Rhinitis-Sinusitis

[cooter]

I was diagnosed possible Rhinitis in the service back in 1972. I went to a ENT specialist last week and diagnosed with septal deviation and chronic sinusitis. Their doing a sleep study next week and an allergy test in 2 weeks. My nose feels like Hoover Dam when they release the water.ha. Here's my questions;

Once your diagnosed, like me in 72. Can VA come back and say it was only temperary?

Is Rhinitis, sinusitis, and allergies rated as one?

Are there any secondary problems that can be claimed for this?

Thanks!!!

[Hoppy]

Is Rhinitis, sinusitis, and allergies rated as one? There is no objective standard of law that requires the VA to view these conditions as a single condition or having a single common etiology. Thus, you would have to show a medical link.

Once your diagnosed, like me in 72. Can VA come back and say it was only temperary? You were diagnosed with possible rhinitis in 1972. If it were me I would get those old records and go over them with a fine tooth comb. Make sure that you understand exactly what they said and how many times symptoms were noted in the records. Do not go by your memory of what you recollect those records say. If you have only one notation in 1972 of possible rhinitis I really doubt that you will be able to get a doctor to developed any significant medical evidence.

There are irritant conditions with similar symptoms to rhinitis that are temporary. There are five different causes of rhinitis including; mechanical and allergic etiologies The irritant conditions are definitely temporary and the allergic etiologies are temporary in many cases. This is where it becomes important to see exactly what your service medical records say in regards to the actual symptoms and the number of times your diagnosed in 1972. <BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">

Your current diagnosis is septal deviation and sinusitis. If you do some research I am pretty sure you will find that in order for the VA to service connects septal deviation there must be an in-service report of an injury to the nose. Additionally, it appears you’re trying to establish septal deviation and sinusitis as secondary to the possible rhinitis. You need to run that by a doctor. However, unless there is something in your service medical record the Dr. can work with I think it will be hard to show a connection between possible rhinitis and a current condition almost 40 years later. There is a whole lot that can go on and 40 years.

[cooter]

Is Rhinitis, sinusitis, and allergies rated as one? There is no objective standard of law that requires the VA to view these conditions as a single condition or having a single common etiology. Thus, you would have to show a medical link.

Once your diagnosed, like me in 72. Can VA come back and say it was only temperary? You were diagnosed with possible rhinitis in 1972. If it were me I would get those old records and go over them with a fine tooth comb. Make sure that you understand exactly what they said and how many times symptoms were noted in the records. Do not go by your memory of what you recollect those records say. If you have only one notation in 1972 of possible rhinitis I really doubt that you will be able to get a doctor to developed any significant medical evidence.

There are irritant conditions with similar symptoms to rhinitis that are temporary. There are five different causes of rhinitis including; mechanical and allergic etiologies The irritant conditions are definitely temporary and the allergic etiologies are temporary in many cases. This is where it becomes important to see exactly what your service medical records say in regards to the actual symptoms and the number of times your diagnosed in 1972. <BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">

Your current diagnosis is septal deviation and sinusitis. If you do some research I am pretty sure you will find that in order for the VA to service connects septal deviation there must be an in-service report of an injury to the nose. Additionally, it appears you're trying to establish septal deviation and sinusitis as secondary to the possible rhinitis. You need to run that by a doctor. However, unless there is something in your service medical record the Dr. can work with I think it will be hard to show a connection between possible rhinitis and a current condition almost 40 years later. There is a whole lot that can go on and 40 years.

My SMR shows I went to the clinic 4 months sraight complaining the same symptoms. The MD wrote Persistent Rhinitis and appears purulent but suspect possible underlying allergic component. Mild bronchitis.

[Hoppy]

i do not know much about your condition. However, if it were me bsed on the limited research I have done I would file for sinusitus

Check out the link below. Also start searching the BVA for "purulent nasal discharge"

Chronic purulent nasal sinusitis is a disease of chronic inflammation of nasal sinus membrane. As compared to the acute sinusitis, the chronic ones are more often encountered. Among them, the maxillary sinusitis is developed more frequent, it is always accompanied by ethmoidal sinusitis, if only one side or both side of sinus is affected, it is called polysinusitis or pansinusitis; single chronic ethmoidal sinusitis or sphenoidal sinusitis has only minority cases.

http://www.cn939.com/en/tcm-article-read.php?id=63

[Hoppy]

It would help to fill in forty years of time with statements of treatment or both your statements and statements from people who know you that you have chronic visable problems with nasal discharge.

[cooter]

It would help to fill in forty years of time with statements of treatment or both your statements and statements from people who know you that you have chronic visable problems with nasal discharge.

Thanks for the info and link. Where did you get the info you posted about the different types of sinusitis that are temperary?

[Hoppy]

I was refering to allergies that are temporary not sinusitis. In either case the word acute referes to a temporary condition. It appears from the link I found on purulent discharge that sinusitus is also acute. However, the article states that the chronic variety is more common. As far as acute allergic conditions goes I found a table many years ago while researching allergies that showed the type of allergy versus the more common manifestations. If I remember correctly IgE allergies are considered commonly acute. In any event your best bet is to file the claim and see what the C&P examiner says. Then if there is a problem you can get an IMO. Sometimes it is better to rebut the VA than to anticipate what they will come up with. I had an allergy claim that they drug out for seven years.

The fact that you had four months of symptoms in the military is significant. There are laws that say if the condition can be determined to be chronic while in the military any subsequent manifestation is service connected unless there is clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. If the C&P exam does not get you service connected then try and get an IMO that says that your condition in the military was more likely than not chronic prior to discharge, This will lower the evedentiary burden you have on showing post service continuity of symptoms.

Edited September 3, 2010 by Hoppy