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.

[Berta]

"Oh, and forgot to mention that his current psychiatrist says that his symptoms probably started in late teens/ early twenties. This would be his time in the Air Force."

If this doctor could write a medical opinion stating that,but sing the term "as likely as not" and refer to the discipline incidents in his SMRs that could possibly indicate schizophrenia and use one or two good medical citations (I think most schizophrenia does appear in early 20s) to support his opinion, it could help with a potential award of SC comp.

I helped a friend of mine prove bi polar manic disorder was first manifested when he was in Navy.

His VA doctor concurred.All we had was a Captain's Mass report and some brig time.But his documented behavior for the disciplinary write up was consistent with manic bi polar illness and he was on SSDI for this since a few years after his service.

[abean]

I just left a message for his psychiatrist. She is out of town this week, but hopefully can talk to her next week.

The question I had on TDIU...nevermind. Found out. Filled out the paperwork this afternoon, just have to get hubby's signature. Is it ok to go ahead and send now, or should we wait on the initial decision?

However:dry: , did email the iris thing requesting updated info. The guy replied that I had no right to know unless my husband signed the form (forget the name of it) to have info released to me. Replied back that it had already been done, but will probably have to resend it. Go figure.

I remember when we were trudging thru the social security mess and reading that all of these people were having to battle years to get benefits. Thank the dear Lord in heaven above, we didn't have too, so I guess this is my battle now, huh? Is the VA really that much harder to deal with?

[Pete53]

Your claim depends on a Medical Evaluation that links his current dx to service. It is the most important evidence that you can get to have his Doc say that the symptoms showed up in service. I think that considering what you have posted you need to concentrate in the dx that got your husband SSD.

As far as the VA goes they can be a pain to deal with bust sometimes they will actually help.

You also need to be very careful and focused on what you write or say to anyone at VA. The disrespect for authority and perhaps how the hummer was wrecked are clues.

Did your husband have other problems like drinking or drugs? You really need to look at symptoms. By the way many folks like your husband are very smart.

I admire you for sticking by your husband and helping him with his claim.

[abean]

Ok, I guess I forgot to add some of my long drawn out story.

Someone filed a claim for hubby while he was in the VA hospital back in 2006 for his schizophrenia. He was denied in August 2006 (evidently) because they said it wasn't SC. I did not file the claim. Hubby claims he doesn't remember, but don't really believe he did. Is this something that the VA would do on its own while he was in the hospital? He was heavily medicated at the time so I guess we won't actually know.

The only way we found out about the previous denial was when we started this claim. The VA letter stated that we had so many days to submit more evidence or they would consider the first denial final. We sent the new material in within a week. Plus, we also verified that they had his doctor's updated records which was just a few weeks ago.

Anyway, fast forward to the new claim. We received a letter from DAV that states that the claim is still denied because the evidence submitted is not new and material. However, we sent and verified that a mound of new records/evidence was received. We haven't received a denial or anything from the VA yet. We are confused by the DAV letter. The last we heard Friday (via 1-800 number) was that it was still at the rating board.

I guess we are confused about the DAV, lack of new material (even though we know they got it), and what our next step should be. The letter states to visit the nearest DAV office for help with a NOD, but we have yet to receive the "official" bad news from the VA yet. Should we go ahead and do this? Does the DAV actually help, whatever the heck it is? Should we totally disregard them and do the NOD ourselves??

Oh, and to answer Pete 53's question, no, hubby has never had drinking or drug problem.

[abean]

Ok, hubby just got off the phone w/ the 800 number again. VA told us they can't find anything in the computer about a denial. As far as he knew, no decision had been made yet. The DAV letter was dated a week ago.

[abean]

Sorry to keep posting, but I don't know how to edit a post.

Hubby just got off the phone with the DAV. They have Power of Attorney??? The only think we can figure out is that he might have given it to them in the VA hospital in 2006. However, they have no record of the letter that they sent saying the claim was denied. Who knows. The whole things just seems to get more confusing and messy by the second. Have any of you had any dealings with these people?