JohnM

Thanks Army1968VV, I downloaded and fill it out right away

Berta, Would you advise contacting him now or wait for a reply from VA?

A lot of you have talked about DR. Bash. Does he do all of this over the Internet or do you have to go to him? We live in Wisconsin and can not afford to travel so far, How does every get the info to him?

My DR. wanted me to wait till I was 60 but I could not tolerate the pain so I was 44 & 45 with no problems. Although I use to work in a warehouse picking orders ( heavy ) about 10,000 lbs a day and I could not do that any more plus working on cement floors is not good for you, Unfortunely 5 weeks after my first knee replacement I had a heart attack and had surgery so when I went back to work I had to have a sit down job, That only lasted for 4 yrs till I went on SSD. I will soon be 57 with no problems at all with my knees but again I haven't been working, so there is very little wear and tear on them now.

I don't know anything about your second question, but would like to make a comment about your arthroscopic surgery. In Feb. of 1998 I had arthroscopic on my left knee, It only made it worst, By July of 1998 I could not take the pain anymore and had to have the knee replaced, July of 1999 I had the other knee replaced with out having the arthrothroscopic, a nurse where I had worked opt for the arthroscopic surgery first had her knee replaced 5 weeks later. I quess what I am saying is if your knee is bad enough for arthroscopic than it might be worth talking about replacement instead of dealing with that pain twice. In my opinion its just putting money in the Dr.'s pocket with no results. Just thought I would put my 2 cents in. What ever you decide I wish you luck but also make sure you do the exercises to get the knee working It hurts like H but it is worth it about 5wks latter. I have not had any problems with my knees at all. JohnM's Wife

John's MRI results was negative for Menier's but they found prominence of the cisterna magna. Does anyone have any idea what this is? Would this be a condition for compensation? They can not figure out why he has Vertigo and therapy is not working, still having the dizziness so they referred him back to our primary DR. Does anyone know what other test can be done for dizziness? She was very vague in her letter. I mean she does say he has the hearing loss with symmetrical bilateral tinnitus but no explantation for the dizziness and of course found cisterna magna.

Can anyone tell me if you had both knees replaced and they are not working because you have bone disease ( not sure what the name is ) if this could be related to AO and how would you go about proving it. Thanks in Advance JM's Wife

John just went through this on Friday. Two test a MRI and another test. It takes about an hour for both. results should in early next week. He was diagnoissed with true vertigo, did the therapy but did not work the dizziness is still there, he has a hearing loss with tinninus and vertigo being that the therapy did not work for the dizziness the next step is to have the MRI. I hope this helps. Oh yes he does go to a ear,eye nose specialist.

Thanks for your comments: We sent the letter in because our VA Rep suggested we should. If it gets some attention I feel no harm done. As far as Spina Bifida, in my research there are a lot of Vets complaining about back problems and in later in life when it is time for surgery that's when they find out that they have spina bifida occulta, and when they appeal about their backs they all have been denied ( except two people ). So basically John will be denied also. It is time that they start considering this as a birth defect. If it was just Spina Bifida ( Children born to a Viet Nam Vet they do , but not occulta). We are not sure weather to sign the form, we will be asking our VA Rep on that. Yes John has DMII, Peripheral Neuropathy, hearing loss, tinninus, Vertigo ( being tested Friday for Menieers,MRI ) This is SC on record, Catracts, Upper Respitory ( on record while in Viet Nam ) . He takes Zoloft for depression, but has not been diagnoissed for PTDS ( Only by our primary DR. for depression) Unforntunatly his back is not on record and that will be hard to prove. As far as the DR.'s go we have not gone to the VA DR.'s as of yet, his problems just came up in the last year. We have a good DR. but he knows nothing about the VA, just that they have helped a few of his patients. As far as his back we have letters from our primary and spine Dr.'s but they said that they can not say when it started or if it would be SC, The pain clinic Dr. said it has been a problem for a long time. His fall off of the choppers he did not complain about it, Right now our VA Rep is working on DMII, Neuropathy and hearing loss, PTDS, we did not put down about Respitory because we did not know at the time that VA covers it, So when we get a rating on the above, she said we will start on the next. ( one at a time). So for now it is a waiting game.

What I can tell you about John is a lot of constent loud ringing , ( never goes away )lose of hearing, dizziness ( vertigo) he is now being tested for meniers also,

Two week ago I wrote a letter to Tammy Baldwin, Russ Fiengold, and Herb Kohl.> Here is what I wrote. My husband is 57 years old, a Viet Nam VEteran: Enlisted in the Marines not once but twice, Was in Viet Nam not once but twice. Up until this last yyar he has been pretty healthe, his back went out and he needed back surgery, he lost his job filed for SSD and thank God he got that right away without fighting and waiting. We just had learned about VA compensation and he has filed. His is a person who never went to a doctor for anything unless he was on his death bed. While in the service he fell off of two choppers never complained never went to doctors. He suffered over 30 years with his back. Wehn he finally had to have back surgery we found out that he has an undeveloped rib and spina bifida occulta. The military does not recognize spina bifida occulta. But this is a birth defect. Because of him not going to the doctors about his fall and that his back hurt he most likely will not be compromised for this. I am writing for two things: 1. That the government finally consider that spina bifida occulta is a birth defect and be considered aggravated by the military. (When enlisted he was not physically fit for military ). The physicals should check for these defects also. 2. Our independent primary doctor does not no about VA compensation. Nothing in fact about Aent Orange. Nothing in fact of what the Va excepts military related. In fact all he could say is everything is due to wear and tear. 3. The government should be sending notices to all doctors andhospitals about the VA and especially what the except about Agent Orange. So the doctors can help those Veterans that need medical documents from their doctors that they know whaat to writedown. Like DMII, Peropheral Neuropathy, Catracts, Hearing Loss, These are Just a few , There are many more. Thank You JohnM' Wife On Aug 12 I recieved a letter From Tammy Baldwin That she had faxed my letter to the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs, She also stated that she would be happy to contact the VA regiona Office and aletr the ageny on her interes in John's claim. This morning we sent her a thank you letter for her fast responds and at this time would pass on her getting involved at this time, we wanted to see what would happen. Today we recieved a letter from Tammy Baldwin and Russ Fiengold Both of them had said " Mrs JohnM We got the VA's Attetion. Pleae return the Privacy form if you want us to check on your husbands claim. This is a fast responds : If we have them check on his claim does anyone know if that will hurt him or help him. Or should we just sit on it.

Pete53 You are most certainly right about the Gabapentin, Neurotin. I am on 800 x 4 also. I have fibromyalgia and that helps for the pain and sleeping. I have also taken more than 3200 mg in a day. Although since I have had my WLS I do get very drunk like feeling but that is because of my stomach is not absorbing them now. So I only take them now when I can't stand the pain. I need to be alert for my husband otherwise I have never had a problem with the meds. If you are not getting any sleep ask the DR. if you can take more of the Gabapentin, The reason you are on a low dose is because you have to work up to a higher dose ( Anyways thats what they told me in the begining) I have now been on it for 4 yrs. They will tell you that in order to heal you need to be able to sleep. So that would be my suggestion Good Luck

Pete53 I thought you would like to check out our chat line on baritric surgery in Madison,WI meriter.com/living/discussion or bariatric@surgery.wisc.edu The people here are very friendly and informational: Most have had the bypass but some have had the lap band. We have a very big crowd and it seems like its getting bigger every month. Again Good Luck with your dissicion. No one can make the dission for you, That's all up to you. As for me it was the best one I have made in years.

I had gastric bypass May of 2005, 15 months later I am 133 pounds less. Medicare covered all but the copay,+ $300. Its a drastic step but if you need to lose weight and can not it is the best. I can eat just about everything, except for for me food on the grill( especially barbucue) or spices do not set with me, I get the dumping right away. You will have to realize that its a life changing experience. You may feel very hungary but then a few bites and you are full. I'm still losing but at a slower pase. Make sure you have Dr's who have experience with doing these surgeries, In Madison, WI. we have several DR.'s but only Two good ones and they started the Baratric Clinic. They do not just do the surgeries and let you go on your own like most do. Go to the support group meetings, do not be affraid to ask questions. My experience started out bad for the 1st month, But I would do it again in a heart beat, if I had to. Any question on it Just ask anyone who has had it, There will be some horror stories, but the goods ones out weight the bad. Good Luck I'm with you 100% John's Wife

My Brother has just recieved his rating this last month and VA is now giving him a physical, all the doctors he has seen in the last week have been real helpful to him and yesterday he had to go for a hearing test and they are going to give him two hearing aids on for each ear. He asked me what he should do about his insurance and medicare plus medicare d. He doesn't know if he should keep it or not. I said I would get on line and ask you guys. Should he keep his supplemental insurance and medicare d now that VA is helping? So far he has been rated 50% but his VA Rep. feels that he can get 100% but one step at a time. Need your advise Thanks John's Wife

These are good tips I would like to add on that nobody talks about When you get a case aid they give you a 800# to call Update them on any time you need to see a new doctor. ( Who, Where, When ) So if they want they can get those files also.

Thanks Berta, John read your reply and has now fill it out, I am sending it out this morning

I have been trying to get John to get his military records and printed out SF 180 to fill out. He said that all we would recieve is the DD214 and we already have them. Would this be true or can we get all of his military records? I mean all records

Now that I understand the GAF score could someone make a new list on all the abbrevations. It is very difficult to read some of the postings because the abbrevations are not all listed on what I have. I printed out what Morgan posted on Feb. 27th but they are not all there. Thanks

Can anyone tell me what a GAF score stands for. I have a list of abrev. but there is a lot of them that are not on this list. Maybe someone could up date the list. Thanks

David; Where John and I use to work they started the drug testing after an accident and someone got killed, What they are looking for is illegal drugs and achcol. The precription medicaton should not be affected although it might show up on the test therefore you need to be upfront with them. And if I am not mistaken they are going around and saying hire Vets. If you do not comply and you do pass the test and they find out later you could end up losing the job. They can not hold medical conditions against you, even if they try it is against the law. and once hired they can not fire you because of your medical conditions, that also is against the law. Carry a list of all your medications with you at all times therefore if a random test would come up you would be covered. this also includes any cough medicine you would take or anything over the counter, because they will definitly come up on the test. Good Luck

Thanks for your input: John doesn't have all these symptoms I would say at least half and those he doesn't want to admit to. I handed my letter to our VA Rep. and I guess we will wait and see. I did ask her about the TDIU form and she suggest we wait and see if he gets a rating first. Plus we wanted to add a few other conditions to his list that where not added because we did not know about them the first time around and she suggest waiting on those till we hear something because the list is long now. We recieve a letter from our IM Dr. it doesn't sound bad but he was not sure if anything would be SC besides age and wear and tear. I have also asked Two other Dr.'s to write a letter on what they believe. His ear nose and throat dr. because of his hearing and vertigo which isn't going away with therapy, she scheduled a MRI for that so she will wait for the results of it before she writes a letter. And his Spine DR. who prformed the surgery on his back, If Because he has Spina Bifida Occulta being that was a preexciting berore enlistment if that was the begining of his back problems. No that was not written down on his physical they just discovered it this last Feb. during his surgery. and he was just diagnoissed with DMII this year also.I am sure after VA sends him to the DR's They will find that he has PTSD. There are plenty of things I wrote in my letter about it some of which John made me take out, So I figure I will bring them up at his appointment time. He says he will talk to them but under Protest. In other words he does not like talking about things to anyone but family. I don't know if I said it before but he is a very private person and keeps a lot of things inside, but he has been on zoloft now for about six years and he does understand that he can control his anger better, and he tends to laugh things off more now than making threats.

Does anyone have any info about toxic water at camp Pendleton, or MCAS Tuston? At this time they are both being cleaned up by the military. Do you need to wait for a disease to hit before you file? Why did the military only notify certain groups of people? ( Once who were married living in base housing )

Shalia, My husband is not as far as you are But please let me tell you from my own experiences do not go alone take a family member a friend or someone that knows you well. I do not know how VA is but when my husband needs to go I will be by his side. He sit in on my sessions and goes to every doctor appointment I have and I do the same for him. I was once treated like that and the doctor told me to take my vicoden like it was candy and go back to work that I would not get SSD. Well I took the vicoden like candy and I got addicted to it. I did not go back to work and I did recieve my SSD without a fight. and so did my husband. If they know you have a wittness to their actions they will back off. If your wittness steps in and says something about your health They may back off on that also. You do not need to take that from them. after all you are there to see them for a reason. If you need to go back to him and he acts that way turn him in to the board ( I would turn him in even if you do not need to see him again ) Get your records from him see what he wrote down and if he wrote anything but the truth call his boss on him. If he treats you this way he treats others and someone needs to call him on it. I have done this to two different doctors and one of them I walked out of his office because he told me I was fat.

Went to the Dr. yesterday I was shocked that he really did not no anything about VA. He said he would write a letter but he is saying everything is due to age and wear and tear. I tried to explain to him about DMII/PN and agent orange but he doesn't understand. Matter of fact we were his first to ask for help. What do we do now because he letter ( nexus ) will probably not help. and as for John's back well there again wear and tear and no medical proof that he fell off the choppers. as for his catracts he's having surgery in Sept and doc said again that's from age ( He's only 57 ). The PN is in both feet now, with his vertigo, loss of balance I'm starting to get scared that he will not get any help. As far as PTSD that has never been discussed just that he takes Zoloft (50MG a day). Can we ask the VA to give him a physical? He lost his job back in Nov.2005 due to his back and he got SSD without fighting for it. Will that help for getting VA compensation. A lot of John's problems are just coming to light this year and of course the only thing he can really say is that he was in Nam (2x) and he does have medals listed on DD214's Thanks