Dad’s Health Condition

Several of you asked me to elaborate on my Dad’s health conditions, so here’s the reader’s digest version of the story.

My Dad served in Vietnam from November 1964 till November 1965. He was in the Air Force installing encrypted communications systems between the military bases. His assignment had him travel through the brunt of South Vietnam and exposed to a lot of pretty bad stuff.

His health issues didn’t appear right away, but evolved over a period of time. Sleeping disorders and asthma were some of the mild issues. What really hit hard was his bipolar disorder issues. We had not linked his health issues to Vietnam until my Dad visited the Veteran’s hospital in Loma Linda for the first time.

My Dad had always been acutely ill, and we found after the fact that private medical systems were misdiagnosing his problems. They medicated him heavily, and the medication itself caused health problems. My Dad developed a Parkinson’s like health condition due to medication taken over decades for his bipolar disorder. The VA system knew exactly what to do because they have been treating veterans with the same problems for years. His medication was corrected, and my Dad was able to live as normal of a life as he could with the health condition hat he was in.

As good as the VA system was in taking care of my Dad, they still fell short in properly treating him. They were fixing the symptoms but not really fixing the problem.
We heard of Vietnamese suffering from the same ailments as my Dad being successful treated in Vietnam. We had planned for years to take my Dad here, and my wedding here made for a pretty good excuse to come.

As mentioned in a previous E-mail, the treatment that my Dad is receiving here isn’t incredibly spectacular. It is a combination of acupuncture, ginko biloba, vitamins and massage therapy administered over a four to six week period. He started the treatment just before my wedding, and we seen positive results a couple days later. He is much more mobile and active than before the treatments, which caused our family to immediately change our plans.

My Dad has been on heavy medication for many years, so it will take some time for the treatments to completely take effect. He still has times during the day when he becomes tired and reverts back the previous condition. His first series of treatments will end next week, and will continue again in a couple months at a new acupuncture center in Tijuana (this will cut the drive time down considerably).