john999

Just remember how congress, the Prez and the courts treated the Bonus Army back in the darkest days of the Great Depression. Even a New Deal President like FDR cut pensions in half for veterans under the delusion that we all had to tighten our belts. Save your money because the generous attitude towards recent vets may change if economic conditions change for the worse. There always has to be a scapegoat. I can hear some congressman going on about fraud at the VA and able bodied vets getting big checks for being disabled while they spend their time drunk and driving fancy cars. Our compensation is called an entitlement just like welfare and foodstamps according to congress. I earned my compensation by giving my body to the Army for three years. My compensation is not welfare. It is an attempt to return in some small measure what I lost in government service. These crazies screaming about the budget deficit will be turning their guns on us in the future. The Supreme Court we have is the same one that said corporations are people. When they execute a coropration in "Old Sparky" I will believe that. My whole point is that Congress is to blame for this horrible situation at the VA. They count votes. 20 million living vets and falling. John

If blacks in the South were as quite and disorganized as veterans they would still be living under Jim Crow. I am not betting money on the VA changing in my life time. Save at least 10% of your checks each month and start your escape plan to some more friendly country. Most vets are Vietnam era vets and you know what the nation thinks of us. John

In Florida they have a way of weeding out fakers. They deny everyone. Only the desparate persist to the end and hire lawyers and starve for years. I got mine because I had expert medical and legal advice.

ChampVA has worked pretty good for my wife. She knows how to talk to them. She laughs and jokes with them and gets exactly what she wants. I get mad and curse them and they hang up, so she does all the talking now. Not all doctors take "Assignment" for ChampVA but most will file the paperwork at least. ChampVA has worked well with BC/BS and I know it works with medicare. It really is gold and we have to fight to keep it. I can see it on the chopping block one day. John

They are just pissing around hoping someone will pass away before they can collect. The VA fooled around with my Mother's application for A&A while she was in a nursing home until she died. They are capable of that. Yes, it is a long haul project. You can send it all express mail by the USPS. They track it and you can also get return receipt. I think this thing that is happening to you is just another way of holding onto the money a little bit longer. John

I don't wait to get the form 21-4140 from the VA. I get it off the web and send it certified mail to the VARO. The VA once got my address mixed up with another vet with my first and last name. My pills and everything else started going to some place in Maine. The VA swore I put in a change of address. They will lie and do anything to cover their miserable asses. John

If I could I would get copies of the earliest records I submitted to the VA and the proof I submitted them and take a trip to the VARO. Talk to a person at the VA and explain the situation. You don't want to lose the earliest effective date on the IU. They have lost these things twice. You got to sit face-to-face with someone at the VA. Is your husband on SSD?

I filed a NOD when a part of my DMII claim was deferred. There was no reason to defer it except the VA did not want to pay. A NOD may not be appropriate but I filed it and soon I got a decision on the deferred claim. It was positive. Having a claim deferred 400 plus days is wrong and unjust. John

If you are determined enough to go to the Court, hire a lawyer, and wait years then having your named posted is the least of your worries. The only people who read those cases are vets, VSO's and lawyers. They say pretty horrible things about me, but I want justice if I can get it. John

It is congress that has failed us. They provide via taxes the money to run the VA. The VA has been underfunded for 40 years. The Congress via the VA sure does not want to meet its liabilites to injured vets who are no longer of any use. John

Get some blood work done at the VA. You are very close to the official numbers for DMII. One test that bumps you up a few points could mean service connection. I would use the VA for my routine stuff. You really have DMII but the official AIC is 6.5 for DMII and fasting glucose of 126. It is not something you want but you are headed that way. I would file for the DMII because you might get lucky that day they take blood. Forget your private doctors lab numbers. John

ADD The VA held up one of my claims because they said they did not have a DD214 for me. I did not argue with them. I went home and got a certified copy of my DD214 and hand carried it to them. When I looked at my C-File the DD214 was right on top. It had been there all along but they were too damn lazy to look. John

You should file a claim for DMII. Have you had all the standards tests for DMII? What is your fasting glucose level? Your VA labs should indicate if you have the official indications of DMII. Do you have any other problems such as pain in your feet or hands. If your fasting glucose is 200 you have DMII. John

That is the cancer that killed Farah Fawcet, so it is a bad one.

I bet your records are sitting in your C-file at the VARO right now.

Cool Does your company have a "disability retirement"? I pretty much did what you are doing. I kept going until I got fired. I would go to work every day but I could not do the job. Since I worked for the Feds I almost had to fire myself. I could not bring myself to just put in for disability retirement, but that is what I should have done. The thing is you need a pile of money while you wait for all the programs to approve you. I was lucky because when I was fired I applied for workers compensation and I got that in about 5 months and I had savings. Even so while waiting for SSD and TDIU and everything to get settled down I lost 25 lbs from worry. You want to be ready when it comes. I do worry a lot so maybe I am different. I switched in and out of various programs to get the best fit over a few years. Does your company have a group "disability insurance" program? I have disability insurance. I had it for 17 years before I used it. I have been getting it for 11 years. The average American is a few paychecks away from being on the street they just don't realize it. John

You have to be out of work for at least six months and have the SSA determine that you are totally disabled before you can collect SSD. If you are working 40 hours a week you are not eligible for SSD or TDIU and why would you want to be? If you can get 100% from the VA and still work then that is a coup, but not many actually do it. The thing to do is to save money like scrooge so you have a pile towards the day when you find yourself really unable to work. Save all the 70% you get towards that day is my advice because it is coming. Otherwise, you get caught flat footed and it is a shock to find yourself unemployable at any age. If you are over 50 now and have a disability you are pretty much unemployable unless you are still working. Recent college grads can't get jobs so why would they want us?

If PTSD is no going to be called an injury then those who got it in combat should get PH.

Add55p No, I am suggesting that even when you find absent service medical records that may not be enough to show service connection. The VA can have what you think are your absent medical records, but they just never included them in your rating decisions. You do need to go look at your C-File and see what is in it. The record you think may be absent may be in your file. I guess I am thinking in terms of a CUE. One of the VA's favorite games is to admit that "yes, your cue claim meets two prongs of the three prong attack by showing that records that were before the VA or should have been before the VA were absent, but that even if the records were before the VA it would not be enough to get you SC'ed. Hey, I am trying to find 42 year old records myself and I found out that my army doctor had them but refused to turn them over to a courts martial because he said that would have violated patient/doctor relationship. He had no problem letting the army kick me out, however even though I was in treatment. I have same problem with not knowing if what he said about me would help me or hurt me. This is because I know as young 20 year old I know they mind-f%$#ed me via UCMJ into signing plea deal that was wrong for me when all I wanted was help. My adivce would be to get the documents that support the fact your evidence went to the VA and let the chips fall where they may. John

Even when the VA has lost or excluded either medical evidence or medical records and you can prove it you don't always win a CUE. The lost or excluded evidence must undeniably prove that you deserve a higher raring or service connection. So you lost records say you have severe PTSD and the VA says you don't have it. Those lost records must undeniably prove to reasonable minds you deserve a higher rating or SC.

What kills me about joint ratings is that ROM is the main factor, but in my case, for instance, ROM was not what was killing me but pain. I had Full ROM of my shoulder but the pain would start up and drive me crazy. If I had had only 50% ROM I could have worked that job, but with constant ever increasing pain I could not stand it.

I got SSD in about 4 months. What I learned is that in all statements present yourself as one step above a one celled creature that feeds on sea weed. The SSA denied someone I knew very well who was mentally ill. I could talk to her for a few minutes and tell she had severe symptoms. I was in group with many people with mental illness for years. It was a shame. SSD said she could do other work than the light duty work she did with me at the post office.

MarWar My VA shrink and my outside psychologist knew each other quite well. My PCP knows my long time internist. The lawyer that represented me when the USPS fired me was the wife of a psychiatrist I used as an IMO. There are very lucky accidents.

Here we are supposed to have the best health care there is and yet if you as a 100% vet turn yourself over to VA care you will probably be dead in 6 months. My VAMC has gotten into trouble for poor sterilization techniques over and over and I am almost afraid to let them clean my teeth for fear of infection. If the public knew how there dollars were being spent they would be at the gates of the palace with pitchforks. This may be a little bit political, but as vets and taxpayers we support a whole nest of parasites in and outside of government. John

No matter how much they swear to God they will not go to a nursing home when the times comes the old folks go because the family just cannot care for them especially if they are losing their marbles. It is sad but true. If you are not young yourself you cannot care for an who needs a diaper and throws food back in your face. You will end up dead from the strain and the State will send the person to some nursing home where they may languish with no one to look out for them. They may be beaten and starved if there is no one to check on them very frequently. John