Inspiration. Courage. Hope.

Support the Burn Pit Registry Act

We need your help! We have put together a let­ter that can be sent to your Con­gress­men or Sen­a­tor in sup­port of the Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011. You can down­load the let­ter here. For more infor­ma­tion please read this arti­cle. Thank you for your support!
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BurnPits360.Org Stands Strong

Nov3rd
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Daniel Meyer

BurnPits360.Org Stands Strong

BurnPits360.Org stands strong in light of a con­tro­ver­sial arti­cle released on Octo­ber 31, BurnPits360.Org Stands Strong2011. The arti­cle, which was released by the IOM (Insti­tute of Med­i­cine), is enti­tled Long-Term Health Con­se­quences of Expo­sure to Burn Pits in Iraq and Afghanistan (You can find the arti­cle in it’s entirety here). This arti­cle only strength­ens BurnPits360 posi­tion in regards to burn pits caus­ing seri­ous health issues.

The research artic­u­lated by the IOM shows that there is insuf­fi­cient data to prove that burn pits are not caus­ing long-term health prob­lems. Many peo­ple felt this was dam­ag­ing to BurnPits360’s cause, but in all actu­al­ity, it has the oppo­site effect. The major­ity of infor­ma­tion that has been released in pre­vi­ous years has sup­ported gov­ern­ment claims that expo­sure to burn pits could not pos­si­bly be caus­ing long-term health prob­lems. Now, the arti­cle by the IOM allows BurnPits360 to prove that  sci­en­tific evi­dence can’t even sup­port the government’s claims. Addi­tion­ally, mul­ti­ple vet­er­ans have been med­ically dis­charged on the grounds of expo­sure to burn pits, bol­ster­ing BurnPits360.Org’s case even further.

It seems the tide is turn­ing towards the truth being revealed.

Before my expo­sure to the burn pits, I was a com­pletely healthy, very phys­i­cally fit man in the Air Force. Now, after mul­ti­ple deploy­ments and being in close prox­im­ity to the fires, I suf­fer from a myr­iad of issues, includ­ing a lung dis­ease that is cat­e­go­rized as a ter­mi­nal ill­ness. I’ve never smoked or been exposed to any­thing else that would cause this ill­ness, so if it’s not the burn pits, what could it pos­si­bly be?

The burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan were sup­pose to be tem­po­rary solu­tions on how to dis­pose of trash, med­ical waste, chem­i­cals, plas­tics, and many other sub­stances. They also used JP-8 aka jet fuel to accel­er­ate the fires, which in itself is a hor­ri­ble idea. Instead of being tem­po­rary, the burn pits became “the norm” for many bases in the Mid­dle East and were ran by com­pa­nies, that for the most part, went com­pletely unchecked and reg­u­la­tions that were in place were not enforced. Nobody stopped to think of the poten­tial harm to mem­bers of our Armed Forces, includ­ing myself.

It’s time that the con­trac­tors who were oper­at­ing these burn pits step for­ward and apol­o­gize for the dam­age they have caused to so many vet­er­ans across our nation. Some­one needs to be held account­able for this tragedy and BurnPits360.Org is work­ing hard to make sure that becomes a reality.

Many people’s lives have been neg­a­tively affected by burn pits, includ­ing some whose loved ones have passed away from ill­nesses incurred from expo­sure to these toxic pits. This arti­cle by the IOM is finally a step in the right direc­tion towards some­one claim­ing respon­si­bil­ity in what BurnPits360 calls “the new agent orange.” The hard work and ded­i­ca­tion of those affil­i­ated with BurnPits360 is inspir­ing. I feel priv­i­leged to be able to work so closely with their organization.

Open Air Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011 Update

Today, Novem­ber 3, 2011, Con­gress­man Todd Akin intro­duced the Open Air Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011 at a press con­fer­ence in Wash­ing­ton D.C. Rosie Tor­res and Aubrey Tap­ley from BurnPits360.Org were present at the press con­fer­ence. Major vet­er­ans orga­ni­za­tions, such as the Amer­i­can Legion, Vet­er­ans of For­eign Wars, and Dis­abled Amer­i­can Vet­er­ans, were also on hand.

The media was at the press con­fer­ence today as well. USA Today and Fox News were the two larger media out­lets present. Hope­fully, this expo­sure con­tin­ues to help with gain­ing co-sponsors for the bill before it goes up for a vote in the begin­ning of 2012. This gives us ample time to con­tinue spread­ing the word about the impor­tance of this bill and inform­ing peo­ple how they can con­tact their rep­re­sen­ta­tives. A let­ter will be avail­able for down­load from DanielMeyerBlog.Com that will make con­tact­ing your con­gress­man or sen­a­tor that much easier.

For more infor­ma­tion about this bill, please read this arti­cle which includes ways you can help!

BurnPits360.Org, Military, Political    , , , , , , , , ,

A Love Story for the Ages — Part 9 — Almost Home

Nov1st
2011 2 Comments Written by Daniel Meyer

A Love Story for the Ages

Wel­come to Part 9 of my Blog Series A Love Story for the Ages. This series is the jour­ney my wife and I have taken get­ting to the great life we enjoy together today. Now the continu­a­tion of the story.…

Almost Home

As our deploy­ment was com­ing to an end, we began fac­ing chal­lenges about how we were get­ting home. Our OIC (Offi­cer in Charge) had never deployed before and made a crit­i­cal mis­take while sched­ul­ing our air­lift home. Requests are sup­pose to be made 60–90 days out to ensure an air­craft is avail­able. Quite often, even a sched­uled air­lift can be delayed a few days or weeks based on main­te­nance issues or higher pri­or­ity mis­sions tak­ing prece­dence. Unfor­tu­nately, our 2nd Lieu­tenant was unaware of this time frame.

So with that in mind, when did our OIC sched­ule our flight home before it was time to go?

One week.

That’s right. One week.

When we found out that we had no air­lift home, every­one asked our 2nd Lt. when he had sched­uled our flight home, and he responded “Last week.” We couldn’t believe it! We were all so exhausted from the intense work load we had been endur­ing and now we had no way home. This set off a lot of tem­pers through­out the group. Frus­tra­tion was at an all-time high. How could he pos­si­bly for­got to do the most impor­tant thing he was tasked with?

We were baffled.

Finally, our com­man­der stepped in. He was furi­ous that our main­te­nance OIC had dropped the ball. Our com­man­der made some phone calls and started arrang­ing some flights home for a few peo­ple at a time on British air­craft. From Britain, we would then have to use our GTC (Gov­ern­ment Travel Card) and arrange our own way home. This was far from ideal, but at least it was a way home. Then, out of nowhere, our OIC was able to arrange a flight with the squadron from Moody AFB, GA who was head­ing home as well.

Our replace­ments arrived and when we picked them up at the pas­sen­ger ter­mi­nal they couldn’t believe what they saw. We all had bags under our eyes and had lost quite a bit of weight. It was a very dif­fi­cult deploy­ment and we were beyond ready to go home. We showed them around the base, get­ting them accli­mated to what lie ahead. We went to our tents, packed our things, and pre­pared for our flights out.

We were assigned to three dif­fer­ent flights from Camp Bas­tion to Kan­da­har, Afghanistan. Due to inad­e­qua­cies of the incom­ing unit, I was on the third flight out. I worked up until about 30 min­utes before my flight left. Those of us on the last flight were on a tight sched­ule. Our flight in to Kan­da­har was very close to our sched­uled flight home. It ended up not being of any sig­nif­i­cance because we were delayed by three days. We hung out, eagerly await­ing word on our flight. I called Har­monie and told her I wasn’t sure when we would leave but I was hop­ing it wouldn’t be much longer.

Finally, we were told to grab our things. We were going home!

We got on board a very crowded C-17, our knees pressed against the AGE (Aero­space Ground Equip­ment) and took off. Our first stop: Al Udeid, Qatar.A Love Story for the Ages

We got off the plane and instantly we were drenched. Rain? Nope, humid­ity. We had been in very dry Afghanistan for months and Al Udeid, Qatar is located next to the Per­sian Gulf. It was about 0200 and still 110 degrees with 95% humid­ity. This was just the begin­ning. Four hours later we took off. Next stop: Spang­dahlem AFB, Germany.

Get­ting off the plane we were drenched again. This time by rain. The only dif­fer­ence? The tem­per­a­ture was a balmy 48 degrees. After a seven hour flight the tem­per­a­ture had dropped 72 degrees and none of us were pre­pared. We quickly made our way to the buses and got inside the ter­mi­nal. Our lay­over was again only a few hours. This time the ter­mi­nal had WiFi so I was able to get on AIM and chat with my wife. It felt like I was get­ting closer, but I was still very far away. Time to leave again. The longest flight of the trip was next. Next stop: Moody AFB, GA.

After a 14 hour flight, I never thought I would be so happy to be in Val­dosta, GA. Back on Amer­i­can soil! I finally had cell phone ser­vice, so I charged up my phone and called Har­monie. It was amaz­ing to hear her voice. I was almost home.

Only one problem.

We had no plans on how to get home from Moody AFB yet.

The next morn­ing we were told we would be tak­ing a bus from Val­dosta to the Atlanta Air­port. The bus would be arriv­ing the next day at 0400. All I could think of was, “Great, another day before I get to see Har­monie.” I broke the news to her and she wasn’t happy but was relieved that I was safely back in the U.S. The next day we woke up early, got on the bus, and were on our way to the air­port. Next stop: Atlanta Inter­na­tional Airport.

After three hours on the bus, we arrived at the air­port and we stuck out like a sore thumb. We were all hand car­ry­ing our gear home. Attempt­ing to carry our bags and body armor at the same time was nearly impos­si­ble. It was all way to heavy. So we wore our body armor as we got in line to get our board­ing passes. Peo­ple must have thought we were invad­ing the Atlanta Air­port or some­thing. It was a pretty funny sight to see. I got my board­ing pass and headed to the gate.

This was it. In just a few hours I would get to see my wife, who in our first five months of mar­riage (and of know­ing each other), I had only spent three weeks with her. I just wanted to get home and start our lives together. I sat on the phone with her as I waited for my flight to board. It felt like I waited for­ever. Finally, we boarded the plane. I said good­bye and that I would see her in about four hours.

We took off and the antic­i­pa­tion was incredible.

Next stop: Home

Thank you for read­ing part 9 to my Blog Series A Love Story for the Ages. If you have missed any parts to this series, please catch up on the blog series info page.

Military, Personal    , , , , , ,

Burn Pit Video Project — Help Needed

Oct30th
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Daniel Meyer

Burn Pit Video Project

I am work­ing on a burn pit video project, but I need some help! These videos will be used to inform the Amer­i­can pub­lic about what burn pits are doing to the men and women of our Armed Forces. It’s time for our great nation to con­tinue fight­ing for our vet­er­ans who are suf­fer­ing from expo­sure to the burn pits.

Help Needed

I am look­ing for two or three peo­ple who are will­ing to share pic­tures of them­selves or fam­ily mem­bers who have been affected by the burn pits. These pic­tures will be used in the video I am cre­at­ing to help raise aware­ness of burn pits. I will be work­ing closely with offi­cers from BurnPits360.Org to ensure the videos I cre­ate are of the high­est quality.

Please note: These videos are not meant to lay blame, fault, or back­lash on any­one. These will be made purely to help inform the Amer­i­can peo­ple what the burn pits are and the affect they have on vet­er­ans who have been exposed to them.

If you are inter­ested in par­tic­i­pat­ing in this project, please fill out the form below and I will con­tact you by e-mail.

I am also look­ing for pic­tures of the burn pits (from any loca­tion). If any­one is will­ing to share burn pit pho­tos, please fill out the form below as well.

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Dis­claimer: If selected, do you agree to allow DanielMeyerBlog.Com to use the pho­tos you pro­vide in videos that will be shared across the Inter­net? (Exam­ple: YouTube, DanielMeyerBlog.Com, BurnPits360.Org etc. etc.)
 Yes No

Dis­claimer: Do you under­stand that DanielMeyerBlog.Com is not respon­si­ble for third par­ties who may use these images beyond their intended pur­pose? (Exam­ple: deface, mimic, ridicule, repro­duce etc. etc.)
 Yes No

 

Blog, Military, Personal    , , , ,

DanielMeyerBlog.Com Expanding

Oct29th
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Daniel Meyer

DanielMeyerBlog.Com Expansion Coming Soon

DanielMeyerBlog.Com Expand­ing

In the very near future, DanielMeyerBlog.Com will be expand­ing. After brain­storm­ing up some ideas and con­tem­plat­ing how to ini­ti­ate the ideas, a new vision has emerged. I’m not going to release very many details yet, but I’m very excited about the road ahead. Let me at least share a lit­tle about what has got­ten me to this point.…

Being lim­ited to a chair has been dif­fi­cult to accept; men­tally, phys­i­cally, and emo­tion­ally. Most peo­ple think about the neg­a­tiv­ity that comes with suf­fer­ing from a major ill­ness or dis­ease. For­tu­nately, I was blessed by com­ing to rela­tion­ship with God shortly before I got sick. In addi­tion, I have an amaz­ing wife, a sup­port­ive fam­ily, and great friends. I have been able to stay sur­pris­ingly pos­i­tive in the face of adver­sity. God has also been kind enough to grant me some­thing that was largely miss­ing from my life before get­ting sick: Time.

Time. Such a sim­ple word, yet its mean­ing is perpetual.

Time never stops. It only seems to dis­ap­pear in the face of self­ish­ness and the end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties that are rel­e­vant when some­one is in great health. See: Cher­ish Your Health.

This gift of time has allowed me an oppor­tu­nity to spend time with God in prayer, ask­ing for direc­tion with this new gift. I feel He has led me down this path; Never give up and make the most of every day on this Earth.

Well, that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m never going to give up. My health issues are adding up, but I will con­tinue fight­ing to live. Giv­ing up is not an option. I will pur­sue the answers to my med­ical con­di­tions, because life is worth fight­ing for. Every day with my wife is pre­cious. To ensure I get the max­i­mum time pos­si­ble on this Earth with her, we will con­tinue the bat­tle for med­ical care.

Make the most of every day on this Earth. This is where my ideas start to take shape. Here is a list of things that I feel I have been called to do:

  • Serve God to the best of my abil­i­ties. Mak­ing Him the foun­da­tion of my life makes every­thing else much eas­ier to handle.
  • Be a Father. I under­stand that my med­ical con­di­tion has made it quite improb­a­ble to nat­u­rally con­ceive, but rais­ing a child with my wife, Har­monie, means the world to me.
  • Help fel­low dis­abled vet­er­ans. This is going to be a large part of what the expan­sion process is going to involve with DanielMeyerBlog.Com. Fur­ther details will be released when every­thing is ready to go.
  • Help com­mu­ni­ties across the U.S. real­ize who the true heroes of this coun­try are; the men and women who fight for our free­doms and lib­er­ties on a daily basis. Our great nation needs a wake up call about the impor­tance of Vet­er­ans of our Armed Forces. This will also be a part of the DanielMeyerBlog.Com expansion.

Right now, you may be ask­ing your­self, “How are you going to do all that when you just said you’re stuck in a chair?”

My answer is this: I am putting my trust and faith in God’s plan for me and my amaz­ing wife is fully sup­port­ing my ideas. Other than that, only time will tell how this endeavor is going to turn out.

How You Can Help

Now that you are intrigued (and pos­si­bly irri­tated that I won’t share the whole plan), here are a few ways you can help.

First and fore­most, we need dona­tions. Here’s why: Har­monie and I are form­ing a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion (Shoot, there goes one secret). In order to get this endeavor off the ground, we need to file some paper­work. With that paper­work, comes the dreaded fees. Cur­rently, Har­monie and I are able to cover a por­tion of the money needed, but fur­ther assis­tance is needed.

For more infor­ma­tion regard­ing dona­tions, please check out the Sup­port DanielMeyerBlog.Com page. (You can make a dona­tion from that page as well)

Please make a dona­tion of any amount by click­ing the donate but­ton below. With a $30 dona­tion or more, you can receive a DanielMeyerBlog.Com t-shirt at no addi­tional charge. (T-Shirts can also be pur­chased exclu­sively for $10 — If in Las Vegas — $15 If it requires ship­ping. Click here for fur­ther details)





 

We under­stand that money is tight these days, so here are a few other ways you can help:

  • Share this post with your friends. 100 peo­ple giv­ing $1 is just as good as 1 per­son giv­ing $100. Ask them to check out the blog so they can see their dona­tion is going to a great cause.
  • Help come up with ideas for the orga­ni­za­tion. Are there things you have thought about involv­ing help­ing Dis­abled Vet­er­ans that you would like to see imple­mented in the orga­ni­za­tion? Ideas can often be as valu­able as dona­tions! Please share your ideas using the con­tact form.
  • Do you know some­one who works in the media? (Inter­net, news­pa­per, TV, etc.) Any help with adver­tis­ing would greatly help our orga­ni­za­tion grow. Get­ting us in touch with these con­tacts would be greatly appreciated.

Please help cir­cu­late this on Face­book and Twit­ter by using the share but­tons below. Also, please join our Face­book page at DanielMeyerBlog­Dot­Com. Our Face­book page is updated every time some­thing new is posted on the blog. Thank you for read­ing this and I hope you are all able to help in one way or another.

Blog, Inspirational, Personal    , , , , , , ,

Burn Pit Registry Act of 2011 — Rep. Todd Akin

Oct27th
2011 3 Comments Written by Daniel Meyer

Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011

Yes­ter­day, Octo­ber 26, 2011, BurnPits360.Org released news that Con­gress­man Todd Akin — R — Mis­souri, is seek­ing co-sponsors for the Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011. A reli­able source informed me a press con­fer­ence has been sched­uled for Novem­ber 3, 2011 to announce infor­ma­tion regard­ing this impor­tant piece of legislation.

Burn Pit Registry Act of 2011

Dear Col­league Letter

The same source has allowed me to share Con­gress­man Todd Akin’s dear col­league let­ter, request­ing addi­tional co-sponsors for the Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011. The let­ter states:

Dear Col­league;

Please sign on to be an orig­i­nal cospon­sor to leg­is­la­tion that is impor­tant to our vet­er­ans. Numer­ous vet­er­ans have suf­fered seri­ous health prob­lems after expo­sure to open burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. This leg­is­la­tion will estab­lish a reg­istry, sim­i­lar to the Agent Orange Reg­istry and the Gulf War Syn­drome Reg­istry. This is the first step toward pro­vid­ing bet­ter care for vet­er­ans who have been affected by open burn pits.

This leg­is­la­tion is already sup­ported by the Vet­er­ans of For­eign Wars (VFW), Amer­i­can Vet­er­ans (AMVETS) and the Asso­ci­a­tion of the United States Navy (AUSN). And the issue of burn pits was recently reported on in the Octo­ber 24th edi­tion of USA Today (which can be found here) http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2011–10-24/gulf-war-illness/50897804/1

This bill will also be intro­duced in a bipartisan/bicameral fash­ion with com­pan­ion leg­is­la­tion being intro­duced by Sen­a­tor Tom Udall (D-NM)

This bill is sched­uled to be intro­duced on Novem­ber 3rd, so please con­tact my office soon to become an orig­i­nal cosponsor.

Sin­cerely,

W. Todd Akin

Mem­ber of Congress

 

We Must Act Quickly!

With the press con­fer­ence sched­uled for Novem­ber 3, 2011, we must act quickly! Please con­tact your Con­gress­man and Sen­a­tors and let them know their con­stituents want this bill sup­ported. This piece of leg­is­la­tion will hope­fully pre­vent the 20 year delay on proper ben­e­fits and health care that Agent Orange vic­tims from Viet­nam suf­fered from. My health has been rav­aged by burn pits and I believe this bill will help get us closer to the answers we deserve (Can these con­di­tions be cured? Why did this hap­pen? Who is responsible?).

A few offi­cers from BurnPits360.Org will be in Wash­ing­ton D.C. for the press con­fer­ence. To help this bill get passed, peo­ple need to be con­tact­ing their rep­re­sen­ta­tives imme­di­ately. Please pass this arti­cle on to as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble. At the bot­tom of the post are options to share this arti­cle on a vari­ety of Social Media web­sites. Please Use Them!

It’s time the Amer­i­can pub­lic is informed about the severe dam­age these burn pits are caus­ing to mem­bers of our Armed Forces (includ­ing myself). Once again, here is the link to con­tact your Con­gress­man and Sen­a­tors. Their fax num­bers are listed. If you don’t have access to a fax machine, please click on the name of your Con­gress­man or Sen­a­tor and you will be redi­rected to a con­tact form that goes directly to the rep­re­sen­ta­tive. If you are unsure of who your Con­gress­man or Sen­a­tor is, please click here. Sim­ply enter your zip code and it will inform you who your rep­re­sen­ta­tives are. Let them know how impor­tant the Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011 is and ask them to sup­port the bill.

If you have any ques­tions, please con­tact me at any­time. I always attempt to respond within 12 hours. Act quickly though because time is run­ning out!

Military, Personal, Political    , , , , , , ,

Life in the United States Air Force — Part 2

Oct26th
2011 1 Comment Written by Daniel Meyer

Life in the United States Air Force

This is part 2 to my Blog Series Life in the United States Air Force. In this series, I will be shar­ing my feel­ings and emo­tions regard­ing my life in the United States Air Force. I hope that what I share will help peo­ple get a bet­ter per­spec­tive on mil­i­tary life. I also hope it will help peo­ple who may be think­ing about join­ing the mil­i­tary to see the pros and cons of life in the U.S. Air Force (I can only share my expe­ri­ence in the Air Force. I greatly respect every mil­i­tary ser­vice, but I do not have first hand knowl­edge of what their lives are like).

Tech School

Get­ting on the bus to leave basic train­ing and head to tech school was a great Life in the United States Air Forcefeel­ing. I had no idea what to expect upon arrival at Shep­pard AFB, TX. As the bus pulled in, I noticed scores of air­men march­ing around and all I could think was, “Not this again.” It looked like noth­ing was dif­fer­ent. That was until I got to my squadron.

I was assigned to the 364th train­ing squadron. I was there to learn my job, which was an Air­craft Elec­tri­cal & Envi­ron­men­tal Sys­tems Spe­cial­ist — 2A6X6 was my AFSC (Air Force Spe­cialty Code). As I walked in to the brand new dorm build­ing, I real­ized this place wasn’t going to be so bad after all. There was a pool table in the lobby and I only had one room­mate in my room, as well as our own bath­room. Things were look­ing up.

Infor­ma­tion bul­letin: Tech school stu­dents are assigned to “phases.” The phases are designed to slowly give you more per­sonal time when com­ing out of basic train­ing. It starts very strict with Phase One, not even allow­ing you off base and hav­ing to be in uni­form every­where you go. Longer train­ing courses, such as the one I went through, allows you to progress to Phase Four, which gives you free reign of not hav­ing to be in the dorms over night any­more. Each phase in between grants you more and more per­sonal free­doms. Under­stand­ing that after grad­u­at­ing basic train­ing, many rules stay in effect for quite some time will help a lot. These lim­i­ta­tions reduce poten­tial prob­lems that may arise from liv­ing a strict mil­i­tary life. This can cause peo­ple to act out in rebel­lious ways.

Tech school was very sim­i­lar to a semes­ter of col­lege, includ­ing liv­ing in the dorms. Classes were Mon­day through Fri­day 8am to 4:30pm. Min­i­mal amounts of home­work and week­ends off. It was really a lot of fun.

I also found out what base I was being assigned to after tech school as well. This assign­ment is impor­tant because it decided if I was work­ing on the flight line, and if so what air­craft, or in the back shop. I was orig­i­nally assigned to the back shop on Elmen­dorf AFB, Alaska. While I was en route to the base, I was called and diverted to a dif­fer­ent base: Nel­lis AFB, NV in Las Vegas. I was assigned to the 763rd MXS which pro­vides main­te­nance for the Com­bat Search and Res­cue HH-60 Pave­hawk Helicopter.

I never would have thought that a sim­ple change in duty sta­tion would com­pletely change my life in so many ways…

But it did.

Find out more in future install­ments of this series Life in the United States Air Force. In upcom­ing parts in this series, I will share what it’s like being the “new guy” and how to over­come the adver­si­ties that come with that stigma. Also, I will share some in depth details of what deploy­ments to Iraq and Afghanistan are really like. Includ­ing, a few near misses on my life in some very unique sit­u­a­tions. Pre­vi­ous posts for this series and all my Blog Series can be found on the Blog Series Info page.

 

Military, Personal    , , , , , ,

I Thought I Saw — Write on Wednesdays

Oct25th
2011 14 Comments Written by Daniel Meyer

Write on Wednesdays

Write On Wednesdays
 

After a short hia­tus due to mov­ing, med­ically retir­ing from the Air Force, and med­ical prob­lems, I’m back for this week’s Write on Wednes­days exer­cise. I felt like it’s been for­ever since I have par­tic­i­pated and I’ve greatly missed it! This week’s prompt:

Write On Wednes­days Exer­cise 20 - Write the words ” I thought I saw” at the top of your page. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Write the first words that come into your head after the prompt. Don’t take you pen off the page (or fin­gers off the key­board). Stop only when the buzzer rings!

I Thought I Saw

I thought I saw the doc­tor who was going to help fix the tumors in my knees. After hear­ing mul­ti­ple doc­tors speak about how great he was, I was very excited when I got to his office. My wife and I walked in and were greeted by a very friendly recep­tion­ist. They were hav­ing com­puter issues the day we came in, so we had to fill out some paper­work by hand. “Not a prob­lem,” we thought.

We sat down in the wait­ing room, anx­ious to meet this doc­tor who was going to help us. There was a TV in the wait­ing room with the news on, so we took inter­est in watch­ing that. After a while, I started get­ting a lit­tle stir crazy. “How long has it been?” I asked my wife. She responded, “Almost two hours.” I couldn’t believe it.  She had to walk out to the car and get our spare oxy­gen tank because my cur­rent bot­tle was run­ning out.

After chang­ing my oxy­gen bot­tle, my wife walked up and asked the recep­tion­ist how much longer it was going to be. “You guys are next,” she replied. Finally, after a two and a half hour wait, we were taken back to the physi­cians room. They took my vitals and told us the doc­tor would be in shortly. After another 20 minute wait, a stu­dent doc­tor came in. He asked some ques­tions and told us we were def­i­nitely at the right doc­tor to get answers.

I thought I saw the right doc­tor, but I was wrong. He gave me no answers and refused to help me due to my case being too com­plex. I guess this wasn’t the right doctor.

The search continues.….

Thank you for read­ing my con­tri­bu­tion to this week’s Write on Wednes­days exer­cise. If you are inter­ested in par­tic­i­pat­ing in this great writ­ing group, check out InkPa­per­Pen today!

 

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Open Air Burn Pit Registry Act of 2011

Oct24th
2011 5 Comments Written by Daniel Meyer

Open Air Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011

As many of you know, open air burn pits are what caused my ill­ness. A great orga­ni­za­tion, Open Air Burn Pits Registry Act of 2011BurnPits360.Org, has worked with law­mak­ers to cre­ate a bill called the Open Air Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011. This bill would cre­ate a reg­istry for every­one who has been affected with med­ical prob­lems due to open air burn pits.

This is a major piece of leg­is­la­tion that could begin help­ing doc­tors and med­ical per­son­nel to more accu­rately diag­nose and treat count­less med­ical prob­lems that have arisen from expo­sure to toxic burn pits. Hav­ing all of that data con­sol­i­dated may also help researchers find cures to dis­eases that are cur­rently deemed incur­able. You can read about my med­ical prob­lems caused by burn pits here.

This is a step in the right direc­tion. It won’t solve all of our prob­lems or soothe the loss of loved ones, but it will help bring much needed infor­ma­tion into one data­base. There has been a wide vari­ety of con­di­tions from burn pit expo­sure, that inde­pen­dently seem to have no cor­re­la­tion. Together, they may paint a more detailed por­trait con­tain­ing con­sis­ten­cies that have not yet been found. This is the best chance we have of get­ting mas­sive quan­ti­ties of med­ical data together to help many in need.

We Need Your Help

This bill won’t pass with­out your help. A few sen­a­tors have already signed on to co-sponsor this bill, but it’s not enough. It’s time to help all the vet­er­ans, includ­ing myself, that have had their lives for­ever changed because of this hor­ri­ble tragedy. The time to act is now!

Please con­tact your sen­a­tors and/or rep­re­sen­ta­tives and ask them to sup­port the Open Air Burn Pit Reg­istry Act of 2011. This web­site has a com­plete list of con­tact infor­ma­tion for your states rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Don’t sit on the side­lines while vet­er­ans suf­fer. This is your chance to truly make a dif­fer­ence.

Please share this arti­cle to help us get max­i­mum expo­sure while we fight to get this bill passed. At the bot­tom of this post there is the option to share this on dif­fer­ent social media sites. Please use them!

As my cousin Robin who suf­fers from ALS would say “I’m not dying, I’m liv­ing life to the fullest.” Help those of us affected by burn pits be able to live life to the fullest and help us pass this bill!

 

 

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Living Life With a Major Illness — Part 6

Oct23rd
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Daniel Meyer

Liv­ing Life With a Major Illness

Wel­come to part 6 of my Blog Series Liv­ing Life With a Major Ill­ness. This series has been very emo­tional for myself and many of my read­ers. Part 6 will be about frus­tra­tion with many doc­tors, but being thank­ful for two great doc­tors. They are few and far between, but when you find them, don’t let them go!

The Frus­tra­tion

Lately, I’ve run into a string of ter­ri­ble doc­tors. It has been extremely frus­trat­ing. Doc­tor after doc­tor, either not car­ing or flat out refus­ing to treat my med­ical prob­lems. My wife and I have been fever­ishly attempt­ing to find a doc­tor who will help me with the tumors in my knees. So far, we haven’t had any luck. I’m not sure what hap­pened to the days when doc­tors actu­ally did their job, but it seems like those days may have come and gone.

With the world in its cur­rent state, I under­stand the fear doc­tors have, really, I do. Peo­ple are out there try­ing to find any rea­son pos­si­ble to bring friv­o­lous law­suits against doc­tors for phony mal­prac­tice claims. So as I said, I under­stand doc­tors feel­ing timid to pro­vide aggres­sive med­ical care in this soci­ety. But, when patients like me come along, who are des­per­ate for some­one, any­one, to care enough to help me and I still get shot down, it cre­ates a never end­ing cycle that spi­rals out of con­trol. It leads to depres­sion and anxiety.

I have been referred to doc­tors who are sup­pose to be “the best in their field” and I walk in full of con­fi­dence. Excited to finally get answers. After long waits and exten­sive amounts of paper­work, they tell me “Sorry your case is too com­plex for me.” Really? My case is too com­plex? Then why did you make me wait to see you? When did it become accept­able for doc­tors to just pass patients on, refus­ing care, and not even giv­ing me the time of day? I think I have earned bet­ter  than this being a dis­abled veteran.

As bad as all of this has been, lets look at the bright side. I have been to many, many doc­tors. Out of all that I have seen, these two incred­i­ble doc­tors have taken my med­ical care seri­ously and are con­stantly try­ing to treat any sec­ondary con­di­tions that may arise. Dr. Alex­inna Johns, my PCM (Pri­mary Care Man­ager) and Dr. Charles McPher­son, my Pulmonologist.

Here is some more infor­ma­tion on them:

Dr. Alex­inna Johns

Dr. Johns has been the great­est doc­tor I could have ever imag­ined. She spends time going over all of my med­ical con­cerns, asks ques­tions about my well-being, and checks up on me on a con­sis­tent basis. The tumors in my knees have been her pri­mary focus as of late. Dr. Johns has pushed and pushed, attempt­ing to get me to the proper doc­tors. Unfor­tu­nately, most of the refer­rals get denied or I get to the doc­tor and they deny me care because my case is “too com­plex.” That hasn’t stopped her from try­ing. She never gives up and is not afraid to go to bat for me.

I would be in much worse shape with­out Dr. Alex­inna Johns. She has  stayed proac­tive when it comes to sec­ondary issues that arise and more often then not she is able to resolve the prob­lem quickly and effi­ciently. I am so thank­ful to have this doc­tor in my life. I have the utmost respect for her ded­i­ca­tion to her pro­fes­sion and believe she will con­tinue being an excep­tion­ally great doc­tor for many years to come. Thank you Dr. Johns!

Dr. Charles McPhersonLiving Life With a Major Illness

Dr. Charles McPher­son is my pul­mo­nolo­gist here in Las Vegas. He has been instru­men­tal in my med­ical care regard­ing my ter­ri­ble lung dis­ease, Bron­chi­oli­tis Oblit­er­ans. With­out his con­nec­tion to Dr. Robert Miller at Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­sity, we may still be search­ing for a diagnosis.

He was incred­i­bly help­ful dur­ing my bat­tle with the Air Force. Ten­sions con­tin­ued to grow regard­ing my med­ical con­di­tion. With­out a diag­no­sis, I was being treated by the Air Force like noth­ing was wrong with me. His entire prac­tice, the Lung Cen­ter of Nevada, is full of extremely help­ful, kind-hearted peo­ple, who are always avail­able when I have needed help. Also, a spe­cial thanks to his nurse, Barb, who has sup­ported me 110% dur­ing these dif­fi­cult times. Thank you very much to both Dr. McPher­son and Barb.

Con­clu­sion

My med­ical con­di­tion would be expo­nen­tially worse with­out the ded­i­ca­tion of these two doc­tors. I owe an immense amount of grat­i­tude to both of them for every­thing they have done.

I will con­tinue to see these two doc­tors as long as pos­si­ble. As I said before, once you find amaz­ing doc­tors like these, fight hard to keep them as your doc­tors. You may not find another one like them ever again.

It’s a shame that our soci­ety has dri­ven the best doc­tors into fear. This has wreaked havoc on me try­ing to receive the med­ical care I am in des­per­ate need of. A feel­ing of frus­tra­tion has sunk in deep, and until I find a doc­tor will­ing to treat my knees, the frus­tra­tion will con­tinue to grow.

Bring back the good doctors!

Thank you for read­ing part 6 to my Blog Series Liv­ing Life With a Major Ill­ness. I hope this arti­cle makes you real­ize how pre­cious it is to find a great doc­tor. They truly are a rar­ity and should be held in the high­est regard among our soci­ety. With­out them, many of us may not be around today.

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A Love Story for the Ages — Part 8 — Telling My Family

Oct22nd
2011 2 Comments Written by Daniel Meyer

A Love Story for the Ages

Wel­come to Part 8 of my Blog Series A Love Story for the Ages. This series is the jour­ney my wife and I have taken get­ting to the great life we enjoy together today. Now the continu­a­tion of the story.…

Telling My Family

My deploy­ment to Afghanistan was insanely busy. Find­ing time to con­tact with my wife and fam­ily was hard to come by, but I cher­ished the oppor­tu­ni­ties I had to talk to them. Some­thing was weigh­ing heav­ily on my mind though. With how quickly Har­monie and I got mar­ried and the deploy­ment com­ing up quickly there­after, I failed to tell any­one in my fam­ily that I was mar­ried. This was not a smart decision.

From the begin­ning, Har­monie told me that not telling my fam­ily imme­di­ately would only make it more difficult.

She was absolutely correct.

After a month of being in Afghanistan, I felt like my wife was my “dirty lit­tle secret” and it was time to finally tell my fam­ily. I called Har­monie and let her know that I would be telling them and to prob­a­bly expect some phone calls. Look­ing back, this was extremely unfair to Har­monie. I knew that telling my fam­ily from Afghanistan would take all the heat off of me because it was impos­si­ble for them to con­tact me. This left Har­monie at home, by her­self, hav­ing to answer ques­tions from my fam­ily about who she was and why we didn’t tell them when we got married.

There’s a short story behind why I chose this point in time to finally tell my fam­ily. My car was still reg­is­tered in Ohio and I needed to get a check to them to pay the fees. Obvi­ously I was unable to send it to him, so I asked Har­monie if she would mail a check. She reminded me that we had joint checks now and that my fam­ily was still unaware of us being mar­ried. This caused quite the conun­drum. I didn’t want my dad to find out I was mar­ried by get­ting a check with both our names on it, so it was time to tell him.A Love Story for the Ages

To break the ice, I called my step-mom, Deb­bie, who I typ­i­cally call before my dad when I’m ner­vous to break news to him. She knows when I ask to talk to her first that some­thing is up. I slowly worked my way to telling her and I think it was the last thing she was expect­ing to hear. Shocked, she handed the phone off to my dad. He got on the phone and real­ized I had some­thing big to tell him by Debbie’s reac­tion. Try­ing to lighten the mood, I sim­ply said to him, “Hey you might want to give your daughter-in-law a call.” I had a lot of explain­ing to do after that.

Hav­ing a short amount of time and want­ing to tell the other side of my fam­ily as well, I shared as much as I could with him and gave him her num­ber. He asked me if I wanted him to tell my grand­par­ents and I told him that I would call them next. I only had access to the satel­lite phone for a short amount of time and I had three more calls to make, so I got to it.

I called my Grandma Lee (mom’s side) and sur­pris­ingly she was very sup­port­ive. It was def­i­nitely not the reac­tion I was expect­ing. She has always been there for me through­out my entire life and this moment was no dif­fer­ent. She told me she was very happy that I had found some­one who made me happy and she couldn’t wait to meet her. I told her a lit­tle more about Har­monie and gave her phone num­ber to her. With lim­ited time, I had to move on to the next call.

Next, I called my Grandma and Grandpa Meyer (dad’s side) and let them know there was a new mem­ber in the fam­ily. They are very easy-going peo­ple and even though they were sur­prised, they took it well. Time was run­ning out and I had one more call to make. I shared what I could with them and told them I would try to talk to talk them again soon.

Finally, I called my mom. I had to make it brief, which is no easy task when you’re telling your par­ent your mar­ried for the first time. I filled her in on the details of our mar­riage and told her that I would share more infor­ma­tion when I got home.

These were four of the tough­est phone calls any­one could ever imag­ine mak­ing. Each call seemed to get a bit eas­ier, but I was ner­vous each time I dialed the phone. It was a huge relief get­ting that off my chest though. Keep­ing that kind of infor­ma­tion from my fam­ily was irre­spon­si­ble and Har­monie was right from the start.

I should have told them before I left.

Thank you for read­ing part 8 to my Blog Series A Love Story for the Ages. Just a word of advice: If you ever get mar­ried after eight days, tell your fam­ily imme­di­ately! If you have missed any parts to this series, please catch up on the blog series info page.

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