Is A Head Trauma Seen The Same As A Tbi?

[skydealer]

I got whacked in the head while in the service and lost consciousness. Several months later my military medical records I was being treated for chronic headaches with migraine like symptoms though the medication I received looked like it was for tension headaches. Last military records shows me complaining of a dull headache.

That was 1983. I never knew about applying for anything with the VA and for the past 30 years I’ve been seeing civilian doctors for chronic headaches, memory loss, insomnia, but mainly for the bad headaches. A CT scan showed a brain cyst on the left side and I’m currently still being treated.

Should I be looking at this as a TBI? I did apply for compensation for the chronic headaches but I got denied as they said there was no current diagnosis so I was wondering if I labeled it wrong.

[Valhalla0321]

Wow,

Skydealer, i am not surprised. So many odd strange things go on with claims, i have been in so many dimensions with VA claims i can tell a odd story or 2 and maybe even 3,4,5,... Keep all records, if you get that date stamp dont loose it. You have to be your own advocate, it stinks but it only has worked for me as the VSO's pledge alliegience the the VA.

I have a question for someone and i have been pondering on it for years. tension headaches (previously denied as headache due to concussion and head injury) I am 50% for this evaluated as migraines directly connected to service, it's not secondary.

I fell, not sure if the language here concludes this and acknowleges it or just side steps it. I am wondering with all this TBI 10% mojo , if i should file for TBI or leave it alone. Someone help me with this...

Thanks

[skydealer]

Thank you everyone for all the replies.

I got a packet in the mail this past weekend.  They assigned 30% for the headaches and it goes all the way back to 2011.  The headaches have always been 24/7 but they only rated for the real bad ones, which they stated were migraines.  I know I should appeal, but I just don't have the fight in me to do so.  It takes too much to concentrate on something like that.

I do have a question though regarding this situation.  I'm sure it has come up before on this forum but I could not find it.

So, in my case I had an injury which resulted in several things.  The VA stated it was a TBI and they gave me 30% for the headaches and 40% for memory and brain function loss.  The 2nd one was written up as “residuals of head injury, traumatic brain injury with arachnoid cyst.”  My question is:  is it normal to have this broken up into several smaller percentages or should they have lumped together into one?  Both ratings were for the same injury and so I was not sure if this was something that I could file something on to get them added into a single rating, rather than two smaller ones.

 

[skydealer]

Update:
So the VA has agreed on the TBI and also stated there is headaches and the arachnoid cyst.  They rated me on the headaches and memory problems but I don't know if the cyst would be considered brain growth.  I found a post at http://www.hadit.com/forums/topic/26456-are-arachnoid-cysts-rated-as/ regarding this same question but I didn't want to jump on their bandwagon as they were asking the same question.

The VA has agreed the cyst was from the TBI, but they never rated it nor denied it.  They just listed it in the title of the claims.  I take this as the VA does not consider a arachnoid cyst to be considered a growth on the brain?