Still Progressing Or Rater?

[vistagirl81]

Hey everyone i have a Q about what my husband has been told.. We though it would be best to call the VA every 2 weeks to see if there is any movement in his claim. He had 2 c&p's on the 19th of June.On the 23th we went to request his exam it was not done so they said they wouls send it to us. He called today and the woman wouls not let him know where his claim was but that the exams were recieved on the 29th to the reg. office and they got all the info they needed. what does that mean?? is it still processing??Should we call again?

[vistagirl81]

My husband's exam came in the mail and the Gen exam was not good...the dr. stated that my husband was seen only 1 time while he was in the service for his headaches and that is not true.. he was seen 6 times. He also said that he did not have any notes of blood in stool, he has 2 notes of it..while in service..,the Dr stated he does not have any respetory problems that he was seen for except a runny nose sore throat 4 times.... he was seen for that 10 times and uses an inhaler.. I called the Va regional office and was told to call the Dr to ask him to correct it the dr said we are not supposed to be talking to me, called VARO they said that the C&P exam is only one thing they look at , the person from the rater would look in his medical records or we should file a a form21.. wont that stop the claim.. should i trust that ??? What if they just look at the Dr's C&P exam noted any deny him on a lie??.... He said that "headaches probably migrains ,not present while the vet was on active service"......and "mild internal hemorrhoids"even though he bleeds with every BM???? This is not looking good for him.

Im not sure if the MH exam was a good one...Im not sure if they said he had a stressor.."The Vet's symptons of PTSD in the opinion of this examiner was more likley that not caused by his reported experiences while in the military"....

his Diagnoses are Axis I:post-traumatic stress disorder,major depressive disorder,recurrent cognitive disorder NOS...AxisII deferred AxisIII see medical chart AxisIVvictim of prolonged physical harassment, social isolation,health problems. AxisV GAF=40 serious symptoms and major impairement in social and occupational functioning.. the thing i don't want to agree on is "The veteran in the opinion of this examiner is not competent to manage his Veterans Administration Benefits and financial resources and will need to have assistance in managing his benefits??? that does not sound like good news to me........she also stated "In the opinion if this examiner,if the vets depressed mood was present prior to entering the military it was permanently aggravated by the experiences he has while in the military.The vet appeared to be struggling emotionally while in the service and did not appear to be offerend the care that would have been appropriate given the description of his functioning and the indication of his mood disturbances in those few contacts he had when he was hospitalized... she also stated that some of his evaluations and files were missing??

Any advice would be appreciated im not sure of how to take any of this, thank you all so much ..

[airborne18]

first, the mental health exam does sound good. And the opinion that he is not able to take care of his own affiars works in your favor.

Ratings are based on the level of loss. Not being able to handle your own affairs is a higher level of loss. And you can be the caretaker for his financial affairs. Though the GAF score seems a bit low..

second, yes the VARO was correct. The rater looks at everything. Hopefully he is currently being treated at the VA for his medical problems. Keep in mind there are two parts of this: proving service connection, determining the functional loss. The military medical records are the key to service connection. However, the current treatment records will play a larger role in determining functional loss.

My military records were all but destroyed, and they even noted in my records. ( basically destroyed them so I could not have a claim later ). Though I happen to have kept a few sick call slips. And my service connection was based on specifically one sick call slip.

Do you have your husbands medical records from the military? Did you make a copy before he left the military? The VA raters know that the military does some really horrible things to patients, and plays games with the records.

The other key to this is that he seek treatment at the VA, and follow the treatments.. You want as much medical evidence as possible. The raters will use the VA treatment records. You want as many doctors to diagnose his problems as possible. And you want the military records to match the diagnosis,, so you can prove the service connection.

The way I always look at the process, is that proving service connection is the hard part.. The functional loss is easy.. If the percentages come back low, you can always refile for an increase. Fighting service connection is really the long and painful fight with the VA.

I would wait for the decision before you started fighting it.. You will delay the process if you start sending in statements to fight the C&P. Though if you are not sure if they have all his military medical records, and you have them, I would probably send them in with a statement. That is probably the only way it would be worth the delay.

My husband's exam came in the mail and the Gen exam was not good...the dr. stated that my husband was seen only 1 time while he was in the service for his headaches and that is not true.. he was seen 6 times. He also said that he did not have any notes of blood in stool, he has 2 notes of it..while in service..,the Dr stated he does not have any respetory problems that he was seen for except a runny nose sore throat 4 times.... he was seen for that 10 times and uses an inhaler.. I called the Va regional office and was told to call the Dr to ask him to correct it the dr said we are not supposed to be talking to me, called VARO they said that the C&P exam is only one thing they look at , the person from the rater would look in his medical records or we should file a a form21.. wont that stop the claim.. should i trust that ??? What if they just look at the Dr's C&P exam noted any deny him on a lie??.... He said that "headaches probably migrains ,not present while the vet was on active service"......and "mild internal hemorrhoids"even though he bleeds with every BM???? This is not looking good for him.

Im not sure if the MH exam was a good one...Im not sure if they said he had a stressor.."The Vet's symptons of PTSD in the opinion of this examiner was more likley that not caused by his reported experiences while in the military"....

his Diagnoses are Axis I:post-traumatic stress disorder,major depressive disorder,recurrent cognitive disorder NOS...AxisII deferred AxisIII see medical chart AxisIVvictim of prolonged physical harassment, social isolation,health problems. AxisV GAF=40 serious symptoms and major impairement in social and occupational functioning.. the thing i don't want to agree on is "The veteran in the opinion of this examiner is not competent to manage his Veterans Administration Benefits and financial resources and will need to have assistance in managing his benefits??? that does not sound like good news to me........she also stated "In the opinion if this examiner,if the vets depressed mood was present prior to entering the military it was permanently aggravated by the experiences he has while in the military.The vet appeared to be struggling emotionally while in the service and did not appear to be offerend the care that would have been appropriate given the description of his functioning and the indication of his mood disturbances in those few contacts he had when he was hospitalized... she also stated that some of his evaluations and files were missing??

Any advice would be appreciated im not sure of how to take any of this, thank you all so much ..

[vistagirl81]

I made 2 copy's of his medical records, one i kept and the other one i sent with the claim papers. He got out of the Navy Dec 12 2008 and he went to his first appt Dec 16 2008.. He has been going there a couple times a week... His GAF scores have never been above 50.(except when he was in service so he could go back to work) Everything he asked for in his claim he went to sick call for atleast twice...there were allot of stuff that was missing but i had to go from what i was given.

[airborne18]

If you sent the records with the claim then I would just wait it out. No need to add any more delays.

The MH c&p does look good and you should just wait out the complete decision. With a 40 GAF and the not being able to take care of his own affairs, his rating for the PTSD should probably at the 70% rate, though they could lowball it at 50% ... for MH they only have a few percentages.. 10%,30%,50%,70%, 100%.

When you get the decision for everything, then figure out if you are going to fight anything or just file for increases. That is something you should talk to one of the pro's on this board about..

[vistagirl81]

My husband can not apply for IU because she said that he can get gainful employment due to extensive help and therepy...... how can she say he can work but say he is imcompotent???

1: not legally qualified2: inadequate to or unsuitable for a particular purpose3 a: lacking the qualities needed for effective action b: unable to function properly....how can he find a job or go to school if they say he is all this.

[airborne18]

My suggestion would be to go ahead and file for IU now since she's declared him incompetent. Sounds like your doctor is referring to down the road of recovery if he get better but right now as I read your post he is incompetent and being incompetent is solid grounds for unemployability.

You can always at anytime APPLY for iu.

Billy

Starting a claim for IU before the rating decision comes back is shooting blind. She really needs to know what they are deciding, and which medical opinions they relied on before she can argue the IU part. If in fact they do take the opinion that he "can find employment due to extensive therapy", then she should line up evidence to over come that.. which is not hard as long as she knows what she is up against before submitting the claim..

He should also try and get work, like they said he is capable of.. Trying and failing in itself is evidence.