john999

You should have gotten you c-file within a month or two. This wait of 8 months is crazy. Asking for a copy of your c-file is not a claim. If I was you I would go get a lawyer to take this claim. Just send in a generic NOD and then get a lawyer. If no lawyer will take the case then you pretty much know this is going to be a very hard battle. The VA is not going to roll over on this.

Get a shrink to say that your panic attacks are symptom of some accepted service connected condition.

Denial is part of the syndrome and a patient getting better on paper means success for the program. The stats are all. He probably needs help from private therapist who is not trying to make good stats.

Cooter I think you could get it SC'ed. You were jumping out of airplanes, and I guess you have your jump badge. I would tell the shrink about the incident. Paxil and xanax are good for panic. Paxil is good for long term treatment of panic. It increses the serotonin in your brain which makes you feel good and stops your mind from focusing on unproductive thoughts. You know when you start to think "what if I have panic attack now?" somehow Paxil and its cousins stop that obsessive thought pattern.

What does your psychiatrist say? What do you take for anxiety? Anxiety attacks can look and feel like a heart attack.

Cpl You were pretty close to the combat zone. Did you ever go to Iraq or Afghanistan at any time. Did you see wounded or were you put on alerts? All these general officers flew over fire fights at 10,000 feet and put in for air medals. Everyone of those guys gets disability and they spent their time eating off fine china and having their boots polished by some enlisted servant.

If you are a Vietnam vet try and die from AO related disease. This way you can get the VA to pay the $2300 for the box or cremation. If we live long enough we should all die from an AO disease.

You know you the vet can get reimbursed for dental as well that happened while he was waiting for Total disability.

What is the cheapest way to go? When you are dead you are dead. You can bury my body down by the highway side, so my old evil spirit can catch a greyhoud bus and ride.

Yes, you need a good IMO from othopedic doctor to make the connection between your back and your hips. If your hips were not treated or diagnosed during service it is up to you to make the case. The VA will probably say that hips are either some deformity or due to age that has nothing to do with your back or your service. You have to prove that it is and medical evidence is the way to do it.

Yes, file for TDIU because you may need some kind of surgery to fix that back and you will be unable to work. The problems with your back are probably the result of that lumbar strain, but you need the TDIU money as soon as you can get it.

Get a lawyer to review your CUE. If you can find a lawyer who will take your claim you are headed for the BVA/Court of veterans appeals. If you just send this up without some expert doing research and a brief your claim is going to languish for a few years and then be dismissed. The VA does not even mention your "PTSD/unemployable" diagnosis. Did they have that record before them when they made the initial rating back in 1995? When you get your C-File and look at the decision it would be important to find out if they had that evidence, but just chose to ignore it. Be aware that you do have an uphill battle. You really have two things you must show were made in error: 1. Your rating of 30% was an error. You should have been rated at least 70%. 2. You had an inferred claim for TDIU because of that rating error.

Violating veteran's rights is just SOP for the VA.

You know there is something called hypercholesterolism. My brother has it and I think my father had it. My brother had a total cholesteral level of well over 350 when he was just a young man. He was not fat. He ate a normal diet. He did start taking cholesteral drugs many years ago, but he has to fight very hard to keep it normal. I have a low cholesteral level which got higher as I got older and fatter. I take crestor and my total is about 160. I think the hypercholesterolism killed my father at a very young age. He was a WWII vet and smoked, of course. Deadly combination!

Did you get a regular honorable discharge or a medical discharge for mental health issue? They will rate you on the most serious mental condition if you can show a nexus. Were you treated for mental illness in the service?

You can use the date of his disability retirement for TDIU. He does need to show that he retired due solely to service connected reasons. Was he a federal employee?

Me, too, Pete. I had cataract surgery done by private doctor via medicare because VA would not do it. I had my teeth fixed by private dentist because the VA filed the same filling twice and made a mess of it. They pulled a perfectly good tooth and would not do an implant to replace it. I paid $3000 to do it. The glasses they gave me did not fit with one lense about half an inch thick. They are such cheap bastards I now use a private eye doctor. I need neck surgery. I would cut my throat before I would use the VA for that service. The VAMC is the greatest little welfare hospital in Florida. I would not set foot in their ER in Tampa. There are a few good doctors in the system, but the system itself is like Vegas. Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, then use the VA for a major surgery.

When you file a CUE it always smells like it could go bad. I would just wait for a decision and then file you NOD and hire a lawyer. If the lawyers won't take it then go forward by yourself. You need the decision to really prepare for an appeal. In some CUE claims the VA will just say "No CUE occurred" and that is it. Others they may explain themselves. In my claims at the RO the VA tried every dirty trick in the book including trying to get negavtive evidence into the record that was not before the RO at the time of the decision. In the end they just said "NO CUE" without reasons or basis. Only at the BVA did they go into why they were rejecting my CUE. There reasons are bogus also, but at least they gave them.

You want to win the TDIU claim. All the rest matters little except to bolster a possible 100%. If you can't work then you can't work. GERD and anything that does not deal with TDIU just slows down your money getting to you.

Are you working and trying to get 100% schedular? You have enough for TDIU if you can't work.

Vets should be marching on their RO's with pitchforks and burning torches. I don't understand attitude of main VSO's. VCS is light years ahead of DAV, VFW and Al and VVA. I don't get it. VCS gets things done while these VSO's with histories back to WWI do nothing. The VFW and AL are just nice places to get drunk and my DAV is for a few retired military types in a part of town I would not park my car. I am beyond all this now. I don't need these people for anything.

Ester All the evidence about being molested as a child is not going to help your PTSD claim. It is going to hurt it. You need evidence that points directly at service connected cause of PTSD. All the statements about what happened in your childhood affecting you now are not good to help with a PTSD claim. You need to focus entirely on what happend in the Marines. You need an opinion that says although you may have been molested as a child it was the tornadoes and deaths of fellow marines that caused the PTSD.

Tom If you don't get some new medical eivdence in the form a report that shows nexus between military service or your present SC your new claims will probably die at the BVA. If you want to bang your head against a brick wall that is ok.

Phil I agree with that since once a vet hits 100% or total he is considered 0% able bodied. For SMC purpose why used combined rating schedule on a vet that is already 0% able. That is just another trick to keep vets from getting money.

If you have a scar on your face that disfigures you that would be ratable. You could probably build TDIU out of that if the scar was large on the face. I know burn scars disfigure a person and might make it impossible to get a job.