I think those who are medics are at high risk for exposure to the chemical of war and explosions. The simplest term would be second hand exposure to BUTYL or a commonly used chemical (as in 2-butoxyethanol) in cleaning products and paint ... An injured soldier that you are close to for hours can be breathing the chemical that have been an exposure to them ... and it gets in your eyes. Often you will hear spouses talk about this. They come down with 'the syndrome' too

So, in the setting of 'syndrome' of each war era & even for civilians with similar exposures that are non-war, I would look for the pattern .... (CFIDS, CFS, FM, ME) and then would reinterpret the PTSD as the odd thinking that occurs when there is a poisoning of the nervous system. It also can cause suicidal tendencies, paranoia, depression, improper sleep, and an out of the norm ANGRY response to about anything.

Proof is the FATIGUE and also the short term memory loss, headaches. Do you each have FATIGUE? Insist that the doctors find the anemia, but they will need some helps to find it because you have more than one thing going on that makes 'the numbers' go all over the place and any number can be high or low and be what this chemical would cause. High white blood counts, for instance, in this setting is an anemia sign (not an infection or lymphoma which doctors would suspect)

Helps I've gathered by looking at groups of people with known or suspected exposure to 2-butoxyethanol (a pesticide, a solvent, a poison, a neurotoxin, a pesticide). I have no medical background, however, I do recognize the pattern of this particular chemical.
http://www.valdezlink.com/re/thecfidsview.htm

 I think you should look into glycobiology for help, as the primary issue with this chemical resulting in these 'syndrome' symptoms is on that is autoimmune.
http://www.valdezlink.com/gwv/2008help.htm#help

Some thoughts I shared with gulf war vets (but I suspect what happened to the Vietnam vets was the same chemical of harm, not AO as gets the blame)

http://www.valdezlink.com/re/worstpesticide.htm

http://www.valdezlink.com/re/achemicaltosuspect.htm


David talks about some of his ailments & my reply
http://www.valdezlink.com/gwv/doyouhave.htm

I would ask someone,  "What were you doing when the flu showed up?"

I think the flu is a chemical exposure to butyl or 2-butoxyethanol

A chemical poisoning

Do you have fatigue? memory loss?  Headaches?
Symptoms like CFIDS, CFS, FM?

look at some info here

www.valdezlink.com/pages/lookslikeflu.htm

 

Another Vietnam Vet comments on PTSD

 

On another post, a comment that she was diagnosed with DISCOID LUPUS

Does this have an aspect of degenerative discs?  ... & of course it would be an autoimmune issue!