john999

I have had many C&P exams at the Tampa VAMC. I don't know what they are up to with the three day exam. Do you want to be rehabilitated? I never got a good psychiatric exam at the Tampa VAMC in 30 years. I had c&p exams that lasted ten minutes.

The VA also just likes to send vets for C&P exams. You may have a ton of evidence and the VA will still send you for an exam so their doctor can try and talk it down. I have gotten most of my significant ratings not on c&p exams but on IMO's and appeals. I think the VA likes to use C&P's as training vehicles for new quacks and NP's.

I don't know but here is your chance to get a higher rating. What evidence do you have that you are getting worse? Do you have a TBI?

Worry about these damn staff infections. You go into the hospital and get the infection and it is very hard to prove how you got it and if the hospital is at fault. Meanwhile they cut off your leg.

You can even get an Elder Care Lawyer to help you if the old lady is willing. I took care of three estates of elderly relatives. It was a big job. I did my best but I was not a nursing service. She will get extra money if she is in a nursing home. I am not sure about assisted living. John

If you are not working file for TDIU. Have you filed for SSDI? You need to download the official TDIU form and file it ASAP. I know procrastination is part of depression but it is costing you thousands of bucks. You can get one of the veteran service organizations to help you or even hire a lawyer, but get going on this before the end of May.

If you want your depression claim to succeed you should see a VA shrink and take what ever meds they give you. Same with the pain clinic. These services are there to be used. You skip using them at your own risk I think. The way to win claims is to pile up evidence. John

For a vet to get the benefit of the chronic psychosis manifested within one year of discharge you need to get you butt to the nearest VA and get evaluated and/or admitted. I was so dizzy that I actually went to the VAMC right after I was discharged to get some help. I got admitted and got zero help. However, it showed on my record that I was "treated" and "DX'ed" with a residual psychosis. I had no plan and it was all an accident. If I had waited two years to file my claim I would have been out of luck. Things were a lot different back in 1971, but still the best thing a vet can do is to go to the VA for complete physical upon discharge. This could mean the difference between SC and no SC. I got just 10% but based on that 30 years later I got TDIU.

I was told at a C&P exam one time the exam doctor could not determine if I was TDIU since I was unemployed at the time of the exam. What kind of sense does that make? He was trying to screw me on behalf of his buddy whose exam I had shot to pieces for saying I was faking because I had a B.A. in pyschology.

Well, you did not hurt anyone nor get thrown in jail. Feeling like killing someone and doing it are very different. I know the feeling like you want someone to pay for all your suffering.

It is the fault of congress. They have failed us.

There is no reason in the world to have a VA medical health care system apart from the current private system. We have medicare. Everyone takes it and you don't have to drive 100 miles or wait a year for an appointment. The VA hospitals could be used for the most serious in-patient vets and long term care vets. The reason this does not happen is to protect the jobs of lots of doctors and administrators.

It seems to me the VA is saying you do not have a current DX of PTSD or Depression because the VA can't find any current evidence of your having it. Read up on symptoms of PTSD and see if what you told the VA matches those symptoms. If you told them that every time you hear a loud noise you flashback to combat then the VA is just trying to play a game with you. Do you have any combat medals or badges? You need the stressors and you need the current symptoms. The stressors have been relaxed but what you get is the kind of crap you got with the VA pretending they don't see symptoms. John

It is rationing of health care which is why most of us need some secondary insurance or medical care.

Great news and who was your lawyer?

I used Consumer Cellular but I found them to be really poor quality phones and service. I was spending about $20 a month for nothing since I never used the phone. I can see how these phones are useful but it seems I am giving up even more privacy.

One thing I was thinking that Tbird could do would be to order cards and then sell them to us at a reasonable markup so she could make a little money for the website. I agree the Hadit card is the real Gold Card. John

Really, someone on welfare can get a free phone and a 100% disabled vet has to pay if he/she has the money. This goes to the bigger fool theory.

You need to have a sleep study done. I have seen those kinds of symptoms before and it can get wild. John

She might be able to get some payment if you became 100% from OIF/OEF. If you need a care giver you should ask for A&A.

I would try and get psychiatric referral due to chronic pain and depression.

If you have a TBI the damage is done is it not? What is the treatment besides pills?

One thing to consider is possible complications of even the most minor surgery. I had a very minor surgery to my foot. This was not done by the VA. It ended with a really bad staff infection. Now I have a bad ingrown toe nail and I am even afraid of getting that worked on even though I limp at times. After that staff infection and the brush off I got from legal and medical community I would say don't get surgery unless you have to get it. I have heard of an 85 year old getting back surgery so he could travel with his wife. He spent his cruise in a wheelchair. John

Does your mother get survivor benefits? Did your father serve in Vietnam or Korea? Lung cancer is presumptive for agent orange vets, but I wonder who the benefits would go to since he has been dead over ten years? Are you the only living survivor? This is murky. It is good that you are getting your ducks in a row now. John

In those days the put cigarettes in the lips of dying men. How the military can say they had no role in tobacco caused deaths for WWII generation is science fiction. My father's life was cut short by 40 years due smoking and he was a WWII vet. Those guys smoked unfiltered cigs as that was there only relief from tension during miserable conditions in and between combat. That was the "Good War" and the nation turns its back on war widows. Imagine how widows of a "bad war" like Vietnam are treated? When these guys who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are 70 years old they will not even be remembered at bus stops if there are any bus stops.