A+ for VA Hospital
 

One week ago I was coughing terribly all day long but on Sunday morning I got up and went to Church anyway. When I got home from Church I climbed the steps and into bed. I couldn't breath because of the pain in my chest and needing to cough whenever I took a few steps. Considering that I haven't had a cigarette in almost two years, coughing isn't something that I do much of lately.
Sunday night I tried to sleep but that meant laying in the bed and on my chest so I got about three hours sleep before I had to sit up with no pressure on the chest.
Monday morning, 6:30 a.m. I'm on the road to Decatur, just east of Atlanta through morning nightmare traffic and get to the VA hospital who immediately sends me off to the E-R where a doctor that performs a miracle is.
He pumped me up with some kind of fluid and took me to x-ray where he let me watch the same screen he was watching when he spotted a tiny blood clot on my left lung. Before he sent me home I could feel it no more and I didn't need to cough every other step.
What the VA was in 1970 and what the VA is today is two entirely different systems. In '70 you were a job, you were work but today they really seem to give a d@mn.

Glad hearing such, Stick.

Just the opposite kind of VA stories seem more typical.

Regardless, hope all goes well for you now.

Neil

OK that was in January but two Sundays ago once again I couldn't breath and since I didn't go to church when my daughter woke up she insisted on taking me to the hospital. Once again the VA in Decatur where they promptly admit me.
I stayed in the hospital for a week where it seemed like every hour someone was in the room taking blood, blood pressure or oxygen content in my breath and when that content exceeded 95%, six days after admission two guys hauling a gurney come into the room along with a nurse. The nurse tells me that I'm going home WITH meds and instructions that I'm to see two doctors for a follow up in two weeks and I can only go without oxygen for an hour or less. I do not have a cancer in my lungs or my heart, just an allergic reaction which could have been fatal to the seven white doves that I HAD in my room.
After those instructions the two guys at the door load me onto the gurney, take me to an ambulance and drive me home where 20 tanks of oxygen and a breathing machine have already been delivered.
Just a week before going to the VA I had gone to another hospital emergency room where they tell me that all was good and that I should go home. By myself.
What the doctors at the VA did was by far Over and ABOVE what any civilian doctor would do. That's a Double A+ for the VA.

Glad to hear VA taking great care of you and hope all works out well for you and yours.

Still, about that: "Allergic reaction" being the cause, any doctors say what you must stay away from? Just curious.

Neil

Stick

Have you been diagnosed with Sleep Apenia ? Do you have to sleep with a C-Pap machine with air hose & mask strapped to your mouth & nose ?
Your breathing machine is called a "concentrator." That's what I have. Can't move around too well to begin with and the stupid air hose always getting hung-up on something.

Wouldn't mind having VA medical(got Humana)if the circumstances was different, but if I need to be hospitalize, the closest VA hospital from New Orleans area is in Alexandria La., which is about a 2.5 hour drive. New one being built in New Orleans, but it won't be completed until 2016. Katrina did away with the old one. Plus there's only one VA clinic in the New Orleans area and I assume it's very busy. There was talk about building another VA clinic much bigger than the present one, but that remains to be seen.

[quote=WateringHole;1700645]Stick
"Have you been diagnosed with Sleep Apenia ? Do you have to sleep with a C-Pap machine with air hose & mask strapped to your mouth & nose ?"

Right now there's no sleep apenia and I have to sleep with an oxygen machine hosed to my nose. The day before yesterday I went to my primary care doctor who took all sorts of measurements on my breathing while listening to my lungs and oxygen content of my breathing. She cut my oxygen use in half.
With the steroid use that the hospital prescribed I might be off the machine entirely within a couple of months and as of now I can be off oxygen completely for an hour or two at a time.

I'm surprise your breathing is so bad where you have to be on oxygen 24/7 and no one has referred you to a Pulmonary specialist. Oh well......your doctor & medical staff know more than I do about your condition. I'm just a retired merchant seaman. Wish you the best in recouping.
The way things look for me, I'm in for the long haul.

AL

I have to agree
 

I've got a great doctor at the Jesse Brown VA Center - in Crown Point, IN. I've been seeing her for years and she's tough as nails. Had terrible back aches and after some x-rays and more blood work she found three lower spinal disk had collapsed. Blood work came in with very low D and I went on 50K units of D for 8 weeks. Pain lessened and D came back up. She wanted to prescribe testosterone but was afraid it would drive up my PST levels in my prostrate and lead to cancer. So we discussed this and I stated I'd rather have a little back ache then increase my chances for cancer. I also spent three hours in the eye clinic and found out I need cataract eye surgery I have to get this done before May of 2016 or run the risk of loosing my license.

Take about 6 meds a day but I keep passing my physical every six months. It's a bitch getting old - sure wish I was back in my mid-to-late 20's for about 6 months to know just how much I've degraded over the years.

Wish all you guys a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years Got only knows how much longer we will all be here - most of my Buds have already moved on. Pal's are getting thin and I just lost my younger Sister last year -

Wayne (aka Boats)