sully375

This was my thinking as well. The reason I am going to continue to work for a couple years is that my wife has been wanting to go back to school for a degree in Child Psychology, she is a teacher with a Masters already and wants to be a school psychologist. I've already signed over the last remaining year of POST 9/11 to her so I will just have to come out of pocket for some of it since my understanding is that since I am not rated permanent at this time she doesn't qualify for free schooling. Plus I'll be honest I get paid very nicely to work from home. So I told my wife she can take the next couple years off and get this degree then I am retiring, hopefully by 40! Also I was already starting a MEB with the guard based on the 70% PTSD, now with the 100% combined PTSD/TBI I am sure they will not be able to deny me the disability retirement I am filing for. Well, I hope. 12+ years at E7 at a minimum of 50% retirement with CRSC would be a nice addition to this recent award!

Well I got my official letter yesterday stating 100% PTSD/TBI and 30% Headaches. This was originally a claim for TBI only. I already had 70% PTSD, 30% L knee, 10% Tinnitus, 0% hearing loss. With this new award I also qualified for SMC-S My account was also finally updated for my son as a dependent after 19 months. Original PTSD claim 12/19/2011 - 07/31/12 70% TBI Claim 01/17/2013 - 01/31/2014 resulting in PTSD/TBI with residual cognitive disorder, NOS 100% and Migraine Headaches associated with PTSD/TBI 30% SMC-S (housebound) based on a single 100% and additional rated at 60%. This does have me a bit worried as I DO want to work, so it is a mixed blessing. I work from home writing material used in training the military. Since the award states it is a combination of the TBI and PTSD because of the inability to separate or directly relate each symptom and is NOT TDIU I don't think it is an issue to continue to work from home. Nothing stated I can't. I plan on speaking with a VSO about this and want to talk with the doctor I had evaluate me on the civilian side and see if she can maybe separate out what symptoms might be related to each disability. Maybe I can have them split.

I am not sure about this or what it means, I will need to research. I have a very sweet setup with a job that allows me to work from home so I don't want to do anything that would make me inelligible to work. I am also going to be tested for TBI but I don't think I will come near 80% in any way, shape or form.

I am rated 0% for hearing loss in left ear.

I just wanted to post to hopefully help someone wondering how long the process could take in GA. I submitted a claim for PTSD in December 2011 (received 19 DEC) and was awarded my 70% on the last week of July (letter dated 31 July 2012), so just over 7 months. I have been seeing a civilian psychologist who wrote a 10 page report that I submitted with my claim which helped greatly. If you can afford it see a civilian counselor, psychologist /psychiatrist. My QTC appointment was mid March. I was actually surprised I was rated so high, I thought 50% max. I am now rated 70% PTSD + 30% Knee Injury (awarded 99) + 10% tinnitus (awarded 99) = 80% total disability. Wish I would have known about this VA math back in high school/college, I would have argued my low math scores a little more! Don't get discouraged and keep up the fight. I know many of you have been trying for years to get what should be rightfully yours so I somewhat feel bad for saying it only took 7 months for mine to go through. Mostly you Vietnam vets have gotten crapped on, but please keep fighting. RLTW Edit: Back pay received 7 August.

So what I planned on doing seems to be the way to go. File a new claim for PTSD, use my head doctors write-up for the new claim. Also submit that even though they said there was no record in my VA files of PTSD submit the "positive" results for the PTSD screening from 05. Thanks for the help.

SO I have looked around and see a lot of posts about filing but maybe I missed what to do after a year has gone by. So here is the short of it: Timeline: June 27, 2008 entered a claim for PTSD October 21, 2008 Denied claim for PTSD Reason: Review of service records show no treatment of PTSD while on active duty (Sept 98 - FEB 2005) Outpatient treatment records from Central Alabama VHCS were negative for PTSD Failed to report for VA examination. (Big I know) I moved in August of 08 from Alabama to NJ so I never got an appointment letter. I am now living in GA. The letter did show that my CIB was a conceded stressor for PTSD. I see that I had one year to appeal and it is now past that one year. I also see that it says that if I didn't start my appeal on time the decision is final. But it then says "you can not get the VA benefits you were denied unless you either: show that we were clearly wrong to deny the benefit or send us new evidence that relates to the reason you were denied. So, 1) I am seeing a Psychologist who has diagnosed me with PTSD. 2) The October 2008 letter states that "Outpatient treatment records from Central Alabama VHCS were negative for PTSD" but I found a letter from the VA dated 8/18/2005 that shows screening for PTSD was positive during an examination for Knee pain which I now collect 30% for. It would appear I have new evidence to submit but how would I do it after almost 4 years? Thanks, Sully