john999

You may get rated 100%. Tell them to get your most current records. Your VA counselor thinks you are really in bad shape. If they want to infer a claim for you at 100% level let them.

If you look back at a lot of WWII vet who were discharged with a pretty high rating you will find that a few years later the VA sends them notices of reduction. A lot of these guys probably compared themselves to their buddies who did not come back and just let it ride. The VA figures if they reduce X number of vets a certain percentage won't appeal.

Why treat one group of vets differently from another? I don't begrudge 9/11 vets a paid caregiver. I want one also since my wife does this for me. I like others here are officially housebound. Why do we not get this benefit?

Because you are 70% the VA may have inferred a potential TDIU claim for you. Are you working full time and making more than poverty level? Don't stop going to the VA. Remember if you tell the VA counselor that you are thinking about suicide or have some kind of plan they have a duty to protect you even if that means admitting against your will. You really have to convince them you are going to kill yourself for them to involuntarily admit you. Are you suicidal? Be honest with yourself and your doctor. If the VCAA letter tells you that they are working on a TDIU claim why would you think they are trying to deny you some benefit? Can I ask how old you are?

Where is your claim in the appeals process?

You can think about it forever but until you file nothing happens. I did not think I would get S until I filed on advice of Teac and others. I got it in five weeks as a CUE. I thought VA coffee breaks lasted longer than that. I talked to Phil and Teac about the form of the request and sent it in on Statement in Support of Claim. According to their own rules I should not have had to do that at all thus the CUE. I just happen to fit the profile exactly.

"Line of duty after 9/11" sticks in my throat. My wife quit her job to help me at home. Now we both live off my disability. Both she and I suffer from my disability. Her SSA will be less and our income was cut by 20,000 a year. How is it fair just because I was in a different war?

If the VAMC was just for the very sick and very poor and the rest of us could get a medical card I would be happy. In my state of Florida there are many poor people who use the VA as their only medical care. It is really a welfare system since we are all means tested in some way. If you have insurance even if you are P&T you get billed. If there were a clinic five miles from my house that would be great, but to have to travel for an hour for PT or to get my teeth cleaned is too much. I mean my VAMC is so crowded it is standing room only and I hate it. However, if I don't go I don't get the pills I need without paying a small fortune. I just do not need to go to a hospital every time I need a word with my PCP. I have very mixed feelings about the VA. They do good in a bad way or by accident. The VA is a dinosaur. I am P&T and using a cane and yet when I walk into the VAMC I am one of the healthiest veterans in the waiting room. I don't need to go to the hospital. Why cannot this system be decentralized? I know....it would mean unemployment for a bunch of VA employees who are veterans. So I will continue to go to the hospital 6 times a year and put up with it to get my pills and to prove to them I still can't work. When I get sick I go to a doctor or hospital 3 miles away.

I talked to my local VVA chapter and tried to get them to at least to an informational picket at the VARO or VAMC. There are so many abuses at the VA including poor medical care. They seem to think everything about the VA is just great. Change must come from the grassroots and that is us. Vets seem so apathetic about asserting their rights in person. This is a little off topic but until the VA fears us a little the abuse goes on and on.

Your TDIU must be solely for service connected issues. If you get these accident injuries mixed up with your SC issues this is going to complicate your TDIU claim for years. You need to keep the SC stuff separate from the motorcycle injuries in my opinion. The VA is going to say the reason you can't work is due to the accident and you will have to prove it isn't. You cannot get compensated by VA for NSC injuries.

Pete In Florida all the really bad drivers have no insurance. If you get hit by one and lose a leg it is on you. You better have uninsured motorist protection or you will rot trying to get money. I have 500,000 in uninsured protection. Many doctors have minimum liability insurance. The rotten and corrupt legislature has handed over the bodies of victims of malpractice to the doctors. I know Texas is probably just as bad. I found out my doctor had just paid 650,000 in malpractice award to a victim. I did not think a podiatrist could hurt someone that bad. John

You gotta get an IMO as Cooter says I think. You must fight fire with fire. You need more evidence that your scar is painful.

If I had a card from the VA that would pay for what medicare does not pay I would never darken their doors again. I pay for my own dental and vision because I don't want to use their crummy services. They charge my Blue Cross for everything anyway so why go there? I do use them just to document my continual disability. That is one good reason to keep using them. Go to the VA hospital and complain a lot. The could have medicare for all vets, but they are not going to do that. They are going to cut services if anything. You hear those budget hawks and who do you think they want to pay for debt?....me and you. Not Wall Street gangsters or banksters.

Glad to see you posting, TestVet. I know you went through hell with the VA, the dirty dogs.

Just on a common sense basis I can't believe you could not get SC'ed for scars in 1971. What about severe burn scars? What about a scar to your face that disfigures you? I think you can get those scars SC'ed especially if they are painful or limit ROM. Somehow the VA can misinterpret their own regs.

Get an independent medical opinion to support your unemployability if you are denied.

You may hate going to the VA but that is the place to document all your complaints. You want to complain your head off about your problems and get referrals to specialists inside the VA. If your PCP won't do it go to the patient advocate and complain that your doctor is ignoring your requests for referrals. I would try to be nice but you must insist on treatment. Your civilian records are good too, and when you ask for increases you have to tell the VA where to get those records. You get milage for trips to the VA. Can you get someone to drive you there? Your PCP is your primary care doctor at the VA. This is where it all starts. If they ask you if you are depressed tell them "YES". If they want you to rate your pain then rate it as high as it has ever been.

I would file for an increase and file for depression due to chronic pain. I would go back to the VA and make them treat you. I would ask to be seen at the Pain Management Clinic. They granted you 10% so they admit you were hurt in service. If you can't work due to these service connected problems file for TDIU. I would really keep posting here and insist on treatment. Ask to see a psychiatrist. Do you have an appointment with your PCP?

I was granted SC for ED secondary to DMII but the "K" was deferred. I filed a NOD and said there was no reason to defer this award since they gave me 0% for ED. I got a call a week later asking me if I had any other evidence and in a few more weeks I got the "K".

Every time they send you for an exam I would go out and get an IMO after I read the copy of the exam. You may go from 30% to 50% to 70%.

It sounds good to me as well. The exam doctor probably took a look at you and your reactions and just made up his mind. People without problems don't usually cry at exams. People with PTSD very often cry. They start to relive the stressors and strain of the whole process.

You could include the items with the NOD. It won't hurt. I would ask for a DRO Hearing and not just a Review. The reviews are often just "cut and paste" jobs.

If you have actual new evidence then as Berta says you can do a "reconsideration". If you have new argument or slant on old evidence file the NOD and ask for DRO Hearing. This is just my opinion. Keep very careful track of the dates you have to file (deadlines).

I hired a lawyer to sue the doctor who gave me the staff infection in my foot. I found out he has been in big trouble before this for malpractice. In Florida most doctors carry little malpractice insurance. They are getting away with murder. When you try to get their personal assets you find they are maritial assets and you can't get at them. If you live in Florida buy all the uninsured motorist insurance you can get. That is an aside but nobody down here has much insurance if they hurt you.

The award for TDIU should be the date you filed for it. Sometimes you can get an earlier date based on hospitalization or SSD award. Did the VA know you were not working or only working part time in 2006? There is such a thing as an inferred TDIU claim. If you could not work due solely to SC conditions and the VA knew this they should have inferred TDIU. That you will have to fight for later probably. I filed for TDIU when I was 30% and they went back to that date when I got 70%.