Jump to content
VA Disability Community via Hadit.com

VA Disability Claims Articles

Ask Your VA Claims Question | Current Forum Posts Search | Rules | View All Forums
VA Disability Articles | Chats and Other Events | Donate | Blogs | New Users

  • hohomepage-banner-2024-2.png

  • 27-year-anniversary-leaderboard.png

    advice-disclaimer.jpg

  • donate-be-a-hero.png

  • 0

Mild Tbi Possible

Rate this question


out_here04

Question

For almost a year, I have been rated 100 percent schedular (temporary not permanent/total) for anxiety/depression. My "long-suffering" road to the rating began about 15 years ago on active-duty when I began complaining about bouts of lethargy, lack of concentration, confusion, muddled thinking, difficulty prioritizing, difficulty accomplishing tasks or a general lack of or stunting of what I have come to know as "executive functioning" or some similar term. I began re-reading sentences and paragraphs several times to get the meaning. Writing was and still is a chore, even though I have written well on many occasions, all the while thinking no one but me knows how much effort it takes. I ran across a term also that involves having to explain anything and everything and that seems to match up with the convoluted way I sometimes have to use to express myself. I think the term begins with "con...", too. I apologize for how hard it may make to follow this post.

Besides a self-thwarted suicide plan back when my symptoms bounced up against job performance, with subsequent tracking in the mental health pipeline, and two surgeries for chronic sinusitus and finally being diagnosed for sleep apnea, I STILL seem to have cognitive functioning issues. I have been a multiple-list-maker for years and constantly seek out planning/time management tools, trying them and giving up on them. I am a pretty good writer but doing so is like squeezing water out of turnips. My brain or forehead and scalp muscles (around my forehead, ears and down my neck)seem to tense up and there seems to be a lack of fluidity in doing this. Thinking is like pushing play-dough through one of those shape-makers instead of like water going through a garden hose. Getting anything done is like swimming upstream through molasses. I have virtually no self-motivation, self-discipline, even though I want to do so much. This resulted in me barely making it to military retirement (thank God I did) but I had begun getting into low-level administrative disciplinary actions taken against me intermittently and especially towards the end. I actually was more or less threatened into retirement even though my high year of tenure would have given me another two and a half years on active-duty. I would have continued to serve despite the effort it took. I considered challenging some bogus methods to "railroad" me but was advised not to by a military chaplain and others, plus I was too tired to fight any more. I tried civilian employment but was let go after about three months. I have not worked since which was five years ago. I fear trying again but might try some school work of some sort.

I ran across the term "mild TBI" while googling about my symptoms. My anxiety/depression is service-connected per my rating but I/docs never connected it to an event I believe could have been the root of everything to follow (and I think this was aggravated by resulting high stress levels and by separately by a subsequent PTSD stressor event that I have had validated through a buddy/commander statement with VA).

The reason I think I may have mild TBI is this: During a military exercise overseas much earlier in my career, I fell and hit my head falling out of a top-bunk rack. The floor was tile on concrete type. Laugh, I kind of do. I remember that I woke up some time later having missed or come in extremely late for my shift. It is a bit embarrassing to say this, but the symptoms seem to have originated then and there. No one in my chain noticed as I was working with a foreign national who did not speak English (he did give me some pretty intense scowls)/ I did not report this caring more at the time about staying out of trouble for being "AWOL" or "missing movement" or whatever the UCMJ could have thrown at me, or at least getting wrote up. I had been a "super troop" and supervisors at my home bases thought highly of me. After that, things began to change.

I am going to bring this up to my VAMC primary care and mental health providers at my appointments in the next week or so. I have wanted to get to the bottom of this for a very long time and feel this may be part of it.

After all that, my questions (besides any other thoughts welcomed from my explanation) are:

What types of VA or otherwise therapy/assistance are available for mild-TBI?

Any recommended websites (VA or other) would help me better understand these symptoms and how veterans or others cope with this?

I am not 100 percent certain if I would truly be diagnosed with mild-TBI but from what my gut tells me, I do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Answers 30
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters For This Question

Recommended Posts

I have mild TBI(the word mild is decieving). I'm rated 100%P&T for it.

What you explain in your case does sound like a possible result of a head injury. I can tell you that much of what you explain has and is happening to me. Anxiaty and depression are common results of MTBI and I have both.

I went 12 years before I was properly diagnosed and I had been hospitalized for the injury at the time it happened. Because symptoms often aren't apperent for a few months MTBI is often undiagnosed and/or misdiagnosed.

One of the most common misdiagnoses for MTBI sufferer is PTSD. All of the symptoms for PTSD are included in the possible symptoms for MTBI with the exception of a stressor. I had been diagnosed with PTSD at one time due to my symptoms but it was later dismissed because I lack the main ingredient, a stressor.

To answer some questions for you: I have been away from Hadit for some time due to the amount of time it takes me to respond to posts (it seems you are aware of the time it takes for someone with slowed executive functioning to type theses things out). I felt my life was passing me by while I was sitting here, though I love to do it. Anyway, my memory is such that it may take some time to retrieve much of the information I have.(I basically have to re-learn it) I'm pretty sure I posted a few internet resources when the TBI forum was new, so you may be able to find allot of information if you read through some of the first threads in this forum. I'll find what I can.

Some things come to mind. As for VA TBI treatment, it depends on where you live(the VA facility) but for the most part the VA is unwilling to provide much for a long past TBI. Basically it is felt that it is too late as gains are made in the first three years after the injury. I have had next to nothing in the way of treatment for TBI. I feel I am on my own with dealing with my problems. I've been told to move to a different regoin if I want help.

In my opinion, whether or not you want a tbi diagnoses, it would be very benificial for you to get neuro-psych testing done, especially if your having memory problems and slowed thinking. MRI, 9 out of 10 times, will not show any damage from a MTBI or even a moderate one. neuro-psych tesing usually proves TBI. Even without a tbi diagnoses it may help in your ratings because if a cognative dissorder is found, I think it likely you could prove it started in service and be rated for it. It may not increase your rating but it is likely it would be considered permanent.(brain damage, especially old ones, never heal)

Hope this helps.

Time

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion, the CURRENT war and our new vets entering the VAMC/VBA system

are the reason TBI is even listed, evaluated and being discussed for the past

5 or 6 years.

Prior to OCT 2008 change in 38 CFR Part 4 - Schedule of Rating Disabilities

Diagnostic Code 8045 - was COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than the new criteria.

In my opinion - all vets that were rated under the old DC 8045,

(which limited disability rating percentage to 10%)

that have medical evidence contained in their SMR's

that show a CLEAR CUT DIAGNOSIS of head injury due to trauma --

whether it be mild or listed as Post Concussion Syndrome, or more extensive

damage - can and should request to be re-evaluated under the new

(Oct 2008 DC 8045) rating criteria.

Findings are that TBI - even mild TBI can and does (at times) result in

mental health changes.

Notations in SMR's that refer to Organic Brain Disease due to head trauma

is also good medical evidence to be considered in the new criteria.

jmho,

Hope this helps a vet.

carlie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thank you carlie and time. it means a lot, and i will consider all you have suggested. time, just communicating directly (as much as the internet can provide) with someone who i truly believe understands where i'm coming from eases some of the burden i've carried for so long. i will go back and check the forum and search more on tbi.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thank you carlie and time. it means a lot, and i will consider all you have suggested. time, just communicating directly (as much as the internet can provide) with someone who i truly believe understands where i'm coming from eases some of the burden i've carried for so long. i will go back and check the forum and search more on tbi.

out here,

Here's a good link for study and research, it's the new criteria changes

that were put in place Oct 2008.

Hope this helps a vet.

carlie

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-....67&idno=38

Scroll down to:

8045 Residuals of traumatic brain injury (TBI):

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HadIt.com Elder

[What types of VA or otherwise therapy/assistance are available for mild-TBI?]

I was diagnosed with TBI in 2004 by a VA neurologist & share many of the symptoms you have discribed.

Haven't recieved any specific treatment for it yet.

From what I've been told is little can be done but treat the symptoms. They tell me the same about MS.

There are several disorders that may cause the white UBO's on brain MRI's besides TBI. Gliosis, Ischemia, MS. It was described to me as holes that fill with water.

Nothing to worry about, is what I was told for over a decade before being diagnosed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I researched this a bit, and found the following from the CDC:

Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), commonly known as concussion, is one of the most common neurologic disorders... ...Although currently there are no standards for treatment and management of MTBI, appropriate diagnosis, referral, and patient and family education are critical for helping MTBI patients achieve optimal recovery and to reduce or avoid significant sequelae.

Sequelae is defined as an aftereffect of disease, condition, or injury.

Other sources recommend rest and OTC pain relievers for MTBI, and hospitalization for moderate and severe TBI. But these options are for recent TBI, and not for TBI that has occurred years ago.

Hope this helps,

Louis

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Guidelines and Terms of Use