john999

I have BC/BS via FEHB and I have received treatment for SC conditions at the VA and via private doctors. I have never even been asked that question by private insurance. The only ones who want to know are the VA so they can try and bill my insurance. I think you are unwise not to immediately apply for service connection. It takes time to get benefits even for presumptive conditions. You don't want to leave this for your spouse to do while you are very sick Have you applied for SSD? Are you still working? I don't have a document in front of me, but I think you are scaring yourself over nothing. If you seek treatment outside the VA that is fine with them.

TestVet The postal service works on the 19th century sweatshop theory of labor relations. They made me get a letter from my doctor saying I was not a threat every time I went to the shrink on the clock. The shrink took me out of work and I never went back but did collect OWCP for a few years. The OWCP still pays for my private shrink I see who wrote me letters to get IU. Ah, it all comes together. The first thing they would do when an employee got injured was clock them out. This is funny because many of the supervisors were clerks or carriers who could not hack it. You had the worst employees supervising the best.

I think one thing people should do is build a support system for themselves. If you have severe disabilites you need all the support you can get. I have seen the same psychologist for about 35 years. He is part of my support system. I am not going to move 100 miles away and lose contact with my support system. I am close to the people and institutions that can help me. I live 25 miles from the VARO. You bet if I have a problem I will be over there pretty damn quick. If I were a 25 year old 10% vet it might be different. Maybe this is part of being a little bit nuts since I have spent year preparing for disasters I probably can't control.

Just about everyone with PTSD has some kind of sleep problems. Are you claiming the sleep problem as a physical abnormality or a psychological problem secondary to PTSD. The VA only rates one psychological problem but may SC the sleep problems. What the solution is is usually drugs. I don't know if you can get sleep apnea as secondary to PTSD, but I bet someone here has done it. Are you saying the vet does not have REM sleep or too much of it? I know there are disorders where they person does not have normal REM since they jump around during REM and are supposed to be more or less frozen.

If you get SSDI I don't see the advantage of doing vocational rehabilitation unless you think you are going to get well enough in the future to go back to work. You are sort of working at cross purposes. If you are going to do vocational rehab unless you fail at it then that won't help your IU claim. Of course, if you could do voc rehab and work it would be best, but if you are going to be on SSDI the rest of your life it makes no sense. What is your long term goal? I think this depends to some extent on your age and health. Do you have a realistic chance of making a decent living even if you complete voc rehab?

In the end it does not matter what they call your mental health condition if you are rated correctly for it. If you get 100% for PTSD or Bipolar it is the same money. The main thing is service connection. If you are IU for anxiety disorder or depression you still are unable to work. When the VA SC'es you for something like chronic pain disorder and for bipolar, but only rates the bipolar that does create a problem. You find the VA treating the chronic pain as if it were NSC just because it only shows a rating for bipolar. I was rated for PN secondary to DMII. The VA claims that since the PN rating does not specifically say anything about chronic pain that somehow the PN and the pain are separate and unrelated issues. This is the VA splitting hairs just like they are going to do with IHD as opposed to CAD for AO.

That Ellis Clinic is superb in doing federal workers compensation cases. Their is something called a Schedule Award for federal civil service on the job injuries and they get the most money for their clients.

testvet It would be good if there was a group that met on a regular basis to offer support and help for guys like you who were lab rats. I think the public has a weak grasp on this. No doubt in my mind the feds and military are capable of horrendous human rights violations. I got a lot from group therapy over the years, but I had to pay for it myself. I believe in people helping people to the extent they can. Just knowing you are not alone helps. I think group therapy saved my life and turned me around in many ways. I had this incredibly warped perception of other people and their motives when I got back from my military service. I thought everything people said was a lie. Of couse, maybe I was right.

This is why I hand carry or send claim information certified mail/return receipt. They have lost my stuff countless times. It usually is in the C-File but they are too lazy to look like my DD214 they said they did not have.

I think the c&p doctor is going to want something current to show evidence of this problem. He is not going to base a evaluation on records from 1994. You have to have the condition now. You need a nexus to service and you have to have current DX or symptoms of a disability. What kind of polyps are we talking about?

The money may show up in your account before you get the letter. When I got "S" via a CUE the retro money just showed up in my account one day. I knew what it had to be and I got a letter a few days later. Now you will at least have money to pay the bills. This is a big load off especially in these times.

Vet13 That trick question the VA shrink threw at you was to test you ability to think abstractly. People with schizophrenia and severe mental illness can't do that very well. My private psychologist told me to stay up all night before my C&P and drink about 5 cups of strong coffee. He said I would be jumping around so much they would probably just give me 100% on the spot. He was only half kidding. When you get your exams be aware that they may be watching you in waiting room and as you leave to see if you behave differently in the exam and out of the exam. I could write a book about this subject. You can be a psychotic and come out of one of those exams with a GAF of 80, or be DX'ed as a sociopath.

Berta It seems pretty obvious that vets who want to win and continue to get benefits from the VA had better get in treatment at the VA and stay in treatment. Yes, I also believe this vet got screwed and screwed himself.

Few things in life are as bad as a severe panic attack. I had one and it shocked me so bad I was in a strange dream-like state for months after. The body and mind are screaming "danger", but the danger is coming from the inside not the outside. The shrink said I was suffering from dissociative disorder. It got to the point where I would get lost all the time. It was all a reaction to severe shock due to the panic attack. The main fear I had was that I was losing my mind. People who are really crazy don't fear losing their minds. They think everyone else is nuts. Sometimes if a person is forced to confront a severe phobia it will set off a panic attack. The mind sort of shuts down to protect itself. People can become blind because they have seen something so shocking they don't want to see anymore. That was called hysterical blindness and happended to soldiers in WWI. Severe stress and anxiety work on a person and almost always show up in symptoms of some sort.

I would concentrate on the claims that get me to 100% or IU with the least burden of proof. The rest you can work on when you are getting a 100% check.

The only test that really tells the tale is the heart cath and that has risks. I would not want the VA to do that to me since they would probably kill me. My VAMC got in trouble for doing too many open heart operations on inappropriate patients back years ago. They cut open every old and very sick geezer that walked through the door to teach surgeons.

Berta Have you heard back from veterans legal service program about Nehmer. I sent them the email and got a canned response but that is all. I gave them all my information and that is the last I heard from them.

Pete I called the VA and they corrected themselves and are going to do the home visits on a fee base for PT. I guess the default is to try and palm it off on medicare unless you make a fuss. Why they would assume that a housebound vet is NSC I don't know because that is why medicare gets involved? Anyway, I will see what services I can get since getting to my VAMC is a royal pain in the ass. They are supposed to open a clinic nearby in January, but who knows. My VAMC tries to stick me for all services I get from them via my insurance. I have to write up a big explanation to my congress critter to prove that the VA is charging my insurance for SC conditions. Where is benefit of doubt on that one? John

Stillhere I got a heart c&p where the NP that did it just guessed. I had no testing. I went back to my PCP and she ordered me up some tests and on appeal I got 60%. Keep fighting and get a lawyer if you have to do it. You want to appeal this with or without a lawyer.

OEF That C&P exam is absurd. Anxiety related to a combat tour is PTSD. No one has all the symptoms. This is why it should not be left in the hands of only the VA to DX PTSD. Some vets have depression after combat tours. This all related to PTSD in some form. You can be rated 100% for anxiety NOS. PTSD is just a name for particular kind of anxiety reaction. It looks to me that the VA is trying to avoid making PTSD DX on orders from above.

Since I have "S" I asked the VA for some home health care. A guy came to the house today to evaluate me for PT. I find out that the VA has fobbed me off to medicare. I called the social worker and left a message asking why medicare is being charged for home care I get through the VA. What is going on? Is this normal? I know Pete53 gets some services from the VA. Does not the VA pay for their own home health care services? I am really sick of the VA shifting costs for care to every Tom,Dick and Harry.

I know there was a case recently we discussed here about a soldier in Europe who feared a terrorist attack and he got service connection for PTSD under new rules. He got it because he had some "reasonable" fear of terrorism. So every single soldier in Afghanistan could claim the same thing. You might get shot or blown up walking to the PX at some airbase.

Hey, I knew a personnel clerk who was writing phoney awards for various awards at Ft Stewart back in 1971. He was charging big bucks and got caught. They threw him out of the Army which is what he wanted anyway.

Be sure and ask for a transcript as Carlie mentioned. I sent my lawyer the transcript since they did not automatically provide one to him.

If you have any combat medals or awards that validates your stressors. However, even with those the VA has been known to deny PTSD claims. They deny them for vets with PH's. Our own Commander Bob is a glaring example. One of the most outrageous denials of a PTSD claim I ever heard of is Bob's denial after getting his leg blown off in Vietnam. The VA says Bob never claimed PTSD while he was in the service. Right, since he spent months in the hospital and was medically discharged.