john999

I am sure glad I just got thrown out with nothing. So much easier to compute as (0-0=0).

You file NOD's on separate decisions. If you get a decision you don't like file a NOD. If you get a decision and don't file a NOD your appeal dies.

I called my local congresswoman for a meeting. Her assistant says she is "unavailable". Well, I won't be available in November. I contributed to this arrogant person's campaign and "unavailable" is what I get. We shall see. They are going to get a lot of letters from me and maybe me out in front of their office with a sign. If you want help from the VA you need to be a pest. Being a nice, quiet vet with your hat in your hand won't get it. The VA kills people. Do you think they give a damn about us?

They are going to use the date you got 100% or got IU. If you want an EED you are going to have to fight for it.

I have gotten certified mail from the VA. Only when they send me narcotics do they require me to sign for the letter. This is to cover their asses. When they send a decision or a notice of a c&p exam who cares. Just send it any old way. If I get it great if not the can deny my claim. Why do I hate the VA? Because the relationship I have with them is based on inequality. I am the dog and they are the master. I have to prove my claims and they can just deny it, lie to my face, lie to my congressman...no problem.

Cool Probably the only VSO around here you can trust is Larry and we can't clone him......yet! To appreciate what a vet goes through with a claim you need to be a vet who has been screwed over in the grand style. When they lose your documents and forget to mail out notice of c&p exams you begin to understand them. They don't care.

Look about 9 years ago I called the VA 800 number and asked about my IU claim. They told me I had won big with lots of retro. That was a lie. I was denied. The VA lies and makes things up to get you off the phone. If it is not in writing or in the bank then you can't believe it. Even if it is in the bank you can't always believe it since the VA sent me another's veterans compensation once for about 6 months even when I told them they were wrong they kept sending it.

Because I only live about 25 miles from my VARO I hand deliver important documents. My VARO has lost every document I ever sent them. They get 10,000 pieces of mail a day. They were delaying my claim because they said I did not have a DD214 even though I had been SC'ed for 30 years. Of course, I took them a brand new certifed copy of my DD214. A copy was sitting in my c-file but they were too lazy to look for it. I mean how can you respect people like this? I trust no one at the VARO including the VSO's.

Yes, it did help my claim. I got IU on the first DRO Hearing and P&T the second time.

It happens all the time. My insurance company wants me to send them proof they are being charged for SC conditions. They should be investigating and not waiting on me. I told them to pay nothing since it is all for SC conditions.

If you go to a private hospital and they cut off the wrong leg you have lawyers beating down your door. At the VA not so much. They don't want to get bogged down in that system. You do need someone to watch out for you when you go in the hosptial. My wife hollered at them to get me pain meds when a private hospital cut my foot open. They left me there post op with no pain meds after cutting a hunk out of my foot. The first time they packed the wound with no pain meds in me I almost kicked the nurse in the face. I had poor care at that civilian hospital as well, but a very competent surgeon.

I talked to an Iraq war vet who got rated only 10% for PTSD and 10% for his knee. He was an interrogator in Iraq. He probably gave a lot of people PTSD. However, how can a person have a 10% rating for PTSD. I told him to keep appealing and not to look so neat. He was groomed and short hair, but his leg was going 100 mph as he talked about Iraq. I should have been a shrink.

Stretch You know the VA was hinting around that I was trying to scam them on the drugs. They must believe I think it is worth it to send drugs to Maine and then fly up on my own dime to collect and rush back to Tampa. They lie to my face and to my congresswoman about reducing my pain meds claiming they increased them due to my severe pain. What are you going to do with people who just don't give a damn. The longer I use the system the more abused I feel. I get what I need and want in the end, but the aggravation! Some psychotic is going to blow up the pharmacy one day.

Papa I would be very cautious about being an in-patient at the VA or letting them do procedures on you if you have alternatives. I had a few bad experiences where I was on the ward and the VA doctors would not treat my pain. I called my wife to get me out and bring the POA just in case. Three days without sleep due to being admitted on Friday and not seeing a doctor until late Monday.

If you are going to get TDIU it must be solely for service connected issues. You have to separate out the SC from the NSC to pursue the TDIU or the VA will just continue to say you can't work because of NSC. I been there myself. They will hang their hate on any NSC condition to try and say that is the reason you can't work. You need a medical opinion to say the SC conditions is why you can't work.

You should get an MD to say you are unemployable. I think from the drugs you are taking you are unemployable. The VA will never get your meds straight. Get what is known as an independent medical opinion. If you have been Baker Acted twice I don't think you are up to working a steady job. I am in Florida so I know what Baker Act means. Seroquel is anti-psychotic med. Are you even safe to drive?

Every single one of us has been beaten up by the VA at one time or another always about money. They like their heros good and dead. The only good vet is a dead one to the VA.

At my VAMC some jerk put in a address change for me and sent all my medications on a trip to Maine. I found out today when I did not get my pain meds. I called those worthless SOB's and they told me I had come in person and changed my address. Right, I live in Florida for the past 35 years and suddenly I want my oxycodone sent to Maine. I was so frustrated I did not know to weep or bite someone's neck. I spend 5 hours trying to get it fixed and get some meds. The VA gave me a ten day supply while my 30 day script makes a round trip all around the USA. I am going to get out of that pain clinic. If my PCP won't fill it for me I will just have to do something else. The pain clinic people are animals.

Somebody is a fan of "Rumpole of the Bailey". She who must be obeyed! To have someone read your rating decision to you over the phone could bring on heart attack. When your mouth gets dry, you pretty high, when your mouth gets dry. Just opening the white or brown envelope gives me the shakes.

Ebenefits does not work in my VARO region. Not that it would matter much with the St. Pete VARO. They just create fiction anyway. The RO's get creative writing award.

If you get 100% your IU is moot.

Wow, ten years of retro...YeeHaw!

You can only file a CUE on a final decision. If you can still use regular appeal system then use it. File your NOD and note the fact you did not have a C&P exam. CUE is your last resort.

I think the only AO birth defect or genetic disorder the VA admits is spina bifida. There are many cases in Vietnam of children born to Vietnamese who have awful birth defects. The VA ignores such findings as does our government in general. We are responsible for those injuries since we dumped AO on S. Vietnamese civilians and not on N.Vietnam. The US government does not want to pay for the injuries to Vietnamese as this would also mean they would have pressure to pay for US military offspring as well. It is not about science but about money.

I had a GAF of 50 and got 70%. My IMO's pointed to 100% but the VA made if very difficult for me back in 2001. I think they have gotten much more liberal in the last ten years.