1979 Suzuki GS550L

Dear America. /p>My name is Dustin. I am a disabled veteran. Today I am selling a classic motorcycle I have had for years that I no longer need and cannot use because of being disabled. I am hoping to make enough money in order to get this serious and deadly infection in my mouth taken care of along with my teeth fixed. This is all explained below. Please keep this in mind when placing an offer. as it is the only purpose I am selling one of the very few things my family and I have left in order to get help. I don't believe in getting help for nothing. which is why I am offering this motorcycle. that although is not worth the amount we are asking for it. it is about at least trying to give back in thanking you for your help. Please see below for further explanation. This is a plea from my family to the American people for help. As you all are aware. the Veterans Affairs departments is full of issues that in reality fail veterans more times than it ever helps them. In my families case. my wife and I are both veterans who have been failed by the system many times over. In 2006 after being discharged from the military under medical conditions due to injuries sustained during wartime. my family and I were forced to try and figure things out on our own. We went through a lot of hard times and minor mistakes would lead to big problems for us. After all. remember. nobody is perfect. For example. not knowing how the VA system really worked. when we both filed our VA claims on our own for compensation. we were immediately denied. Which is what happens to every single veteran 9 times out of 10 and they must go through the ridiculous appeals process. After our claims were denied. we sought help through a power of attorney choice that was Veterans of Foreign Wars. With their help. they managed to appeal my claim and it is now at 70%. although it should be 100%. as I am unable to work due to my disabilities directly from my military career. My wife’s claim still sits at a mere 10%. because we didn’t get her appeal filed in time while working on mine. On the flip side. in 2008. Social Security approved my disability claim. which is automatically 100% through them. for the exact same disability conditions I filed through the VA. Social Security. which is harder to claim. saw through the crap and approved my disability while the government VA that was supposed to take care of us. let us down over and over again. One of the biggest problems is from being forced out of the military medically. leaving us career-less and unable to work and living off of only 70% and SSA. is not enough money by any means to support and raise a family of 6 on. Of course. through the years now. that has become a major issue as we try and tackle finances. It has been extremely horrible trying to make things work. Especially after dealing with the horrible things that happened to our eldest daughter by a neighbor of ours. who is now in prison. however. the damage was done. The biggest issue right now that we are facing and the reasoning behind the auctioning of this coin. is that in 2008. my doctors switched me from Hydromorphone (diluaded) which was working fine for my disabilities to 90mg of morphine a day. oxycodone every 6 hours and tramadol in between that every 6 hours. all on top of the 50 other medications they put me on. A few months after this switch. as severe dry mouth would become an issue. a tooth of mine broke out surprisingly. Up until this point. I had really good teeth that had only minor issues. such as a few cavities. etc. Shocked. I went to the VA. who acted completely ignorant to the issue. They refused to fix my teeth because I was only at a 70% rating that did not qualify me for dental. The VA also refused to acknowledge that the medications were to blame for my teeth breaking. when that was the only thing that had changed in my life. Still. they ignored the issue. At that point. we had to jump through the VA’s hoops that all veterans are forced to jump through at one point or another and I signed up for the VA voc rehab program that was supposed to provide some dental while going through the program. After joining this program and asking a couple of congressman for help. we were able to get a few minor issues with my teeth fixed one tooth at a time. although this was a horrible ordeal and a huge fight as well. As expected. due to my disabilities. I was unable to keep up with the program requirements. and eventually the program dropped me. I was back to ground zero in trying to get my teeth fixed. Every week after that first tooth broke out. one by one. each tooth would crack. break and fall out. It is now 2015 and you can see by the pictures I posted how bad it is. and that don’t even tell the full story. You will see the before pictures from 2008 before they switched my meds and my teeth were great. to the now pictures after the medications and the weight loss I have lost too because of it. I just look and feel horrible. Though I complained every single conversation and trip I made to see my VA doctor. they refused to acknowledge what was happening to my teeth and the damage continued and got worse. They had me believing it probably wasn’t the medication and could have been chemical warfare from the war. At the time. not knowing any better. I believed them as they continually looked elsewhere for excuses and could never come up with anything. To add to the problem. my VA doctor noted many times over that my disabilities were worsening and that there was no improvement to the conditions of my disabilities and all likelihood of improvement was slim to none. but in 2014 I had a reevaluation on my disabilities that the VA comp & pen department came to ridiculous conclusions on without even truly reading my medical record. I was actually thinking that the VA may finally realize I should be at 100% and getting dental treatment along with that. so I went to my reevaluation hoping that they would actually do their job instead of worrying about how to save the VA money by denying veterans their disability they earned and were promised. On that day I saw my primary VA doctor one hour prior to the reevaluation. where as my doctor wanted to and did heavily note in my charts that my disabilities are getting worse and there is no hope for improvement. as for the part he is/was on my side of things and dealt with my care for a long time. The doc and I bother were thinking that the VA comp and pen would actually read my record as part of their evaluation. imagine our utter shock and surprise when I get the letter in the mail from the VA that states “Although we show you have signs of improvement. we have decided to keep your rating as is at 70%. ” You can imagine my reaction and how upset my wife and I were at this. Even my primary care doctor at the VA asked me if the comp and pen doctor even read my record from the last 8 years. Of course that leaves us with trying to find another person yet again to help us file the proper appeal. and as of right now. we have found no one who can help us in our situation. As even veterans organizations are getting sick of dealing with the VA and their issues. and or they are too inexperienced to handle a difficult case such as ours seems to be. Then comes unemployability that the VA is supposed to offer veterans who are unemployable. So. I file for unemployability as I met every single guideline. requirement and qualified. However. I then receive yet another ridiculous denial letter in the mail stating that because I have not let the VA perform a risky surgery on my back that they have turned me down for unemployability. Even against their own VA doctor’s recommendations. my doctors recommendations. that were completely against any type of surgery on my back. as it would aggravate and make worse my disabilities. this was still their position and reasoning in denying me. WTH! Even though this is a long story short sort of deal. this is where we are at today. We barely have enough money to survive on. let alone pay for dental treatment from what the medications they had me on caused. For those who don’t know. yes narcotics can cause your teeth to rot out and break. They do this by causing severe dry mouth. which makes it impossible for your saliva to break down bad bacteria no matter how much you brush your teeth and they also deplete your teeth and bones of calcium of up to 10% depending on amounts used and for how long. So after 10 years of being on heavy narcotics. this is what the result is. and of course a VA unwilling to accept responsibility and help to fix the problem. Instead. after all the complaining they decided to take me off of all the narcotics they had me on for ten years and bring back my horrible quality of a very painful life. I cannot describe how painful it is to have your teeth rotting and breaking out no matter how much you care for them. As you can see in the pictures. I have lost over 30 pounds in weight being unable to eat because of this and the severe pain it causes. Minus all the infections. rotting and horrible pain. it also gives me severe migraines and keeps me from getting any sleep even when my PTSD lets me get sleep. it is almost impossible. From experience I can tell you that no amount of pain meds helps. and no amount of sleeping pills will put you to sleep when your mouth is doing nothing but sending severe pain throughout your face and head! I have been to quite a few dentist and doctors. including ER visits for evaluations and treatment of the infections so that it don’t reach my brain and kill me. To fix my mouth it will cost roughly between $18k-$25k. This includes surgery. graphing. bone graphing. implants. etc. Unfortunately the infections have reached my facial bones and from not being handled properly it now poses an even greater threat and risk to my life. That is why we are auctioning off one of the few things we actually own in hopes of reaching our goal of the $25k in order to get my mouth fixed. Unfortunately we are poor and don’t have much. the stuff we do have is either given to us by friends and family or it has already been pawned or sold to help towards getting this problem fixed. Which is horrible considering that I have already lost a career and everything I had ever worked for. The VA has no intentions on fixing what they have helped to cause nor taking any responsibility for my care in relation to this. Since we are still jumping through their hoops and games of appeals and claims. the outcome seems dim of reaching the 100% disability mark any time soon. A bus could have hit me and they still would be fighting me the whole step of the way. I would have rather gone back to war and get shot at everyday than deal with the VA and this whole experience. It is a war that no veteran can win and it is sad. Obviously this has caused issues in our family and even with how my own kids now see me and what my beautiful wife has to see and deal with everyday. It was bad enough being disabled and relying on her for many things. but now with my mouth the way it is. it is horrible. and they are always seeing me in pain. I obviously avoid public now too because of it. Because of this. the VA decided to put me through anger management because I was angry at them for everything. Is that right or fair? I am not an angry person. I was usually a very happy person to be around and deal with until all of this! I don’t get angry or ever take things out on my beautiful wife and family. never! I am only angry at the VA for all this. I think I am rightfully angry too at that. Please. when you bid on this auction. please keep in mind why we are having this auction and the goal we are trying to reach. It is horrible to have to beg the public for help and share such personal and embarrassing information. especially when the VA refuses to help its own people that they promised to help and support in contract. Veterans can’t wait anymore for VA committees and government political games that keep veterans in the dark and waiting while we veterans silently fall apart and disappear to no avail. Remember also. that almost every organization and or VA program you donate to. rarely do veterans actually see help from those places. Not to mention. most the help you do send goes into their pocket not the veterans. That is why I am appealing directly to the wonderful American public. All of veterans did our part and kept up our end of the contract. our government and the system is letting us downing and not keeping their end of it. But while that is a fight that is and has been ongoing for ages now. veterans are suffering and cannot keep waiting for what never seems to come or happen. The only true and real way to help a veteran is to go out and help a veteran directly! If you would like to donate and know more information about what is going on and how to help my family and I out. please contact us and I will provide all that I can. My family and I would truly appreciate all the help we can get. Thank you. /p>Pachtinger FamilyP. S. All pictures of me looking healthy and with teeth is from 2008 a few months before my medications were switched out by the VA to the heavy narcotics. The rest are pictures now in 2015.