Spiky Bugger
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Messages
- 6,310
Long background story...involving my cheapness...and medical types dismissing women...and science moves on...and my cheapness.
Skeleton:
In Army basic training, you stand in a gas chamber, remove your gas mask, talk, run out of the chamber. After that, I kept going on “sick call” and getting dx’d w/sinusitis and, occasionally, malingering. (Grrrr.). There were maybe 3-4 migraine headaches that were totally disabling but never for more than a day. I also developed ANOSMIA, which means I can’t smell shit...literally..or anything else for that matter, but that developed more slowly. I applied for VA disability benefits for another thing, but threw the sinus thing in as well. I was rated at 10%. About 30 yrs later, I went back (the cheapness) and said that the sinus thing was worse and now I can’t smell anything. VA said, “Well, but you aren’t having disabling headaches anymore, and there’s no connection between gas chambers and sinus issues, so we’re dropping you to 0%.”
A few weeks ago, I was telling MiniSue’s boyfriend about anosmia. I googled it and two of the first things to show up were claims from veterans who WERE granted a disability rating based on anosmia post-gas chamber and one of those vets had been treated/diagnosed a nearby VA clinic. So (cheapness), I decided I’d go to my local VA, get evaluated, ask for a second opinion from the “nearby” one and get my 10% reinstated. Oh, and make sure there’s still no way to fix this.
I went yesterday. Cute young doctor. He read my history, including the copies of my sick call records from 1973. He kept asking questions and with each of my honest answers, he became more animated. Because:
https://migrainepal.com/author/teixido/
The reason that my complaints of sinus headaches were not respected was that, on x-ray exam, my sinuses were fine and I was whining and/or malingering. And because I’m a girl.
Turns out that IF you have a headache with pressure in the sinus area, BUT you don’t have a history of green goobies and/or blood and/or a fever, you may be having a migraine.
We think that “a migraine” is only a killer headache. It isn’t. It seems that it’s a chemical thing for folks with a “sensitive brain.” So sensitive that while a sufferer can eat chocolate one day and be fine, and drink red wine the next day and be fine, if s/he consumes wine with dinner and has a chocolate dessert at the same meal, s/he can have a terrible reaction.
I go back next month for imaging...CAT scan and MRI of the brain. (MrSue said we’ll find out if one of the squirrels fell off the wheel.). (He can be obnoxious.)
I don’t understand what, if anything, this has to do with my $$. The doctor said that THIS diagnosis is a far more provable connection than the gas chamber-anosmia link, but I don’t know why. But I’m always good with more money.
Also...I again took the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Pennsylvania_Smell_Identification_Test
Last time, I got 13 right out of 40. Now I’m down to 11. And those were total random guesses. I couldn't smell even one. MrSue was nearby and thought some of the smells were overwhelming. Go figure.
Skeleton:
In Army basic training, you stand in a gas chamber, remove your gas mask, talk, run out of the chamber. After that, I kept going on “sick call” and getting dx’d w/sinusitis and, occasionally, malingering. (Grrrr.). There were maybe 3-4 migraine headaches that were totally disabling but never for more than a day. I also developed ANOSMIA, which means I can’t smell shit...literally..or anything else for that matter, but that developed more slowly. I applied for VA disability benefits for another thing, but threw the sinus thing in as well. I was rated at 10%. About 30 yrs later, I went back (the cheapness) and said that the sinus thing was worse and now I can’t smell anything. VA said, “Well, but you aren’t having disabling headaches anymore, and there’s no connection between gas chambers and sinus issues, so we’re dropping you to 0%.”
A few weeks ago, I was telling MiniSue’s boyfriend about anosmia. I googled it and two of the first things to show up were claims from veterans who WERE granted a disability rating based on anosmia post-gas chamber and one of those vets had been treated/diagnosed a nearby VA clinic. So (cheapness), I decided I’d go to my local VA, get evaluated, ask for a second opinion from the “nearby” one and get my 10% reinstated. Oh, and make sure there’s still no way to fix this.
I went yesterday. Cute young doctor. He read my history, including the copies of my sick call records from 1973. He kept asking questions and with each of my honest answers, he became more animated. Because:
https://migrainepal.com/author/teixido/
The reason that my complaints of sinus headaches were not respected was that, on x-ray exam, my sinuses were fine and I was whining and/or malingering. And because I’m a girl.
Turns out that IF you have a headache with pressure in the sinus area, BUT you don’t have a history of green goobies and/or blood and/or a fever, you may be having a migraine.
We think that “a migraine” is only a killer headache. It isn’t. It seems that it’s a chemical thing for folks with a “sensitive brain.” So sensitive that while a sufferer can eat chocolate one day and be fine, and drink red wine the next day and be fine, if s/he consumes wine with dinner and has a chocolate dessert at the same meal, s/he can have a terrible reaction.
I go back next month for imaging...CAT scan and MRI of the brain. (MrSue said we’ll find out if one of the squirrels fell off the wheel.). (He can be obnoxious.)
I don’t understand what, if anything, this has to do with my $$. The doctor said that THIS diagnosis is a far more provable connection than the gas chamber-anosmia link, but I don’t know why. But I’m always good with more money.
Also...I again took the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Pennsylvania_Smell_Identification_Test
Last time, I got 13 right out of 40. Now I’m down to 11. And those were total random guesses. I couldn't smell even one. MrSue was nearby and thought some of the smells were overwhelming. Go figure.
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