Let's Get Glioblastoma Onto the Presumptive List for Agent Orange With the VA

I am pushing for this really hard right now, and I need your help. Really, I hate to be opportunistic, but I don't think I have a choice right now. At the moment, with John McCain's diagnosis of glioblastoma, people are looking it up. Congress and Senate are thinking about it. We have a very short window of time before eyes turn elsewhere and this is forgotten about again. 

John McCain is one of many. There are a lot of Vietnam Veterans who have passed on or are currently suffering from this disease. And many more will be diagnosed. It is also starting to rear it's ugly head in our more recent Vets from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Here's the breakdown. The prognosis for glioblastoma is 1 - 3 years. My father was formally diagnosed on Nov. 1, 2014. He died April 22, 2016. He was told that, with treatment, he might live as long as 5 years. That didn't happen. Chemo and radiation are not covered under insurance. My father had medicare and a backup insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield. I highly doubt Obamacare covers it, either, although I don't know for sure. Dad's care was paid for out of pocket, from treatments to hospital stays to the nursing home. Chemo is massively expensive. The nursing home with memory unit was $6000 a month, plus we had to supply his basic needs aside from food. 

There will be pain. There will be personality changes. Massive ones. There will be memory loss. 

This disease is devastating on so many levels. 

On top of all of this, the VA does not recognize glioblastoma at all. Our Vets are on their own. Around 800 cases (as of 2014) have been settled. Why the rest haven't been, we'll never know. These Vets and their families get no death benefit, they get no medical care, they get no access to VA nursing facilities. The families get no assistance caring for their loved one, and sometimes - like with my family - assistance is desperately needed.  

It is time someone started to care. 

All I ask is that you all write a letter to your local Congressman and Senators. Also, call the number on the graphic above. Let them know it is time to recognize glioblastoma. Do it now while they are still in that daze from the news of McCain's diagnosis. It's time we get taken seriously. It's time to stop screwing our Veterans. 

Write, call, fax, tweet. Let's get it done. Contact them often. 

Edit:

Apparently, I have upset the Twitter gods. If you need more information about Agent Orange and brain cancer - as well as other cancers - please see this link. 

Also, two things.

1. This isn't about John McCain. This is about our Veterans. John McCain's diagnosis has brought this illness into the forefront and we're trying to use this short window of time to get help for the many Vietnam Vets suffering from this. 

2. Even if it was about John McCain, what of it? Learn to value human life. Politics aside, he's a human being, and he is about to enter into an illness you could never possibly imagine if you haven't experienced it yourself. Put your politics aside for half a second and learn how to value human life.