rdawg

Hello Hadit Family, I am a long time Hadit user that has been away for a while. My step father is Dave Foster, a Vietnam marine who was just diagnosed with stage 4 soft tissue sarcoma of the tongue, throat, tonsil and lymph node. He has applied for VA disability but who knows how long that will take to be approved. My sister started a gofundme page to help with the medical expenses. Please check out Dave's story at the very least to read about his stellar service in Vietnam. If you can contribute, that would be great also. Every little bit helps, even $10. https://www.gofundme.com/dave039s-cancer-fight Thanks, Russell

i clicked it after 4 years of waiting. still nothing. been 2 months.

dec 10 thwill be three years for me.

It stopped years ago

must be. same here.

dec 2012 was the last cola increase. means nothing as far as when you willbe paid from. probably the date you filed.

"yes" is the default selected under Permanant disablity. go to the benefits explorer and in the internet explorer window (or firefox, safari, whatever equivalent) go to view/source. You will see the code that built the webpage. Under things like va disability rating you will see a bunch of options like 10 - 20 -30-. next to one of them it will say "selected". this means that the info was retrieved from your record and displayed. for you it should say 60 -selected. Under Permanent and total there is no "selected" which means it does not query your record for that info. You can change it to what ever you want and click view benefits to see the benefits you are entitled to "if you were considered P&T"

not necessarily. go to Apply for Benefits >> Compensation Benefits and go thru the screens like you are starting a new claim. About halfway thru you will see all of your conditions with thier percentages. ANy that say Not-Sevice connected were denied. If they have 0% then they were awarded with a 0% rating. Make sure you delete the application for benefits at the end.

if they change you from degenerative disc disease to lumbar strain, is that considered a reduction? Still based on rom, my percentage stayed the same but I think they changed my code to deny me for secondary issues like siatica. Still waiting on that decision.

all of my letters are still there. dunno.

my claim is from DEC2010. They made a decision on some of the contentions and deffered others. At least that is what the decision letter said. Epeggy says I have a new claim date of 23 FEB 2013 (the date of the other decisions) and that it is in Administrative review with no estimated time of completion. I called 800peggy and she/he said it was indeed deffered but because of the new date it did not fall under this latest push to get claims done. He submitted an IRIS for me but they haven't responded. I still have the RO numbers (thanks Berta) from when they messed up the percentage I should be paid at. I will give them a call tomorrow.

crepitis is a symptom of something, not a diagnosis. Was there a documented injury associated with this sick call? or were u just sore from whatever you did the day before? I think you answered your own question by posting Was there a diagnosis in this SMR? Was there a documented injury? If no then you need a very strong IMO stating that your current condition is related to "the sick call" in your SMR. I'm betting there was another C&P exam performed due to the remand and that dr stated "not related to military service" and the VA gave more wieght to his opinion. My honest opinion -- you did everything they asked while you were in service, probably above and beyond the call of duty by sucking it up when it came to pain and your knee conditio nis likely related to your service. But, without a "documented inservice injury" this is a very difficult win. With that said -- go above and beyond to try to defeat them. Never give up. Good luck.

good point megph0405. I stopped taking over the counter anti inflammatory meds. not rx'd.

did you get a job or do any volunteer work that would contradict your unemployability? It sounds like they proposed to reduce your % with the letter in Sep 2012 and then reduced you in Jan 2013 due to not returning letter. Then they opened a new claim after you returned the letter. Do you have any other medical evidence of the severity of your condition or how it affects your ability to get a job? If so I would submit that evidence soon.

your af pay wouyld be taxed. va tax free.

I did stop taking anti inflammatories a couple of days before my exam and I had a flare up the day of the exam. I wouldn't over do it with yard work. Just me.

ha ha , very funny. don't mess with stevie, he blind.

i had the opposite experience with one c&p and the same experience with another. for sleep apnea the c&p dr agreed with my imo and internet articles. urinary did everything he could to shoot it down.

try something in computer security. It is huge right now, there are programs that take less than 17 mos. and you really don't need a degree but a certification and a little experience, Try to gain the experirnce thru volunteering or interning,

even though you didn't request a review it is part of the process of creating a SOC, If the rater made obvious errors then the person writing the SOC can't put those errors in the SOC and brings it to someones attention. Then they try to resolve it at the RO.

some of those exposures go back to the 1960's. should those people who have been sick since then and just now have a recognized exposure and well grounded claim wait any longer? I think not. I'm in the same boat as you retired. but I know people who were stationed there that are suffering terribly. They made formula for thier babies with that water. They were exposed before I ever saw service. They should be expidited, in my opinion, ahead of me.

get your smr's. they are accepting your wifes/buddies statement that you were in an accident and hospitalized but there is no "medical evidence" of a diagnosis of a condition, ie ,broken arm/leg whatever. I'm assuming your Dr. did not review your smr's and they discounted his statement because of that. get your smr's and have your dr write a note saying that he reviewed tehn and that your current condition is likeley related to the condition that is in your smrs.

immediate denial of all pending claims.

i can see mine.

no. it could be more. for it be presumptive it has to be at least 10%, congrats