ensignoftheunit

I like the theory of your system, but I can't make heads or tails of the HTML code :(

Thanks to Berta, last time I filled a claim, I had the claim submitted in February and all my evidence submitting by April. I've heard that you actually have twelve months to submit your evidence and get it to the VA before your case is considered abandoned; is that accurate? Also, if that's the case and your taking your full time to gather all the appropriate evidence, nexus letters, and buddy statements, will the VA keep you in limbo until you submit your full package? I'd rather submit my claim now, take my time building a proper case like Berta taught me, and then start the process of C&P exams after I have all the ducks in a row...

Since you were in the Reserves or National Guard, here's a question. If things get rated higher than I suspect, and they offer military severance pay, how does the work? I know its 2X your base pay, but Is it based on my total time in service, points, or active duty time? Total time in service is 8.5 years. I don't recall my point spread right off the top of my head, but I've got an active year for basic and tech school, plus 2.75 years for active duty. Also, a general question; once you submit a disability application online how long do you have to submit your evidence and make your case? (Would it be best to assemble everything and send it in as one lump package)

Thanks for the sound advice! I know the VA can look into your DFAS to see what you owe them back every year, but can the NG look into the VA? I mean can they find out about your compensation without you telling them?

I thought they kicked you out after 30% disabled??? So your saying you can be rated at 50 or 60% and still remain in the Guard? After some reach, it seems the percentage doesn't matter, depending on your condition you could get kicked out at 10%. After digging into some regulations I found these two that pertain to my GAD: (8) . (a) A psychiatric condition controlled by medication should not automatically lead to nondeployment. Soldiers with a controlled psychiatric illness can still deploy. The recommendation of deployability should rest with the clinical judgement of the treating physician or other privileged provider, in consultation with the unit commander. If there are any questions on the safety of psychiatric medication, a psychiatrist should be consulted. (b) Medications that may be used safely in theater include selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors and sleep medications. 5.3.12.2.5. Individuals who experience recurrent depression or anxiety disorders, require psychiatric medication for greater than one year, who have been hospitalized for a psychiatric condition, require an evaluation by a military mental health provider. These cases warrant careful consideration of fitness for duty, worldwide assignability and deployability, given that adequate mental health support may not be available in all locations. Serious psychiatric illnesses (refer to criteria in 5.3.12.2.1-4 above) that result in hospitalization require a MEB. For ANG members on long-term antidepressant maintenance therapy even if asymptomatic or in remission, a WWD evaluation must still be forwarded to ANG/SGPA for consideration. I'm not sucidial, I've never been hospitlized, I am on SSRI medications, and my conditions do not affect my military career as I'm a supervisor. I've always heard the "Greater than 30 then your automatically out" If I'm reading this correctly, a controlled psychiatric condition doesn't automatically result in seperation, and I could have 40-50% VA rating and can still be found fit for duty. Am I getting this right, or is 30% is end all be all?

As many of you who've helped me know, I'm at 20%, for tinnitus and HBP. At the moment I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that I have some pretty severe anxiety issues. I was diagnosed with the VA with GAD; I met double the required symptoms necessary to diagnosis it. Wish I could say its getting better, but its really not. I'm averaging 7 to 8 panic attacks a week. I might not have one every day, but some days I have 2 or 3 in a day. The only thing that controls the panic attacks is the fact that I'm on the highest dosage of alazopram that they can perscribe; 2mg x 4 daily as needed. Basically the alazopram is the only medication that allows me to keep my high stress job. Looking over my notes, and the notes from my first VA pyschologist, I fill almost all of the 50% rating requirements, and an alarming number of the 70% ratings for GAD. I avoid hard tasks at work, if I don't do something every single day I basically forget how to do it. I've got wild routines that I go by everday, like if I'm not atleast 20 minutes early to work I turn around and go home and take the time off. My judgement is extremely poor, I spend friviously with money I don't really have. I really can't handle stressful tasks; my wife handles all the bills because I forget to pay them off or procrantinate, I've become so scattered brained that I even forget to trim my nails, brush my teeth or wash my hair regularly. I'm getting help with the VA, and the alazopram keeps me atleast functioning at work to the point where I can perform the mundane tasks and routine troubleshooting. But It doesn't help with the general GAD symptoms. My question is if this so bad that I feel the better option would be to file a GAD claim and end my National Guard career, how does that work? If I'm rated at 60%, do they medically retire me instead of getting a disability compensation? I'm an 8 year veteran with 2 years of active duty deployment time at the rank of E6. Or do they bit be fairwell and I get my 60%? Or do I get both? I've looked up a 60% rating from the VA, but have no clue what a medical retirement at E6 with 8 years of service. Can anyone estimate my benefits?

Is it uncommon for a VA pysch to perscribe a long acting benzo like klonopin and a short acting, quick onset one like Xanax for an as needed basis? I'm having the time of my life trying to get my Doctor to realize that the Klonopin is fine for most days, but doesn't touch a panic attack. Thus far she has been dead adamant against Xanax. It really doesn't need to be Xanax, just something with a much quicker onset time than Klonopin because if I take my entire daily dose (4mg) of Klonopin during a panic attack I might as well have taken a placebo because by the time it kicks in my mind is spinning so fast that I can't think straight.

Unfortunately that really isn’t an option in Augusta. The clinic here only has one physiatrist; we’re tremendously understaffed down there. It seems like every other appointment is postponed because of an emergency in the ER. She’s been very good in all other aspects, after my first week she didn’t have a problem bumping me up to what she considers the max daily dose of klonopin (4mg), and then tried 5 & 10mg valium with no complaints. I’m back to the 120 1mg of klonopin a month, but it helps with general anxiety but zip for acute panic attacks. It was originally prescribed for the panic attacks, but now I’m just taking 2mg in the morning and 2mg at noon just as a potential preventative for the panic attacks. Sometimes it works, many times it doesn’t….

No,no. I've got no intentions of stopping my clonazepam. My question was the clonazepam is sufficent at 4mg to control my general anxeity, but nearly worthless for a severe panic attack. My Doctor doesn't want to perscribe Xanax, and I can understand that, I was just asking if there are any other benzos that have quick onset times that do not have such a bad rap as Xanax?

Got the call afew minutes ago that the appt was pushed back to the end of the month. Secure Messaging on Myhealthevet is nice, but not nearly the same thing as talking to the Doctor.... :(

I've been on clonazeapam for about a month and a half now, and I've had great suscess with my general anxiety. But I'm already upto 4mg a day. From what I have heard, for anxiety thats about as high as you can go with that particular drug...

Recently started seeing the VA psychiatrist and physcologist about my anxiety- textbook GAD according to them. I think I registered about 75% of the symptoms. The pyschiatrist has me on zoloft and 4mg klonopin a day, so she has been very generous with the medications. Both help enormously with my day to day anxiety issues and regular panic attacks. However neither touch my acute panic attacks. I've told her about this and we've tried ativan and valium with similar results. Because of their fairly lengthly onset time by the time my acute panic attacks in full swing the klonopin does nothing to ease it. She has already made it clear she very rarely perscribes Xanax because of its potential abusive nature. This I can agree with. However are there other options in the same class of drugs that I could supplement my other medications with, something with a much shorter onset time than klonopin than Xanax, but without the addictive qualities? Or is it the quick onset that makes it addictive? :( She's been a great doctor thus far, but I gotta have something on hand for these severe panic attacks :( Appointment is today, so any suggestions would be a great help!

What I'm getting here is that Risperdal isn't for GAD or depression.

I've recently begun treatment through my local VAMC and PCP for service related conditions, and anxiety (which I presume is S/C, but have not filled for). I'm also within the 5-year window as a OIF/OEF combat veteran. I got a bill for 72.00 dollars yesterday for my two months worth of prescriptions I received.One treats my S/C condition (propranolol), two others are for anxiety, and the last is vitamin D3. Is this correct, should I just cut them a check and mail it in, or did they send me a bill erroneously? Who would I need to contact?

Wow, I always assumed that if you were S/C for conditions A,B, and C, you went to your VA PCP when you had an issue for one of those conditions, and your civilian doctor for everything else. Didn't think they would even entertain non-SC conditions.

Went for my enrollment today at the local VAMC. Got everything squared away, and I have my first appointment Friday morning. The whole experience was outstanding, however I’m confused about something. The lady that in-processed me mentioned I have Combat Veteran eligibility for 5 years, basically until 2014. She tried explaining it, but I’m still very fuzzy on this because I’d never heard of it until then. Basically it sounds like for 5 years following a verified combat deployment you have free medical care for conditions that may be related to combat service even if you’re not service connected with that condition. I’ve never heard of this before.. I guess my ultimate question is, I’m going to my PCP for my S/C because of Hypertension and Hearing. However, my understanding was that the PCP would only address your service connected conditions unless your over a certain percentage and fall under the blanket healthcare. Since my last deployment in 2009, I’ve had anxiety and panic attacks. No claim because I don’t feel comfortable filing a claim without it being in my SMR. Would this 5 year window allow me to bring these panic attacks up with my PCP?

Again, epic advice! Should have thought of this myself, but I'm glad I got the input. Went down today and got everything verified, and they even set my MyHeatheVet account up for me. Got my initial appointment with me PCP Friday :)

Yep, that looks to be what I'm looking for. Any clue how long it takes them to process you in?

I got my rating in December, and I'm lost about how to get an acutal appointment for my condition. I guess I waited for the VA to send me something else, but obviously it never came. I guess I supposed the VA would send me a card or something. I also spent a good while searching through Ebenefits for away to get an appointment, but couldn't find anything. Tried to get level 2 MyhealtheVet account, but it looks like it takes an act of congress... I stumbled on this last week, https://www.1010ez.med.va.gov/sec/vha/1010ez/ , so I took the time to fill it all out. Am I on the right track?

Thank You to everyone at Hadit, and especially Berta. About 6 months after I filed my claim I was awarded 10% for the claim I submitted, and an additional 10% for another claim they had denied a year and half before. Because the original claim was filed within my 1-yr time frame I was awarded back pay from 2009... I've never seen anything like it, and I couldn't have done it without Berta. I posted last Spring about High Blood Pressure. She told me to slow down and get everything together before I shot-gunned a claim to the VA. The best advice she gave me was to treat it as evidence. Treat everything as exhibits used to prove your claim, and that if you made things easy to find for the rater then things would go better for you. I look her advice. I made a table of contents with every pertinent item labeled alphabetically as an exhibit. At a glance the VA knew where to find my information. I highlighted the points about my tinnitus and hypertension in my medical records, and even included pictures documenting exposure to burn pits. I included a chart that displayed a steady increase in medication dosage along with copies of the prescriptions from the various doctors I had seen. Despite my blood pressure readings being lower than the required readings for a 10% rating at my examination, the rater could clearly see in my SMRs that I had a documented history of high readings, and a steady increase in medication dosages. The end result was a 20% rating with 2 years back-pay when I expected a 0% SC at best. My blood pressure was granted, and the tinnitus I had filed before was also granted because of the clear evidence in my SMR. Truth be told, every soldier, sailor, airmen, and marine who comes off active duty should be handled a card with Hadit’s information on it as a part of their out processing.

I suppose my actual question is thus; does your profile under Benefits Explorer accurately reflect your current rating?

My status went from Notification to closed in a day or so. Surprised the heck out of me! Checked my letter generator to see two new letters posted, Disabled Veteran Civil Service Preference and Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference. While I don't want to get optimistic, this at least is a sign in the right direction. However, the site is being flakey, as I can't seem to get the letters to load. My question is there anyway to find out your current rating on Ebenefits? Or at the least see if I'm service connected? I've scoured the website and the closest I can come to finding anything is under Benefits Explorer where it lists my gender, age and a rating under "Your Profile". Is this a random number used as a place holder, or does it reflect your current rating? (This is my first claim)

Got my QTC Questionnaire this week in preparation for my exam this Friday. Am I supposed to fill out just the top part, Claimant Medical History, or the History As Related by the Claimant as well? Just asking because the History related by Claimant looks like something the examiner would fill out (Ie: Has Doctor diagnosed or named the claimed conditions above?) Just don't want to fill out the wrong part and get an ear full...

C&P desk?

Hey- my Ebenefits page has had next action listed as QTC since July 17th with a suspense date as 9/17. Is it standard to not hear anything from the QTC examination to schedule anything yet, or should I follow-up some how?