john999

You can ask the VA to call a CUE on themselves, but I am not sure you have a CUE. The rules for winning a CUE are very different than for winning a regular claim. The first thing the VA usually does with a CUE is deny it. I have one that is 7 years old and sitting at CAVC for a ruling. Remember decisions have to be final to file a CUE.

If you hire a lawyer he/she will want a copy of your C-File and probably your SMR's. What Gator says about getting your SMR's is true. You can order them online at the NPRC website. You may get a very incomplete record.

To establish a secondary SC condition you need a medical report that makes the connection. Otherwise, the VA will just ignore the dots. I filed for a few secondary conditions and the ones that went easy were the ones where I had a medical report that established the nexus between the primary SC condition and the secondary condition. The other ones often require C&P exam, appeals, etc.

Did you appeal the initial 30% VA rating? If you appealed and got 70% with the same evidence I think I might file an NOD and ask that my EED by 2012 for the 70%. Unless the 2012 rating was a final decision you can't file a CUE. I am not really sure about your case since you were still active duty in 2014. I was discharged before I ever filed a claim. Now that claim rating became final and I did file a CUE on that. John

Navy Saying your Crohn's Disease is due to your DNA would be like saying that a soldier who had a heart attack in service was NSC due to his bad genes. The thing with the military and VA is that they just don't want to pay when a lowly enlisted goes down from something other than a bullet or bomb. I was disabled at age 51 and I felt awful about it. That did not stop me from getting every penny I could from the VA, SSD and all the rest. There are many 22 year olds who are totally disabled for life and that is an awful prospect if they can't work or get schooling for a career.

Kate If you have filed your notice of disagreement you can hire a lawyer to help you. Then you can put this on the lawyer's plate. You can still get your IME's/IMO's and , in fact, your lawyer may know some doctors who know how to write decent IMO's. You don't need to do all this on your own. The lawyer gets paid out of retro pay, so no money upfront. John

Vync I had the "Toothache Blues" after the Army dentist got done with me. There is an old Lonnie Johnson blues number called "Toothache Blues" and it is so dirty I don't know how it ever made it onto a record back in the old days. Lonnie Johnson is singing the part of the dentist and Victoria Spivey is in the chair. "Now baby, I told you I was going to have to grind." "Doctor, Doctor grind a little slower" heh, heh.

Did you apply for TDIU? This is going to depend to some degree on what your total combined rating is for all SC conditions.

Marine-72 That was a bad exam. You need an IME to offset what that prostitute had to say about you. I can say that not bringing up your suicidal thoughts was a mistake. You need to take control of the exam and stay on symptoms. Telling the exam doctor you want to bump you rating up to scheduler 100% so you can keep working was a mistake. Mentioning money to a C&P exam doctor is like admitting you are there for a check. When she asked you what you wanted out of the exam you perhaps should have said "help with my mental problems" and then just play dumb. She showed her bias right off the bat. Now you have to worry about the VA trying to reduce your rating based on this prostitute doctor's report. This so-called doctor was out to screw you, so this is not your fault. Just please never mention money, work, or backpay again at an exam. You are asking for an increase because your symptoms match the evidence for an increase. Ask yourself if you are totally disabled due to your mental health issues? If not don't go for any more exams at the VA for mental health unless you have IME's/IMO's saying you are 100% disabled by service connected mental health issues.

Jim There was another blurb in the newspaper today walking back the "definite and conclusive link" between cancers and the water at Camp Lejeune. The Marines are saying there is not enough evidence and there need to be "more studies". The Marines say there need to be more comparative studies between all vets and the Camp Lejeune vets to look at cancer rates. Most of those exposure happened in the 50's,60's, 70's. By the time all these studies are done the victims will all be dead if they suffered the cancers. I read that one million were potentially exposed to contaminated water. I agree the quality of VA is deteriorating pretty fast. I am thinking about getting out of the system all together. I just stick around for free meds. The meds are not really free since they charge my private insurance. I have DMII, heart problem and nerve problems in my hands and feet due to agent orange, and the VA still charges my insurance when I see my PCP at the VA. How is my VA doctor supposed to check my AO health problems without seeing me. I thought the VA was not supposed to charge anything for service connected conditions? John

My old VA shrink told me once that for sex offenders there is no cure. He thought that they should be sent of an island where they could live out their lives under decent conditions. If they tried to escape the island they would be shot on sight. He had worked with VSO and child molesters and he said they were the way they were and no therapy would change them. They could not help themselves, but they were still dangerous and needed to be kept away from regular humans. John

My father-in-law was a combat marine in WW11. His brains got scrambled from an explosion. They had no real knowledge of TBI in those days. He was never right again after the war from what my wife says. He did crazy things and got into trouble with the law. He went to prison. He should have been committed to a hospital for criminally insane. He almost killed his whole family by setting fire to their house at night when they were all asleep. He never got a break from the law, the marines or the VA. He was a danger to himself and to others after his head injury. He was a hero and a danger. What do you do with someone like that? I agree that if there was aggressive mental health screening it would help screen out some more obvious cases. It probably would have screened me out. I got zero mental health screening at discharge even though I had spent two months in a large military mental hospital ward. I was crazy as hell and the army just kicked me out as a personality disorder. I never did anything to get myself put in jail, but I got no help from the VA. I do think vets with TBI's, PTSD and other mental disorders that are service connected should be given some way out of the criminal justice system unless their crimes are against people. I don't think some vet who commits murder should be given 6 months in a mental hospital, but I don't think a vet with mental problems should get ten years for drug use or for some crazy crime motivated by his/her mental illness.

Do you have to commit a crime to get a cell in Pasco if you are a vet? This sounds so good I might just get drunk and run over someone to get a cell all to myself. No...then the compensation stops.

Now the link is scientifically established. The question is how long will it take for vets and dependents both living and dead to get compensation? I can see the backlog growing because as in Nehmer I bet the VA or DOD or somebody is going to have to go back in time and compensate the living and the dead if they died from the cancers implicated in the news report I read. The study compared those who worked and served at other Marine bases with Lejeune. The number of cancers are significantly higher at Lejeune sometimes 30% to 40% higher for kidney and other types of cancer. This news should be going off like a bomb at VA HQ.

On the front page of my newspaper today was a headline that said that a definite link between cancer and the water at Camp Lejeune has been shown by the statistics over a 30 year period. So now who is responsible for all the death and disability? Will DOD or VA take responsibility? I wonder how long it will take for the many deadly cancers linked to the water at Lejeune to make it on the presumptive list? The water was cleaned up in 1987, so for 30 years before that people at Camp Lejeune were being contaminated and poisoned. This may rival AO since it the water was consumed for 30 years. I wonder how a vet or dependent who has been sickened by the poison water at Lejeune will file a claim, and will this new evidence be all they need? Will they still need IMO/IME's? John

Yes, if you are 100% for one condition and get an extra 60% for another condition you should automatically get "S" which is housebound. Even if you had TDIU for one condition at 80% and then got another 60% distinct from the TDIU you could get housebound. I did it. I actually had more than 60% but who wants to quibble? John

If your mother gets SSA and/or any pension survivor benefits she will have too much money coming in to get a NSC pension I think. You really have to be broke to get it, and it is not much. Most people I know who get it also get food stamps and section 8 housing. It is a really pathetic benefit for the Greatest Generation.

The Tet Offensive began January 30, 1968. Danang was severely hit as were most provincial capitals all over S. Vietnam. If the marine you are talking about was in Danang during Tet 1968 he must have seen combat. Does he have a Combat Action Ribbon? I think the Marines probably had every infantryman, cook, clerk and truck driver fighting to save the city at that time. I bet everyone service man who could shoot a rifle was on the line somewhere trying to protect Danang from being overrun. Hue City to the north was captured by the N. Vietnamese for a while and the fighting to take it back was house to house. John

The way it works is you hire the lawyer after you file NOD. If you are working with a lawyer already he will probably help you with the NOD since that is in his interest. What gRADA said about what a good lawyer should do for his veteran client is true. The VSO's just take your paperwork and your evidence and submits it to the VA. They don't talk to you about strategy. A good lawyer in this field should know a number of doctors who can write IME's. He should know a lot about the most common types of claims and common mental and physical injuries. If a lawyer knows nothing about PTSD how can he guide and advise the vet on how to avoid pitfalls of C&P exams for PTSD, for instance. The lawyer is not a psychiatrist but he probably ought to have business relationship with a few. Many vet lawyers are SSDI lawyers who are expanding their practice. My lawyer was in shock at first when he saw a vet's C-File which looked like a garbage dump instead of well constructed SSD claim file. If a lawyer really does his/her job they are worth their fee. I have a lawyer who has been dealing with the VA from VARO level through BVA and to the CAVC. 7 years so far and he has written many briefs and been to the BVA and CAVC at least three times. Most of us here won our claim pretty much on our own because VSO's failed us. I am happy to see lawyers being able to enter the fight. Over 40 years of filing claims for increase and new claims the VA has pulled every trick in the book on me. If I had been able to get a good lawyer as an advocate I could have avoided some of the pitfalls. At least that is what I hope for younger vets.

If you get total plus 60% you can get housebound which is about an extra $300 a month. If you have 100% for PTSD plus 60% for OSA etc that means HB=$300. It works for TDIU as well. If you get TDIU and then later get additional 60% you get HB. $300 tax free is equal to about 450 if you had to pay tax on it.

I think your TDIU effective date should go back to Oct, 2010. I get OPM, SSDI and TDIU. The money you will get from the VA will be double what you get from SSDI and OPM. I had 20 years in at USPS when I retired on disability back in 2002. Once you get your TDIU protect that rating. Get treatment at the VA for the MS even if you get other treatment from private doctors. Always send in your Employment Verification letter each year. If I was you I would start seeing a VA shrink to help cope with the disease. Do you take any anti-depressants. Depression is often a secondary condition for major disabilities and can be service connected.

You are your parent's child as long as you and they are alive. You may be over 21, but you are still the child of your parents. I don't know how the VA defines "child" for their purpose. Berta My Aunt was in her late 40's or early 50's when she remarried. She was a widow for almost 20 years and got DIC. It was a tiny amount then. When her second husband died I think she started to get DIC again. I don't think I actually got it for her. She had it when she went into the nursing home. I took over her finances after that and paid her bills etc. She had three pensions and plenty of money. Her pensions plus DIC and SSA paid for her nursing home without ever dipping into her estate. Her estate had to be probated and IRS had to be involved. I worked on that estate for years with a lawyer. I did all the work and he got 3%. I learned a lot about accounting for every dime. John

When and if you go to the dentist or get a dental exam be sure to complain that due to grinding and TMJ your teeth hurt. The way to get quick treatment for dental problems at the VA is to say you are in severe pain. I would not let the VA or anyone else do surgery on my jaw for TMJ. It can really go wrong. Unless you jaw just locks up and it requires dental intervention to get it to close stay away from surgery. After years of TMJ, myself, what happens is the ligaments that hold the jaw in place just get sort of worn out and your jaw stops popping and clicking. The only problem is your jaw can then slip and you can bite the hell out of your jaw flesh. I use the night guard. The VA should make one for you. I had TMJ in the service but the crafty dentist never entered that in my records. The jerk told me there was no treatment and to just get used to it. I was on orders to Vietnam, so I did not have time to dispute it. If the military pulls any of your teeth or does oral surgery do you have any sort of SC status? I hate my VA dentist anyway, but the Army did make a mess of a couple of extractions they did that were probably not necessary. My Army dentist tried to do a tooth transplant by pulling one of my wisdom teeth and trying to implant it in the spot where he extracted a molar. My mouth bled for days and swelled up like a baseball. John

Was your dad 100% for the last ten years or did he die from service connected condition? Is the answer is "yes" to either question your mother should be able to get DIC. Was your dad in a nursing home receiving A&A? John

I actually did win a CUE at the VARO very quickly once. I did not file as a CUE. I just requested that I be granted SMC "S" based on the fact I was totally disabled (TDIU) and had an additional 60% that was awarded years after the TDIU award. I quoted Bradley v Peake as the reason I should have gotten "S". This was two years after I got the extra 60%, and I should have been granted housebound as soon as I got the 60%. The VA dropped the ball, however. The VARO came back with an award of "S" via a CUE the VA called on themselves and two years retro. I don't know if the VA really called a CUE on themselves since if I had not requested in writing that I be granted "S" based on Bradley v Peake I would still be waiting for that "S". If you look at your C-File or a recent decision really stinks it does not hurt to question it. VSO's, lawyers and everyone else is always saying not to appeal or rock the boat. I would not rock the boat just to see it rock but if the VA owes me money then I am going to rock it. Since the BVA raised the issue of CUE and left it up to the VARO to take "appropriate action" I would send them an Iris and find out what action the VARO is taking. If I did not get some answers I might just run this by a VA lawyer because this smells like money. The VA has a bad habit of just letting years go by before the take appropriate action if they ever do on their own. I don't even know what the BVA means by "appropriate action". Years can go by while the VARO fiddles with your possible CUE. The VARO might just look it over and say "NO, CUE". However, if the BVA saw a possible CUE I would not let this thing die and would hire Perry Mason if I had to get my rights.