Jeff Beer

Hello everyone, My first post -nice to meet you all. I'll keep this brief. I filed a claim after becoming seriously ill after servuce during Desert Storm/Shield. I went through the VA system for about 5 years. I have about 50 lbs of medical records, and huge amounts of documentation that shows everything that is now considered a Presumptive Service Connection. I currently have 30% for gastric, upper respiratory, and vision. All three of these are clearly documented in my active duty military service medical records. I also claimed undiagnosed illnesses - everything from mental health issues (was diagnised at different time for every known term for depression), variable heart rate, COPD, IBS, GERD, Fibro, "lack of motility", you name it. I'm a poster boy for the majority of the various GWI symptoms. They were all denied, and by that point, I had completely "had it" (sorry) with the entire system, and I pretty much gave up. I also filed a claim for hearing loss, and it was denied, even though my AD records clearly show it, along with an entry in my military service record saying I served in extremely high noise environments. I'm currently living in the Philippines because the cost of living is so much cheaper. I've seen some numbers that show that claims handled here are much more likely to be approved, so that makes me pretty happy. Now that the regs have changed (dramatically), how do I go about reopening my claim to gain consideration under the new presumptive rules, and to attempt to get a reversal on the hearing loss? It's now progressed to tinitus, and it's so bad I can't sleep at night. Thanks for any advice! --jeff