What Are The Chances

[abean]

New poster here...will try to shorten a very long story....

Prior to meeting husband, he was security police in the AF until 1994. He has been to the middle east, but was during Desert Calm or something like that. Met husband in college in 1994. Quirky, but cute. Married by May 1995. By early 2000's, and 3 kids later, he started a claim for micoplasma infection, and was denied even though he tested positive for it. He was convinced he had brought this terrible disease home to us and was going to kill us all. By 2004/2005 he was convinced he was a spy and that the military had implanted a chip in his head. He thought my dad and I were working undercover for the govt. to rat him out. He thought my earrings were honing devices, I was poisoning his food, the CIA was after him, the VA was after him, etc.... Lord, I could name a million things that boy thought. Anyways, in Jan 2006 he burnt our house down intentionally because he thought the govt. had bugged all of the electronic devices, phones, pets, you name it. After the fire, he was forcefully placed in a mental hospital, and then transfered to a VA hospital where he stayed for about a month. He was labeled as schizophrenic. He had a few more stays in 2006 until he had his meds worked out, but thank heavens, he does now.

He was initially awarded ssdi in the summer of 2006 (first try), but decided to decline it and try to work. Well, he tried, and was ok for a bit, but the stress load just got too hard. He then again filed in Jan 2009, and once again awarded first try.

I hadn't even thought about a va claim until recently listening to the news. All of his paranoia is directly related to his time in the service, but wasn't diagnosed until many years later. We went ahead and filed a claim in July 2010. We found out 2 weeks ago that it is at a rating board. He has mounds of medical records, and all state about his time in the Gulf, but I don't think fine folks at the VA will connect the dots. I think it will be too easy to say that too much time had lapsed between diagnosis and duty. The VA did call, but that was to inform us that he didn't have all his Dr's recent records, but they have since got them.

Oh, and he has not went for any kind of C&P exam. He is seen every 3 months by his psychiatrist so I don't know if that counts or not.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Pete53]

Welcome to Hadit and thank you for sticking with your Veteran. The short answer is you can file the claim but you will need to do some work to win. The most important thing for you is to get a link to his service which amazinly for the dx he has should not be that difficult. It will take some time but the folks at Hadit will help you.

Good Luck

[abean]

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback. My hubby filled out the form where I could do a lot of the talking, handling w/ the VA since we try to keep him as stress free as humanly possible. I know I'm in for an uphill battle, but I'm a tough nut and can (hopefully) handle it.

Oh, and had to stick w/ my vet. The whole sickness & health vows kinda stuck me with him. He really is an awesome guy though. Just took us a bit to get his meds worked out.

[hedgey]

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback. My hubby filled out the form where I could do a lot of the talking, handling w/ the VA since we try to keep him as stress free as humanly possible. I know I'm in for an uphill battle, but I'm a tough nut and can (hopefully) handle it.

Oh, and had to stick w/ my vet. The whole sickness & health vows kinda stuck me with him. He really is an awesome guy though. Just took us a bit to get his meds worked out.

Hi abean. If it helps you stop fretting about too much time passing, I was recently rated Service Connected (SC) for a disability from my service in the early 1980's. The time frame doesn't matter in getting SC, what matters is the documentation that connects the disability to the service.

Best of luck to you both. He's a lucky guy to have you beside him!!

[carlie]

abean,

Welcome.

Here's a link to our homepage with tons of information.

http://www.hadit.com/

This next one below, will be a very good read for you.

http://www.hadit.com/veterans_self_help_guide.html

This next one below, is a link to research Board of Veterans Affairs (BVA), prior decisions.

FYI - BVA decisions do not set precedent but are great to use for research in

the claims adjudication process.

http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/bva.html

Hope this helps a vet.

[abean]

Thanks for all of the info. I've been reading some of the past cases for schizophrenia and it looks like the key is to appeal the heck out of a claim. I think I'm just worried about whether they consider it service connected. I know it is, but that doesn't mean anything. If the VA lived with him, they would know it too.

[john999]

Was he ever treated for a mental health condition while in the AF? That helps if he was, but is not the only answer. I was treated for two months in the military and then thrown out on my $#@, so it is helpful but not complete.