Problems from shots while Active

[Conch]

Evening Marines,

I was active duty from 2003 to 2010. I was discharged medically due to developing severe breathing problems in the last year that I was in the Corps. I could not run very well anymore, and I have to carry an inhaler everywhere I go with me now. I also have had several trips to the ER lately for emergency breathing treatments and I have a nebulizer machine at home now. I have never officially been diagnosed with asthma though, since my doc doesn't suspect that. I have seen a breathing specialist in Miami, since there aren't to many down here in Key West, and he has told me he thinks it could possibly be a side effect of some of the shots I had to have while I was in the Corps, such as Anthrax and Smallpox, etc. Honestly, I am not sure if he may be right or not.

I am not complaining or anything about these shots, since I knew as a member of the military, I had to have them. But I am just wondering if anyone else has had similar problems after getting those kind of shots. There are days when I feel like I cannot breathe at all and it feels like my lungs are being squeezed with a car crusher its so bad. I am just not sure why I have been having these problems and none of the civilian doctors I have seen since I have been out have been able to really properly diagnose me either. I honestly don't have any other idea as to why I developed these kind of problems. I have never smoked, and I used to do track and football in high school. I got through boot and everything fine as well. Like I said it was just in the last year I started having these problems.

S/F
-Blake

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Have you got disability? Seen the VA? If not get started ASAP!!!!

I can't speak to the shots but I seriously hope you get better. Contact them NOW man don't wait.

Ever exposed to burn pits overseas? Thats been identified as an issue as well.

[Conch]

Have you got disability? Seen the VA? If not get started ASAP!!!!

I can't speak to the shots but I seriously hope you get better. Contact them NOW man don't wait.

Ever exposed to burn pits overseas? Thats been identified as an issue as well.

I'm in the process of fighting with the VA for disability, I don't expect a lot, but at least some. For some reason, they seem to not be a very big help and everything is a constant battle with them. As far as burn pits, yeah I have been around them when I was deployed to Afghanistan. The other thing the doc I saw in Miami suggested it could be is something called Reactive Airway Dysfunction Syndrome or RADS. I also have a lot of skin rashes and trouble sleeping sometimes. It seems like the VA just wants to dispute everything though.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Oh yeah. Get used to THAT my brother. My initial claim is now 21 months and still counting.

They hope to out paperwork you and wait you out so you'll die before they have to pay you.

[Conch]

Oh yeah. Get used to THAT my brother. My initial claim is now 21 months and still counting.

They hope to out paperwork you and wait you out so you'll die before they have to pay you.

I was afraid of that. In the meantime, I'm not under Tricare anymore, and Blue Cross Blue Shield isn't very nice about paying my medical bills either. I served my country and I didn't even want to get out of the Corps, I had intended to be a lifer. Just my luck. Thanks for the advice Sgt.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Did you get medically retired? Or just get out?

Get with a VSO ASAP brother and get this thing rollin. Only costing yourself money if you don't. Since you were 'in country' you qualify for all sorts of crap. Don't deny yourself trying to be some 'noble warrior' or other nonsense. THEY broke you...THEY should be fixing you. Period.

[Conch]

Did you get medically retired? Or just get out?

Get with a VSO ASAP brother and get this thing rollin. Only costing yourself money if you don't. Since you were 'in country' you qualify for all sorts of crap. Don't deny yourself trying to be some 'noble warrior' or other nonsense. THEY broke you...THEY should be fixing you. Period.

Medically discharged with a DD214 RE code of RE-4.

[Tennessee Top]

When it comes to VA disability claims documentation is critical (otherwise, it's just your memory and difficult to prove).

Did you keep a copy of your medical record? Are any of those shots recorded anywhere?

Good luck with this battle.

BTW: I am a respiratory therapist at a university/teaching hospital. All I do is treat patients and not diagnose. Are the civilian docs you've seen pulmonologists (lung specialists) and have you taken any tests to measure lung compliance, lung volumes, etc.? Seems to me a pulmonologist should be able to give you an accurate diagnosis and recommend treatment for your symptoms.

[Conch]

When it comes to VA disability claims documentation is critical (otherwise, it's just your memory and difficult to prove).

Did you keep a copy of your medical record? Are any of those shots recorded anywhere?

Good luck with this battle.

BTW: I am a respiratory therapist at a university/teaching hospital. All I do is treat patients and not diagnose. Are the civilian docs you've seen pulmonologists (lung specialists) and have you taken any tests to measure lung compliance, lung volumes, etc.? Seems to me a pulmonologist should be able to give you an accurate diagnosis and recommend treatment for your symptoms.

I have a copy of my shot records. I don't have my actual medical records. I'm sure I could get it from maybe the DoD Archives or wherever they store them. I saw a doctor who was an Asthma specialist, and he was the one who said it could be RADS. I have been trying to get approved for a pulmonary function test, but my insurance keeps not wanting to approve it. Do you know by chance if the VA can perform a Pulmonary Function Test by chance?

[Luke0402]

I've never had any problems from any shots so far. Of course, I suppose if there were any problems it would take time for them to develop anyway. I hope you get better quick. Good luck Sergeant.

[TheReservist]

I cough up some ugly looking things and I blame it on this...

http://www.publichealth.va.gov/expos...pits/index.asp

Were you ever exposed to them?

[MOS4429]

Evening Marines,

I was active duty from 2003 to 2010. I was discharged medically due to developing severe breathing problems in the last year that I was in the Corps. I could not run very well anymore, and I have to carry an inhaler everywhere I go with me now. I also have had several trips to the ER lately for emergency breathing treatments and I have a nebulizer machine at home now. I have never officially been diagnosed with asthma though, since my doc doesn't suspect that. I have seen a breathing specialist in Miami, since there aren't to many down here in Key West, and he has told me he thinks it could possibly be a side effect of some of the shots I had to have while I was in the Corps, such as Anthrax and Smallpox, etc. Honestly, I am not sure if he may be right or not.

I am not complaining or anything about these shots, since I knew as a member of the military, I had to have them. But I am just wondering if anyone else has had similar problems after getting those kind of shots. There are days when I feel like I cannot breathe at all and it feels like my lungs are being squeezed with a car crusher its so bad. I am just not sure why I have been having these problems and none of the civilian doctors I have seen since I have been out have been able to really properly diagnose me either. I honestly don't have any other idea as to why I developed these kind of problems. I have never smoked, and I used to do track and football in high school. I got through boot and everything fine as well. Like I said it was just in the last year I started having these problems.

S/F
-Blake

Blake, I was in from '78-87. In 1983-84 I was stationed on Okinawa. About half way through that tour, when I would go running, I would hear this wheezing. I kept thinking I had a cold. When I got back stateside I was stationed at MCAS El Toro. The wheezing continued, and by 1985, I was having difficulty breathing. Air was heavy, and my chest felt like somebody was sitting on it. Breathing became more laborious until I would have to force inhale and force exhale. I ended up going to the dispensary and received a nebulizer treatment and a shot of epinephrine which helped a lot. But it was short term. Breathing became so difficult that it took the energy out of me. One day I woke up, was laying there forcing myself to breathe, my wife was at work, and I was home on leave. I got up and walked to the bathroom and was exhausted. I had to rest 15 minutes. Taking a shower was more than I could handle, and I laid on the floor for a half hour, then got dressed. From the time I got up, it took me 2.5 hours to get dressed and in my vehicle to drive to an Air Force hospital near where I lived. They gave me a shot of epinephrine and a nebulizer treatment, but it didn't work, so they gave me another shot of epinephrine and another nebulizer treatment. Then they gave me a shot, and I think it was called susephrine, or something like that. It was long-acting epinephrine. I was jumping out of my skin and then sent me home. I laid on the living room floor on my hands and knees with my head on the ground and fell asleep like that. Back at work, I was having difficulty breathing again, went in to ER again, and the doctor on duty asked me, "So, how long have you had asthma?" I told him, "I don't have asthma," and he said, "Well, you do now!"

From what you describe, you have asthma. Have you had any testing from a pulmonologist, peak flow meter testing? If not, you need to be tested. You need to get that diagnosis. You may have environmentally-induced asthma where breathing allergens or certain pollutants trigger an asthma response. Or you may have exercised-induced asthma, where every time you exercise, you tighten up, start to wheeze, and then it feels like you are breathing through a pile of towels or something, but you definitely sound like you have asthma.

Back in '85-86, they gave inhalers as a last result, so the Navy put me on terbutaline and some other pill, and it was sort of like taking uppers. I was always jumpy and my heart would pound, but I could breathe. When my EAS came around in '87, I elected to get out.

Once I got out, I got ahold of a packet from the VA to submit for a service-connected disability. Now, here is the important part. Look at your packet. It seems to me that they requested 12 to 15 or maybe more, different pieces of information, including SRB, medical/dental records, DD214, and a whole lot more. When I got the packet, I was told that after I submitted it, it would take up to 18 months before a decision was made.

When I put together my packet, before I submitted it, I made sure I had every single document that was requested. I was told I could submit the application, and then when I got the required information, send it, and if they needed more, they would request it. That's what takes so long.

Hopefully when you got out you made a copy of your medical/dental records, SRB, and other documents. When I put my packet together, I filled out the application in detail, and then for each required item, labled it as Attachment 1, 2, 3, etc.

Then I included with it a cover letter. In that cover letter, I wrote in detail, but I will summarize here that I joined in 1978 and had never had breathing issues. I outlined my duty stationes chronologically, and indicated if there was anything that I thought could be a contributor to asthma. For instance, from '79 to '81 I was stationed on MCAS El Toro, and my office was the old flight tower located right on the runway where on numerous occasions we breathed jet exhaust as F4 Phantoms sat out blowing exhaust at the office building. I also was stationed in southern California with high pollution counts. In '83 I went to Oki where I indicated during that time on Camp Hansen, at least twice a week trucks drove around the base blowing huge clouds of pesticide to kill all the bugs, and these huge clouds of pesticide would drift into our office building/barracks. Then indicated I went back to El Toro in '84 where I was back in the same old air tower, breathing jet exhaust and So Cal pollution again.

I outlined all of my treatments and ER visits in detail, and I described the onset of breathing difficulties, how it felt, how it got worse.

I also indicated that since I had no breathing issues, i.e., asthma prior to joining the Marine Corps, developed it in '84, which exacerbated that the evidence demonstrated clearly that my medical condition occurred while on active duty. I further indicated that I was not after a service connection for money but in order to get medications, since I could no longer breathe without them.

I never mentioned anything about shots being a trigger because it never occurred to me, but I have subsequently heard that could be a factor, and in your situation would most definitely suggest it as a trigger.

Once my packet was complete, cover letter done, and every single item requested present, I bound it in a folder and sent it in.

That was around October 1987. By December 1987 I received a letter from the VA. They found me service connected for asthma and another medical condition in my medical record that I did not even mention. The rated me at 10%, which meant back then I got a check once a month for about $75 and have ever since. I don't even know what it is now. It goes straight to an IRA. But what I was after was the service connection. I then had to go to several VA facilities, go through some repeat testing, and started receiving prescriptions. That's about when treatment changed and they started using steroid inhalers and other types like alupent and albuterol.

If you are not experiencing relief with what you have, get to a better doctor, because there are some very good meds out there.

Hope this helps. Get your packet together such that when submitted, they will need nothing, and good luck!

[MOS4429]

I have a copy of my shot records. I don't have my actual medical records. I'm sure I could get it from maybe the DoD Archives or wherever they store them. I saw a doctor who was an Asthma specialist, and he was the one who said it could be RADS. I have been trying to get approved for a pulmonary function test, but my insurance keeps not wanting to approve it. Do you know by chance if the VA can perform a Pulmonary Function Test by chance?

Yes, at most VA clinics, and if not, at VA hospitals they can do PFTs.

Insurance will disapprove these tests because they don't want to pay out. Fight them. Call them up and threaten to sue. I have gone through this many a time with insurance companies and treatment needed for my children. I never accept no. If the doctor orders it, then it is to be done, and your insurance company has no right to countermand the specialist, but oftentimes people just end it there, and insurance companies know that, so they deny.

[Conch]

I cough up some ugly looking things and I blame it on this...

http://www.publichealth.va.gov/expos...pits/index.asp

Were you ever exposed to them?

Yes, definitely I was when I was in Afghanistan. Especially a lot of munitions and the discarded food. I never even thought things like burn pits would do that though. At the time it never even occurred to me.

[Conch]

Yes, at most VA clinics, and if not, at VA hospitals they can do PFTs.

Insurance will disapprove these tests because they don't want to pay out. Fight them. Call them up and threaten to sue. I have gone through this many a time with insurance companies and treatment needed for my children. I never accept no. If the doctor orders it, then it is to be done, and your insurance company has no right to countermand the specialist, but oftentimes people just end it there, and insurance companies know that, so they deny.

Wow, I can really relate to your first post in the thread. Now I have read it over it seems like I could have Asthma. I have the same symptoms when I run. Even in high school, I used to play football on my school's team, and I was on track, and I never had those problems. Even in Boot and through most of my time in the Corps I didn't either. I have never had a PFT or peak flow test, I always ask and they are hesitant to give me one. I won't be allowing that anymore, I will be demanding one. I also have been hospitalized once in the last few months for nearly passing out because I couldn't breathe. I have only had the nebulizers. I actually had to go the ER last night because I couldn't breathe. I will be calling the VA first thing Monday morning, and my insurance to get this dealt with. I also have been researching around about some of the other doctors that I can possibly see here in the Keys and South Florida. Most are in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. I just hope they figure something out soon. Sometimes when I get these attacks and breathing problems, I really feel like I'm gonna die sometimes. It gets that bad a lot of times. Thanks again for the help.

S/F
-Blake