Here is a e-mail I sent to my grampa and dad when they asked me how it went. Puts things in perspective.
Well They aren?t sure. I was exposed to a lot of weapons and stockpiles of things in Iraq on my early missions. At this point in time they are believing that I actually have Post Deployment/gulf war syndrome. I went in today and my Blood pressure was 170 over 98. That is on my medication. SO they switched my medications and now I have to see how that goes. I went through a lot of tests today. They can track back my normal health until 3 days before I deployed I had a physical and everything was fine. Well the migraines are not subsiding and I am having other problems as well , so they are sending me to a Neurologist at Yakuska which is the large Navy Base two hours from here for a lot of different tests. My eye sight has diminished to where I will likely have glasses soon, and my hearing levels have dropped as well. Numbness in my right leg has been a problem lately and they attribute that to the neurological problems as well. SO the leg issue I am going to orthopedics soon for the compartment syndrome, they think that may have been from the shot because it is never a symptom for GW syndrome but they really aren?t sure.
I went in there thinking that I would be possibly getting medically discharged, but it looks like I will be medically retired by the end of the year. 50_60 percent disability. I am limited on my driving on duty now and noise levels etc. It basically cancelled out my wanting to work as a cop, it just won?t happen with my medical records now. It hasn?t been a good day, and from what I was told today, it will only get worse over time as far as my sight and hearing. The migraines and BP are something I am going to have to live with forever now, and it isn?t fun being 28 years old feeling like I am elderly. They really struck a lot of fear into me today, and if I don?t don?t tale my meds one day and take extremely good care of myself, I am a blink of a eye away from a heart attack. In fact I had not told Keelee or anyone, but I had been having a lot of chest pains lately, and from what I was told, I am lucky I didn?t have one within the last few months. Shitty day to say the least