The Broken Soldier

Knox was a bust. An 8 hour drive each way, a bunch of money, our time, my wife’s PTO, a wild goose chase through Ireland Army Community Hospital, aggravation of my neurological symptoms, and nothing. No medical care. No Medical Evaluation Board. No definite answers. “Not fit as is but needs treatment.” That’s where I stand. Why I stand where I stand is a story in and of itself.

The attending doctor, a retired Army Colonel, re-diagnosed my injury. He didn’t do a very good job. Against the opinions of a team of doctors, including radiologists, my family care doctor (the director of the treatment facility I’ve been going to), pain management specialists, and against the symptoms I experience, this doctor, from literally 10 seconds of looking at my MRI (looking for a lateral disc herniation on a sagittal section MRI, something that is practically impossible to do) re-diagnosed me. I went from having a diagnosis consistent with my symptoms to a diagnosis that isn’t. When this became clear to the former Colonel, he didn’t take another look at the MRIs. He didn’t question his judgment. Why would he have to? I’m junior enlisted and he’s a retired colonel. Giving further thought to the matter the former Colonel’s behavior can really only be explained in one of two ways: He’s either completely incompetent (as he, an orthopedic specialist for 40 years, doesn’t know what a physical anthropologist does), or he gave the false diagnosis on purpose to deny me VA benefits. Gotta keep that defense budget down somehow. I wonder how many other soldiers, those less inclined to question what they’re given - meaning most of them, he’s screwed in the course of his career.

In his write-up the doctor spoke to an absence of certain symptoms without asking me if I had them, or giving me an opportunity to discuss these matters with him. In fact I do have most of the symptoms he claims I don’t have in his write-up. Had he taken a moment to look at my medical records he would have been aware of these symptoms. He contradicts himself at least once in his write-up. In one paragraph claiming I don’t have trouble walking, and in the very next claiming I do. He fails to mention dorsiflexion paralysis in my right toes, but does speak to my being fat. When I left university I never thought I’d hear this again, let alone say it, but he, like most every other person affiliated with the Army I’ve met, seems to be blaming the victim. I have gained 40 pounds since my injury. That isn’t the cause of my symptoms as he seems to suggest. My symptoms are the cause of my inactivity. The 8 months of inactivity, along with taking medications that cause weight gain, are the reasons I’ve gained weight. He then confused expressions of extreme pain with being winded. It didn’t occur to the doctor heavy exhalation with each step (without the accompanying heavy inhalation), perspiration on my brow, and tachycardia are signs of heightened arousal. Heightened arousal is a normal sympathetic nervous system response to pain and stress.

Once again my life and the direction it will take is in the hands of an idiot. An idiot who used to wear Army greens. An idiot in spite of his education. An idiot in spite of his former rank. A professional fool not careful or concerned enough to figure out what a man half his age, a man with degrees in biopsych, philosophy, and physical anthro to the doctor’s medical degree can. My God, can the Army and or anyone in it do anything right?