john999

It is a scandal but only organized veterans can fix it. The government will never fix it on their own without pressure.

Contact your lawyer. He is doing your claim. He should have some answers. You could call about your claim, but don't do anything besides that because you will be stepping on your lawyer's toes and he won't like that. 2-3 years is a long time for a hearing!

If you don't fill out the TDIU form and send it in you will not be awarded TDIU. I would send it in if I could not work. The longer you wait to send it in the longer you will be waiting for it to be approved.

Bob The VA has done these things to me before also. I would go to the DRO if I could get there. Be sure and wear shorts so they can see your missing leg. Be sure you have copies of all your combat awards to give to them. I know they have all this stuff, but I would stick it in their face. Be nice but show them what you have been through. Stay cool. They are a bunch of fools, but don't be paranoid. The DRO process is not confrontational. Do you have a VSO? Tell them in detail about every horrific thing you saw or did and how it still affects you now. It will just be you, the DRO and your VSO if you have one. If you have a DX of PTSD with your war record I don't see how you can lose. The main thing is not lose your temper. I know that we are suspicious of the VA, but most of their stuff is due to incompetence and not evil design.

I filed for TDIU when I was 30%. I won my appeal and got 70% with no TDIU. Then I appealed the denial of TDIU and got the original date when I filed and was 30%, so it pays to file for TDIU even if you 10% and unemployable.

Yes, back doctors send you to their own PT clinics so they can get more money out of your insurance.

The VA may base your effective date on the new piece of evidence you give them. For instance, if your claim has been on appeal for a few years and you send them new evidence the VA may use that date as your effective date thus you lose a couple of years of retro.

I recommend the "Winter Soldier" hearings that were taped back in 1971 I think. Listen to the young Marine tell about his two tours in Vietnam. That guy never came home. I met him once.

I had a traveling board with the BVA. My lawyer was there with me and submitted a brief. The so-called hearing was over in 15 minutes. It took me about 9 months to get the hearing and about another 4-6 months to get the decision. I was denied so we appealed to the court. Since I began the process in 2006 at the RO it is now 2011. This gives you a time frame for a claim to travel from RO/DRO/BVA/Court. At some point my claim may be remanded back to the BVA and it will start all over again. It may go back to the RO eventually having been to the top of Mt Everest and back. I would take the traveling board as long as your lawyer is going to be there with you and submit a brief. If your lawyer will not answer your calls or respond to you then you need a new one. Your lawyer needs to be right on top of this all the way.

This is the process where your claim is on ice for a few months-years with the VA hoping you will die and your spouse will not press the issue.

If you can't work due to the PTSD your best bet is to get an IMO for the PTSD and don't file all these 10% claims. Concentrate on the claim that is your major disability which seems to be PTSD. The picture to look at is your employment. If PTSD is going to make working impossible, or keep you in dead end jobs for the rest of your life then you should look at how you can get it raised to 70%. You will never get to 100% with a bunch of 10% claims.

I have a lawyer on my case. I lost at the DRO. I lost at the BVA and now I am at the Court of Vet Appeals. It has been five years. Even Perry Mason cannot get the VA to do the right thing until you get to a venue that has the power to make the VA obey the law. Even then they can drag their feet because you get a remand. I think you are in good hands with Ken Carpenter from what I hear. Time is the weapon the VA uses to beat you down and defeat you.

You could withdraw a claim, but the VA cannot cancel it. Unless you sent the VA a letter saying you no longer want to pursue your claim for benefits they cannot just cancel it. Don't call the 800 number any more. They will tell you anything.

I would get a doctor to say that your are totally disabled due to static conditions that are expected to last the rest of your life. Your whole disability picture if of person who is totally disabled and expected to stay the same or get worse as Cooter says. You are 100% disabled and are not going to get better. The VA knows what 100% means.

You know there are a number of doctors who hire out as IMO's for SSD, Workers Compensation, VA and insurance companies. I do think that for VA, SSD and for federal worker's compensation the more exams they do the more they can earn. They must have some sense of what constitues going over the line in favor of claimants. Workers compensation would send you 200 miles to see a specialist. I don't know if that was because they were shopping for doctors who would accept low fees and do their dirty work or if there was just a shortage. I live in a good sized city and yet they sent me 40 miles. At least the VA does not do that which is to send you 200 miles to get your exam. They pay for it but it is not automatic. You have to claim it. I went to see a plastic surgeon on my own and he charged my insurance 200 dollars to say he could not help me. Why would a doctor want to do a C&P exam and spend 30 minutes with a patient and then have a report written up and get whatever the VA pays? You have to wonder what kind of doctor does these exams? Ancient guys or gals who can't do surgery anymore or who got in trouble and can't pay malpractice? I have had a lot of these kinds of exams over the years and most are just awful with many mistakes, guesses, misquotes and misdiagnosis. When they start to put words in your mouth and "adjust" your statements to support some pre-existing condition or personality disorder DX they should be sued. But, of course, you can't do it because they are protected by law. Then there are the ones who actually hurt you during an exam by bending this or that until it breaks.

It depends on what happens in boot camp or on first deployment. If you get beaten within an inch of your life in boot camp then that would be a stressor. If on your first deployment you see the guy in the truck in front of you on the road in Iraq or Afghanistan hit an IED then that would be a stressor. If it is just the normal stresses and strains of being used and abused by the United States military then probably not. However, if a VA shrink says you have PTSD then you have it, and you can file a claim. Actually, the way I understand it is if you fear coming hostilites just sitting at some rear area and the VA says you have PTSD then that is a valid claim. I could be wrong.

This system is changing so slowly I will be in my grave long before the VBA changes for the better in a significant way. If vets are willing to wait that long then the changes will be evolutionary like a frog becoming a monkey. We need a "Feedom Ride" to local RO's or to congress or to the HQ of the VA.

Are you thinking about suing for discrimination? If you get IU it would be moot, but if you don't you might be able to get money. They discriminated against you for your psychological disability.

Be careful the VA does not blame you for not showing up for the exams. They love to blame the victim of their own FUBAR.

Were you asking for SMC?

You know it takes years and or decades for all presumptives of these wars to come out in public. Look at AO. The VA is still finding presumptive diseases 40 years later and we will probably all die from some AO presumptive if we live long enough.

I don't think I would have tried horse trading with the VA on my own via email. Tell them to produce the email where you dropped the claim. What they did is illegal if they did horse trade.

Yeah, what are presumptives for OIF/OEF? I can imagine what's in the water in Afghanistan and the parasites. I would want a very good work up if I left that place. When young kids leave a place like that they don't want to look back. The military counts on that.

You can file an appeal on the fact you were denied Chapter 35 (P&T) and submit evidence that your disability is permanent. This is what I did because I was not going to another thing C&P exam for the same thing I had been dealing with for 30 years. I won my appeal and even got an earlier effective date out of it. What was your effective date? If you filed within one year of discharge your effective date should have been one day after discharge!

Apply for social security disability while you are at it.