john999

Did you have a lawyer for CAVA? Do you have a lawyer now? The VA can screw you around for years. You need a private psychiatrist to write up your PTSD report. Stick around and you will get examples of what you need. Your PTSD claim should be a slam/dunk but with the VA you have to shove it up their rectums.

I wonder if I could file a 1151 claim for the awful care I have gotten at the pain clinic?

TestVet I am right. They are trying to kill me. I have a heart condition 60%. I have all these different doctors prescribing for me at the VA and they change the treatment picture for me every time I see one of them. The bastards contradict each other and change each others orders. Then the pharmacy changes the orders. If I have to go to the news channels or talk to a reporter I will tell them that I have a heart condition and the VA has left me to go through detox on my own after years of being on narcotics. I wonder if any of them know what that is like.

I would wait until I got a copy of the exam and then get your own doctor to write a report for you. These exam doctors (C&P) often low ball the vet. You just cannot depend on the VA to give you an honest shake. Did you apply for TDIU?

Yes, you come to depend on VA care and they screw it up so bad you end up on detox ward or jumping in the river. The care at my VAMC is so inconsistent and poor some of those people should be in jail. VA health care is an contradiction in terms. If this is government health care then we really are in trouble. I think they screw it up on purpose. That is the VA's secret mission to drive all those with options out of the system.

Chu Lai Buddy, you day is going to come at the VA when one of those clowns kills or maims you. I would do fine without the VA except for pain meds, and they can't even get that right. I would not take my pet rat to the VAMC for serious care if I had a pet rat. You just keep going to the VAMC for all your treatments and let us know where to send the flowers. I have medicare and BC/BS. I go to the VA because they owe me treatment. I really don't know if it is worth the risk. When I had a foot infection I went to a local private hosptial because the VA would have ended up amputating my foot or kill me. The VA is really still just a hosptial for charity and drunks. It is the elephant graveyard for old doctors or for those who have had trouble keeping a practice. I hope you have lots of life insurance.

VYNC If they can just cut off my drugs they can cut off anyone. Someone must know that sudden withdrawl from powerful narcotics is dangerous. The night nurse I talked to knew that, but the doctor and pharmacy did not know it. I will call every news station in town about this treatment. This really amounts to torture since I go into withdrawl soon. I will be on the phone Wednesday starting at 8am. Those who think the VA is a great place take heed. Your day will come.

Ranger You have to prove by the record that you were attacked. You are telling us that you just stayed in your bunk and sucked it up and never went on sick call or reported the attack. How do you expect to prove this PTSD claim? TestVet was attacked and he had much proof and it took him years to win his claim. What kind of discharge did you get? Was it a medical? You have been out of the army for over 20 years. Were you in any combat zones for anything?

The VA just put a hold on my fentanyl with no warning. They also reduced my oxycodone with no warning. I got the meds in the mail today. I was all over the VAMC a few days ago to get my pain meds straightened, and now without any discussion or warning they just stop the fentanl and reduce the oxycodone. I have been on the phone for an hour trying to talk to a doctor. So I guess I go into withdrawl now. What other professional pain clinic would cut off a highly addictive medication with no warning and no explanation. I will be on the phone with these people in the morning. The night nurse told me the pharmacy refused to fill the script. I am afraid to go out to the VAMC because I will get arrested. Commander Bob will have to fly down and get me out! I can't stand be jerked around like this. If I was to go to detox they would put me in the mental ward and torture me for weeks. This is the world class care the VA provides?

Ranger If you filed for PTSD and served in a combat zone I think the trip to the mental ward will help with your claim. It will be part of your VA medical record. Your effective date is going to be the date you filed for PTSD. The hospital record is just more evidence of the fact you have PTSD and severe PTSD at that. If you were hospitalized for PTSD before this time you may be able to use that date as an informal claim for PTSD and use that as a EED. I did that on my TDIU. The VA used a hospial date as my effective date even though it was months earlier than my TDIU form submission. You need to be in treatment be it at a vet center or a va shrink.

I got TDIU on a 70% disability in 2001. Since that time I have added 5 10% ratings and a 60% rating. I supposed I could also try for housebound.

Bob Who are the VA police? A bunch of guys that probably could not make it on the street as real cops. They are supposed to be there to protect US. In fact, they are there to protect VA staff from US. I have not a single doubt that if you frighten some VA staffer the VA police will beat and mace you in an instant. I have seen the biggest problems at the out-patient pharmacy. The VA police beat some poor old vet who could not find a spot to park and was driving around the lot in a hurry to not miss his appointment. They dragged him out of his truck and beat the crap out of him and maced him. I read about it in the local newspaper. He was an old man.

What is your current rating for? If it is for PTSD/depression the trips to the mental ward should really help you get a higher rating. I would file for an increase using the date of your hospital admission and those records as your evidence. The GAF you got on admission has to be low or they would not have admitted you.

Berta You know vets who have DMII should have CT scans of their legs. This will show if they have blockages or calcification of veins in the legs. This is a very common secondary condition of DMII. The VA never does this because they don't want to spend the money. There is also a pretty easy test that will show the blood flow to the legs.

If you have chronic pain or depression due to these disabilites you should claim them. You need evidence that there is a nexus between the disabilites and the MH issues. You get this by having a shrink write a nexus letter. You need to look at your whole disability picture. If you have chronic pain and depression you should be seeing a VA shrink. Your job is to document every possible disability. Do you use the VA pain clinic? You are in this for the long haul.

What you really need is a medical opinion that states the secondary condition is the result of the primary condition. For instance, you have SC connected DMII. If you want to get a cardiovascular condition SC'ed as secondary you need a medical opinion to state the connection for you.

I do remember spending the last few months of my time in the Army after getting back from Vietnam helping to in-process recruits at Ft Lenardwood. I had access to their records and many of these guys did not even finish the 5th grade and yet were considered smart enough to be soldiers. How can people that can't even read or write in 20th century America be good soldiers? I said it before, but I think half of my fellow recruits at Ft Benning were petty criminals and were there because some judge had given them the choice of the Army or jail. What the army did was just draft hordes of guys and sort them out in basic. I do remember my induction physical. I don't even think we had a blood test. They just looked us over like you would look over cattle heading for the slaughter house. That is the difference between a draft army and a volunteer army. Waivers....we don't need no stinking waivers. I sort of support the draft. We were all treated like dog crap. I think there should be a univeral draft for both sexes. Sons and daughters of billionaires and slum kids get to rub shoulders. They never will again once they are out of the service. The only classless society in America is basic training in the army.

I read that 25% of those in the combat zone are on some kind of medication like prozac or pain killers. I think one thing is that the military has given waivers to soldiers who should not even be in the military because they need bodies. This did not work during Vietnam and won't work now.

I filed a NOD when I got denied for Chapter 35. It took about a year to get P&T and it was retro to the date I got TDIU. If you are 100% there is little chance of a reduction at age 62.

Here is a side bar on a so-called congenital issue that the military and VA use to deny benefits which is the concept of personality disorder. If a personality disorder is not noted in your induction exam and three years later the military kicks you out as a PD where is the presumption of soundness? You were presumbed to be OK when inducted and suddenly you develop a PD. How can that be?

The rule is that the VA can bill even 100% vets for NSC treatments. That is not really ok with me. A vet who is 100% service connected disabled should have all this medical care paid for by the VA. The VA got their foot in the door on this. Recently, a bill to charge insurance even for SC conditions was defeated. The VA is good for two things: cheap pills and documenting your treatment for disabilites. I wonder how the VA decides which of my treatments are NSC since I am SC'ed for CAD, DMII, Chronic Pain, PN and mental health conditions. They don't bother. They just send the whole bill to my private insurance. Chulai Would you go to the VAMC if you needed open heart surgery since you have the option of using your private insurance, and picking your own doctor? I know you say you are happy with the care you get from the VA, but if your life depended on it would you use the VA?

The VA's hounds of hell may spring into action after being unleashed but first they have to piss on a few trees along the way, chase a cat and take a nap. I think if you bang on the right drums you can get anything you want form them. It takes time, but it is a dumb system. The people are not dumb but the system is dumb.

I think the military is desparte for bodies. They don't have a draft to draw in more replacements. After almost ten years of a dirty couple of wars who wants to join up for the combat arms? I remember going through basic in 1969 and not one recruit was a volunter for the infantry or any combat arms. The draftees were the ones with the 11B MOS. How do they get normal 19 year olds to join the combat arms these days? If they join up they must know the next 3 years will be spent in Iraq or Afghanistan.

There was nothing you could do since you were not the POA. I think this vet should break down and get a lawyer. He has made lots of bad decisions on his own. Now he has been left spinning in space by the judge and his so-called VSO. If it was me I would get the IMO and send it in and prepare for a long wait.

Halos You did the right thing. You got the P&T and that is important to your family. It will become more important as time goes forward. My VSO did float a deal past a DRO with a PN claim I had a few years ago. The deal was to drop the appeal and get awarded 10% for each limb for PN. I was already TDIU so what the heck. The VSO was the go-between. I would not have gotten more if I had gone to the BVA, so it was a good deal. If both parties know the value of the claims then horse trading is ok in my book. It is when the vet is ignorant of the possible consequences of making a deal that is becomes bad like James says. I think this is done usually with a wink and a nod. I have never seen a claim rating where it says "the vet agreed to drop his appeals in order to get 100% P&T". I don't think there is much wrong with your POA helping to save time and pain by sorting out a claim.