john999

You need a doctor to say your secondary conditions are at least as likely as not the result of your service connected conditions. Treatment records are good, but the doctor must say what I have quoted above. I have quite a few secondary conditions and they all require a doctor to make the connection between the primary conditions and the secondary. The VA won't go there unless your doctor draws the medical conclusion. The VA will probably send you for a C&P to determine the degree of disability and make an opinion.

I have never applied for a secondary disability that did not require a C&P exam. When you go for a C&P you just never know where you may land. I recently claimed an increase for a secondary condition to diabetes and got an additional 80%. I was stunned. Where were these good doctors 20 years ago when I first claimed DMII and PN? I got the 80% via a contract C&P. If your claim is well supported you have little to fear from an exam. Also, I think the VA does give weight to chiropractors. The VA uses them, so why ignore them? You may often have to appeal a decision regardless of how good your claim. I had a secondary claim for what I concluded was some vein blockages in my legs. My VA doctor concurred with that and even wrote me a letter on that account. The VA first sent me to an idiot who said I had zero disability. I appealed that losing rating and got 60%. It took about a year. Not bad for the VA. Don't be afraid of these VA raters and doctors. They may be having a good day.

I got an EED based on a hospital admittance. The VA looked at the hospital record and granted me an EED six months before I applied for TDIU. As Bronco says there are many reasons to request an EED.

Usually, if you have enough credits and have PTSD or some other mental health condition it is easier to get SSDI than for physical condition. I say any one with severe physical condition should establish a depression claim based on pain and disability. Neither the VA or SSDI can look inside your head and determine you disability level. Only a doctor can do that. I got my SSDI within three months of application because I had good shrink write me a letter. SSDI just rolled over because I told them I would be willing to take a second opinion for them. If you have severe pain and disability you have a right to be depressed. In this society they just throw you on the junk pile if you are disabled.

Have you filed for social security disability. You can often use that date of grant for SSDI to ask for EED on TDIU. Just to be on the safe side I would appeal all the decisions. Have you worked at all since 2015? Did you get some kind of disability retirement from your employer. The VA should infer a claim for TDIU when you bring up the question at an exam. They almost never do it.

Back in 1973 I got a 10% VA disability rating . It was $28 a month. My father got $8 a month for his 10% disability from WW2. I think at the time a 100% rating was $700 a month. What a joke! So we have not gotten an increase beyond a COLA since WW2. We really should be getting $6000 a month for a 100% disability. Unless you live in a very low cost of living state not many can live in decent conditions on $3000 a month. Before I had to retire on disability I was making $50,000 a year, and that was in 2001. People live up to their incomes. If I was making $100,000 a year VA would still pay the low ball disability rate.

I worked for USPS for 20 years. Nepotism was also rampant. There was numerous supervisors whose supervised their own wives and children. Everybody was related to everyone else except me. They used to say that they had to hire disabled vets but they did not have to keep them.

Good work, Broken Soldier!

Inflation over decades is the number one enemy for us retired types. If actual inflation is 5% and we only get a 2% COLA we are rapidly losing our buying power. So we are going into the hole every year and getting poorer and poorer. If you have money then invest it. This is probably the only way to keep up with inflation.

You know I got fired from my job and had to hire a lawyer to get my pension etc. It was hell for about six months before I got worker's compensation and then SSDI and eventually TDIU. I had to give up the worker's compensation which at the time payed more than TDIU. However, with worker's compensation they never give up trying to get you back to work no matter what condition you are in. I really felt I was being thrown to the wolves.

You know I got SSDI before I got TDIU, so there was no way I could work any how. I wanted to work but with my disabilities I just could not do it. I was only 51 years old and I had a good job. Now years later I am so disabled I can hardly walk. I did get the 100% but it took me an extra big award to go from 90% to 100%. I was not even trying but just trying to get an increase in my DMII and PN. I got an extra 80% for the PN.

TDIU being an increase you don't get to file for the disabled vet insurance if you have not done it already. If you do have the disabled vet life insurance the VA will pay it for you now that you are TDIU or 100%. $10,000 is not much but it is something for the spouse if you drop dead.

You know in 1972 the VA did not even have to list or acknowledge the evidence they used to come to a decision on your claim. In my old claim they just said "We have examined all the evidence and come to a decision" which of course they had not, but how do you prove it? The rules have changed so many times it is not funny. I was filing a CUE so it was even worse. I thought that any "Reasonable Mind" would have seen the validity of my claim but we are talking about the VA.

Some times filing new claims when you have one in the cooker can delay getting a decision on the first one IMO. If you have a claim that will grant you a significant rating you don't want to file a bunch of 10% claims in the meantime IMO. Wait until you get the big one first then you can file all the minor claims you want. If you get TDIU, for instance, you will need some pretty high rated claims to get to 100% so getting a bunch of 10% claims will never get you there. I had 90% TDIU for years and it took at least a new 50% rating to get to schedular 100%. I have a host of 20% claims but I think the 40% and 30% claims I got recently got me there. This is just my opinion in the issue.

I think the average age of Vietnam vets is 74 years. We are like the WW11 vets back in the 70's and 80's. We are becoming fossils. Speaking of Afghanistan, it is reminding me of the fall of Saigon in 1975. All those years of combat in Vietnam burned down to smoke and ash. The same in Afghanistan. All that money spent and the Taliban will get it all back in the end. Each generation has to make the same mistakes it seems.

Pacman My claim was an old one from 1972. Crucial evidence in my claim was not considered, but being dumb I did not file a NOD and appeal at the time because I believed the VA had looked at all the evidence like they said they did. Anyway My lawyer and I looked for any way to take the case to the actual court of appeals but it died. "Reasonable Minds" and a host of other fixes used by the VA to deny CUE claims are really hard to win. Your claim has to almost be a clerical error that stands correction for you to win in most of these cases. I have won a CUE in the past but it was black and white without a bit of judgement involved. A truly "Reasonable Mind" would have granted my claim, but the fix was in. They really asked me to prove a negative which no one can do.

Bronco You said it all! I have talked to many vets who just don't comprehend that they can get TDIU or even 100% if they just file. They look at me like I am from another planet when I explain to them to just file on it. Many think if they ask for more they will lost what they have. This comes from VA and groups like VFW and DAV.

Pacmanx1 The VA may be hoping you will give up or just die. Those who win claims with the VA are those who never give up no matter how long it takes. VA just hates to pay large retro and will deny those claims until the cows come home. I filed a CUE some years ago that would have granted me about 30 years of 100% retro. Of course, my claim was denied all the way to the Court of Vet Appeals and that is where it died. The VA just pulled out all the stops to make sure I lost. I had good representation but the fix was in.

I keep saying I am done with the VA, but if another Agent Orange presumptive comes up I will claim it. Probably the only thing I can get now is some kind of SMC. I hope I don't have to claim it because it will mean I am much worse off than I am now. I really am done with them, but don't piss me off. I want to encourage others to file their claims until they get what they deserve. If you don't get it someone else will.

I had a C&P exam by a VA neurologist who said my PN was secondary to DMII and that it was pretty severe. That exam was overruled by a VA PCP who said my PN was not apparent and was not due to DMII. The VA took the word of the horse doctor over the board certified neurologist. I actually knew the father of the neurologist. He told his daughter to quit and get a real job. It islike having a podiatrist overrule an orthopedic surgeon. Nowhere but the VA or worker's compensation. OWCP has contract doctors who are hitmen but you would think the VA would not treat vets like that.

Remember when dealing with these contract C&P exam doctors they want to get paid. This is their major goal. Your rating means little to them. If you get a favorable decision or not means nothing to someone who is in it for the money. Just know what your dealing with when dealing with the VA. They will treat you for years but when you ask for compensation it is a different matter.

If VA sends you for a c&p exam go to it. If you don't go you will surely be denied no matter how good your case is. With covid it is easy to beg off the exam but it will probably hurt your claim. The VA scheduled me for an exam but did not bother to tell me. Sure enough my claims was denied, but I raised hell and got another exam and did win the claim with the same evidence I had before minus the exam. They do things by the numbers in some cases. They are not thinking beings.

Some conditions like diabetes have a host of potential secondary conditions. My DMII was caused by exposure to AO. I still had to show the medical connection to PN and Heart Disease. Now I am working on high blood pressure, but waiting until it is declared as presumptive for AO since it is probably only going to get me 10%. Some secondary conditions stand out like a search light, but VA demands medical proof that there is a connection in your case. Sleep apnea can lead to high blood pressure but you got to prove it in your individual case with medical evidence. It is a pain in the azz but that is the game they play.

Best wishes on a tough situation.

I live in Florida. The winters are cool and summers are hot as hell and humid. As a 100% vet I do not have to pay property tax. I get disabled vet tag on my car. I have lived in Florida most of my life. It is a good place to retire if you have money. If you are poor don't come here because their are few services that you don't have to pay for. Well off people live on the two coasts. The poor live in the more rural areas for the most part, except the inner city ghettos. I would not want to raise kids here because the schools are poor. For vets with children go to some place with a decent educational system. Lots of stuff for wealthy old rich people. Not much for the poor including vets trying to live on disability IMO. I could not live on my VA money here in Tampa. I have a few other resources thank God.