boomer2

check the link This is good info especially for USAF post VN. http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/02/25/study-post-vietnam-troops-exposed-to-agent-orange.html?ESRC=eb.nl

The first question I have is did this audiologist give you the speech test? If he didn't I would ignore him. Here are the results of my last test which was in April of 2013 Left ear...1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 50 65 75 75 avg=66 right ear..1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 55 70 75 75 avg=69 speech disc 85DB, 91DB, 97DB left ear 44% 64% 60% used 64% right ear 60% 52% 72% used 72% The private audiologist's that I have seen all work for an ENT. I don't understand why he would be referring you to an ENT. He is not one of the hearing places where the try to get old people like us to get hearing aids is he? If your test that you posted was done by the VA I would go by that. I do know that they have some kind of "rule of thumb" where the results of the speech test must be within a certain % of the tone test to be considered reliable, if they are not they will write on the test that they are unreliable. Now I don't know if they still rate you on just the tone test or not. They may well order another test.

Check the link http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/02/24/report-va-data-breach-practically-unavoidable.html?ESRC=eb.nl

Kate When you ask for a nexus make sure you give the doc all the info you can find on the contamination at Camp Lejeune and yes you will need to give him copies of the SMR's. I doubt that most Doc.'s even know anything about Lejeune.

Kate If your husband was at Camp Lejeune, then all you should need is orders showing he was there and the dates. There probably is nothing in his SMR's that show kidney problems when he was there. The water at Lejuene was contaminated so you are not going to get problems until later in life. It is kinda like AO when I was in Viet Nam I didn't have any prostate problems but, now I have prostate cancer and it is a presumptive just as most of the diseases from Camp Lejuene. All you need is a doc. to give you a nexus saying "it is at least as likely as not" that his kidney disease is caused by the problems from Camp Lejuene. But by all means get all the documentation that you can.

Go to recordsofwar.com some of the links don't work anymore but there is some good info there.

I don't think you should just single out reservists as gaming the system. I know a couple that just retired from active duty and between their retirement and disability they are making over 10K a month. Oh! they never deployed. I have a friend in the reserves who has deployed 8 times to Iraq and Afghanistan. He gets 0%. I read somewhere that the VA figures that 1% of the claims that are filed are not legit. I met a guy at the VA hospital that was getting 70% for PTSD and never left FT Polk, LA. how did that happen? You can bitch all you want but I doubt it will change anything. It happens everywhere look at the food stamp program and welfare. If people think they can get over they are going to try.

Check the link http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/02/06/va-accused-of-changing-rules-to-reach-goals.html?ESRC=eb.nl

It looks to me like you will get 10% for tinnitus and 0% for the right ear. According to the DBQ you have normal hearing in the left ear. Your speech discrimination scores are at 100% for both ears to be considered a HL they need to be at or below 92%. It does say you have a sensorineural hearing loss in your right ear which would indicate a 0%. If you take the readings they had for each ear at 1000 thru 4000 your right ear is at 25 and your left ear is at 13.75 according to CFR 38 you need to have a 26 for HL. I can't tell you anything about the sinusitis.

I would make sure they put "at least as likely as not" that your depression is related to the sleep apnea in the DBQ. JMHO

I am already in the system. The PC just wasn't diagnosed by them.

I was just recently diagnosed with PC by my private doc. He did the biopsy and I am now taking EBRT by a private oncologist. I have filed a claim for this as AO related. My question is if a private doc is treating it and it is being billed thru medicare and Tricare for life if there are any charges not paid by them two am I responsible or can I take that bill to the VA and they pay it?

Navywife Yes it says "as least as likely as not."

I filed a claim on the 23rd of Dec. for PC AO related and I sent a copy of the pathology report and a DBQ filled out by my Urologist and it had AO exposure on it. Wonder if this will get me rated quicker? I am also SC'd for DM II

Navywife I just filed a claim for prostate cancer and I submitted the pathology report and a DBQ filled out and signed by my Doctor. Also, on the DBQ he put as the cause "agent orange exposure" with ICD code. Now let's see how long it takes them to approve it.

Broncovet 72% for the right and 64% for the left.

Killemall I was rated 10% for tinnitus and 0% for HL. In May of last year I got 20% for DM II so with the 30% I'll be at 50%. Of course I just filed a claim for PC which I got diagnosed with in Dec. so I guess I'll be at 100% for awhile at least a year and half I start EBRT tomorrow for 43 treatments and I have to take Lupron for a year.

This may be a little long but I want to make sure I give you all the details. In June of 2010 I filed for an increase in HL, In Sept of 2010 I had my C & P and unknown to me the audiologist stopped the test never told me. Well I was denied so, I filed a NOD in Jan of 2011. around the last quarter of 2011 I went to the audio dept and complained that my HA's were not working properly. The lady checked them and said they seem to be functioning properly, she then checked my hearing and told me I needed a full audio test. I got that in 2012 and got new HA's. Fast forward to April of 2013 I get another C & P from the NOD I filed. OK here is where it gets interesting. A couple of days after the C & P I went to the FOIA office and picked up a copy of the C & P. I found a mistake on the numbers the audiologist used to put on the C & P. She had used the 2012 numbers. I called her and explained it to her and she checked it and told me yes! she had made a mistake and that she would send in an addendum to the C & P to correct it. Now the 2012 numbers would have increased me to 20% but the 2013 numbers will give me 30%. OK in Dec of 2013 I got my NOD answered and in the SOC they gave me 20%. So I'm thinking to myself wonder how long this is going to take to correct. I went to my VFW VSO and showed her all the evidence and she said wait just a minute. She got on the phone and called the VFW office in St. Pete which I guess is collocated with the VARO. Well long story short she contacted the rater and gave him the evidence and he agreed. Now here is the kicker he said that I can't get rated back to 2010 because the current disability was established in April of 2013 (he even went to the director of the VARO). He said that if I had not had any audio test between when I filed the claim and the new C& P it would probably have gone back 2010. It really wouldn't mean a lot of retro because I'm a retiree and I'll get retro back to April of 2013 because that is when I will go to 50%. So if any of you are trying to get an increase in HL be careful when you get any audio tests done. P.S. I can't say enough about the VFW they got that corrected very quickly and I mean quick about a week total.

Thanks Brokensoldier,......I have attached the duty mos list for everyone. You must have excel to use it. It has all of the services MOS 's on and the probability of HL for each MOS. Duty%20MOS%20Noise%20Exposure%20List(2).xls

I have the duty mos list for all the services if someone can tell me how to post here. It is a pretty larger file.

There is no test for tinnitus by itself. You should tell your doc at the VA that you have trouble understanding and hearing people. He will then request that you have an audiologist check your hearing. When you speak with the audiologist tell them about the ringing. They should ask you what you did in the military. Also, I would not tell them that since you have been taking the Wellbutrin that your tinnitus is louder because they will say that is the cause. If the audio test indicates a hearing loss then file a claim for it and you can get service connected for the tinnitus which will get you 10% max. Your hearing loss will be based on the results of the test. Getting any compensation for HL is very difficult. But if you do get 0% you will get hearing aids from the VA for free. They are expensive, so that is plus getting Sc'd. Good luck

Loosecannon I am on TFL and Medicare and medicare is always primary and TFL is secondary. I will tell you have yet to pay out of pocket for any office visits. Since you are TDIU at 100% you can get all of your meds from the VA for free and that includes any private doc scripts. Your wife can go on ChampVA but, she will have to go to the VA for any med service. I personally like having the ability to get second opinions from outside the VA. For example, just recently I had some blood work done at the VA and my PSA almost doubled. I brought it up to my primary doc at the VA and she said, "oh that's OK it's well within normal" Well, I went to my private urologist and discussed it with him and he suggested I have a biopsy. Well I now have PC and it is the aggressive type. If I had listened to the VA doc who knows what would have happened down the road. Yeah! a $100 is just that but peace of mind of being able to get second opinions is worth it. Oh! by the way there is no monthly cost for TFL. I think your wife may have to pay for prime though. My wife and I are both over 65 so we pay nothing for TFL. And now I have to submit another claim for the prostrate cancer.

Killemal You may have otitis externa (swimmers ear) you can get from the hearing aids and also if you have DM II you can get it as well. If you do and it is chronic you can get 10% for it. By chronic I mean you get it get rid of it and it comes back.

Hollis and Stillhere I don't know if either one of you have the bluetooth device that the VA has for your hearing aids but, that thing is a life saver for me. It lets you talk on your cell phone thru your hearing aids and you can listen to the TV as well. I can even mute the TV and still hear it. If I didn't have that blue tooth device I couldn't do my job. I am in the real estate business and that thing is great. I can't understand latin people or oriental people at all. I refer them to someone else

Hollis You got 20% for tinnitus???? I've never heard of anybody getting more than 10%.