john999

If ever there was a reason for vets to march it is this Backlog. I may very well be dead before my CUE claim is ever decided once and for all. I have already waited 7 years and I know I have years to go if my lawyer will hang in there. John

I won a cue claim. It was for SMC "S". I was totally disabled for a number of years and then got an extra 60% back in 2008. The VA should have immediately granted me "S" but they did not. I believe it was Teac and some other vets here who clued me in that under Bradley v Peake I should have gotten "S" when I got the extra 60%. I wrote a letter to my VARO and explained that I should have been in receipt of "S" since 2008 (this was 2010 I think) according to Bradley v Peake. A couple of months later I got back a decision letter saying the VA had called CUE on themselves and were awarding me "S" with retro to the date of my 60% award. At that time I had a CUE claim with a lawyer on another issue which seemed crystal clear(3 years later still at it). Usually, CUE's are just black and white and the VA uses them to address a multiple of sins and ommissions. If there is the slightest room for debate the VA will quote " the undebateable error" part of the CUE equation. You can win on two of the three roots of a CUE and fail if the evidence is not "undebatably" in your favor. That is a higher standard than they use for death penalty cases. In a death penalty case if there is doubt the accused should go free. In a CUE if there is the tiniest bit of debatable evidence the vet (must)lose. John

I have had VA C&P doctors ask me: 1. Do you hear voices? No 2. Do you see things? No 3. Are you working? Yes End of interview! 5 minutes. Date around 1980 My first VA interview did not even ask if I was working. I was in a VA rubber room. The doctor said "patient gets on well with other inmates".......10% disability for schizophrenia and depression. I was homeless and not working. Date 1973. The VA can and has been very, very bad to vets in the past and probably now and the future. It depends on orders from Congress about the budget. I never got a decent rating until I rehabilitated myself via private means and got IMO doctors to do reports for me. IMO's are crucial to many vets who don't appear crazy, but who are falling apart inside. In my case they just screwed another Vietnam vet for a lot of years. John

I mailed my re-order form to the VAMC in their own envelope in December for my January refill of my pain meds. My pain meds are delivered by certified mail any time from the 1st to the 8th of the month. This puts a strain on me since I get exactly one month supply. Today was the 9th so I called the pharmacy. No record of any pain meds being mailed. I called the Pain Nurse. She said she never received a form from me???? What should I expect? It is December and the USPS is full of temps throwing main everywhere. The nurse told me that I should expect my 30 day supply to arrive any time between the first of the month to the 13th of the month if I mail in the form on time. If I take my meds as directed I will run out one day after the 30th day after I get them. If I get them on the 2nd of the month I run out on the 3rd. I can't wait until the 13th to get a refill. I have been over this with the big boss time and again and they just do what they want. I asked them when they could express mail them to me and they told me it would take five days from today if I was lucky. I said I obviously could not wait that long and I would come get them........damn 20 miles and perhaps wasted day for all I know. If I had said "yes, I can wait five day" then they might think" if he can go all these days without the drugs why are we sending him narcotic pain meds?" If your life depends on your drugs the VA is no place to get them. Spend the money and get them on a plan. No real pain doctor would expect you go to almost 2 weeks without narcotic pain meds after being on them five years.

If Tugger's DD214 has "Served in Vietnam" on it then I think he will win his AO claim. My AO journey started about 14 years ago and I was really shocked when the AO exam showed I had problems. I am not shocked any more. The most important disease to get SC'ed for if you have it is DMII. It can lead to many other problems including heart problems,kidney, Liver and PN.

I think if you are going to go into federal court you need a lawyer to take you there. You may be able to file the paperwork to get on the docket, but you will need a lawyer. The CAVC would be child's play compared to federal court, but if you have a good lawyer and a good case you may win. It will end up back at the VA. Read Cushman 2008 at the CAVC site and you will see. He won at federal court, but it back on remand at the BVA. This has gone on for decades. I have been to CAVC twice once remanded back to BVA. John

I am pretty sure you will get a C&P. Are you able to work? That is really the question that will decide your rating.

Most of us Vietnam vets who were somehow exposed to AO and can prove it will very probably die from an AO related disease. Consider that DMII, IHD, Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer and many other cancers are presumptive for AO the odds are that we will die from AO. All my close buddies from Nam have DMII and one is dead already. We were all healthy young men. I guess we need to tell the spouse to make sure we get the doctor to do an autopsy and consider our AO diseases as at least contributing factor in our deaths. Also, for the guys out there with a spouse start saving for a fund for your spouse so that she/he has at least 10,000-20,000 to live on while they wait for DIC, SSA survivor benefits, insurance etc to start. I think about this alot and I don't want my wife to be worried and in grief at the same time.

I just sent in my TDIU employment questionaire and got back my green receipt. I advise those on TDIU not to wait for the VA to send you the reminder. Download the form and send it in yourself. John

Are we talking about the Employment Questionaire for TDIU or just for NSC Pensions?

The VA waiting game is really the VA dying game. I suppose if Congress can allow victims of Sandy to wait for shelter over their heads in freezing weather they can wait for vets to get old and die waiting for decisions. The whole thing is a disgrace. Every time the Congress allows these things to happen their pay should be cut by 15%. If Congress wanted vets to have their claims adjudicated in a rational time frame it would happen. They don't care one bit and for that they should get the 15% self discount on their stinking pay. The VSO's should not get another nickle as long as they don't scream out against these delays. I am waiting 7 years on my CUE.

Teac How long a stop on HB or A&A? Not permanent????

An admission to a VA hospital can be viewed as an informal claim. It was in my own case twice. Originally and for an increase years later. John

If you IMO is going to say he reviewed your SMR's you better have a copy of them, so he could have reviewed them theoretically at least. The same goes for more current VA medical records. My VA doctor sent me to a retired VA doctor to do an IMO for me back about ten years ago. This was like "money from home". The retired VA doctor did an IME for me that just blew the VA away and also it was cheap. The VA just integrated the retired VA doctor's IME right into my rating decision word for word. You could ask your VA doctor if he/she knows anyone on the outside now that can do IMO/IME's.

Ms Clinton passed out and bumped her head with minor concussion. Now we find that she has a blood clot on her brain. These TBI's are no joke. Do soldiers get that kind of follow-up after being blown-up by an IED. I doubt it. Ten years later they drop dead while eathing a pork chop and nobody knows why. My Father-in-Law had a really bad TBI in WWII. He is dead now. He spent months in a locked ward and got "better". Then his behavior went south and the Marines kicked him out for assulting someone. He was completely crazy and very dangerous at times and normal at other times. He was "shell shocked". John

We got some really smart people here at Hadit. A lot smarter than me, and more squared away. I don't have enough OCD to keep charts and such. It is a wonderful idea. I just sent in my certified/return receipt Employment Questionaire for TDIU purposes. I trust these mothers not at all. I don't wait to get a form in the mail. Around the first of the new year I send them a complete questionaire. I operate on distrust and paranoia when dealing with the VA. John

I need a calculator that bilaterals the hands and feet. I am sitting at 90% without bilateral factors. I used Hadit calculator. 70% 60% 10% 10% bilateral for feet (two 10% ratings one on each foot) 10% bilateral for hands (two 10% ratings one on each hand)

I used Blue Cross for an IMO twice. All it is is a second opinion. The doctors know how to use medicare and your insurance to get paid. Now BC or medicare is not going to pay $5000 for some high class records review and major medical brief. They will pay a certain amount. I got mine for about $300. There are some doctors who advertise here who want big bucks and it may be worth it, but I don't think insurance will pay all that freight. The thing is you don't always need to have each page of your medical records reviewed in detail. You may need for the reasons and basis of your denial to be rebutted and for the doctor to say he/she reviewed all your records. If you are trying to prove something on the fringes that needs many medical footnotes and citations then you may have to pay. John

When is the last time any of us guys had the finger up the butt by a doctor or a colonoscopy? What is it about those type procedures that give us the willies?

BVA employees and judges would lose jobs. Even people at the VARO would lose their jobs. Both BVA and CAVC remand most of their cases. Hell, most BVA appeals sit for a year waiting to be certified to the BVA and then another year or two to be heard. Then if you want to go to CAVC it takes a year just to get there and a year to do all the back and forth. Then the case must be assigned a judge and he must make a decision to remand and that takes a year at least. In the meantime people who get paid are moving cases around and losing things. This means employment for VA workers and misery for the rest of us. The famouse Cushman CUE claim started sometime in the 90's I believe and is on remand to the BVA right now after going to Federal Court and back to CAVC. He is 100% now but was unable to work since the 1980's when his claim was mishandled by a VARO worker. We consider him a big winner since his case established that vet's have a property right(I think) in their own claims. He is in his 60's and still waiting for retro as far as I know. I wonder how long my lawyer will stick with me since it has been 6 years since he filed his first brief in my CUE? He said if he could not win my CUE he would never do one again because it was so obvious.....heh, heh. He had only really worked SSD claims for 15 years and did not fully appreciate the VA until he got a copy of my file and found other vet's stuff in my file and saw what a mess a 35 year old file could look like at the VA. We do need vets and vet lawyers to lead the way for the next generation. We have seen the promised land, but we might not get there with you. John

My advice no matter what your rating is to go to the VA and get a PCP and do labs and see a doctor regarding your SC conditions even on a minimal basis. Be sure to complain every time you go about pain, depression, anxiety, and any other medical or psycho/social issues you have that relate in some way to your SC conditions and the impact they have on your life. I know there are vets here who don't do this and some have good reasons. I don't like going to the VA, but I make minimal attempts to stay in the loop. If there was a clinic nearby I would make good use of that, but I hate a 15 mile drive to give urine. I do it to get my pills and they are always late. Is it possible to use a military hospital to give blood or urine samples for the VA? John

Capt. I also was in my late 40's when the DMII and neuropathies started to show up. By the time I was in mid-50's my legs had problems with calcification of ateries and VA said this was symptom of CAD secondary to DMII. I was not overweight, nor did I smoke in my younger adult life. I got the AO exam and the doctor informed me I had Pre-diabetes and PN and this was about 1999. My cholesterol started to rise from very low levels to high levels about the same time? I was really a physically healthy specimen before age 45. What drove me nuts was chronic pain in my feet and widespread nerve pain. John

There is some more protection for those totally disabled who have been IU/100% for 5 years and for those over 55. The VA has to show by weight of the entire veteran's disability picture that he/she has improved in order to reduce. They cannot just bring you in for one quick C&P, and reduce you to 50% after having been on 100% for 5 years unless their is clear evidence of improvement in the total disability picture. This does not mean the VA will not drag a 65 year old vet who has been 100% P&T for 15 years and try and reduce him. It just means the burden is on them to prove that he/she is no longer totally disabled. For instance, if the VA has not heard from you in 19 years since at age 50 you were granted 100% they might want to call you in before you turn 70 just to make sure you are not working two jobs and running an antique store on the side doing things you said you could not do 19 years ago.

Will they even prescribe adderalll (amphetamine salts)? I have taken this stuff and it is good for suppressing desire to eat, but will keep you up all night since it is speed. I like it but my wife complains about my behavior when I am on it.

Just wait is my advice.