jefmil50

Congratulations and good luck!

They just rated me like that I didnt do anything.

They just rated me like that I didnt do anything.

I quit driving 2 years ago because my condition causes too much fatigue. It was not worth the risk to continue!

I quit driving 2 years ago because my condition causes too much fatigue. It was not worth the risk to continue!

Congratulations it was a successful fight!

I hated hearing that Holliie, getting a reduction just for asking for something that happens with M.S. patients. I asked for everything I received from this ugly disease. I was lucky, never received a reduction especially for neurgenic  bladder or any other condition that has worsened from M.S. progression. Good luck in  your future struggles with the V.A..

I think it depends on VAMC you are working with. My wife gets paid monthly for my bowel and bladder care. If your VAMC has a separate program like ours you could get help then, good luck!

Congratulations!

SMC is a quality of life issue. You assemble it like Legos. Okay. There is no requirement to get to SMC S prior to ascending to SMC L. LOU (loss of use) of lower extremities is one SMC L. If you had LOU above the knees, It would be M. If the catheter causes you to need Aid and Attendance, that is another SMC L. Two Ls advance you to SMC O. If one of the Ls is for A&A, then you get R1. You could have two entitlements to A&A and get R1. The c&p for SMC is basic. You have to prove by medical records you have been dx'd with LOU of two extremities. VA does use the VAF 21-2680 for determinations. I've never heard of a SMC L c&p taking four hours. Generally, you medical records reveal the determination you have been dx'd with the LOU or the need for A&A- but not always. The M 21 states only a VA examiner can make a LOU/ A&A determination. Thus, even if a QTC/VES/LHI doctor says yes, VA can still say no. I am currently in that situation with one of our Hadit members right now. He deserves A&A and they refuse to grant. The good news is the Mariano v Principi decision. If you have a dr. saying yes and VA says no, that's equipoise and by operation of law, they have to grant it. Sadly, I almost always have to go to the BVA to achieve them.

Congratulations that is great news!

Congratulations!

Congratulations that is just awesome!
 

Well, Loyal, this was a Swift Boat twin-.50s tub gunner who carried a terminal diagnosis with a three year punchout date. His Montana State Veterans Affairs Officer had told him in 2000 he'd maxed out at 100% for PTSD so there was no reason to file for anything else. He had the extra 60 for his back since 1996 but nobody told him about SMC S. Fort Fumble must have "overlooked it" quite by accident as he was P&T. That was a big unpaid check unto itself nobody noticed for 18 years.
Cupcake had his wife on her Real Estate website and they got to talking about Vets back in 2015. She had his wife tell him to call me. Three years later, when he did call me in May, he told me about the Prostate cancer that had metastasized into bone cancer in the pelvis & lower extremities. He got the 3-year briefing this March. I filed him for  back SMC S first with a topper of SMC L for the LOU of the lower extremities. I also asked for, and the DRO blew off, SMC L for Aid and Attendance. The guy's knocking back oxycodone, MS and tramadol (plus Jack Daniels) for the pain. It makes him a bit fuzzy. He falls down a lot from no feeling in his legs. He has scars all over his arms from falling. His private doctors (he doesn't use VA), on September 7th, looked at his recent labs and said they were revising his three years down to six months. They did offer an additional 3 months if he wanted to go back on chemotherapy until he died. He politely declined and said he'd rather die with his hair intact and not puking during his last breath. He called me September 11th and gave me the new schedule. 
I called the DRO in Fort Harrison after I hung up with him and explained our problem. She cut a  DEFCON 1 and faxed it to the BVA. I called them and got his AOD request faxed over. Next thing I know, my Travel Board gal here in Seattle called on September 13th at 1430 and said  if I could get him here from Montana, they'd give me a 10 AM slot in front of VLJ Cherry Crawford five days hence on Sept. 18th. We put them up here at LZ Grambo for the night and did the hearing the next day. Their daughter ferried them up north for a week and took them home just in time to get the BBE out of the mailbox. I grant you I've heard of BVA rocket dockets, but this is my personal best. From the May 15th  21-526EZ to BVA grant was a meagre 136 days. I got the decision before I got the hearing transcript. I hope that's the normal for all of us by the time I punch out. Look up a--hole in the VA.gov dictionary. I'm pretty sure there's probably a picture of me by now. 
Remember those golden words. Leave no one behind...

Congratulations and good luck in the future!

Someone (VA?) is blowing smoke up your rear end. I can get anyone SC for anything at any time regardless of how many times or when they got denied or in which order.  Here's a pertinent example. My Vet goes to Vietnam and loads caskets on departing C-141s at TSN for 8 months. He helps unload wounded from Dustoffs. Finally, it warps him and he begins snorting smack. The AF pulls him aside and gives him a one-time shot at rehab and a clean sheet. They evac him to Wilford Hall MC at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. He is cleaned up but his psyche is irreparably damaged. They 86 him and give him a DD 257 as an incorrigible drug addict with personality disorders. I wrote this in 2015- a full year before I was accredited by VA. https://asknod.org/2015/08/20/the-good-humor-man-at-tan-son-nhut-ab/
He filed for bent brain as he left in '70. VA denied and said his Heroin and ETOH were the cause of his mental disorders. He lost 5 more times to the present (2015). I filed anew last fall and tuned up the claim with a good, rewritten stressor. No buddy letters. No evidence of PTSD or GAD (back in those days we called it Generalized Anxiety Disorder) in service.  VA examined him and denied yet again this spring. Denial was for "no dx of PTSD".  VA insisted he had a MDD secondary to drug addiction for 48 years. Suddenly, now, there's no mention of all those denials based on drugs being the reason he's bent. I promptly went to my nexus doctors and got a beautiful dx of PTSD due to all those human popsicles in caskets he was loading. I got the shrink to say the drugs were an attempt to self-medicate and good medical treatises on the fact that drug use doesn't cause bent brain syndrome. VA just scheduled a new c&p to rate him on Friday last. Never ever, ever depend on VES/QTC doctors to write a favorable nexus. VA denied for every reason under the sun for 48 years. I won on attempt #6 because it's a simple recipe. If you refuse to follow it, you lose. In the instant case mentioned above, you (dlove74us) are being given bogus info and told to believe it.
One thing I have learned in my 30 years of doing this is the need for essential, valid knowledge. There is a lot of incorrect info out there being disseminated to Vets-often by VSOs. Once you understand the "game", you cannot lose. This presumes you have a legitimate claim (but I treat that as a given). VA denies by depriving you of a nexus-not because you are not entitled- but because they are an Insurance Co. That's what they do. They deny and frequently in case nobody noticed. You merely have to get the nexus letter to win-even if you don't get it for 48 years. 
One trick most do not realize is the old "benefit of the doubt" rule we laugh about. You file. VA denies. You get your IMO and file it with your NOD. VA is forbidden to develop negative evidence against you so the claim is now in equipoise. Equipoise = tie goes to the runner-ergo you win. You may have to go to the BVA on some contentious point of law like a jetgun claim for Hep C. In that case, you hand your IMO to a VLJ rather than a dumb-s__t rater. Bingo, you win. Let VA deny. They have to have a succinct "Finding of Fact" to deny with. Let them develop this finding so you can rebut it with a nexus. Turn their game against them. Once they commit with their negative nexus, you have the opportunity to rebut with your IMO and will win.  Sadly, I see many develop their claims and think VA is going to see the light and agree with them. Not. The M 21 was not developed to grant claims. It sounds good but the manual is designed to provide the excuse needed to deny with. I buy my nexus letters for a flat $2,000 apiece. They are always bulletproof.
I've had 4 losses in about 1000 attempts since 2008. Reasons? 1) Liar (was never in Vietnam); 2) Liar (admitted to drug addiction in 1993 and then testified in 2014 he was clean as the driven snow); 3) Lied about OTH discharge; and 4) Liar (lots of UCMJ violations for more things than I can list here and most were not LOD). You win because a) you're right  and b) you told the truth. If the STRs and the claims file bear out your contentions, you will always succeed. If you failed, you forgot to supply one of the needed three ingredients. If I can get a Vet SC for glioblastoma for Camp LeJeune water and it isn't on the list, then you folks can do it too.  https://www.va.gov/vetapp18/files3/1815897.txt
I'm not a miracle worker nor do I profess to be one. I use VA's game against them. I suggest you do the same.

Who cares about a SF 93 if you do have STRs showing a specific injury or disease? It doesn't even need to have a name. The STR can declare R/O (rule out) patellofemoral injury ( or whatever) and it might turn out to be a miniscus tear. Always remember, you are not a doctor nor are you expected to be. By law, (Layno v. Brown 1994) you can always legally say "I have an owie on my knee from service".  What you cannot say is "Pardon me, but I seem to have a meniscal tear in my right knee." If the STRs say so then Bingo. SC for knee disability. VA will try to use the SF 93 against you if it is there and they use it against you if it isn't. Six of one- half a dozen of the other. Change your game and work around it. Remember always, there was a SF 88/SF 89 when you entered. It's a testimony to the fact that the Presumption of Soundness attaches except for deficiencies "as noted".  So if it says both your knees were 5 by, and your in-service STRs document a LOD knee injury, then Boy howdy-you're gonna be SC'd for Knee(s) eventually. If VA gives you any shi(f)t and denies, you go buy a Nexus and slap them down with it.
We always win. You can't really lose. It just takes way longer if you don't follow the recipe from the get-go. Seriously, folks. How many of you read about a LOD loser here with legitimate records of service incurrence? I've been doing this since 1989 and the denied list is due primarily to lack of entitlement or bad paper. You may have to go to the CAVC as I did to prevail but you will always prevail-well- assuming you have a savvy legal mind or above-average legal counsel. That, of course, rules out about 98% of VSOs. No insults intended but I just base it on what I read at the BVA decisions site. VA Lions-85, Christian Vets-15. That's what this site is all about.
Never get caught up in a singleminded path to benefits. Always expect setbacks or detours. Have alternative pathways, secondary conditions and an extra IMO in reserve. In VA poker, you bet like you only have two aces, not the 3 and a pair of 8s you're holding. You wouldn't believe the evidence I pull out of my hat at DRO hearings. How about showing up with 50 of the 176 pages of STRs VA forgot to go get (at the NPRC) in 1970 when you filed for SFW in 12 muscle groups? I made them go get their own copies. They thought I was lying anyway. How about a 1969 General Courts Martial onion skin transcript in the original Blue Folder showing a major altered state and they denied you a year later in 1970 for Bent brain when you got out. The idea is to roll their socks down. I like it when they suddenly suck their lower lip in and moan a little bit. 
I don't just do this to help Vets. I do it for the entertainment value. VA should never have pulled my string in 1989... and 1992...and 1994-95  and 1998... and 2007, 2008, 2010,2011,2014, 2015,2016, 2017 and now in 2018. Now it's a p*issing match, folks. What can I say? They accredited me and gave me access to the VBMS. How stupid can you get?

Congratulations awesome news!!

Congratulations and good luck on your future battles. Your in very good hands here!

Congratulations, hope everything gpoes smooth for you in the New Year!
 

Congtatulations!
 

Awesome, you give them hell Broncovet!

Awesome, you give them hell Broncovet!

Congratulations, welcome back and glad you got what you were working so hard to achieve and deserve! I live north of you and can not wait to drive down to the Keys again!

Congratulations awesome wonderful news!!