Gulf War Syndrome.

Hello folks! I'm a Gulf War veteran, as you may have guessed from the title. I've had problems ranging from weeks of inexplicable lethargy, the ocasional loss of balance (to the degree of being drunk) and dizziness for reasons I can't surmise. I never thought much of it, since I figured it was something that every veteran had. (I also happened to be near a rather large explosion, so it seemed like that would throw me off) However, after a particularly bad bout of loosing my balance (In traffic.), i've started to get a bit more concerned about it. I haven't sought any compensation for it, since its really just a minor problem ever y now and then.

I've been thinking back, and they gave us quite a bit of drugs during active duty. In particular, I remember the antrhax vaccine hurting quite a bit. I've tried to think of what did it, but I can't remember what I took too well out of the actaul war. However, these seem like probable candidates:
1. Any of the pills we recived, since I can't recall exactly what they were, and almost every drug today carries some kind of god awful side effect.
2. DU rounds, and the abundance that they were used in. It's a clear canidate due to fact that radiation could do this to me.
3. Just plain shell shock, though this seems somewhat unlikely compared to the other two.
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Any help you have would be nice.

[edit on 21-3-2006 by Gunman]

Gunman, you might want to check out this thread that loam started recently on it:

From Battlefields in the Middle East: Depleted Uranium Measured in British Atmosphere

Hi Guman,

I am also a Gulf War vet with GWI (it's called illness now not syndrome).

I have the balance probs, fatigue, depression, anxiety, joint and muscle pains, also came down with osteoporosis, known to be caused by the vaccines....
news.bbc.co.uk...

From what I have discovered it is an auto-imune problem that we have. In other words our imune systems are attacking our bodies, that's why GW vets are getting symptoms but no cause. For example people with osteoporosis (bone disease) have low calcium and vitamin D in their system, which is what causes the bone loss, my Calcium and vit D levels are perfectly fine as is my other vitamin levels etc....My doctors are baffled as to how I could have this BUT whenever I mention GWI I get no response. The VA is trying very hard to play down GWI as nothing but in our heads. Which in a way it is, auto-imune dificiency is phycological BUT it creates real symptoms.

This is not confirmed but a 'friend' saw a report that early tests of the Anthrax vaccine caused extreme behavioral problems, anger, depression, anxiety.
What is the first symptoms of GWI, before it gets physical? You guest it, depression, anxiety and serious anger problems. I went through about 3 yrs of it, didn't know what was going on. Thankfully it's now under control, just as the physical symptoms began to show themselves.
My 'friend' was supposed to get me the info on that, but I've yet to hear from him.

I don't know what to tell you really, it's tough. Have you put in for service connected? If you have any of the listed symptoms, sounds like you do obviously, or any other health problem your doctor can not find a cause for, you can get compensated. It's not much but it's a start and you deserve all the lieing, murdering government will give you.

We were used as guinea pigs to test vaccines that had shown to cause bad side effects when it was first tested.

Have you been called in to do the 2 days of GWI testing? I have done this twice now, once a year. I was called in out of the blue. They unofficially told me I have GWI and was called back the second time because of this. BUT it's research and can't be used as diagnosis, stupid huh?
Anyway this is classic, give the drug that needs testing then call the guinea pigs back to study the long term effects.

Anyway thanx for this thread, people need to know what is happening to the troops they claim to be supporting. That's all we can really do now is get people to realise this is no conspiricy, no joke, no small thing.

I'll dig up some more info, useful links and stuff and post more here later.

[edit on 21/3/2006 by ANOK]

Well, I thought about benifits, but it seems like I don't need them so badly.. I mean, with all the recent cuts in funding to veteran services, I think a guy with one leg would need the money more then me. I don't belive i've had any of the severe side effects, although they may take their time to manifest. I did have a spate of anger issues after the war, but I wrote it off as shell shock. I saw alot of things that pissed me off out there, and I just thought it was something normal to feel that way afterwords.

The very first symptom I suffered was some real anger, the that I almost never feel. A bout of depression followed, though it was brief. From there it became the odd head ache, which started growing worse as time went on. At about 4 years after the war I had some balance issues, and at 6 I had genuine problems with it. About the same time as the balance issues I felt dizzy for no reason. After this, I visited my doctor.

I went through the GWI testing once, and all of the issues I had at the time (Anger, head aches, loss of balance) were due to my proximity to an explosion, and standard combat fatigue. I belived it, since I really didn't feel there was good reason to disbelive what they said at the time. However, I haven't been called back yet, and the test I did recive was on advice from my doctor.

Don't let government cuts stop you, you getting compensated is not going to stop someone else getting compensated.

Do you know that ALL the benefits Vets now recieve were won by people like you and me, VETERANS? The government didn't give us these benefits without a fight. Of course the military now use those beneifts to temp people to sign up. But if they could get away with it those benefits would disapear in a flash, and believe me they are trying.

This is where people who shout "Support the Troops" need to actualy DO something instead of just spouting fashionable slogans. Do these people even care what is happing to us vets? I think the lack of interest in your post answeres that question.

Anyway if you are still able to work then fine. But every vet, who is sick because of their service, gets approved for service conected is another person they can't ignore. The more of us who get approved, for GWI or Agent Orange, the more they have to pay attention. Maybe if they have to start paying more than their budget allows then they'll stop doing the crap they do to us, maybe? Well what else can we do?

BTW the tests you had done sounds like a different thing to what I was talking about. They have an ongoing GWI study run, at least in San fran, by the UCSF not the VA, even though they do it at the VA hostpital here. 2 days of testing, 2 MRI's, physical, and a battery of cognitive tests. And it pays $20 an hour!!

[edit on 21/3/2006 by ANOK]

I am not a Vet but I would like to say Thanks to all the Vets out there. I have been paying a bit of attention to the Gulf War syndrome ever since the first Gulf War. I suppose it's GWI now. To be honest, I was initially concerned for myself because I read some thoughts about the possibility of exposure to biological agents after the first Gulf War and I was visiting some of the same bars in NC that off duty soldiers were. I believe that concern was nothing to worry about.

I thought I would post here since I read on the attached link about possible exposure to sarin. The long term effects seem similiar to what some of the symptoms seem to be as far as fatigue goes. I thought the site was well laid out so I wanted to post it. Hope you get the benefits you deserve.

www.landscaper.net...

I'll add another link since it seems to have lots of info.

www.pbs.org...






[edit on 21-3-2006 by orionthehunter]

Originally posted by Gunman
Hello folks! I'm a Gulf War veteran, as you may have guessed from the title. I've had problems ranging from weeks of inexplicable lethargy, the ocasional loss of balance (to the degree of being drunk) and dizziness for reasons I can't surmise. I never thought much of it, since I figured it was something that every veteran had. (I also happened to be near a rather large explosion, so it seemed like that would throw me off) However, after a particularly bad bout of loosing my balance (In traffic.), i've started to get a bit more concerned about it. I haven't sought any compensation for it, since its really just a minor problem ever y now and then.

I've been thinking back, and they gave us quite a bit of drugs during active duty. In particular, I remember the antrhax vaccine hurting quite a bit. I've tried to think of what did it, but I can't remember what I took too well out of the actaul war. However, these seem like probable candidates:
1. Any of the pills we recived, since I can't recall exactly what they were, and almost every drug today carries some kind of god awful side effect.
2. DU rounds, and the abundance that they were used in. It's a clear canidate due to fact that radiation could do this to me.
3. Just plain shell shock, though this seems somewhat unlikely compared to the other two.
----------
Any help you have would be nice.

[edit on 21-3-2006 by Gunman]

From a fellow disabled vet, GET WHAT YOU EARNED!!!
Get with the local VA rep and start the paperwork, you earned it, now get what you deserve.