Grace
See full story
Grace was an OB/GYN Nurse in the Army Reserves and National Guard that served in the Gulf War. She helped build a tent hospital to treat soldiers serving in the conflict. She developed pneumonia the first two weeks after being deployed to the Gulf. She describes exposures to extreme heat, dust, and fallout from missiles being exploded overhead. She says the protective gear they were given had stripes one the sleeves to indicate what exposures had occurred: “Our sleeves that were supposed to tell us if it was chemicals, or bacteria, or viruses, or what have you, radiation too. And they did change color several times, and we thought, a couple times were chemicals…we were informed, that we hadn’t been taught properly how to read the stripes, although they change color, and all of us, nobody was color blind in the unit.” Grace drew pictures of soldiers and the scenes around her to keep herself awake during long shifts in the hospital.
Soon after returning home, Grace kept getting sick with chronic bronchitis every eight weeks. She also felt extreme fatigue. A year after she got home, she got pneumonia again and her doctor could not figure out why she kept getting bronchitis: “I was being sick about every eight weeks I had bronchitis…I mean I’ve been healthy my whole life. I think I missed one day of work in all those years.” Eventually, she was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Grace recalled that other people she served with had chronic lung issues as well, noting that a Sergeant she knew had died from lung problems four years after getting home.
Grace experienced issues getting care for her chronic bronchitis and pneumonia outside the VA. When she enrolled in the VA five years later, she found her doctor’s notes: “I found out that he had written, on my chart, that this woman is paranoid about her service, and she thinks that recurrent bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia are from something she encountered over there.” The notes in her chart were a barrier to her getting into the VA system and receiving care as a Veterans with a disability. She uses two inhalers to help her with breathing.
Grace has a supportive family life and volunteers in her community. Her husband served in Vietnam and has been supportive of her as she navigates Gulf War Illness. She enjoys working with other Veterans through the VFW, DAV, and American Legion.
Grace’s doctor wrote in her chart that she was “paranoid” about her service causing her health problems.
Grace’s doctor wrote in her chart that she was “paranoid” about her service causing her health problems.
And I had a pretty good doctor, I thought. But I finally told him, I thought that maybe this illness, this bronchitis was from Desert Storm. And, it wasn’t ‘til I applied to get in the VA system, about five years after that, that I found out that he had written, on my chart, that this woman is paranoid about her service, and she thinks that recurrent bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia are from something she encountered over there. I couldn’t believe he had written that, and even years later, when all the stuff came out about the groups of illness, Gulf War syndrome, you know the lung diseases were the smallest group. But at that time when I found out about it, that most of them had died, and I had two friends that had died from unknown lung disease consisting of lots of bronchitis and pneumonias. Anyhow, he sort of apologized to me, the doctor, I couldn’t say it was a very enthused apology, but he did said he shouldn’t written that in the chart. And then I found out, because of that chart, that’s why I hadn’t been allowed, I had to interview at least five times, before I was allowed to get in the system and be treated like a Veteran that had a disability.
Grace joined all the Veterans groups she could, both in person and online.
Grace joined all the Veterans groups she could, both in person and online.
And, so I guess I want them to be interested enough to pursue it, to join one of the Veteran’s groups. Nobody’s suggesting they join five of them like I did, but just one would do the trick. But, to try to find out what their rights are, from being a solider. ‘Cuz I sure didn’t really know what mine were. If I pushed them, yeah I found out more. But mostly what I found out are the, are from the counselors that we have. But they offer counseling, in the VFW, anyhow, and the American Legion, and even my DAV. She said, aren’t you going to take the course now, so you can help your soldiers? Well I don’t think that I can get that in my old head in a three hour course. There is so much to know, and the VA changes things quite often, so you have to really keep up to date. I just admire the medical counselors we have here. We have one that’s federal, and the other one is state. And they're excellent, but they’ve also been doing it for years, they go constantly to workshops that are a week long, not two or three hours.
Grace felt a newfound respect from her peers upon returning home.
Grace felt a newfound respect from her peers upon returning home.
Well, it was great to see my grandson, that I had really missed him more than I thought I would. But, everybody came to the airport to meet me, my fire station brought a fire truck out, and we, everybody was you know, it was a really positive time. It was good to see my husband again, and finally understand what it was like to be the soldier at War, and not the wife at home.