Yes Debbra I’m out of the Army
and I’m working on creating a non~profit to help Veterans. It upsets me when I hear the numbers of homeless Veterans and the number of suicides. What is leading to these conditions?
I can tell you that a number of years ago my house burned down and I called every well known Veterans organization looking for help of any kind and the answer was the same:” we don’t do that “ “ that “ being assist needy Veterans except to vet benefits that the gov promises anyway.
Even worse, I was thrown out of the VA hospital when I asked that my medications be replaced. If you are shocked at this as I was, I can explain and perhaps it will also shine a light on the current “ opioid crisis “. The VA requires that all Veterans who take opioids sign a contract. Among other words and in concepts the contract says: “....NO EXCUSES...” which in essence means don’t come in before a given time period ( once a month ) and say: “ someone stole my pills, I dropped them down the toilet by accident, my brother took my pills, it the dog ate my home work “ if you catch my drift.
Knowing this, I went to the VA pharmacy with my picture and the story in two newspapers, one local one the major state news paper. The story has my picture, name, address, and the words: “ Vets loses EVERYTHING in early morning fire” The pharmacy asked me to sit and wait, then after an hour or so they sent me to the ER. The ER asked me to sit. Hours passed from the moment that my brother and I arrived there. Eventually they asked me to leave. In a way I figured that it was because; besides the oxycodone that I take for chronic pain which is Rx’d for an Army related injury which I collect disability compensation for, I also lost my blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, and my clonasapam for anxiety and as a sleep aid.
My brother spoke with someone in the ER asking them to explain and they told him that they are required to call my PCP at my “ home “ VA which was the VA facility in West Palm Beach FL my current primary care physician was recently assigned to me and she was clearly a racist which is a whole different story. In any event I went up to the 4th floor at the CT VA and luckily found my shrink getting ready to leave for the day. He took us in, listened to what happened, read the articles and wrote the rx for the clonasapam. 4 or 5 hours had passed since arriving at the facility and most offices were no closed but pharmacy was opened til 6 pm. My shrink can only write for MH medications, Other departments can write for everything else OTHER THAN MH MEDS. My shrink suggested that I get the rx that he wrote filled before they closed then suggested that I return to the ER in hopes that the shift had changed and it had. But the one nurse was still in the facility so when she say me I was one of the people who has experienced being on the wrong end of “ if you see something say something “ I’ve contextualized it this way because it’s a learning tool/method for me. Imagine what it is like to be seen as a scammer or anything that you are not but someone who is held in high esteem points at you and tells others not to trust you.
This nurse freaked out screaming “ YOU!!! WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?” She then multitasked by informing the new shift what she thought was the truth, called VA security, and attacked me: physically pushing me towards the door. As I’m telling you this I am reliving it, feeling it, seeing it play over again in my head. My brother who is a school principal and knows well how to read and how to handle situations out his arm around me, spoke sanely and guided me out the door as the police showed up.
I have PTSD, not from combat or other in service situations but I have PTSD from the fire and this specific situation which BURNED INTO MY MEMORY it’s scared me but in all honesty it has helped me understand how and why we have a homeless and suicide problem with our Veterans.
I need to post this now because I triggered the level of emotions that often lead to a bad place.

Thanks however for you interest and know that YOU DID NIT CAUSE THIS TO HAPPEN in fact it helps for me to reconstruct and write down what happened so I might find a way to put it to rest.
TY Debbra!✌️😊