Hi Chris! So true! So true! I think if I could have changed some things in my past also I would not be in my shoes today either.
When I got diagnosed with Lupus they told me that I needed to quit smoking. My lungs felt great! So I kept smoking. The lupus can cause lung damage and in 1998 I developed a severe case of asthma. Now it’s mild COPD because of smoking and asthma. I never did much research on lupus back then either. Just wanted to get well and get my life up and running again.
If I would have known what I know now, I would have too changed several things myself. I never got followed up much after my diagnoses with lupus. Took my meds and did my average day. Saw my doctors and many times I would cancel the appointments because I felt to good to be going to see them. When I went in remission, I actually stopped going to see my doctors. I didn’t feel like I was sick enough to be taking up a spot appoinment wise for someone that really needed that spot! I know better now!

Hi Chris! This VA stuff is really a touchy situation with me right now. My father before his passing stayed in the VA in Durham, NC for 4 weeks. One doctor would say one thing and then another doctor would say something else.
One night on the way in to see my father. He had a bleed on his brain when admitted causing strokes. He would get better and then another bleed would come along. It took the doctors there 4 weeks to finally tells us he had a brain tumor that was not operable.
But I caught a nurse in his room dragging my father to the bathroom and was yelling at him. Telling him, that he was walking fine earlier and I don’t know why you are giving me a hard time! She was really getting nasty with my father.
I was standing at the door the entire time and when I yelled to her to get my father back in bed and call the doctor Stat! She almost passed out! Told the nurse my father was having another brain bleed and get him into CT Scan Stat. They listened to me and sure enough he had another stroke and bleed on his brain.
My father was a firm believer in the VA Hospital. 22 1/2 years Army Retired. All full blooded Army! Grew up Army. Heard the Army stories. I saw the care that my father got in the VA. Not once but more than once, I felt like telling them off! The treatment my father got as a US Veteran was poor! And then seeing new injured soldiers being placed in Walter Reed with mold growing everywhere and the problem about the care of the new soldiers there.
At one time the US Government was for it’s Military and they made a promise to take care of the US Veterans. And Disabled Veterans. Right now, I am not seeing that be the case and other’s have exposed them at what kind of treatment some of our soldiers are getting. I too saw it with my own eyes!
Chris! I don’t know if you get disability or not being a veteran. They go by percentage. Which effects your checks. Even retirement checks!
If it were me in your shoes. I think I would see a Top Notch Hospital like John Hopkins, University of PA Hospital. A good hospital. Let the outsider doctor give you a diagnoses and then if you have enough proof that it is military related then go back to the VA with your records. Even a second opinion is always better than the first in your case! The VA may only rate you having 20percent disibility and you really have 40 percent. My father was a POW in the Korean War. He had been stabbed with bamboo shoots in his legs and made to hang on rope. Saw his best buddy in the camp get his brains blown to bits trying to force the others to talk. It was a nasty war back then. He came home from Korea only weighing 90 pounds and developed diabetes along with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. My father reinlisted when he got well again and retired. The Army was all he knew! He did recieve 100 percent disability until he reach 65 years old.
I would get second opinion from a top notch Medical Center. Then transfer over to the VA. My father was a retired Master Sergeant. He had alot of knowledge. Very smart man! I am very proud of him and miss him dearly. Before my father died! He said one thing that stuck by me! He said he wished he would have gotten a second opinion from another facility when he first noticed himself getting sick. He was having nose bleeds, coughing up blood and told his VA doctor about it! Nothing ever got checked out. No xray of his lungs where the cancer first started. If he would have had that Xray when he first started getting sick, I think my father would be alive today.
It’s up to you. But if my father were alive today and talking to you personally for he helped many veterans get in the door to the VA. He would tell you to get seen by a top notch hospital. Get a diagnoses and then transfer to the VA! I hope my advice helped you question tonight! Good luck and I wish you well!