john999

I think you can pay back SSA and stop collecting until you reach 65-66 and then get the full draw. There is no free lunch. SSDI is not as much as full retirement. It is more than what you get at 62, but not as much as what you get at 66. You are going to end up paying someone back somehow.

Getting low balled and falsified and inaccurate c&p exams is just standard. Everyone of mine has had some major mistakes in it and I have had many. Get the decision and get the NOD in and get the lawyer. That is my advise.

Is there one that shows bilateral factor?

If you are in constant and chronic pain for your service connected problems it is worth making a claim. You need a doctor to say you have chronic pain and depression due solely to your SC conditions. I have that high arch problem. I had a surgery to treat the constant pain from PF and it really went bad. I got a horrible staff infection and almost lost my foot. I can imagine your pain! Now I have to wear a brace and hope it gets better.

Yes, pain disorder is considered an emotional disorder. Pain disorder is not just pain. It is your reaction to chronic pain. When reacting to your pain becomes the focus of your life you have chronic pain disorder. If pain limits you activites and causes depression, anxiety and dependence on drugs to endure life that is chronic pain disorder. I don't know how depression can be sorted out from chronic pain disorder.

You can argue almost anything with the VA, but certain time limits you just can't get around. The NOD rule is one of them. The rules for sending in appeals are pretty rigid. You don't want to mess with them. When in doubt send in your appeal well in advance and then check to make sure they got it. Same goes for evidence. You just can't fool around with this stuff. If you can't prove the VA got your evidence you end up spending years in appeals and lose effective dates.

The way to get a condition considered chronic is to get a doctor to say it is chronic. 5 or 6 sick calls for neck pain is not going to show you have a chronic condition, but years of the same pain and treatment records should show it is chronic. However, you still need a doctor to say it is chronic. The VA will play all sorts of games if you do not have medical report that addresses your in-service medical records and makes a nexus to your current condition.

What gets me is the VA does not do outreach to sick vets. You have to find out via grapevine. I get a AO Registry letter every year and that is it. Has every vet gotten a letter from VA inviting them to come to the VA for a baseline examination? Of course not. That would cost money.

No amount of money is worth a bad ticker! I don't envy anyone with IHD one bit.

TestVet Are you going to see a private cardiologist? I would not accept "NO" from the damn VA. Just because you won't accept an invasive procedure the VA cardiologist won't see you? That does not sound right or even legal.

You need outside medical opinion!

With the VA they often start you off at 30% and then if you can show you are worse they step you up to 50% then 70% and the next stop is IU or 100% if you can't work. Are you able to work? That is a key factor.

Well, you need a doctor to say you are unemployable solely due to your SC conditions. Have you applied for SSD? If you do apply for you SC conditions only. What you want to show the VA is that your SC conditions are the sole reason you remain unemployable. When NSC and SC conditions get mixed in with an IU claim it gets complicated. The VA will often jump on the fact you had job injury to deny. It happened to me. I got SSD for my SC condition and I got disability retirement for SC conditions. This helped plus many letters from doctors saying I was IU due solely to SC conditions.

Pete Damn right. Don't let the VA medical students remove your prostate. Get a second opinion. You know if you let VA do the job you will probably be impotent afterwards. The best way I have heard of doing it is cryotherapy where they freeze and kill just the cancer.

Don't let a medical student at the VAMC do your prostate biopsy. If you have medicare go to a real doctor who has done thousands. They don't turn it into a painful, and bloodly mess. It is not supposed to hurt.

Quint Run this by a lawyer. If the VA can get away with not even sending appeal right to a vet on a decision then they can do just about anything. It is impossible to get due process without appeal rights, but that is not a CUE because it falls under duty to assist. See if you can get a lawyer to take you case. You are in for a rough fight. You will probably fail at the VARO level. Then you go to BVA.....failure most likely. Then you must go to court. Very long process and you need expert legal advise I think to win. You do not have to tell me it is unfair. I know it, but is it a CUE? That I doubt. Why do you think they make CUE so difficult? Because they don't want to pay 20,30,40 years of back pay. Check out CUE and duty to assist.

I get the fentanyl patch and oxycodone for feet, back and shoulder pain. When they ask me my pain level without dope I always say at least an 8-10. With dope I say 4-5. The VA could do more but the better drugs are not in the formulary. If you have chronic pain that is what the pain clinic is for is to treat that pain with narcotics or whatever gives your relief. They have given me morphine,methadone and it all just sucks to tell you the truth. In order to get into in-patient pain clinic they want you off narcotics. That is dumb. That is like telling you that to be treated for alcoholism you must be sober. Last time I was in the hospital I did not get enough pain meds and I was awake for three days. I am not doing that again. What I want is oxycontin which is long acting oxycodone. I tolerate that well but the VA says "NO". If I want it I must go to notorious pain clinics and pay cash. Is this decent treatment for service connected conditions? I am not a junkie yet.

If you are over 55, are totally disabled and stable, they probably write you off if you are P&T. I have been P&T for 9 years. No exams except what I have asked for when filing new claims for the AO stuff. How does it feel to be a write off? I am surprised the VA does not write a letter each year asking if you are dead yet.

Consider a spouse trying to live on just SSA and DIC. It is not that much. With lack of pensions these days people will be going into retirement with small money.

Ridiculous claim in my opinion. If that is the standard every vet who rode from Airport to the replacement center in Vietnam was in fear of death since grenades had been thrown in bus windows which is why they were covered with screen.

I think all this comes under duty to assist and that is not grounds for a CUE. I know that sounds awful. VA kicked me in the &^%$& as well on this matter. I did not even get appeal rights on a decision (1973) and this is not a CUE. How could I have appealed if I did not even know I had the right to appeal my rating? Still BVA says no CUE on that issue. I have had at least two claims denied due to VA not notifying me of a c&p. Fortunately, when I got the denial and the reasons and basis for it I appealed in a hurry. Even if you prove VA messed up in 1994 I don't think you can get CUE and EED. VA says no matter how unfair a decision it is not CUE. So fairness is out the window. They have to break the law and it has to be cogent enough to have made a difference in your rating.

If you get 100% schedular for PTSD and the VA finds out you are working you can expect to be reduced most likely. You have to get P&T to get champva and educational benefits. If you get IU or 100% for PTSD your working days are over. Your job will be to maintain your 100% rating.

I think it is done with a wink and a nod. It usually goes something like " you drop your other appeals and we will grant your main disability". Sometimes you get the "we will grant P&T if you let the other claims just die". They tell your VSO or Lawyer this in so many words but not in front of you. They know they are not supposed to do it, but it happens and it is ok sometimes.

They probably think too many vets are getting compensation.

Don't mention any relatives with bipolar disorder. Don't even use the word at the VA. After you get your IU or 100% never mention the word "work". You don't want to give these guys any threads to pull on. Everything that is wrong with happened because of your service. Nothing before that should even be discussed. Nothing about your childhood or any of that stuff.