Staying Healthy for Grandkids
(l-r) Dr. Lisa Gettings a psychologist in the PTSD Clinic and Vietnam Marine Corps Veteran Joseph Randall
On a typical weekday, Vietnam Marine Corps Veteran Joseph Randall is up at 5:30am in his Brooklyn apartment as his daughter Monique gets ready for work at the billing department of Mt. Sinai Hospital. Before driving them to school, Randall makes breakfast for his four grandchildren who range in age from 6 to 18. He makes them farina or oatmeal, toast, sometimes boiled eggs, hot chocolate and orange juice. Randall usually just has coffee and sometimes toast with butter and jelly for himself. Fairly recently diagnosed with diabetes, he says he has the illness under control and wants to keep it that way.
Vietnam took both a mental and physical toll. Contracting malaria in August 1968 during his Vietnam tour, Randall also returned from war with sleeplessness, flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance of other people and other symptoms of PTSD that were not diagnosed until more than 20 years later.
Growing up in East New York, Brooklyn and Bedford Stuyvesant, Randall was trained in upholstery, slipcovers and drapery at Eli Whitney Technical High School. He was hoping to get a job as an upholsterer but, having trouble finding a job that paid well, he volunteered for the military in 1964. After two and a half years in training and military service in the Mediterranean, he was deployed to Vietnam. "I remember watching Vietnam on the news and then 30 days later, I was there."
Based at Khe Sahn during a period when the Viet Cong were infiltrating from the north, Randall remembers "there was heavy, heavy fighting. Bodies were stacked in green bags on the air deck for days. Terrible odor, the bodies couldn't be evacuated because the enemy kept firing rockets and mortars. These terrifying memories, he says, have been reoccurring for decades. From start to end it was terrible, mostly frightening. Seeing the friends you make die, days going by not knowing when you will go.
In 1968, diagnosed with malaria, he was hospitalized in Guam and completed his recovery on return to New York at VA's St. Albans Campus.
Randall married his childhood sweetheart Aida. Dating since the age of fifteen, they wrote to each other throughout his tour in Vietnam and saw each other when he was on leave.
Randall joined the New York City Police Department in 1973 and stayed for the next 20 years. He started off in Chinatown and transferred four years later to Midtown 54th Street. Eventually, he transferred to South Task Force helping other precincts. After being injured, he was put on restrictive duty. Looking back, Randall says the job was OK. What he really loved, his true vocation, was upholstery. Throughout the years, he's taken pride in buying quality European furniture and reupholstering these pieces with great skill and attention to details, like tufting. "I even have a dining room set all done and in storage for when we have a house."
Randall kept his mental health issues very private and was only diagnosed with PTSD in 2009. "I had been trying to act like a normal person." Non-military trauma also deeply affected Randall's life. While he was in the NYPD, his mother was caught in a shooting crossfire while getting off a bus and was shot in the face. She died four days later. "Since I was police, family kept coming to me asking for answers and there were no answers."
He started attending a Vietnam Veteran support group with Sharon Morrison, a recently retired social worker who had served as a drill sergeant. "I really enjoyed speaking with her. She is wonderful. I know guys that have been coming here for over 15 years just because of her. I have been attending for about six to seven years now and she has helped me a lot." The PTSD group is now led by Dr. Lisa Gettings, a psychologist in the PTSD Clinic.
Randall adds, "Sharon helped me opening up more about the things I went through and saw in Vietnam. Now, Randall says he's able to talk about some of the most significant experiences of his past. Before working with Sharon, Randall found it hard to explain things to his family. He thought no one could understand or relate. My life is great now," he says.
Still struggling with PTSD, Randall says, "My doctors advise me to keep busy. They worry if I have a lot of time on my hands I'll have trouble with my PTSD and start having flashbacks."
Randall is particularly determined to manage his health well because he enjoys family responsibilities. His commitment to family is inspired by his father, a World War II Navy Veteran. "I always saw my father as a great man who did everything he could to care for his children as well as looking out for other people's children," says Randall. "My father set up a fund for his great grandchildren's future."
Randall has regular checkups at VA's Manhattan Campus hospital, consults with a nutritionist, watches what he eats and makes sure to stay on track with his prescribed diabetes medication.
Dr. Andre Haddad, Randall's Primary Care physician says, "I frequently explain to patients that what they do for their health is far more important than what any doctor does for them. It's at least ninety percent of the game. I haven't known Mr. Randall long but quickly recognized his positive attitude and willingness to do his part. He quit smoking years ago, doesn't drink to excess, takes his medications diligently and stays active, working through the occasional aches and pains common to many people his age. We've actually been able to decrease his medications the past two follow-up visits because his blood sugar has been surprisingly well controlled.
Randall's oldest granddaughter, Tatiyanna Johnson, is looking toward graduation from Wingate High School. She has expressed an interest in going into the military like her grandfather. But, Randall says, "I do not think it is a good idea. She's not ready and not fully aware of everything that she will go through while being in the military."
