john999

Doggie I hope you are suing someone!

Gregg I see your point. As long as you can show continuity of care outside the VA that is all you need. I have found that with my problems I can use the VA for some stuff to show I am still disabled and use private insurance if I have a real problem. I use the VA for cheap pills and to document my disabilites. If my life was on the line I would think twice. John

You can have your VSO with you at a DRO Hearing or not. I would have my VSO just for moral support. Brief your VSO on your claim an hour or so before the Hearing. Get it all set up so the VSO can just present it for you. I have never actually gotten a decision at the hearing, but a few weeks later I get a decision. They have to make it look like they are actually looking into it. If this does not work then you can go to the BVA.

If I got denied on this claim I would take it to lawyer. These chemical exposure cases are tricky and can take years.

Papa I would not talk to any VA doctor in the mental health business about my childhood. You did right.

I have been seeing a psychologist for about 40 years with some breaks. The psychologist picked me up out of the gutter, so to speak, and got me back on my feet to where I could actually pay him. I went to groups for many years. Pills are good, but we also need someone to talk to who won't judge us and can reflect back what we are saying and feeling.

Iraqx2 Yes, I think the VA may start to cut costs by raising co-pays for drugs and socking it to NSC vets first. They will move up the food chart to SC vets and just make small cuts to this or that program. After the end of the Vietnam war and the end of the draft the G.I. Bill was gutted. Also, the kinds of C&P exams I got in the 80's were just a joke. If you did not have an IMO you were lucky to keep the rating you had and many vets were cut in the middle 80's. The C&P doctors only asked me two questions: Do you hear voices? Are you working?

I got letters from my wife and brother. They were both used as evidence in my decision to get TDIU. A buddy letter is different since it puts you at a time and place in a combat zone perhaps.

If I was you I would use the VA for at least the twice yearly physicals and blood work. If you can get your meds from the VA that is a plus. This way you create in their own backyard a mountain of records.Keep using the private doctor you trust, but include the VA in the loop. I have been TDIU for eleven years and no one questions it at the VA except for yearly document I send them saying I still can't work.

Get your claims in now because in two years we will be out of Afghanistan and it will disappear from the news. That can only be bad for vets since resources may be shifted to other hot spots. The public and even politicians from both sides are sympathetic to vets during war time. Then they forget! It is taking way too long to develope claims and get first decisions. Add a few more years for appeals and you start to look at five years to get a half way decent decision for many. My CUE claim is headed for year number seven, and I don't know how long to go before I reach the end. John

That is good to know about 3817. I remember using it when I worked for USPS. The price of certified/return receipt has gone out of sight. Registerd mail is probably twice that expensive now. The USPS can be sort of dumb but they do deliver 99.5% of the first class mail they get so it is usually the VA's fault.

You don't take medication for bipolar? As for the other conditions you should get a referral to the pain clinic. Many of your conditions are symptoms. Do you have a DX for your back that covers all these symptoms?

Is this a BVA hearing?

If you fill the oxycodone script from a source outside the VA and they find out or you tell them they may see this as violating your contract. I don't think you want to mix oxy, hydrocodone and MS. I would just take a little more hydrocodone. You are right to talk to your doctor.

I would get a private doctor who will work with you on the bedrest. If I had to wait on the VA for certain conditions I would have lost my mind by now.

Are you P&T or are you trying for 100% or TDIU? If you go and your social worker sees what a hard time you have talking in group she/he is going to know that you are not getting better and that you still have a major disability. Is it a terrible ordeal for you to go to this group therapy? If I was trying for a higher rating I would go. If you could talk about it then it might help. I went to group therapy for 20 years but it was private group. It helped me see myself as others saw me. I was very paranoid and it helped me learn to trust a few people. Also you see people in worse shape than yourself and how they are coping. John

If you are in a combat zone and have a panic disorder and continue to have them you will probably get a PTSD DX in this day and age. Sometimes people who have a panic attack may go on to have chronic dissociative disorder with all its weird symptoms that look so much like PTSD. If any of these things happen after traumatic event it could come under umbrella of PTSD. Panic, chronic anxiety, dissociative disorder, depression and PTSD all look alike given a certain patient history.

I would say the way to deal with this is to stay in treatment and lodge plenty of complaints over the year years to make sure you have documentation to show your condition is at least static if not getting worse. When I was rated at less than TDIU I never got routine exams. It was only when I asked for an increase did I get an exam.

That is really fast work. You must have had your ducks in a row.

If you are under FERS you have to apply for OPM disability and for SSDI. Try and get both. OPM is pretty easy to get. As soon as you stop working even on terminal leave then file for TDIU regardless of your percentage rating. I was a federal worker. I was fired due to my disability. I applied for OPM, SSDI and TDIU. I got OPM first and then SSDI. Last but not least I got TDIU. I appled for TDIU when I was 30%. I got bumped up to 70% after I got OPM and SSDI, but was denied TDIU. I appealed and got TDIU. It took about 18 months most of it waiting for TDIU and getting IMO's.

I think a CUE is the only way you are going to get them to grant retro benefits back to 1983. Your decision must have become final back in the day. You must show the VA that they made an error in your rating in 1983. The VA does not want to pay out almost 25 years of retro unless you force them via their own rules. I am asking the VA to pay me 100% back to 1971 which is 30 years from the date they finally granted TDIU/100%. My lawyer and I know exactly what mistake they made and the VA is fighting it tooth and nail. It has been six years since I filed the CUE. You might run your claim by a VA lawyer.

A "Writ of Mandamous" is the final straw to get them going.

If you want them to get off their asses a "Writ of Mandamous" is the way to go. It is a way to prod them. It should not take all most 700 days to get an initial decision. You can't believe anything they say to a congressman.

If you have private insurance or medicare ChampVA is the secondary payer. My wife has not had that much trouble getting ChampVA to pay. We have to work sometimes to get the provider to bill ChampVA.

I don't know if the VA will ship narcotics out of the country. If you go to third world countries they have a great chance of being stolen. I worked for the post office and money orders going registered mail were often stolen going to Mexico or S. America.