Supreme Chembo
New Here
Hello everybody, before I go off ranting about this people at my VA clinic, here's a little someting about my situation. I'm a recently retired SSG with a couple of combat deployments and 17 years in active service, seen, lived and been in the middle of some ugly shit. 90% service connected awarded to me by a medical board before retiring, among the conditions one of the most challenging is my PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury) It has been very dificult for me to adapt to the civilian life, people feel really alien to me or perhaps me to them, regardless I never been so at odds with society as I am right now. As the stereotypical "tough macho" NCO it has been dificult for me to accept the fact I need help and even harder to open up about my issues with a stranger. Before I retired I went under surgery and turned into another statistic after they kept me on opiates for like 2 years prescrived to me by my primary care giver at my troop medical facility. Nedless to say when I got out I was strung on oxycotin. As if getting out of the military after 17 years, ETS'ing and having to adjust to a world foreign to me wasn't enough, I also had to deal with opiate addiction too courtesy of the U.S. Army. I dealt with the problem head on and been clean from opiates for like 2 years now. Now my PTSD has intensified by many diferent factors and treatment at the VA wasn't working at all, the medications where damaging my liver and kept me dumbed down with no feelings, so I decided to stop treatment and find alternative options. So here in Puerto Rico they decriminalized Marijuana for medicinal purposes so I decided to get treated. I tell you, what took like 11 diferent pills to treat now is taken care of with less than 1g of cannabis a day. The difference was like night and day, my quality of life has improve greatly and overall when it comes to pain is controlled way better than with opiates. But my PTSD being what and how it is the MMJ goes so far. So I decided to go back to my clinic to see what they could offer me in respect of treatment, councelings, groups or whatever they might have to help me. I saw this doctor at the Mayaguez clinic in the west coast of Puerto Rico and stated my situation but I clearly stated that I didnt want narcotics, as we kept talking about simptoms and such she asked me what has been working so far that I didnt came before to what I answered that the medicinal cannabis was keeping me good, to what she answered and to my astonisment that "If I didn't want the medication she could give me that she couldnt treat me" because there was no evidence of cannabis being any help and that she concidered medicinal cannabis studies as "pseudoscience" and she condemn the use of "such a drug" Automatically this so called "health professional" went defensive and was very quick to point out my pass situation with opiates stigmatizing the shit out of me without even knowing my situation or even reading my file,(oh I didnt mention this is the first time in my life to see this human). Well fast forwarding the whole back and forth of opinions she pretty much denied care, which I think in itself is illegal cause she is supposed to treat me weather I use cannabis or not. As far as Im concerned is the same as getting accupunture, is not an accepted method of treatment by the VA but just because a person gets treated by a method not sanctioned by them it doeasnt mean that they can deny care to a veteran. I went to the patient advocate but I really think this people aint gonna do shit about it because after all they all work in the same clinic. The whole experience left a bitter taste in regards of trusting this so called "professionals" if I was being stigmatized before for being what they call here "un veterano loco" now Im being judge for choosing an alternative way of healing too. If this "mental health professionals" that are supposed to give us their helping hand for us to adapt to the "normal" world and succed are not willing to help us, who the hell I go to?
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