john999

A really good example of a condition with multiple secondary conditions is diabetes. You get a rating for DMII. You also get separate ratings for each and every secondary condition. There are many secondary conditions for DMII. I have a rating of almost 100% just for the secondary conditions. These systemic conditions that affect multiple organ systems should be rated separately.

Forget the boat!

Yeah, when I got S I got about $8500 in retro which appeared in my account before I got the letter. I bet that is it.

Are you able to work? That is usually the main factor in rating mental disorders for the VA. However, you deserve more than 10% and that is for sure.

I like the fentanyl but getting the proper dose is hard. The VA is scared to death we will OD and they will get blamed. They don't care about your pain just CYA. The fentanyl takes the edge off without the ups and downs of the fast acting drugs like oxycodone and vicodin. I take both and I never know what will trigger my pain.

Hmmmm....you can't get TDIU and work at the same time. What agency are you going to work for? If it is the post office you probably will be on the street pretty soon because they are mean. If you call in sick the first 90 days you will be fired most like. What you will find is that if you can get by probation period you can probably hang in for a while, but if you miss work your work life is really going to suck. It will be better if you hang in long enough to get fired. Don't quit because that makes it harder to get TDIU. If you tell them you have PTSD they won't hire you even though that is illegal. They will find some reason not to hire you. These agencies are afraid of people with PTSD. If you want the job you must tell them you have not be officially DX'ed with PTSD.

Vet2010 Will you be better off sitting at home crying all day than working? I think you may be acting from the depression. Why not take some days off and see a shrink to talk about this thing before you do something you may regret.

Dean I would not assume anything because my claim is at the rater. You have waited over 4 years. If you have to wait another six months that would be just a small part of the time you have already waited. Trying to read the tea leaves of the VA is impossible. I was told once that my claim was at the "Front Office" and that I should assume a large retro. What I got was a denial. Take those statements from the VA for what they are worth which is nothing until you get the decision in your hand.

Don't listen to that therapist anymore and don't listen to these rumors. You had your exam and now you just have to wait. 3.5 months to wait for a decision is not long at all. Consider that you may have to file an appeal. Get your information here. I know many PTSD suffers get anxious waiting, but sometimes it is best to just not do anything. Don't submit anything else to the VA. Don't contact your congressman. Just go fishing.

Heck NO. Don't mention the fact you were able to rescue your neighbor and injured yourself doing it. If you quit your job based on this situation with the fire the VA is going to say that is the reason you can't work. You must be P&T solely for your SC conditions. You should just forget your heroic action as far as the VA is concerned.

Pete They know they are caught in a lie, so they just stick it to you to prove it. That was fast service, however. Not good, just fast. At least you know where you stand. They should have to prove they considered "S" when you got 100%, and they can't do that because they obviously did not consider it. They just intend to brazen it out. They just don't want to pay the retro plain and simple. I hope you stick it down their throats. Arrogant bastards.

I was a VSO for the American Legion for a while. I spent months trying to help this lady get a death benefit. I felt so sorry for her because she was living in poverty and her son was living off her. Anyway I found out that her husband never even served in the military. He worked in a factory that made war goods. I just tried everything I knew to find some Catch 22, but to no avail. You never know how hard it is to win a claim until you become a VSO. I had people who wanted me to give them money and wanted me to drive them around while they visited the RO. I do know that if I was looking at 22 years of potential retro I might just interview a few lawyers if I thought the case was going to the BVA and beyond. If you get to that stage you want your claim to be perfected with all the escape routes for the VA to be blocked. So they get 20%. At certain stages of a claim the smallest error can wreck it. There are not many people like Berta, but I think she would admit that even she has made mistakes. When you get emotionally involved in your own claim (impossible not to) it can give the other side an advantage. At the same time not many VSO's or lawyers are going to look at your 40 year old C-File for a thread that might mean a payoff. So at certain stages you are your best VSO and at other stages you need a lawyer I think. You would not go to the Court of Vet Appeals by yourself I hope. I say if the other side has a lawyer then you need one.

Sgt You know you can ask for a personal hearing at any step along the way. I had more than one DRO hearing on what was really the same issue. It is the EED that is sticking in their craw. They think that if they grant your EED the word will get out and other vets will start asking. I did get an EED on my TDIU based on a hospital admission back in 2001. I had applied for TDIU in April of 2002 but got an EED of August 2001 based on the hospital admission which can be treated as a request for an increase or even an informal claim for benefits. I got turned down for an EED of 1971 that was part of a CUE that was denied at the BVA. The claims are different, but I did get a rating decision based on the informal claim that was filed on my behalf back in 1971. I did not apply for TDIU back in 1971 because I did not even know what it was and the VA would not infer it because they excluded my doctor's evidence. I am in court with this now.

Teac You know when I filed for "S" it only took about 6 weeks from start to finish and it was a CUE. I was prepared to wait years. I think some of it depends on how easy and straight forward your claim is for the VA. Easy claims go fast and complicated ones take forever. Then again sometimes there is no explanation for why it takes so long. I think claims in general are much easier now than years ago. People seem to win 100% on things that would have required missing both arms and legs before. Maybe that is years of getting awful decisions and multiple trips to the BVA depending on the DAV to win for me. Your claim is also about damage the VA caused. They hate to admit those kinds of mistakes I think. What better way to punish you than to drag it out for years.

Deacon You are getting lots of tips others had to learn the hard way. That is what is so good about Hadit. You benefit from others hard luck. The VA reads your claim with a fine tooth comb so read the decision the same way. You being 80% I think it is just a matter of time and waiting. You will get there.

Fosk What you need to show is that your depression is so bad that you can't work. You don't need to show you have PTSD. Like Bronco says they only rate on one mental disorder. If you have major depression that is more than enough for TDIU if you can get your own doctor to say that is the reason you can't work. Your doctor should do a VA style work-up with a GAF and description of symptoms,history, and prognosis. You have more than enough wrong with you but you have to show severity. The VA is just playing hardball with you. They did the same thing to me when I had 70% by denying my TDIU on some pretext.

With the VA you don't want there to be any doubt. You want to just surround and crush them with evidence. If you have to spend an extra thousand bucks getting IMO's to make your claim doubt proof it is worth it. If benefit of doubt really existed the way we think of it most vets would get SC'ed the first time instead of having to file endless appeals. My doctor said I could not work 40 years ago due to 100% SC condition and the VA doctor said something along the lines that I got on well with other mental patients. Guess what the VA came up with: 10% rating based solely on what the VA doctor said. Now if I had had 2 other opinions maybe I would have gotten benefit of doubt. When you split hairs with the VA you usually lose.

I had a traveling board hearing from the BVA at my RO and it took about a year for the hearing and ten months to get a decision. I don't know if going to D.C. would be quicker. The board hearing I got at the RO was just an information gathering expedition by the BVA. I would not waste my time on that again. I would really try and sort it all out at the RO via a personal hearing. Now if you think you are going to end up losing at the BVA and have to go to court then you might as well get started on your five year mission. You see the number of different opinions you are getting here. You might hire a lawyer for this one since it would be worth it. The BVA turned down my request for an EED on my TDIU because they said I was not on SSDI. So much for their brain power.

Rusk The way you reopen a claim is with new and material evidence. That could be a new medical report. Getting an EED would probably require proof of CUE. The reopening of your hearing loss claim is not such a big deal. Getting an EED is a big deal. The VA gags at paying 11 years of retro compensation.

There should be some carrot and stick in the claims process for the VA. I have felt the stick on my back as a vet.

Deacon I think that evidence will help get your TDIU. What you don't want is to give the VA evidence for them to find an alternative explanation for why you can't work. This happens all the time with people who are filing for TDIU. They may mention other conditions that are not SC that the VA then uses to deny TDIU. It happened to me and that is why I warn against it. The VA went over my claim with a microscope to find something to deny my TDIU. I had been SC for 30 years at 30%. Then I retired on disability and the VA tried to blame a work related injury instead of the 70% SC.

Yes, I think a very detailed stressor letter will help and also some documentation. Was there a particular reason why you did not report the rapes at the time? Do you have physical evidence of an assault? That is going to matter.

I just talked to a friend of mine from Vietnam. I am putting on the pressure to get him to file a claim for at least his DMII. There are many, many vets out there who have claims but who do not get around to making a claim. I bet there are just thousands who don't understand the benefits involved in getting TDIU or 100% if they can't work. The VA should be doing outreach to these people and I know they are not. The states don't do outreach and why should they? It might mean they ger less tax revenue. This friend from Nam is living in poverty with his sick wife and is just getting around to possibly filing a claim. I don't like to harp on it, but if he croaks now before he gets TDIU or 100% for all his problems his wife will get nothing.

You can't use violation with VCAA as part of a CUE. The VA does not even have to send you appeal rights in your decision letter. All they have to do is make a decision, but even if they make an error it must be "undebatable" that it would have made a difference in the outcome of the rating decision. This is a very high standard to overcome. If five doctors say you have severe PTSD and one says you are just a drunk the DX of PTSD is not "undebatable" according to CUE standards. At least that is what the BVA says.

There should be a time limit that if the VA goes past that limit due to their own fault the claim is automatically approved. Interest should also be paid to the vet when the VA denies a claim due to incompetence.