Advocating for women Veterans

VA offers many services tailored to women Veterans

Like many women Veterans, Sharon Bayless initially felt she didn’t deserve VA health care.

But after beating breast cancer, having a tumor removed and losing over 100 pounds with the help of the Milwaukee VA, she has some advice for her fellow female Veterans: “You’ve earned it, you deserve it and it’s the best care anywhere.”

Dr. Amy Farkas, the women’s health medical director for the Milwaukee VA, agreed.

“We know women are less likely to identify as Veterans and less likely to seek out VA services because they don’t feel like it’s for them,” she said. “They can talk to us about their mammograms and their diabetes. We can talk to them about reproductive health plans and their migraine headaches. And we can do that all together.”

Bayless bristles at Veterans who believe VA care is lesser care.

“I love the care here,” she said. “At other hospitals, you’re treated like you’re a number. Here, they treat you like a person, like an individual. The doctors take the time to listen to you. I always tell my son I should get a tattoo on the front of my head: ‘If I’m unconscious, take me to VA.’”

And now Bayless is doing her part to give back to Milwaukee VA, serving as a volunteer and helping her comrades in arms any way she can.

Coming to VA

Bayless, 69, served two years in the Army in the mid-1970s, working as a finance specialist at Fort Knox. She left the service after getting pregnant, but went on to a career in financial service, working at various hospitals in the Milwaukee area.

With steady employment and private insurance, she didn’t consider seeking VA health care until her partner, an Air Force Veteran, enrolled.

Then, in 2011, Bayless was diagnosed with breast cancer and quickly learned that her private insurance was “crappy,” she said. “I ended up emptying out my 401K to pay for my out-of-pocket expenses. That’s when I started coming to the Milwaukee VA.”

Her ongoing treatments lasted for five years, and she has nothing but praise for VA doctors who helped her through it.

As her treatment drew to a close, Dr. Sarah Nickoloff encouraged Bayless to enroll in a research study for prediabetic women.

“I was very overweight,” she said, noting she was 237 pounds. The study required her to make changes to her diet and take part in weekly online sessions. She lost 65 pounds while on the study and was able to keep it off.

“It was not hard. It just involved changing my way of eating,” she said. “They explained everything about why you need to eat (certain foods). It wasn’t that big of a deal to just change the way I was eating.”

Tumor removal

Then, about 10 years ago, she discovered something in her cheek. She mentioned the growth during one of her check-in sessions with Nickoloff, who quickly got her to a specialist.

“That’s the nice thing about VA; they can put in your orders and you can go and have it done. You don’t have to wait two weeks and make another appointment,” she said.

A biopsy revealed that the mass was a tumor, and part of the tumor had wrapped around her eye muscles.

The surgery to remove the tumor took more than five hours—“They ended up cutting open the whole side of my face,” she said—but was successful.

Giving back

Bayless began volunteering at Milwaukee VA about three years ago, driven not only by the care she has received, but also the care her partner, Dick Matt, received after he was diagnosed with inoperable stage four lung cancer.

Matt was also enrolled in a cancer drug study, and because of it, he lived for four years. Without the medications, he probably would have died within weeks of his diagnosis, Bayless said.

“When Matt was here, I would come and visit him and play games with everyone,” she said. “Some people had nobody who would visit them. So, I told myself that when I retire, I was going to start volunteering.

“I need a purpose in life, and this is my purpose,” she said. “I’m giving back some of what I got. I like giving back to an organization that’s given so much to me.”

It’s never too late to apply for VA health care you’ve earned. If you are a Veteran or know a Veteran who has not yet applied for their VA health care benefits, learn how to get started.

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This article was originally published on the VA Milwaukee Health Care site and has been edited for style and clarity.