john999

Nothing is too good for a vet, so nothing is what they get.

Depending on how old you are I would take the IU. If you are over 50 you are basically unemployable in our economy. That is not a valid reason for VA TDIU, but if you can only work part time now I would take the IU if I could get it. The VA may change their minds and decide that IU is no longer a valid concept for future vets. If you have been unemployable for years according to VA you will probably be granted 100%.

The VA in Tampa gave me Lyrica. They probably want you on a cheaper med. Let them put you on topomax or neurontin generic and then tell them you are having horrible side effects. Ask for Lyrica at that point. This is what I did although none of this stuff really helped me.

At my VARO once anything goes into the C-File it is as good as lost because the VA never looks at it again unless they have to look to save a buck at vet's expense.

I would talk to a CPA about this since there is always a way to appeal these things based on hardship. Cheaper to talk to a CPA or tax lawyer than to just pay it. John

Big fakes usually like to add a few medals for valor and fake having 3 tours in Nam or 6 tours in Afghanistan. The fact that most living RVN vets today will die from some AO presumptive disease is driving many of our draft dodging congress critters wild since the spouses will get a small DIC pension.

The appeals department is where you can really spend a decade if you go all the way. If the VA gives you a provisional decision you like well and good. If you have to appeal it is the same old jazz. John

Don't give up as long as they owe you a penny. I was told today that my VAMC does not keep track of vets treated for OSA for more than 18 months because of staffing. They said they have 9600 vets being treated for apnea and only three nurses doing training and ordering of supplies. Whose fault is this? Is it our fault we are sick and need treatment. They are not doing long term studies of their apnea patients probably because they don't want to find out how many die or stop treatment. I think for any of us RVN era vets to get SC for apnea is pretty rare.

Is REM sleep disorder where you tend to act out your dreams? Most of us have a safety device builit-in to our sleep where we freeze during dreaming. If you don't have that you can get hurt or hurt others while dreaming. This is not sleep apnea. I have come down with sleep disorders other than apnea myself. The VA tells me that are distinct from apena (narcolepsy). There are many sorts of sleep disorders and I don't think it would be pyramiding if you claimed them. My narcolepsy has gotten so bad that sometimes while drinking coffee in the morning I fall asleep with the spoon in my hand and sleep for hours. My wife lets me sleep becasuse she knows the apnea is just making my nights pretty rough at times. John

Be very, very sure everyone at the VA knows you have a new address.

Are you employed now, and are you able to work? Have you discussed unemployabiliy with anyone at the VA?

If the VA does not do right by you on the EED then hire a lawyer because you will be going to CAVC. You have too much money on the line to make a false move. This whole thing really stinks and I wonder how the BVA will try and get out of it? John

I had a claim for DMII. The C&P doctor took one look at my labs and said "You got it all right!" I had claimed PN in all four limbs and that did not go so fast, but it went pretty fast because at least one part of the claim was objective. You never know what the VA is thinking or doing with your claim until you get the decision in your hand.

I bet a PFC today makes more than you did as a 1st LT 40 years ago. I believe that as a PFC in Vietnam, including combat pay, I was making about $250 a month. Of course, there was no place to spend the money, so I shipped most of it home.

I wonder if DMII causes OSA because DMII tends to cause weight gain and vice versa? I did not have apnea until I put on some weight and I did not put on weight until I had DMII???

From what I have read SSA is not in trouble. We don't need to change the CPI or COLA to keep SSA going. The government uses the SSA COLA for all the other government programs. That means us vets will get cut if SSA COLA gets cut. What is driving the government into a hole is medical inflation which is passed onto medicare/medicade and all other medical insurance.

The VA can send you a nurse to help you manage your meds. If you are taking all that pain medication and clonazepam (and related drugs) you can kill yourself if you forget how much you have taken. Above all don't drink alcohol. I take some strong pain meds and it worries me as well. John

I think you have an open and undecided claim going back to 1983. I know Bronco and others would love to jump on this. It is not a CUE because there has never been a decision. Your claim has just sat there buried in your file for 30 years. I would proceed carefully because the VA is going to try and wriggle out of this I think. John

In 1974 a single vet with 100% SC received $584 a month. A vet with 10% got 32 bucks a month and one with 90% got $325 a month. All the increases since then and before then are due to the COLA. When people who are uniformed start saying a new Chained CPI won't hurt us vets they are crazy. The current COLA underestimates the true cost of living. I got 10% in 1971 and it was $28 bucks a month. My father got 10% in 1946 and it was $8 a month I think. We really need a raise to the basic rate and a better COLA. I am able to get by pretty well because I get a decent amount of SSD and TDIU+HB. A 22 year old soldier who has only worked for a few years will just get the little SSD and his 100% if he is totally disabled. John

I worked for the Post Office for 20 years and I got 30% VA disability pay the whole time. I knew a guy that got 90% SC and he worked with me at the USPS. The VA has many, many disabled vets working there. I was under FERS and I got my VA disability. If your disability is so bad you cannot do the basic demands of the job then they don't have to hire you. If you became totally blind while working as a mail carrier I don't think they have to retain you. If it is work related you file for worker's compensation. If it is worsening of SC condition you file for federal disability, SSD and 100% from the VA. I did this but not for blindness. I was working for USPS. I became totally disabled. I filed for OPM disability, SSD and TDIU. John

You can even have a PTSD disorder/Claim superimposed on a personality disorder. Plus the VA is famous for changing your Axis One DX over the years.

Stillhere What John is saying is that your CUE claim is based on a violation of the rules as they were in 1983. The standards for rating disabilites change over time. All sorts of changes happen to VA rules and regs. Even the BVA screws up and uses the wrong set of rules on some CUE claims, including mine. In 1972 the rules for rating mental disabilites changed. I got caught right in the middle of that and it resulted in a remand from CAVC to BVA. Nobody caught it until it got to the CAVC.

Stillhere I don't know how they ignore evidence in the file when it is requried that they consider every piece of evidence in the file that has a impact on a decision, but they have done it many times in the past. They state that just because they did not discuss the evidence or refer to the evidence in the decision it does not mean they did not consider it. This is solid BS.

Would Bell vs Derwinski 1992 be invoked if evidence was part of the record of a claim prior to 1992, but the VA simply excluded that evidence from a decision? In other words the evidence was in the C-file, but somehow just ignored by the VA in making a decision when this evidence was crucial to a correct decision.

You know the VAMC lists drug dependency as one of my medical problems. This is funny since it is the VA that prescribed the drugs that created the dependency. I don't abuse the drugs I get. I use them just like the VA says to use them.