Brain fog post gulf war deployment

Due to this brain fog I often do not write clearly.
Many times I must take sentences from others, cut and paste
to express my option.

I start using gadgets and date books in order to keep track of our normal daily to-do list. If we handle our own checkbook, I gradually have more and more trouble with it. Even taking a shower is a major effort because I don't remember whether I've rinsed the shampoo out of my hair - I lose the washcloth - I drop everything - I forget whether I rinsed all those hard-to-reach areas. What were once functions that I handled without thought, I now need to consciously review every aspect of the process before it occurs.

If we tell our doctor about our problems, we are often easily placated by the doctor's words. "Everybody starts having trouble as they get older." "No, you don't have Alzheimer's - just FMS." "Oh, you're just depressed."
However, something is wrong. This is not the everyday forgetfulness that everyone experiences from time to time. This is a 24 hour, seven day-a-week continual struggle to appear and act normally. It's been proven by SPECT and PET scans of the brain. It really IS all in our heads - and it's real.

Unfortunately, the full extent of our brainfog may not be known until a moment of clarity. That moment may be as simple as finding your "lost" glasses on the end of your nose, or as complicated as finding out years later that you made a stupid little mistake when you filed your taxes.

Cognitive dysfunction is a right temporal lobe phenomena. Multiple mood swings, trouble sleeping are all temporal lobe abnormalities.

Temporal lobe is responsible for understanding what we hear, retrieving and restoring our memories even though the patient may feel they have difficulty with their memory.

It does not appear the VA has rating for this disorder yet.
This is problem Sergent Hammack is currently suffer with.
One in four Gulf war veterans suffers from illness caused by toxic exposure.
How do we get VA Health care pay attention to gulf war vets with these problems.

I thank the writer of the following site
http://lymeadvocacysite.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-amazing-in-this-day-and-age-of.html

Gulf Vets Health care issue

bureaucracy - Definition [byoo-rok´r?-se]
(n.) Administration of a government chiefly through bureaus or departments…
(n.) Management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among…
(n.) An administrative system in which the need or inclination to follow…

Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity,
usually in large organizations and government. As opposed to adhocracy,
it is represented by standardized procedure.
the relevance to gulf war exposures and distance from potenical sources of
combustion products is still under Study.

Is this vet, Sergent Hammack getting mishanded by the VISTA records system?
She has been a patient and received VA health care for last 12 years.
Her Mammograms were preformed by VA Boston and VA Washington DC.
Her last Mammogram tested VA Miami was questionable and physican was to
compare with earlier exams. Did this Desert Storm vet fall thur the cracks?

Problem is her doctor can not find the
exams (of 2005 and 2007). It is sad that her earlier records are lost.
Her VA doctors only option order another exam in three months to
idenify any adverse changes.

Committee Scientific Director Roberta White, PhD, associate dean for research at
Boston University's School of Public Health, stated: "Veterans of the first Gulf
War have been plagued by ill health since their return 17 years ago. Although
the evidence for this health phenomenon is overwhelming, veterans repeatedly
find that their complaints are met with cynicism and a 'blame the victim'
mentality that attributes their health problems to mental illness or
non-physical factors."

I guess this could an IG complaint. Seamless transitions from one VA
hospital to another VAMC is not yet in effect. Is this medical records
screw up happening in the civilain hospital system.

http://www.gwumc.edu/sphhs/faculty/levine_paul.cfm

Joint Pain in Gulf War Syndrome

Joint Pain in Gulf War Syndrome Appears Not To Be Inflammatory But Rather Neurological: Presented at ACR-ARHP
By Maggie Schwarz

WASHINGTON, DC -- November 15, 2006 -- Joint pain in veterans with Gulf War syndrome appears to be a stress response similar to fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, rather than an inflammatory one, researchers reported here at the American College of Rheumatology - Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals Annual Scientific Meeting (ACR-ARHP).

Frank Pessler, MD, PhD, research associate, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and colleagues performed a histological examination of synovial biopsies from Gulf War veterans complaining of rheumatologic symptoms.

Gulf War syndrome is a dramatically symptomatic, incompletely explained illness described among US and British military personnel who returned from the First Gulf War (1990-1991). Some of its symptoms may reflect underlying immune dysfunction. Rheumatologic symptoms, including joint pain and stiffness, are reported frequently, yet whether synovitis is a cause of the articular complaints in these individuals has not been determined until now.

Dr. Pessler and colleagues hypothesized that exposure to a large number of immunizations or toxins might have triggered the joint inflammation associated with Gulf War syndrome.

The researchers obtained biopsies from 9 veterans with Gulf War syndrome, and obtained 7 specimens with sufficient tissue quality for analysis. Specimens from 11 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 14 with osteoarthritis were used as controls.

Inflammatory changes were quantified using a synovitis score. Cell division and vascular density were also measured. Differences were also assessed using a composite inflammation score that consolidates results from immunohistochemical parameters into one value.

Microscopy revealed normal synovial tissue with changes consistent with healthy joints. Inflammatory cells (macrophages, T cells, CD20 B lymphocytes CD3, CD38 and CD68) were absent.

Mean synovitis score of 1.39 +/- 0.29 corresponded to absence of synovitis. Consistent with these results, inflammatory cell densities, cell division index, vascular density and inflammation score were lowest in Gulf War syndrome, intermediate in controls with osteoarthritis and highest in controls with rheumatoid arthritis.

The low numbers of inflammatory cells, which were occasionally seen, were similar to the background frequency expected in synovial biopsies from asymptomatic knee joints.

Dr. Pessler concluded that prevailing thinking on Gulf War syndrome that points to a neurological stress response rather than an inflammatory one appears to be correct.


[Presentation title: Absence of Inflammation in Synovial Biopsies Form Patients With "Gulf War Syndrome" and Joint Pain. Abstract 160] November 15, 2006

Poison powder's damage troops in Iraqi

Adverse health expousures.
During the first Gulf War veterans had run into this material.
Only now it is getting press and Defense Health Affairs are silent.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20090906_Back_Channels__Many_U_S__soldiers_now_suffering_.html
Back Channels: Many U.S. soldiers now suffering.
Poison powder's damage ignored at Iraqi plant

By Kevin Ferris, Inquirer Columnist

A thick coating of orange powder was everywhere. You sat on it and slept on it.
You walked through it and brushed it off your clothes.
It was on the food and it was part of the air you breathed,
especially when the wind kicked up.

The powder was one of the first things Glen Bootay noticed when, as a combat engineer with the Third Infantry Division, he arrived at the water-treatment facility at Qarmat Ali, Iraq, in April 2003. He even mentioned it to his mom
in a call home.

Another vet told a Senate committee last month that there were about
1,000 100-pound bags of the orange powder at the plant. Medic Russell Powell
said many of the bags "were ripped and exposed to the wind, . . .
placed by doorways and buildings so we had to actually walk through the
piles of the orange powder when we entered and exited the buildings. . . .
We used them as security measures, as sandbags. . . .
There were at least two inches of powder on my boots."

The powder was sodium dichromate, a deadly poison and carcinogen.
Until fleeing Iraqis used it to sabotage the plant, the chemical had
been used as an anticorrosive in water pipes feeding the oil fields.

One expert testified to the Senate committee that "a grain of sand
worth of sodium dichromate per cubic meter could lead to serious
long-term health problems, including cancer." And yet, after a dust storm,
Powell testified, "We'd all look like orange-powdered doughnuts."

Even during his short stay there, Bootay told the committee,
"I started to suffer from nasal congestion and headaches.
I remember that the air tasted like metal."

Complaints were dismissed as allergic reactions to sand and dust.
The powder was called a "minor irritant."
Powell testified: "I and many other soldiers and KBR workers had
severe nosebleeds, coughed up blood, had difficulty breathing, nausea,
and experienced a burning sensation in our lungs and throats. . . .
Many of the soldiers around me began having skin lesions on their
arms, hands, faces, and nostrils."

Gulf war Ilnness and GI issues

Are you too looking for the VA gulf war TASKFORCE out of VA headquarters DC ?

I have notice that most disabled vets are following their not disabling sympthoms
you should follow up here:
http://ibs.about.com/u/ua/symptomsofib1/OtherSymptoms.htm

Gulf War Illness affects many soldiers who served in Operation Desert Storm and/or Desert Shield; some reports estimate this number to be as high as 25% to 30% of veterans! Symptoms of Gulf War Illness presented slowly and, in some cases, took almost two years. Another confounding factor is the seemingly random set of symptoms, which include depression, bronchitis, stomach upset, chronic fatigue, memory problems, and musculoskeletal issues.

Effort is now being put forth by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to study this illness, and several of these research studies were presented at SfN.

Many veterans report problems related to memory recall. Because the hippocampus plays a major role in learning and memory, one study conducted by HE Speed et al. from UT Southwestern investigates the effect of chlorpyrifos, a common insecticide used during the Gulf War, on this brain structure.

It's interesting to note that this later effect was detected three months after exposure to chlorpyrifos, consistent with the delayed onset of symptoms associated with Gulf War Illness.
http://ibs.about.com/u/ua/symptomsofib1/OtherSymptoms.htm