I sit here right now, not just as a veteran myself but the wife of an infantry soldier that has been done so wrong, i physically shake as i type this.
Husband is on active duty 4 years, infantry soldier, Korea, Iraq for 15 months. Demobs from Iraq and he clearly has seen some very bad things. As he adjusts to life back home, he starts to get sick. Very sick. Can’t breathe, lots of sinus and nose issues. Actually ends up getting surgery on his nose while still on active duty. And he is the type of guy that never whines, complains, or even gets sick. Healthy as a horse before Iraq.
His active duty time is coming to a close and we are both ready to move on to civilian life l. We both served our country proudly and I’m thankful for that.
He’s okay for the first 9 months or so. But then he start to get extremely sick. Something i have never seen before. He can barely move. It takes home literally 45 mins to get out of bed. His Lower body and joints hurt so bad it brought him to tears and that was when i knew this must be bad. He also starts having scaly flakes cover almost 60% of his lower legs and they turn into huge red patches. His head arm legs. I felt terrible for him.
We get him into our civilian dr, and he diagnosis him with psoriasis with psoriatic athritis 10 months after leaving the service. We are dumbfounded because nobody has ever had this in his family. How did he get it? Is it genetic?
He starts on the usually batch of psoriasis meds, methotrexate, kenlog, etc. and within 6 months he is on biologic. Enbrel. Absolute life saver. First time I have seen him comfortable and somewhat pain free since it all started. The more he took it the better he felt. And before you ask, no was not seen at the VA for this. In fact he still hasn’t till this day. We were of the thought that once your out, your out and any problems you incur are your own....oh, to be young and dumb again.
2007 comes and mid year I come home to a big white DOD packet on my doorstep. You guessed it. He was being recalled back to the IRR with orders to Iraq for the next 400 days. I said don’t go, he said it’s part of what i signed up for. And he went.
He got to ***** and out of 1000 soldiers 130 showed up. Now, at this time he was still taking the enbrel. He has about a month me supply left and he figured if anything they would prescribe him more.
He went through srp, telling them all of his issues, Meds, and diseases diagnosed. Over and over and over again. He is stopped and flagged for medical, about 3 days in. He calls me and tells me i need to fax over all medical documents pertaining to his diagnosis and meds. Send them right over.. He is cleared 2 or 3 days later and stamped as DEPLOYABLE. Onward movement. Orders from ***** to his next base ***** (* are bases for anonymity).
He gets to ***** to train before deployment, and once again goes through srp. Again, told them diagnosis, meds, only this time, by then he had stopped taking the enbrel. Now anybody that is familiar with biologics and then stops taking them, you’ll know that you will feel fine at first. He did not know this. He had never been off embrel so he he thought it was okay. And clearly if his psoriasis or use of embrel, were an issue he would be sent home right?
He’s now about a month and a half in and the pain is slowly creeping back in. He’s trying to tough it out as best he can. He goes to sick hall, tells them what is going on they prescribe him creams. Oh and Flonase.
2 months and 20 days in, he goes to sick hall again. Desperate. Doc writes RTD.
12 days later, he goes again, I at this point am furious. The pain in his voice is palpable, and anyone that has ever experienced severe psoriatic arthritis can tell you it makes you feel like your 100 years old. He tells them i have to be back on that medication. His psoriatic arthritis is much worse. Everything hurts. Later that day he is yanked immediately from formation and told him, Sgt. ****,lets go your outprocessing. He has now been mobilized for 3 months and 13 days. Dec 11th. Remember tha date.
He outprocesses almost in a daze because of the pain, and he later said you could tell they wanted him out like NOW. Like yesterday gone. Mind you he is an irr soldier. He knows no one, he spoke to his captain about one or two times. This wasn’t his unit. He literally outprocess in three days. They tell him to report immediately to his rear detachment to leave his medical jacket with MTF and go on his transition leave. Follow up with home rhuematologist, and is told that he had a pre existing condition He is being separated due to non-deployability. And his service has come to an end. He will be released with an honorable discharge. He is never offered anything more than this. He is given his dd-214 and his orders. He has left active duty service with 3 months and 23 days served.
He comes home and I’m just happy we can’t get him well again. Turns out that once you stop taking embrel, it rarely ever works again. For the next TEN YEARS, we deal with this going from one medication to the other, flare ups that debilitate him. All the while, myself included, thinking that going to the va was never an option because it was not a service connected issue. And do you know, to this day, he, a combat veteran with a CIB has never once been to the VA clinic/ hospital.
Until recently. I finally convinced him to make an appointment with a VA VSO. I said what can it hurt, maybe they can help us with saving money on your medication. We are going broke paying for his psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis medication, otezla. $300 for the monthly Otezla prescription, with all of his creams, sprays, etc for his psoriasis, $375/month.
We get to our appointment,and sit down with VSO. That medical jacket they told him to leave? He made copies of and kept originals of some and kept every damn slip of paper he acquired in his almost 4 months there. The VSO Starts reading through all documents, frowning furiously. He looks up and tells us, sir, you need to seek legal counsel immediately.
And so here i sit, heartbroken for my husband. The one true thing he really loved in life, the army, could do him so wrong
Does he have any recourse?
Husband is on active duty 4 years, infantry soldier, Korea, Iraq for 15 months. Demobs from Iraq and he clearly has seen some very bad things. As he adjusts to life back home, he starts to get sick. Very sick. Can’t breathe, lots of sinus and nose issues. Actually ends up getting surgery on his nose while still on active duty. And he is the type of guy that never whines, complains, or even gets sick. Healthy as a horse before Iraq.
His active duty time is coming to a close and we are both ready to move on to civilian life l. We both served our country proudly and I’m thankful for that.
He’s okay for the first 9 months or so. But then he start to get extremely sick. Something i have never seen before. He can barely move. It takes home literally 45 mins to get out of bed. His Lower body and joints hurt so bad it brought him to tears and that was when i knew this must be bad. He also starts having scaly flakes cover almost 60% of his lower legs and they turn into huge red patches. His head arm legs. I felt terrible for him.
We get him into our civilian dr, and he diagnosis him with psoriasis with psoriatic athritis 10 months after leaving the service. We are dumbfounded because nobody has ever had this in his family. How did he get it? Is it genetic?
He starts on the usually batch of psoriasis meds, methotrexate, kenlog, etc. and within 6 months he is on biologic. Enbrel. Absolute life saver. First time I have seen him comfortable and somewhat pain free since it all started. The more he took it the better he felt. And before you ask, no was not seen at the VA for this. In fact he still hasn’t till this day. We were of the thought that once your out, your out and any problems you incur are your own....oh, to be young and dumb again.
2007 comes and mid year I come home to a big white DOD packet on my doorstep. You guessed it. He was being recalled back to the IRR with orders to Iraq for the next 400 days. I said don’t go, he said it’s part of what i signed up for. And he went.
He got to ***** and out of 1000 soldiers 130 showed up. Now, at this time he was still taking the enbrel. He has about a month me supply left and he figured if anything they would prescribe him more.
He went through srp, telling them all of his issues, Meds, and diseases diagnosed. Over and over and over again. He is stopped and flagged for medical, about 3 days in. He calls me and tells me i need to fax over all medical documents pertaining to his diagnosis and meds. Send them right over.. He is cleared 2 or 3 days later and stamped as DEPLOYABLE. Onward movement. Orders from ***** to his next base ***** (* are bases for anonymity).
He gets to ***** to train before deployment, and once again goes through srp. Again, told them diagnosis, meds, only this time, by then he had stopped taking the enbrel. Now anybody that is familiar with biologics and then stops taking them, you’ll know that you will feel fine at first. He did not know this. He had never been off embrel so he he thought it was okay. And clearly if his psoriasis or use of embrel, were an issue he would be sent home right?
He’s now about a month and a half in and the pain is slowly creeping back in. He’s trying to tough it out as best he can. He goes to sick hall, tells them what is going on they prescribe him creams. Oh and Flonase.
2 months and 20 days in, he goes to sick hall again. Desperate. Doc writes RTD.
12 days later, he goes again, I at this point am furious. The pain in his voice is palpable, and anyone that has ever experienced severe psoriatic arthritis can tell you it makes you feel like your 100 years old. He tells them i have to be back on that medication. His psoriatic arthritis is much worse. Everything hurts. Later that day he is yanked immediately from formation and told him, Sgt. ****,lets go your outprocessing. He has now been mobilized for 3 months and 13 days. Dec 11th. Remember tha date.
He outprocesses almost in a daze because of the pain, and he later said you could tell they wanted him out like NOW. Like yesterday gone. Mind you he is an irr soldier. He knows no one, he spoke to his captain about one or two times. This wasn’t his unit. He literally outprocess in three days. They tell him to report immediately to his rear detachment to leave his medical jacket with MTF and go on his transition leave. Follow up with home rhuematologist, and is told that he had a pre existing condition He is being separated due to non-deployability. And his service has come to an end. He will be released with an honorable discharge. He is never offered anything more than this. He is given his dd-214 and his orders. He has left active duty service with 3 months and 23 days served.
He comes home and I’m just happy we can’t get him well again. Turns out that once you stop taking embrel, it rarely ever works again. For the next TEN YEARS, we deal with this going from one medication to the other, flare ups that debilitate him. All the while, myself included, thinking that going to the va was never an option because it was not a service connected issue. And do you know, to this day, he, a combat veteran with a CIB has never once been to the VA clinic/ hospital.
Until recently. I finally convinced him to make an appointment with a VA VSO. I said what can it hurt, maybe they can help us with saving money on your medication. We are going broke paying for his psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis medication, otezla. $300 for the monthly Otezla prescription, with all of his creams, sprays, etc for his psoriasis, $375/month.
We get to our appointment,and sit down with VSO. That medical jacket they told him to leave? He made copies of and kept originals of some and kept every damn slip of paper he acquired in his almost 4 months there. The VSO Starts reading through all documents, frowning furiously. He looks up and tells us, sir, you need to seek legal counsel immediately.
And so here i sit, heartbroken for my husband. The one true thing he really loved in life, the army, could do him so wrong
Does he have any recourse?
