardships none of us will ever understand because not doing what they are pulled to do, not doing it with those they are willing to die for, would be a type of torture for them. To be tossed out of the military because that service did something to their body-mind-spirit, is despicable.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Vietnam War Love Affair

A Vietnam War Love Affair, a Baby, and 48 Years Later, a Reunion

Voice of America
Ha Nguyen
December 2, 2017

Huỳnh Thị Chút (right) takes care of Gary Wittig who was bedridden after a fall triggered a heart attack. They reunited in Atlanta, Georgia, 48 years after they first met in Đà Nẵng during the height of Vietnam War.

The first time Huỳnh Thị Chút set foot in the United States, she came to see Gary Wittig, the man she met in Danang during the height of the Vietnam War.
The daughter that Chút had with Wittig, Nguyễn Thị Kim Nga, flew from her Nebraska home of 17 years to meet her father’s family in a suburb of Atlanta, in the southeastern U.S. state of Georgia. With a newfound cousin, Nga met her mother at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson international airport.
After a drive to the suburbs, Chút reunited with Wittig, now frail and on oxygen, 48 years after they parted.
The reunion was “completely amazing,” said Christine Kimmey, Wittig’s niece who joined Nga at the airport.
“She (Chut) placed her hands on him and started massaging his lung, massaging his arms. They just sat there and smiled,” said Kimmey, who added she couldn’t describe the excitement and joy of the Oct. 3 event.
“It’s the best thing that could ever happen to my uncle,” she said.
Wittig and Chút still could not speak each other’s languages. The other unchanged element of their relationship: Chút’s smile remained the same, according to Wittig, who died Nov. 24, hours after his extended, blended family gathered for Thanksgiving.
read more here

Veteran Suicide Stunts Rewarded Without Results

Suicide Stunts Rewarded, Truth Ignored
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 2, 2017

Several months ago, I had a lengthy session with a young veteran. He had no clue what PTSD was, why he had it, what it was doing to his family or even the simple fact that he could actually heal with the right help.


What made all this worse, was even though he was broke, he was spending money on the group he was hearing about from his friends. He wanted to put a tattoo on his neck with "22KILL" until his eyes were open to things that could actually keep him from becoming one of the veterans committing suicide.

That is the number every family left behind knows about, the one that was part of them.

The other thing the veteran assumed was that the veterans he heard about committing suicide were the OEF and OIF generation. He didn't know the majority of veterans committing suicide were actually over the age of 50. These veterans did not merit any efforts from the "awareness" raisers. The veterans without "honorable discharges" were not worthy of anyone paying attention to them or even the simple fact they were not included in any report. Didn't matter if they had been deployed once, twice or even ten times, because if they were given a bad discharge, they could not claim anything connected to "veteran status" on anything.

When he knew some of the basic facts, such as the "22" came from limited data from just 21 states, he was furious. He wondered why none of the "awareness" folks told him anything he actually needed to know. Here is the suicide report they must have not read or understand that this was in it.
Currently available data include information on suicide mortality among the population of residents in 21 states. Veteran status in each of these areas is determined by a single question asking about history of U.S. military service. Information about history of military service is routinely obtained from family members and collected by funeral home staff and has not been validated using information from the DoD or VA. 
Or, even know that while California and Texas veterans were not in the report, California did not have military service on their deaths certificates, and Illinois didn't, plus some other states. California has the highest number of veterans and Texas is the second largest, plus last time I heard, we had 50 states.

But this is how the VA got the number on page 19.
The estimated number of Veterans who died from suicide each day was calculated as the percentage of all suicides identified as Veterans multiplied by the number of suicides in the U.S. and divided by the number of days in a year. The estimated number of Veterans who have died from suicide is based on data obtained from 21 states and has been calculated using service history as reported on death certificates
Here is the link to the one from 2016 but yet again, when they included California, if the veteran was not in the VA system, they would have no way of knowing if the person committing suicide was a veteran or not. Remember they just passed a bill to have military service added to their death certificates.

It is bad enough when reporters do not do any research when they cover stunts about a topic as serious as veterans committing suicide. It is even worse when these groups are given awards for them.

Omar N. Bradley “Spirit of Independence” Award recipient. 
The award has been given to outstanding American Citizens and organizations, according to a news release. He is the first person to be awarded the "Spirit of Independence" award since Gen. Charles C. "Hondo" Campbell in 2011.
And why was it "earned"
22KILL began as a social media movement to raise awareness of the suicide epidemic in 2013 with the “22 Push-up Challenge,” and became a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2015. The name is derived from the average of 22 veterans who die by suicide per day. 
Yes, those guys. The ones that have Police Officers and Firefighters doing pushups for a number that was not even close to the truth, all the while, ignoring their own committing suicide. Their suicides have gone up but you don't see stunts for them.

I am far from alone going after these groups. More and more are trying to tell the truth so that veterans will actually become aware of what they need to know, instead of what some want them to hear.

One of the responses that sticks out in my head the most is when I confronted someone who believed she could do a lot better than anyone else. When I explained facts, she got defensive. Her response summed up exactly what is going on. "22 is an easy number to remember."

Here is another group trying to get this right.


The 22 Pushups Challenge Isn’t Actually Helping Anyone
Task and Purpose
The main problem with this is not the cause, it’s the tactic. As military veterans know, intelligence doesn’t exist just so the military can learn about an enemy. Intelligence exists to enable the military to defeat an enemy. 
Likewise, awareness doesn’t do much. You can know a problem exists. That doesn’t mean you are any closer to solving the problem. There are a lot of diseases and societal issues with different color ribbons and special days for awareness, but not a lot of solutions. Veterans dying by suicide has been all over the news since the Department of Veterans Affairs scandal broke in April 2014. 
If you really want to do something meaningful, stop supporting the groups raising awareness because it is an easy number to remember. Help get the facts out there or as we've already seen, those groups get attention of the press, donations they never have to explain, but the number of families left behind grows far beyond what any of these groups will ever pay attention to.

It got worse for the only veterans they want to talk about along with the other veterans they totally ignored!
Check these links to learn more about what the press didn't bother to learn about.


Unrequited Service the real data you need to know.




This could go on and on but it is a start for you to learn. If you want to change the outcome, change what you are supporting and start actually supporting the veterans you want to see living instead of dying.

Julia Jacobson and her dog found in shallow grave

UPDATE

Coroner Identifies Remains of Missing 

Retired Army Veteran Found in Southern 

California Desert

Remains of Missing Army Veteran Found Buried in California

AP
December 1, 2017


ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) — Authorities in Southern California believe they've found the remains of a retired Army captain who went missing in September.
Police in the city of Ontario say Friday that they found the remains of Julia Jacobson and her dog in a shallow grave.
Investigators say her remains were found after a tip from her ex-husband, Dalen Ware, of Phoenix. He was arrested in October on suspicion of murder in connection with her death.
Investigators have not disclosed a motive for the killing.
Jacobson had been last seen Sept. 2 and days later her SUV was found near her San Diego home with keys in the ignition.

Friday, December 1, 2017

VA Doctor "Unaware of Patient's History" Seriously?

Investigators: Colorado veteran died after getting painkillers
The Denver Post
Dan Elliott Associated Press
November 30, 2017

DENVER — A Colorado man suffering from chronic pain died two days after he obtained methadone with a prescription from a Veterans Affairs Department doctor, government investigators said Thursday, but they could not determine whether the drug contributed to his death.
The VA inspector general, an internal watchdog agency, said the patient at the Grand Junction veterans hospital was in his 60s and had a history of heart and lung problems. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that methadone’s side effects may include irregular heartbeat and shallow breathing.
The doctor told investigators he was aware of the patient’s history and knew about the possible side effects of methadone, but the patient had taken the drug before and his heart and lung problems were stable.
read more here

Senate Finally Does Something For Pre-9-11 Families?

Senate panel advances $3.4 billion plan to dramatically expand benefits for veterans' caregivers

The Washington Post
Emily Wx-Thibodeaux
December 1, 2017

"That means his wife would get the latest training on how to help her husband, paid time off to take a break and a stipend to make up for all of her years of lost income."

For 20 years, Yvonne Riley has cared for her husband, Dave, a medically retired Coast Guard rescue swimmer who became a quadruple amputee after a bacterial infection turned into sepsis two decades ago.

David W. Riley, a medically retired Coast Guard rescue swimmer, is a quadruple amputee. He says expansion of the Caregivers Act would help his wife care for him and allow them to pay for training and breaks. (Photo courtesy of the Riley family)
With three young children at home, Yvonne quit a good job to bathe him, get him in and out of his wheelchair, feed him, help him when he fell out of bed and eventually help him put on and remove his prosthetic limbs.
“To this day, she puts me together in the morning. She takes me apart at night,” Riley said in a telephone interview from their family home in Semmes, Ala. “It’s a full-time job. But she’s never gotten paid or training.”
That’s because the Department of Veterans Affairs only offers stipends, training, paid breaks and other benefits to the caregivers of post-9/11 veterans through a program passed in 2010. But the Riley family and thousands of others say they are hopeful that soon will change.
A proposed $3.4 billion in federal funding over the next five years would extend caregivers’ benefits to family and friends performing full-time care for veterans of all eras.
Linked from The Gazette

Best Battle Buddy Wears Wedding Band

WE GOT THE POWER!
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 1, 2017

They were willing to die for each other, but too many of the families they come home to discover just how hard it is for them to want to live for us.


We see the sadness in their eyes, hear them talk in their sleep, (when they do manage to sleep) and deal with the mood swings, never sure what we'll say wrong, or someone, manage to get right.

It is all so easy to feel lost but all more common to feel lonely. Sure, we read all the news reports about how many veterans have PTSD, but that gives us little comfort when we don't read enough about anything where we are the subject.

We sit on the side of the street if they march in a parade. We sit in the VA waiting room waiting for them to be seen, and then waiting for them to come out. We see other wives there, but we don't say a word to them. We are too focused on what the ride back home in tense silence will be like.

Either they will snap at us, or have absolutely nothing they want to say.

When our parents were dealing with their the wars of their generation, their parents told them to do their duty as a wife. When we were faced with problems, our parents told us to get divorced. Some of us did, but most of us, contrary to all the rumors, became their best battle buddy. 

If you thought that our hubbies did all the managed to do when the rest of the country wanted nothing to do with them, you are missing the most powerful weapon you have. That is the courage to stand up to the bully called PTSD because our love is a lot stronger than she is.

If you already walked away, do not blame yourself. If no one told you anything, and you didn't even think there was anything to learn on your own, it isn't your fault. It wasn't his either. Most of them have no clue what PTSD is, what it does or the simple fact that PTSD hits survivors with a very strong emotional core. 

Had it not been for two veterans in my life, the rest of my life would have been just like everyone else's. I would have not imagined doing anything other than being a "normal wife" like my husband used to wish I was, a Mom and going to work everyday for a paycheck. Oh, for the days when I could just go home, catch up with friends and actually watch a TV show that was on instead of having a lousy hour to watch something he recorded for me.

But that life was not meant to be for me. 

My Dad was a Korean War veteran. When I brought my at-the-time Vietnam veteran boyfriend home to meet him, Dad used the words "shell shock" without being able to explain what it meant. He sent me to the library to find the answers.

I knew what trauma did to a person. I had been through it enough times by the time I was 23 and wanted to know what I was getting into, so I sat at the table in the library with a stack of clinical books, and a dictionary to look up most of the words. I lost count how many books (and weeks) I had to go through before I saw the words that made it all click.


Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
I ended up with a pamphlet from a Vets Center that was based on Vietnam veterans coming home, and it explained most of what I did not learn at the library, or living with my husband.
It was based on the Forgotten Warrior Project and as you will see from the link, there were 500,000 Vietnam veterans with PTSD back then while it was also predicted that those numbers would rise. They did. So when you hear the famous commercial saying that "today it is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" on the radio with "1 out of 5" remember that it was called that because Vietnam veterans came home with it and a rate of "1 out of 3."

Something else no one told us was that even after being home for over 40 years, Vietnam could still end up with one more casualty. Our husbands.

What most people still don't talk about is the fact that our generation is the largest group losing our husbands to suicide. 65% of the veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50, but no one wants to help us. 

I've tried for over 3 decades, to not just help the younger families learn a lot easier than I did, but to get our generation to pay attention to what they never expected would happen.

We're in this alone. None of the new groups even want to talk to us. It just took an act of Congress to actually manage to decide that our generation should also be included in as Caregivers, since we've done it all without any one helping us.

The first thing to do is learn all you can what PTSD is, especially if your husband/wife is retiring. They get slammed with what they kept trapped in their mind and never saw it coming. They think they're going crazy.

If you see changes in them, you need to respond to make sure they understand what it is and then support them just before you put on your battle armor and fight for them.

If we do not change what has been happening, it will be even worse when the generation everyone is talking about gets older. What will we as their parents tell them when they begin to see while they survived combat, coming home is harder without a battle buddy by their side? 

Are you going to let anything stop you from fighting for them now?





UPDATE December 3, 2017 Here is yet one more reason to explain how a spouse is the best battle buddy.
Widow Barbara Rodgick has attended two coffees and plans to attend more. She’s made it her mission to try to teach others about the benefits available to veterans, widows and dependents, both from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the state.
She has a website called Stand Up for Bill. “This is how I try to make sense of my husband’s death, my way of honoring him,” Rodgick said.
Her 27-year marriage to Bill Meehan ended when he died from his exposure to Agent Orange. Her husband joined the Army in 1962 and was honorably discharged in 1966. In March 2015, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and he died 15 months later at age 72. 
He was reluctant to apply for benefits through the VA, but she was not. He thought it would probably take too long. “He thought other vets deserved it more,” she said, choking with emotion.