john999

I called the medical director, but they won't let me talk to her. They shunt me off to some other nobody. I just talked to the head of the pain clinic yesterday for 30 minutes and today I find my script has been dropped. It is like I am in fantasy land. I can't believe it. Is it malpractice to cut off a drug habituated patient with no warning. I will be on the phone early Friday. I talk to the VA one day and think I have every thing fixed and the next day they drop a bomb on me. They preach to not suddenly stop taking these meds, and then they just forget to renew my script. Every month I start calling a week ahead because I know they will screw it up and they do anyway. If I had a street drug dealer I would have a more consistent supply than the VA.

That ex-senator Simpson from Wyoming is on some panel that is working with Obama to find ways to cut the deficit. Simpson was complaining that disabled veterans were not helping because they were getting too much in the way of compensation. It was on MSNBC today. The panel is looking to cut medicare, SSA and veteran benefits as a way to reduce budget. I am not making this up. I don't think it is going to happen under current administration,but even talking about it while giving tax cuts to billionaires is crazy.

The VA ER is about 20 miles away. I sure as hell don't want to go there. By Friday all the doctors at my VAMC will be gone and I will be left without my script. I called every number I could find to get in touch with the pain clinic doctors. Something happens every month. I can't just waltz out and get a fentanyl script filled. My VA ER doctors would not fill that script. It is not in the VA formulary. This is part of the problem. My doctors and the pharmacy have conflict every time I go to get the script filled. Last month the pharmacy refused to fill the script. This month the doctor did not even file the script with the pharmacy. The pain clinic writes a script and the pharmacy refuses to fill it. What kind of dog and pony show is that?

Get yourself a lawyer. You will never find a really expert VSO. They are as rare as hen's teeth.

The C&P exam you got does not make sense. They grant you a 30% award for anxiety because of combat experience, but they say it is not PTSD. PTSD is just another kind of anxiety disorder. I don't understand why your anxiety disorder is not PTSD. You meet the criteria. I think the VA is playing games. However, as I said you can get 100% for anxiety disorder just the same as for PTSD. The criteria is really the same for disability purpose.

It sounds to me as if the VA is just horsing around and trying to delay paying you. I never heard of two exams for ED. What kind of exams?

For some reason the VA pain clinic failed to renew my fentanyl patch script. I got my oxycodone today in the mail but no fentanyl patches. When does the constant screw-ups over my medications become malpractice or a tort? Every month no matter who I talk to at the VA, or what I do in advance the VA fails to get my script to me and I run out and go into withdrawl. I call the pain clinic....nobody home. I call advocate....busy. I call phramacy and they email the pain clinic asking why my script was not renewed. This is affecting my mental health being on pins and needles every month. Now I am facing a long weekend and I can't get into contact with my doctor at the pain clinic. I have a heart condition and mental health conditions. This is driving me crazy. I just spoke to the pain clinic head doctor yesterday about these screw-ups.

Cool I think there are those in this country who would like to reduce the deficit by cutting veteran's compensation. You won't hear many disabled veterans saying that. I see your point. What a certain number of those who walk the halls of power in congress and corporate American would like to do is give vets a handshake and a kick in the ass. It was not until WWII that there was even a G.I. Bill. These are the same people who want to cut SSA benefits and medicare benefits.

Maybe in this case see you congressman.

I think you should concentrate for the moment on getting 100% or IU if you can't work. The VA can bat you back and forth between BVA and VARO and CAVA for decades.

I believe you can get medicare and medicade at the same time under certain conditions. You have to be really poor and probably have dependents.

Sandman What happened with the clonazepam? I know you don't want to stop taking it if you are taking five a day. Clonazepam is the most harmless of the Benzos like Valium and the rest because it is long lasting. It stays in your system longer than xanax, for instance. All these drugs have their place. The cops and drug haters who blame drugs for everything love to demonize them. If you are having acute anxiety attack the xanax is a wonderful thing. If you go to drug parties and take handfulls of different colored drugs then it is not wonderful. Hey, drugs don't kill people. People who take drugs kill themselves. The NRA always says guns don't kill people, but I bet the NRA backs the DEA 100%, and would lock up anyone with a joint in their hand for 99 years. Oxycontin was demonized so badly neither the VA nor many pain management doctors will prescribe it. Heroin was invented as a cure for morphine addiction. Methadone was invented as a cure for heroin addiction. What is the cure for methadone addiction? Methadone is second to oxycodone in OD death causes in my state of Florida. It is higher than heroin OD's.

Bergie My pain doctor at the VA told me today that the drugs in the Valium family when combined with pain meds have caused thousands of deaths nationwide. They are coming down like a ton of lead on me for taking clonazepam. You know I have been taking these drugs for years with no bad results and now they tell me the combination is deadly. How do you like that? I take clonazepam because I can't sleep due to pain and pain meds. Maybe they will give me seroquel instead. The VA is trying to kill me.

US government and Taxpayers just cannot wait for Vietnam vets to die. It would be so much better and cheaper if we were all just dead. First they have to qualify us as undeserving freeloaders and fakes getting the big money from AO claims.

Pete You have a badass VSO who wears the "hat of death"? No wonder they quake when you enter the building. I want Larry to make a low level flight and drop some encouragement on my VARO. Take no prisoners.

If you can't work he needs to say that. If your wife kicked you out he needs to say that. Doctor should be specific.

I think reopening with new evidence is your best bet. The endless argument with the VA about some old c&p exam is fruitless. You will die arguing about this with a remand in your hand.

You can get 100% for anxiety just like PTSD. It depends on your level of disability.

I had a long talk with the head doctor of the Tampa VA Pain clinic. She says from studies that deaths from accidental over dose due to combination of drugs like valium and xanax and any narcotic is an epidemic. She says that VA's formulary is so restricted that she can't do what she knows is right. She says that all pain clinic patients are started off on morphine. What a joke! All the newer long acting pain killers are not in the formulary. You go from some morphine equivalent to stronger doses until you time-out in the system and they start over. All the VA pain doctors at my VAMC believe narcotics increase pain for those with chronic pain disorder. My question is what the heck do they have to offer besides PT? The answer is nothing. What kind of treatment are the guys just home from the wars getting? Do they get high class aspirin? Do they get the same kind of oral morphine I got? That would be really unkind.

Macafee This gives me something to live for then. I have to stay alive for at least two more years. If you die while your claim is at the CAVA does it die with you or can your widow pick it up. My lawyer says he is going to pursue the case at CAVA and I don't have to do anything except maybe sign some papers.

I bet a good malpractice lawyer can find malpractice in every single case he looks at if it is worth his while to look. If you are really ill and spend time in a hospital chances are you will suffer neglect of some kind. If you end up in a VA nursing home you will definitely suffer neglect.

There are less than a million "boots on the ground" Vietnam vets still living from what I have read here. Even if everyone living is compensated for some AO disease it will probably be no more than the number of OIF/OEF vets who get compensated for something. By managing to delay service connecting most of the really awful AO diseases for 30-40 years after the end of the war that has eased the burden on the treasury. By the time most of us RVN vets are in our 70's or 80's it will be conceded that all of us will die from an AO condition. If you can delay compensating someone for 50-60 years that is a success for the VA.

What is time frame between BVA decision and getting to the CAVA with your lawyer well in hand.

The VA believes if a certain cheap drug is good for one condition they it will be good for many conditions. Look at the way they use generic neurontin. They use it for every off label use from chronic pain to PTSD. I never heard of Seroquel being used for PTSD. I know the VA believes that these anti-seizures drugs like Topomax and Neurontin can be used for everything. These are powerful drugs and I have not seen long term studies of what the side effects may be. I know long term use of anti-psychotics is permanent case of jerking and involuntary movements. If you have seen this disorder you know you don't want it. I have seen it in others.

It would be good if your IMO could quote an in-service DX that shows how the injury happened in the words of a doctor. What did the military dx you with before you were discharged? Did a military doctor say you hurt your neck on duty?