As penance for breaking the posting rules here...

[Headache]

I haven't read that book but anything that calls out the medical and pharma industries for putting profits over people is GOLD in my book!

I meant that as long as they do so backed by fact and not conjecture.

 

[Gunny]

Thanks Headache, I have to take most of the blame for my health issues, too many smokes, too little sleep and getting shot didn't help. I am STILL getting tested for side effects from a drug they tried me on over two years ago. I will try and spell it but probably can't ; Amyoderone. That's wrong, even spell check can't find it but it was a mess.

All my kids are much more health conscience than I was , or am. My kids are okay money-wise, all of any monies I may have or not , received from settlements has gone onto irrevocable trust funds. I have a decent pension and sucky social security but I manage to survive.

I wish your Dad well and thanks for the heads up on the book. Rob

 

[Headache]

Thanks Headache, I have to take most of the blame for my health issues, too many smokes, too little sleep and getting shot didn't help. I am STILL getting tested for side effects from a drug they tried me on over two years ago. I will try and spell it but probably can't ; Amyoderone. That's wrong, even spell check can't find it but it was a mess.

I wish your Dad well and thanks for the heads up on the book. Rob

I believe it's Amiodarone and if it is that is one nasty drug!

I find it curious and infuriating that they can prescribe us all sorts of things with horrible side effects yet if all of our doctors had more nutritional training, were aware of the high percentage of reversing heart disease as well as diabetes by Dr's Ornish and Esselstyn and "prescribed" us better diets...the only "side-effects" nutrient dense food has is us getting BETTER.

They call plant based diets "radical" but sedating us close to death(to stop involuntary bodily activity before surgery), cutting our bodies open, that's not "radical"?  I find surgery more "dangerous" than I do being told to eat more salad!

Unfortunately healthy eating can only go so far.  While my dad's heart valve completely healed in 5 months after leaking for 17 we couldn't accomplish everything.  My dad died 10 weeks after we were hit by another driver(but thanks for the kind words) so we'll never know if we could have stopped the cancer from progressing.  It was definitely slowing.  It angers me to no end the price people pay due to the lack of nutritional education and that doctors don't start demanding that patients eat better.  It doesn't help that people don't take food seriously.  What has more power; take this pill or you will die...or eat that broccoli or you will die?  We're dying because food isn't treated with the same respect as pharmaceuticals.

And the military!  The higher ups just can't wait to find the next group to secretly experiment with drugs and chemicals on! 

Damn, here I go again...had a cousin commit suicide because of the effects of Agent Orange while he was denied treatment for decades...

Anyway yes please give that book a read.  There are others but I've found that's the best one to get people thinking about the effects of what is on their forks.  Here's a bit of discussion from the aforementioned doctors:

 

[ArtW]

Our soldiers are not taken care of properly
I won't go into detail but had the VA done right by my father he'd have lived a lot longer
and I wouldn't have been a 'single parent' of a physically disabled father, a mentally ill (and refusing treatment) mother, and an older brother who honestly should have pulled a LOT more weight than he did, at 15, instead of finishing school (not that our public schools are such a much, either)

 

[Gunny]

Sorry about your Dad dying. If I missed you mentioning then I am doubly sorry.

I think of the line from 'Men in Black' everyday, every hour there is something trying to kill us. I can't fault the military, I knew what I was doing and in fact was quite good at it. Dioxin was a bit of a surprise I will admit. I will check out the book, and watch a youtube or two.

Thank you for the concern and advice, it's very kind of you and there is not enough kindness in the world anymore.

My Best... Rob

 

[Cammalu]

Gunny, damn and double damn. That's a crying shame what they did to you. I'm in the middle of a battle myself right now and was hoping I wouldn't have to go to court. I went in for a hysterectomy and, during the surgery, somehow they managed to drop me off the operating table, with all the robot arms still inside of me, and break my femur in four or five places. How the hell something like that can happen I don't know. I was subsequently billed for the surgery! It's incredible to me the things that can happen and the awful mistakes that are made. I'm currently over half a million dollars in the hole from the surgeries, medical treatments, therapies , etc. I want to get out of here but while all this is going on I'm afraid I must stay...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[ArtW]

Thank you Gunny
My dad didn't die from anything he did in the military, it was the idiocy of the bureaucracy that did him in, indirectly
Travel pay ought to be handled in such a way that a veteran of 20 years, with a tour in theater, doesn't have to try to WALK from Austin to the VA hospital in San Antonio to get a problem taken care of, which should have been taken care of during the previous visit, less than a month before, because he's too broke to get a bus
however it happened, he was found beneath an overpass, broken back (3 shattered vertebra) broken pelvis, broken ankle
then the 'repair' they did on his pelvis to make him 'ambulatory' so they could send him home lasted 3 years before the wire they wrapped it with came unwound, nicking the pulmonary artery and killing him
They told us that'd likely happen, and that they couldn't get the wire out (howe'd they get it in then?)
So he got to live for 3 more years using a walker and wheelchair
I was largely numb for a year after that before I shed my first tear
Hell, he still had a few more good times
But what if he'd never gone for that walk?

sorry for the rant, it still makes me want to destroy something, 31 years later

 

[Headache]

Another thing I forgot to mention about food and this can be difficult for van dwellers but not impossible:

There are very few food production companies anymore.  Most of them are smaller companies under the umbrella of a larger organization.  Coincidentally, some of those larger corporations are chemical companies who create pesticides and herbicides.  Some of them also own the seed that gets planted in a farmers field and farmers are forced to use this seed because it's impervious to the chemicals sprayed on it.

So, what we have are major corporations controlling a lot of the food we eat but it doesn't have to be that way.  By making the "radical" decision to not buy and consume processed foods and by choosing foods with the least amount of chemicals on them you are taking a step closer in fulfilling one of Bob's "quests" in life which could be yours too.  As he often quotes of Thoreau:

Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.

 

[Gunny]

CAMMALU, They always bill, even when they screw up, I think it's a defense mechanism for them. I won't give any sort of legal advice, but talk to the patient advocate if there is one and then consider your options. I condensed my story down to a couple of paragraphs but it was over a 5 year period. I hope you can heal enough to join this group of folks. You have my best wishes.

ArtW, I know how unfeeling the VA can be. There was a time I was shadowed by VA Police after the lawsuits were filed , plus I called a Dr. a "Bitch", she took offence. You have every right to be upset, healthcare, Veteran or not, should not be so lazy as they seem to me now.

I don't want Bob to think I have gone off on a political rant , so I will let it rest. I wish nothing but the best for all concerned.

 

[Headache]

Sorry about your Dad dying. If I missed you mentioning then I am doubly sorry.

I think of the line from 'Men in Black' everyday, every hour there is something trying to kill us. I can't fault the military, I knew what I was doing and in fact was quite good at it. Dioxin was a bit of a surprise I will admit. I will check out the book, and watch a youtube or two.

Thank you for the concern and advice, it's very kind of you and there is not enough kindness in the world anymore.

My Best... Rob

Nope, I did not mention him dying.  I still have a hard time with it and his birthday is tomorrow.

There are 2 quotes from Men In Black that really hit home for me, both from Agent K(Tommy Lee Jones):

Bugs thrive on carnage tiger.  They consume, infest, destroy, live off the destruction of other species.

and

and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!

Reminds me of a place I know...

Anyway yes I care very much for our vets, all of you.  There is absolutely no way we can ever repay you fully for the sacrifices you made for mostly profiteering purposes.  My dad was an AF Korean war vet and although he had it "safe" repairing office machines he was still away from family and participating in the war.  I'm highly offended that we can somehow manage to pay for these wars but curiously we somehow can't afford to pay for your care afterward.

That's why I'm really adamant about getting the word out about the quality(or lack of) of our food supply and the SAD or "standard American diet" we consume.  At the very least if our vets were on high quality diets of optimum nutritional load many of the injuries and side affects you are experiencing would be lessened allowing you better lives and you could pass away with some dignity rather than suffering in so much illness and pain.  It disgusts me.

 

[Gunny]

Headache, " Safe" is one unrecognized cause of PTSD or survivors guilt. My best friend, my go to guy when things are crappy was my section Chief and Platoon Sgt.. I was artillery, the enlisted part of a forward observer team. I was with the Grunts 95% of the time. He (his name is Steve) feels guilty about sending me out all the time. He forgets I hated being in the rear and wanted to be in the bush. I was good at what I did and not many 18-19 year olds can call in enough destruction to wipe out a village. It was an Adrenalin high and I liked it.

I've lived a decent life, the only regret is the way I treated my ex after we got married. I was emotionally and verbally abusive and to my shame those are things that can't be repaired.

I've gone on too long about all this, I try not to live in the past.

Thanks again for the encouragement. Rob