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Diabetes Claims Advice

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rootbeer22

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Folks:

I've been away from Hadit.com for the last few months due to work and travels issues. Anyway, I was recently diagnosed with Diabetes and prescribed Medforman and I'm wondering if its worth filing a disability claim for it? During my Army Career, my glucose numbers were always in the high range. Yesterday, I read the Diabetes Training letter and its a very scary disease. I'm already rated overall at 90% with a lot of the injuries stemming from a Tank Accident and Explosion that left me unable to do much physically.  Over the span of my time in the Army my lipid counts and glucose levels were always high (109). I was also SC for Hypertensive Heart Disease  during the processing of my claims.  Ultimately,  I'm trying to figure out if I should submit a disability claim for the Diabetes, because  I also got very sick in the Middle East as a result of Ecoli Poisoning that I had gotten sick from at Camp Doha, Kuwait.   After  that incident, my blood pressure shot and remained up and  my blood labs were never the same so there could be a connection?  I spoke about this with another Vet who said unless a Vet is Vietnam Era and exposed Agent Orange, that SC is tough to obtain?

I've always gotten good advice from this forum and appreciate your help in advance..

Rootbeer22

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 Absolutely you should. In addition to glucose levels you can also look at triglycerides  and other indicators of diabetes, and also metabolic syndrome which combines five stats of which cholesterol is one restaurants, waist size and others blood pressure. 

Proving in-service metabolic syndrome goes a long way to connect and diabetes. Also diabetes can go for many many years and diagnosed in the Nexus night help you. I believe the criteria is three out of five for metabolic syndrome

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Folks:

Thanks to all of you for the excellent advice as I've been contemplating this a lot lately. I recently received my Disk of my service medical records. After reviewing my medical records, my Glucose over a 22 year career, was either to the mid or high range over the course of my career. I did notice that my Glucose was high and outside the normal range on the labs  of my retirement physical and I know that they look at that stuff.  Also, I battled very high, blood pressure,  triglycerides and cholestoral  after I came back from the middle east.  I was stationed  at Camp Doha, Kuwait which had an explosion that contaminated the areas soil with Depleted Uranium and high concentration lead in the soil. They say they cleaned it up but the job always goes to a low bidder and we know how that goes. Also, there was an outbreak of ecoli-poisoning-- contamination in the drinking water that got us all sick during my time. I actually got a copy of the warning letter from the Camp Commander regarding the ecoli and put it in my medical file. I've started on Medforman and and really hope that I can control the diabetes. Even with good evidence, it takes a doctor that understands the situation properly  to support the veterans?

God Speed,

Rootbeer22

 

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Yes, Syne is correct and I sure appreciate the link he gave us....because in 2003 after I filed my DMII AO death claim, the metabolic syndrome described in  this link, was one of the first things I studied and then found evidence of, in my husband's VA medical records....most evidence was within his blood chem reports

"Even with good evidence, it takes a doctor that understands the situation properly  to support the veterans."

Yes-to treat the diabetes properly and also, in a claim for SC that is not an AO DMII claim, I feel an IMO/IME would be critical to the claim.

Diabetes has many subtle nuances....candidiasis, renal problems, foot problems, dehydration problems, visual problems,excessive hunger and/or thirst......and evidence of the metabolic syndrome as described in Syne's link.

A real Endocrinologist can immediately recognize these symptoms in SMRS and/or current medical records, symptoms that VA might treat, yet fail to find their actual cause. 

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Yes, Syne is correct and I sure appreciate the link he gave us....because in 2003 after I filed my DMII AO death claim, the metabolic syndrome described in  this link, was one of the first things I studied and then found evidence of, in my husband's VA medical records....most evidence was within his blood chem reports

"Even with good evidence, it takes a doctor that understands the situation properly  to support the veterans."

Yes-to treat the diabetes properly and also, in a claim for SC that is not an AO DMII claim, I feel an IMO/IME would be critical to the claim.

Diabetes has many subtle nuances....candidiasis, renal problems, foot problems, dehydration problems, visual problems,excessive hunger and/or thirst......and evidence of the metabolic syndrome as described in Syne's link.

A real Endocrinologist can immediately recognize these symptoms in SMRS and/or current medical records, symptoms that VA might treat, yet fail to find their actual cause. 

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Folks:

Stayed up too late last night going over my medical records for this potential  Diabetes II claim and think I hit a snag? On my retirement physical it says that I had over 105 (actually 106) for a Fasting Glucose and they considered it as high via the lab report? Now they range from or 110-160 and I'm on Medformann? But when I read the VA Circa 2000 Diabetes Training Letter last night  it appears that a vet has to have at least a Fasting GLU of  over 126 in service  to qualify for a Diabetes diagnosis and compensation?  Also, despite what I did in service with diet, I had terrible high cholesterol, liver hepatic stenosis and very high hyperglycemia. I was also diagnosed with a fatty liver when I was in service as well. Frankly, I'm not sure if the symptomatology alone or the progression of the disease inn service  will get me over the hurdle to compensation now unless someone can give me a better  idea of how to attack the possible service connections for the Diabetes that I have? 

That said, before I drop this idea completely, I wanted to reach out one more time to you great folks at hadit.com to see what you think if I had a chance and should just drop the effort? I don't want to waste anyone's time or efforts unless I had a shot in the first place of getting a positive outcome. That said,  I realize there are no guarantees in this life but also want to be smart about this.

Thanks, Rootbeer22

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