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USMC89, best of luck! I guess all we can do is persevere.

#1 CavTrooper, good evening. I filed on 2/9/11, however they are making the retro effective 4/1/11.

Good Afternoon All. Received the big brown envelope today. It stated an increase for my Fibromyalgia from 20% to 40%. Denial for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Irritable Bowel Syndrome due to "The evidence does not show a current diagnosed disability and the evidence shows an event,disease, or injury in service." Ha Ha, looks like the medical records showing CFS and IBS were once again overlooked, funny stuff, guess I'm heading for a DRO appeal with a NOD, which at this point I have no doubt will show the evidence on file. Others on my documents; PFS left knee: deferred PTSD: Deferred In any case, I have been upgraded from 30% to 50%, so at least its a start! Thanks to everyone with their good advice on this site. Its very much appreciated. Mike Egan

Chuck75, I use comcast currently, I'm not its on their end. I checked and rechecked everything, and I do believe its the VA end that is not updating the information. ebenefits tech support and peggy have no clue. BobH, I agree fully with you. I haven't had the chance to go to the VARO this week, but I intend to next week.

Papa, I have conversed with some of the more knowledgeable people on this site and others, and from what everyone says, it can be considered secondary. However, I've been told that one will only get one rating, not a separate rating, even if one suffers from multiple mental health issues.

world_wide, I relate, I also have reservations about bringing information that is a little late in the whole process, however, I had this feeling that the VA is intentionally trying to make their own contention, and seemingly will do anything to back up their assesment. My problem is that I gave them my own information twice, and though I may seem paranoid about it, they seemingly, are doing this to block my contention. In any case, if it still doesn't go my way, I will file a CUE and let them try to deny the information I submitted.

Wings, as mentioned before, I very much appreciate your help, and yes, I am learning surely but slowly, how I can work on overcoming the objections that have been played before me. Thank you once again!

A little info first: I was dx'd for ptsd while on active duty (1995), never had nightmares prior to 1993, and only admitted them over a year later. Was found by the Navy to be "existing prior to entry", but as mentioned, didn't have symptoms until I was in active service. The mistake I made, I believe was that I admitted having nightmares of childhood sexual assault, although I told the doctor that dx'd me of being assaulted by gunpoint in early 1993, and had that as a stressor/recurrent nightmare as well. When I was discharged in 1996, I was also denied any service connection/service aggravation from that VA as well, although I submitted my smr as well as the documented assault in service and tying the two together. When I found out that I was denied, I contacted the DAV rep that was handling my claim, and he said I had "no evidence". Back in 2010, I finally questioned what "no evidence" really meant, because I had the evidence on file with my own copies of my smr. I questioned that because I went to see another DAV rep at the local VARO, to state that my PTSD met the new rules regulation that the VA instituted that same year. However, she also said "theres no way we can help you, you have no evidence to support your claim". So what I did, was request a copy of my cfile from the VA, which of course took over 6 months to receive, and lo and behold, the original medical documents of my diagnosis in service were not included. At that point, I refiled my claim for PTSD, citing the "new rules" and resubmitted what I know I gave the VA originally, along with my own written statement to tie the evidence together. I filed the claim officially for PTSD, CFS, Increase for SC Fibromyalgia, Patellar Femoral Syndrome-Left Knee, and IBS. For everything but the PTSD, I had already completed the C&P/QTC for consideration, and was told I would not be scheduled for a PTSD exam, so I figured that was that. However, late last week, and only given 6 days notice, I was told that I had now been setup for a PTSD exam at the local QTC. It was setup for yesterday, and I went. The examiner, a female Ph.D psychologist, not a MD Psychiatrist administered the examination. She went over what she intended to do during the exam, and everything seemed pretty standard. However, she stated the assesment was for PTSD service aggravation. I asked how she came to that contention, due to me stating on the documents that it was service connected. Now for arguments sake, I have spoken on this subject on this site about how it might be service aggravated as opposed to completely service connected, and that because I cited being assaulted as a child, that, that would be considered a mitigating factor. Now, what I did was ask the examiner at this point, "what did the VA submit to you as evidence of my ptsd?" She had the Navy's med board paperwork, which was well after I was diagnosed, and of course that med board paperwork rail-roaded me from service connection with the Navy, she had my written statement when I submitted my claim back on 2/9/11, and that was it. Now once again, for whatever reason, whomever was handling my claim did not submit to the examiner, the original medical diagnosis of PTSD! I once again supplied that to the VA, and they did not submit that to the examiner!! Unbelievable!!!! Lucky for me, knowing that this could be a possibility, I brought one of my copies to the examiner, and it, from my point of view, kind of stopped her in her tracks. She took the copy, reviewed it, added notes on her pc, started asking me questions like, "So this was the diagnosis while in service" told her yes, "how long did you wait to report your symptoms?" almost a year and a half, and you never reported any symptoms prior to service? I told her no and showed her my dependent medical record (prior to service I was covered by champus, due to my father being a career Marine), and showed her that there was absolutely no time in my past that I had any issues with mental health, and that I was 100% prior to entry into active duty. I could tell her expectations of how the exam was supposed to go was changed, she was completely surprised at the information that I included. Now I didn't know exactly how her assessment will be, at least until the VA decides to give me a copy of that QTC report, but I do feel that my evidence definitely changed her assessment and that my contention of service connection resonated with her in a positive way. When the argument of bringing possible evidence to support your case to a C&P exam or QTC is discussed here, I can absolutely say that it is necessary to do so, because the VA, for whatever reason didn't supply this examiner to make a reasonable case to support my contention.

GulfVet45, thanks, that's what they did to me originally when I filed back in the 90's. They lumped the IBS with the fibro.

cooter, appreciate it. I hope for the best, and I wish the best for all that are in the same process.

JR, appreciate the response. Thats exactly what I'm thinking. I really want to be fair to the VA, but when things like this happen, how can one be objective?

cooter, I initially mailed the documents w/return receipt-confirmation. I made copies of all that I sent just in case. I also gave a copy of what I sent to my POA as well. Its kind of dumbfounding. The VCAA docs I submitted had "Requesting increase consideration for SC Fibromyalgia" It was plainly on there. Whoever was working on it initially didn't include that for some reason.

Donna68, thanks for the response. At this point the analyst said that he will monitor the claim at this point, and send word to the VARO to see if this can be adjuticated in a timely manner since the homeless expedite was received over two months ago. I am not going to hold my breath, but I think I've pretty much exhausted all the options I can think of. I just cannot believe that with what I sent to the VA originally was overlooked, to be nice, because the copies I sent was very obvious in the claim for an increase for fibromyalgia. To me, its sounds like someone didn't do their job right to begin with, and I had to wait for someone to correct that, and that caused delays through no fault of my own.

medic, yup, I used a friend's pc and the same issue. I guess I'm going to have to go to my local VARO and see if that's what the issue is; that being they didn't load my information for me to see. But that still bothers me, especially if tech support and "peggy" can see it, I don't understand why I can't. I have done everything possible, including lowering my firewall level, clearing out all caches and cookies, and making sure the correct certificates are in place. I am truly puzzled.

Hello all. I will be honest, I posted this topic on another site. However, I am not getting any consistent response. I just hope I can get some opinions on this, I do think its somewhat of a valid topic. Here goes: Information about this first. I filed a "informal" claim on 2/9/11. It was for an increase on Fibromyalgia, IBS, and Patellar Femoral Syndrome (Left Knee), Currently rated at 30%. I also claimed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and PTSD (under the new rules). I have medical documentation for all ailments that I claim. I completed a QTC that encompassed all the claimed ailments, minus the PTSD. I have no scheduled c&p exams or a qtc for the PTSD (It cannot be disputed it was dx'd in service). Now I know the process takes awhile, and I understand the wait, however, I did request a hardship expedite more than two months ago, haven't worked in over 7 months and homeless for the past two months. I inquired with every level of the VA to see what kind of status update there may be due to the request of hardship, but no one would give a definite answer. I've done the congressional inquiry deal, and my POA has also attempted to contact the highest levels possible to get an idea of what's going on but there was no answer forthcoming from anyone. What I do understand is that my claim is still in "development" phase and no movement at all up to this point. Now I finally called the VA's office of case management, and I was actually surprised by the response I got. I was told that my request for an increase for Fibromyalgia is what's holding up the process. I asked the analyst how that was, and he said "we didn't receive your request for increase until this past January". Now, I know what I submitted last February 2011, I made copies of what I submitted, so that's kind of a surprise. My question is why would it hold up the rest of my claims? How can one thing hold up the rest? Especially since the QTC is complete and I know that its been received. I'm not asking for a "WAG", I would just love to know if anyone else had a similar situation and how was it resolved?

medic, I am going to do just that. I will let you know what happens.

Man, I knew the VA could be "sneaky" but if this what I think it is, this is truly an atrocity. General Shinkseki and Colonel Gingrich should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to be proposed.

Interesting, however, since their is still no end, technically to gulf war era, I would love to know how the VA is going to interpret this. Meaning, two years from the end of the conflict, hence March 1991? Or, does this mean they are making "mental illness" a presumptive issue related to other gulf war presumptives? Its very confusing.

medic, I initially used internet explorer, followed the process, same message, used firefox, did same process, and still the same message. I cleared everything that might get in the way on the pc I'm using but still the same message.

Pete53, I did. They haven't the faintest reason why, I went through the process of loading the certificates, and making sure my system was receptive. As mentioned, I have access to everything but that.

Wings, thanks for the info. Yeah, I did all that, however same message. I really thinks its on the other end.

Bob H, chr49, thanks for responding back. Chr49, yeah, I tried to do what you said, still getting the same thing. I am thinking that the other "end" is not loading the information in.

Hey all Got a question. I have full access to ebenefits, however since I had access, if I try to access my claim status, it always says "error, cannot access information at this time". I have called the ebennies tech support, peggy's number, and the access number for dpmd tech support, and I always get ""I can access it, I don't see why you can't" and nobody can see what can be done. Any suggestions?

streetwalker, I "feel" your pain. I filed back last year Feb 2011, cannot do physical labor at all anymore, living for the most part on the streets, requested a financial hardship claim over 2 months ago, submitted what I considered all necessary medical evidence, completed my qtc exam over a month ago, and my claim is still in "development" stage. It sucks for me, but I wish you the best and hope somethings come through soon for you.

GulfVet45, question for you; I had a med board addendum prior to my separation. On the addendum, (it was for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia) I had listed hyperlipidemia, high triglycerides, hyperuricemia, very high risk ratio, listed weight was very high, however even after I knew that constituted "metabolic syndrome", I didn't get diagnosed w/diabetes until 2003. I was never treated or even told to get it under control, would that still be considered service connected?