john999

I think all law firms are better at arguing facts and laws than they are at generating evidence.

It bugs me that the VA is so ignorant they don't know their own regulations.

Fish oil is good but not as good as a statin I think. I went from total cholesterol of about 270 to 160 total with a dose of generic statin Zocor.

The thing about a CUE is that they often hinge on the meaning of a word or phrase. If this were all clear cut there would be no Court of Veteran Appeals. My CUE hinges on the word "undebatable". The VA says any evidence or medical opinion is debatable. The VA says that unless the evidence you present as your CUE would "undebatably" change the outcome of a rating decision you don't have a CUE. Who decides what is undebatable? "Reasonable minds" decide.

Oldranger Have you ever had a CT scan of your legs. This can often show early signs of vascular artery disease. There are a group of conditions that lead to bad results. HBP is one of them along with PAD, DMII, smoking, sleep apnea, and being over weight. If you go to the VA and complain about pain in your legs while walking and that the pain goes away when you stop they should do a work up on you. You may be surprised what they find. I had a lump on my shin and the VA doctor sent me for a CT scan. They found some arteriorsclerosis in my legs. If you have it in your legs you probably have it in your heart and brain as well. They also checked my circulation in my legs which was OK. I already had DMII so I got the artery disease as secondary to DMII. Since you are SC for HBP that gives you an opening to get other things connected. John

Chr49 What is your total cholesterol level?

Hedgay The VA prescribes that generic neurontin for pain control, PTSD and MDD. I think it is cheap and hard to OD on so they use it a lot. The drugs the VA really hates to prescribe are narcotics and drugs of the valium family.

My wife quit her job to stay home and help me get to appointments etc. I do have insurance but unless I die very soon I won't be able to pay for it. The older you get the more expensive the insurance gets. I don't see why the government can't be generous with the widows of 100% vets. I bet if we took a poll of widows they would agree. We all have different ideas so I take no offense at someone who disagrees with me. When I was an American Legion member I do remember the elderly wife of a WWII vet who has just died being given an American Flag. That seemed very little from a nation that owed his generation everything. I also remember the VA stalling about paying A&A for my mother who was in a nursing home. My father was a WWII disabled vet. The VA said his records had burned. There are about half a million guys who work on Wall Street who do nothing useful and bring home millions of bucks. The system showers them with goodies. The tired old vet gets kicked into the gutter.

The amount of DIC a spouse gets really angers me. It is way too low. It should be at least 2/3 of the amount the vet gets. It is not even half. The spouse better save her pennies or be readly to go back to work. My federal pension pays half of my annuity amount. God knows it isn't much (taxable as well). John

If you are able to work I see 50% and if you are unable to work then I see 70% and good shot at TDIU. Your GAF of 50 means the doctor sees you as having major problems with working and with social functioning.

Your treatment has nothing to do with your rating.

PT for shoulder surgery will bring tears to your eyes. Take a big dose of pain meds about one hour before the PT.

If the doctor says you have schizophrenia that was aggravated by service it does not matter if he believes you see little pink mice as long as you get IU and it is P&T. When servicemen first started showing up with PTSD after Vietnam the VA would DX them with schizophrenia because they did not have a medical DX for a thing called PTSD.

Long time ago I had filed for an increase in mental health condition and while that was going on I then filed for TMJ. The VA got the claims so mixed up they took IMO from the dentist and used that to deny the increase for mental health claim. They used psychiatric report in my dental claim. This did not turn out well. I think that you should file claims in order of severity. If one claim is going to get you 100% or IU then stick with that claim until you are done. Put full court press on the claim that is going to get you the main money. You can have twenty claims at 0% or 10% and that won't get you there. One claim that is rated 100% is worth all the others combined. If you think about all the horrible things that can, and often do go wrong with just one good claim it makes you wonder.

I had many, many shots into my shoulder and neck. If you can't reach around behind you I think that is good indication you have a rotator cuff injury. What does your MRI indicate? My brother has frozen shoulder which limits ROM. Not being a MD I am just guessing.

Sometimes you can have a cervical spine issue that is referred to the shoulder area. Surgery is usually the way to address all your shoulder problems. That does not mean you will be pain free. You may have better ROM. I have had shoulder pain for many years and had rotator cuff repair. Not much relief from pain and now doctors say it is actually pinched nerves in my neck. If you can't put your hand in your back pocket then you probably have a Rotator Cuff injury. Has any orthopod suggested a surgical repair. Sometimes PT can actually fix these things.

If the VA delays paying a claim for 30 years they pay no interest. Why rush? If your claim lingers between the VARO, BVA and the CAVC for ten years and you finally win.....no interest. Nobody loses their job and nobody gets demoted. It is sort of like being on death row. After stealing your life from you they decide you are innocent and just open up the cell door. You have to beg to get compensation sort of like us.

They can unofficially horse trade at the DRO Hearing/Review. For instance, drop the hearing claim for a TDIU claim approval. All you will get for Tinnitus is 10%. They do this with a wink and a nod.

I believe I read here at Hadit that the VARO has a 60% error rate at the BVA. That results in remands. The RO sends 300,000 appeals to the BVA and over half come back as remands. In the meantime another 300,000 claims have arrived at the RO. We are going backwards.

As I see it the most important evidence you have for TDIU is your SSD award letter for PTSD. You are already SC'ed for PTSD so the fact you can't work due to PTSD and SSA agrees with that is strong evidence. Tinnitus is a side issue. Given the facts the VA can just bump you up to 70% on the PTSD and justify the TDIU. They bumped me up from 30% to 70% to award me TDIU. This is one way they get around extra-schedular. The difference between a 100% PTSD vet and a 30%-50% PTSD vet is the ability to work and support yourself. That is what it boils down to. John

The VA just worries about "earned income" if you are TDIU. You could make a million a year on real estate or stocks trades as long as you are not working for income or wages.

Vadd I saw the dentist three times while I was in the army. Somebody who might have been a dentist looked at my mouth during my entrance exam. Second, I got a exam for TMJ which never happened according to the military and the VA. Third, I got two teeth pulled by army dentist who made a horrible mess out of my jaw. I am sure you were a great dentist but you can see why I am not fond of army dentists. The only teeth I ever permanently lost were those two teeth the army dentist pulled. I am 62 and have all my teeth except for the ones pulled by that army dentist. My TMJ got worse, and now I have to wear an appliance at night so I don't bite my jaw. Was there really no treatment for TMJ in 1971?

Phil I think the SSA program is called "Ticket to Work". Maybe if the VA had better mental health care service they might actually help people and build up their confidence so they could return to work. Seeing a shrink once every three months won't do it. If I was 33 and did not have multiple disabilites I would probably try to work. I did work until I was 51 and I am glad I did it even though I was constantly trying to get my disability increased. It was not until I was totally disabled and out of work that I got a decent increase. The only difference in my condition from one day to the next was that one day I was working and then I was not. If you are over 40 it is safer to keep the SSD and the TDIU. You may be able to work at some job but who will hire you? There is age discrimination and disability discrimination. John

Yes, in 1972 the Army just took me to the gate and dumped me with my suitcase. I had to pay for the cab to the airport. I got no ETS physical, no copies of records, nothing. The way I got my first disability rating was by being admitted to the VA hospital within one year of ETS. Somebody filed on my behalf. I don't even remember filing a claim. John

The military does fake or cover up potential evidence of liability. They did in my case when I went for dental exam while in-service for TMJ. The doctor examined me and said "yes, you have a bad case of TMJ and there is no treatment or cure". He then wrote in my notes that I saw him for "An Exam" and that was it. When I tried to file for TMJ the VA said my SMR's were silent on the subject......Denied. This was some years later.