john999

Since you are rated for PTSD I would try and get an IMO that meets the VA standards and that shows with the evidence that your PTSD should be rated higher than 30%. Are you working? Did the VA exam doctor ask about your work and home life? The same for the other issues. If you can provide new evidence you stand a better chance of winning on appeal. However, I would appeal by all means. The NOD is the first and most important step. You can ask for a DRO Hearing or Review in the body of your NOD.

Here is an examle of what I would consider a very good inferred claim for TDIU: A vet is rated 70% for PTSD and is on SSDI for the same condition. The VA has the vet's SSDI records showing the vet can't work. The VA should infer TDIU. Here is an example where the VA should also infer TDIU: The vet is rated by the VA as 50% for PTSD and the vet is also on SSDI for PTSD and the VA knows it. The VA should infer TDIU Another example is that a vet is rated 30% for PTSD and requests an increase and has an IMO from a psychiatrist that states the vet is unable to work and that his PTSD has gotten worse in recent months. The vet is currently unemployed. The VA should schedule a C&P exam and also consider TDIU. The VA should not dismiss the TDIU case just because the vet has not met the schedular requirement that they, the VA, made up out of thin air by ignoring 4.16b. I know the VA has many claims where vets have met 4.16b for many years and the VA has not awarded TDIU. I think this is an error, but a vet will have a hard time proving it unless he/she can show the VA knew the vet was unemployable and yet refused to infer TDIU.

I think remands from the Court back to the BVA are very common. If one technical detail is wrong it will be remanded. I would like to read your court case as well. You give us your full name and we can find it.

Seroquel is probably the drug that makes your hands and feet "lock up". The older anti-psychotics like stelazine would twist your whole body into "lock up". Your doctor needs to know about the "lock up" symptoms.

Rules and standards for CUE are very different than standard appeal.

I remember that the VA said I was service connected for a "nervous condition" back in 1973. They recently denied I was ever SC'ed for a nervous condition, but I have it in black and white. I think that title was just a general description of any mental health condition back in the day.

Get some IMO's and appeal!

Doctors nowdays don't prescribe bed rest for back problems. They want you to do PT and get injections. I just finished a month of PT on my neck and upper back. I got zero benefit. I have herniated disc in my neck and stenosis. Even if they fix it no doctor will swear the pain will end because I also had shoulder surgery about ten years ago that failed. What the doctors can do is take pressure of the nerve so your legs work and arms work. You may still hurt like SOB. John

The thing about panic disorder is that it often seems to come out of the blue. Some people I know who have it were abused as kids or had very hard time growing up. You don't want to mention that or VA will say it is all due to family problems that pre-existed military. Probably half the admissions to hospitals for heart attacks are people with panic disorder. John

Broncovet I wonder if it is enough for a CUE? In my original claim the decision never addressed my ability to work. They never even asked if I was employed after me being in the nuthouse for eight days.

If the VA fails to list or mention evidence in their rating decision that was in the record at the time then you can consider that they have not reviewed it. This safisfies two of the three prongs of a CUE. The other prong is the one that states this unreviewd evidence would have made an undebatable difference in the outcome of the decision. Many stumble over the word "undebatable". What does it mean in context of a VA decision? That is not so simple and case law provides some answers. The VA maintains that any evidence against the vet no matter how trivial makes an outcome debatable. If you have ten psychiatrists saying the vet is 100% and a ward flunky that says the vet seemed ok then the outcome is debatable. Is this justice?

Thanks everyone! I have been keeping track of my appeal's progress by going to the court's site. Both sides had a phone conference few months ago and now my lawyer sent in our brief with some old and some new arguments. As I view it now my original decision was just awful, but who knows how this thing will turn out in the end. I was wondering (like all of us do) how long I must go before I get a decision. It has been six years since I started this journey back at the VARO. Has anyone heard of a vet making the argument that a decision is defective because the VA addressed only the social adaptability of a vet and not his vocational ability? My lawyer is arguing that my due process rights were violated as in Cushman vs Shinseki and that the word "undebatable" as it applies to CUE cases has been misused among other things. My doctor's report that the VA ignored addressed both vocational and social adjustment and hit all the points required to make a decison. The VA just said that I had a mild disability because I got on well with other mental patients on a locked ward for eight days. I saw my doctor for 7 months twice a week and a group therapy once a week. I talked to a VA doctor twice in eight days. I never got appeal rights with my decision so I had no idea about deadlines. This all happend 40 years ago but it still gives me heartburn. I think our old decisions from the 60's and 70's are often defective if mine is any example. I found this out years later after hearing of the concept of CUE here on Hadit. All those DAV, VFW and AL VSO's just looked at what they had in front of them and made weak arguments that I should get an increase "just because".

After your lawyer has submitted your brief to the court what are the next steps before you get a decision? I imagine the VA gets to submitt their brief opposing whatever you are asking for in your brief but what comes next?

This is also why you may get a partial grant with some issues deferred and some granted.

I tell people going for these exams to steer it away from your childhood or events other than what happened to you in-service. You were fine before the military and now you are not fine.

I went through this with my grandmother, aunt and my mother. All were widows of vets and my aunt got DIC. I hated having to place them in nursing homes but there was just no other way. Sometimes the VA will move very slowly about A&A for these war widows because they figure they will probably die soon and they won't have to grant any benefits.

I made a mistake. I meant medicade. Medicare won't pay for long term care. Medicade pays for long term care but you have to be broke to get it.

She is not entitled to long term care at a VA facility but she is entitled to extra money to help pay the bill at a nursing home. She gets her DIC plus extra money for the long term care. Basically, unless she is rich her assets will have to be sold off to pay for long term care and then she can get medicare to pay the bills. This is how it works in Florida. Her SSA, DIC and A&A will help defray the costs of her care. My Aunt was in this position. She had a pension, DIC and A&A and also private money. This was spent down until she died.

This is a good reason to get a copy of your C-File. If the paper file is lost you are lost. There is no backup.

Papa You bring up an interesting topic. I think you can get a copy of the QTC exam and compare it to the rating "reasons and basis" part of your decision. If the VA has changed one word that is a big No,No for them. It means they have violated you right to due process. At some point you will be able to get the original copy of the C&P. The VA has changed the wording of C&P exams in the past. There was a court case about that practice and the VA lost. John

Try and get medical board. You must try and not put words in their mouths like "It is probably nothing" because that plays into their hands as branding you a personality disorder. If you are discharged administratively you may have a hard time getting compensated. Obey all the regulations and don't let them build a case against you for chronic minor infractions. I would try and get a new doctor. If you are having panic disorder to the extent you are having hallucinations then you have a real mental illness. What kind of medications are you on now? You need to be on medications for anxiety and depression. You must fight for yourself or the service will just steam roll you into accepting a PD "unfit" or "unsuitable" general discharge. You don't want that. If you keep talking down your symptoms the military will be glad to screw you over and it will take years to fix it. John

I had a C&P doctor inform me that I had been under observation in the waiting room once. This was a prelude to him trying to screw me at the exam. I do know that my VAMC got in a heap of trouble for hiding a camera in a patient's room. If you are at the VA coming or going from the hospital assume you are under observation if you show up for a C&P exam.

A CT scan of your legs will show blockages. PAD is more serious than PN since a blockage in the leg can sometimes break loose and travel to the heart. Cramping in legs is a sign of PAD.

Has PT been at all helpful for any of you guys. I have lumbar issues and cervical stenosis. I have had injections with no help there. I take Cymbalta and that seems to help, but what really helps is fentanyl patches.

I think he could take in notes to help him focus on what he needs to get across to the doctor,but not a written document to hand to the exam doctor. I know that when my wife goes to the doctor she gets so nervous she forgets to discuss the main complaint. Because of this I go in with her, but the VA would not want you to coach your vet. What is a C&P exam, anyway? It seems to me it is just an impression the doctor makes in 20 minutes. The exam doctor may review his records with care or just write something off the cuff. I often think it is the first few minutes that really count. The doctor gets a first impression of a vet as to the level of his disability quickly. The doctors at VA comp. exams used to ask me if I was hearing voices and if I was working. After those questions everything else was just boilerplate for psychological issues. With eyes there should be objective tests.