john999

I thought the new relaxed rule for PTSD was in effect already? I did not think you had to still prove or verify stressors. If that is so Quibley should be home free. The delay to verify the stressor occurred before the rule change.

Kelly The VA tests for marijuana in your urine. In my state it would be a one way ticket right out of any pain management. If they even find a trace of alcohol you get kicked out. However, in some states it is going to be legal for VA to prescribe it. This seems to be the height of discrimination against disabled if the VA can only prescribe it in states that allow it. In one state it will be a crime and in another it will be a treatment. It is like the difference between crack and powder cocaine. You get years in prison for crack and maybe probation for a small amount of powder cocaine especially if you are a rich white person.

If you want to die go to the VA ER with chest pains or even more subtle signs of heart attack. If my wife had gone to VA ER (via ChampVA) with her gut pains due to diverticulitus they would probably have told her she had GERD and sent her home so her gut would have blown out, and she might have died. VA is ok to manage chronic low risk problems. It is not ok to manage heart problems, serious DMII or anything that might kill you. If I had any serious medical issue the last place I would go would the the VAMC. They bury their mistakes. Their worst sin is to identify a severe problem and then not follow up with proper referral.

I have been taking the fentanyl patches for about three weeks. They have not done much for my pain, but I feel more depressed than usual. My sleep is pretty awful with vivid dreams and waking up soaking wet. Have others had these kinds of problems with fentanyl? I am at the end of my rope regarding treatment for pain. VA keeps telling me how awful percoset (oxycodone) is and that I need to be on some long lasting narcotic. I had horrible experience with the long acting morphine and methadone. I think if I stopped all pain meds that after initial period of discomfort there would be no difference in my pain. I am of two minds about this. It seems the more drugs for pain you take the worse you get. Is this my imagination?

It sounds like your stressor for PTSD was never verified, but you got 30% anyway? I don't understand the VA's logic at all. You got benefit of doubt on your stressor I guess, but I never heard of that before. If you can't work due to NSC issues that won't help an IU claim. If your SSD conditions are service connected you should have been on IU for years. How did VA establish that you have service connected PTSD? What was your stressor? Combat status does not matter if you have verifiable stressor.

I think many thousands of vets on VA pension and others with SC conditions are walking around without the proper compensation. This is a shame and a pity. If you have been gettting a VA pension for what are essentially SC conditions that is a real shame.

Right, I had 80% plus five 10% ratings, and got another 60%, and all I got was 90% total. Crawling towards 100% rating by rating gets harder and harder. VA math is the most bizarre thing in the world. I am considered 10% able bodies by the VA. Maybe they mean the big toe on my right foot. Consider when you get a total rating the clock that will protect your rating and give your spouse DIC starts to tick. The sooner you get that rating the better unless you think you will live forever.

100% P&T is winning with the VA. Besides, you can always file new claims to resurrect your old claims after you get your P&T in writing. If you still have claims out there that are going to threaten your life then I would wait and file on those later. I got P&T, but I filed about 6 claims and a CUE since then. I basically filed for things that could result in me dying, or lots of money. I did not chase small claims, but a vet has the right to do that if they want. Once you get your 100% they won't take it back. One year from now the VARO won't even remember your name or your claim. You can start all over again and keep poking them until the day you die. You can always file for housebound after you get your 100%. Kick them every chance you get.

Bipolar is one of those conditions where if you have anything in your SMR's stating your were dx'ed or treated for depression then getting SC'ed for bipolar should not be a major problem especially if you have been getting treatment since discharge. I got SC'ed for bipolar at 30% about 15 years ago. If you have anything in your SMR's for any mental health treatment the DX may change, but you can get SC. Bipolar is not like PTSD where you can go back 30 years after discharge with no record of DX or treatment in the military and win on a stressor. You usually need some record of DX or treatment in service or within a year of discharge. Most of the mental health disabilites are harder to SC the more time passes between discharge and filing for the claim. This excludes PTSD. This is where younger vets of recent years have it better since they have better records and exit physicals. I am speaking as one who went from 10% to IU over a period of 30 years. The military is light years ahead of where they were back in the day. Psychiatric treatment back in the day led to tag of "shitbird". I don't think that is so now.

RSG Did you have a personal hearing with the VA about the IU issue. I had the same problem when I was rated 70% and had SSD and was denied IU. In my situation the VA said my NSC issues were the real reason I was unemployable. This was pure fiction. I would ask for a personal hearing and you might be able to clear this up without a 3 year trip to the BVA. Get your significant other to go with you to be your advocate. If you have SSD for the same condition as your 70% and the VA is denying you I would like to see the reasons for the denial. If they continue to deny after a personal hearing I would do as TestVet has said and hire a lawyer. You should have a lawyer for your CUE I think also since you have some cognitive problems. Can you post reasons and basis for the denial so we can all get a look? Something is not right and it could be some miserable detail the VA is using to deny your claim which a talk to a human at the VA could clear up in 5 minutes. You should not have to go to the BVA on such a claim where the evidence is so clear and 4.16A is met. I don't know what excuse the VA is using to deny.

All I can say is I had two claims going at the same time. One was a dental claim and one was an increase for MH issue. The VA got the evidence from civilian doctors mixed up and was quoting my dentist regarding my MH claim and vice versa. I know you want to protect effective date. Just be careful with VA mixing your claims up and getting evidence out of whack. You are not dealing with Mensa. You are dealing with the VA.

Skip Were you ever treated for a mental health condition in the service? You need a nexus to service for the depression. If you want to file for PTSD then you need a PTSD DX. Who says you have PTSD? A VA doctor or some kind of shrink needs to DX you and then you have to connect it to your service. Can you do that? It would be easier if your VA shrink would say that your depression was connected to your service. You have years of records saying you have depression. If your shrink says it is connected to service I think you won't have a battle to get SC'ed.

Mcafee What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to get IU or 100%? Will decision from CAVA make that happen? If so I don't think I would add more fish to the kettle at this time. Get your IU or 100% and then worry about CUE's and additional claims. You can take it up as a hobby. It seems to me the more you add to this mix the more bogged down you can get. Keep your eye on the balls you have in the air now. If you have more than a couple of claims going I don't know how you keep track and I know the VA can mix them up and make gigantic mess.

USMC To screw up your TDIU claim because you want to work and get 100% schedular is a little bit greedy. You are passing up the bird in hand for two in the bush. You are apt to end up with no job, no TDIU and no 100%. You are not only looking the gift horse in the mouth but looking all the way to the colon. You say you changed careers to the constructin career. Where is the construction? I live in Florida and there is no construction here.

You have been treated for depression at the VA for years. Are you service connected for depression? It does not matter what they call your mental health issue. What matters is if you are SC for it. If you are SC for depression then why would you want to start a claim for PTSD? Were you ever treated for depression while in the service? What Pete was telling you is important. You have a lot of evidence that you suffer from depression. You don't have to prove that. All you have to show is that it is getting worse. PTSD is to a certain extent the flavor of the day at the VA. If you were a vet who was never treated for any mental health condition, but had good stressor, and 20 years later needed to get service connected then PTSD is probably the way to go. If you received any treatment or DX for depression or other emotional disorder in service that is the trail to follow. 30 years after I was DX'ed for a MH condition by the VA and SC'ed for it the VA said I had PTSD. That means nothing to me since I don't need to deal with that problem now. I am TDIU for the other MH condition and I don't have to prove any stressor. Contrary to what people may think PTSD is the hardest mental health disorder to prove. I think that is why the VA tends to funnel vets towards that kind of claim. In my 40 year old SMR's it says "This patient suffers from depression and anxiety". That and my treatment at the VA got me service connected. Over the years the DX'es have changed from bi-polar to schizophrenic , but it is those SMR's with a DX and treatment records that allowed me to get SC. Don't take the hard road to SC. Take the road that is laid out before you. What passes as VA diagnosis and treatment is just name calling. If you have PTSD then go for it, but if you can get SC'ed for an easier DX then take the money and run.

Send in an NOD for the effective date and get a lawyer. Your VSO failed you. If you were unemployable he should have had you file out a TDIU form and send it in three years ago. If you ever win this retro TDIU I bet it will be at the BVA or beyond with a lawyer at your side.

One thing I notice when I have filed claims in the past is to make sure the VCAA letter address every disability you are claiming. If the VCAA letter does not mention all disabilites claimed it probably means they have not done development on those claims. If you file a claim for six disabilites make sure the VCAA letter lists each and every disability. If it is not listed in the VCAA letter then the VA is probably not working or even considering those issues. The VCAA letter is supposed to be a road map for the vet to win his claim. I have yet to get a VCAA letter that meets that standard. As I understand it the VCAA letter is supposed to tell the vet specically what is needed, and not general bs. By this standard most VCAA letters are inadequate.

If your retired on disability under FERS you had to apply for SSD as well. I retired on FERS. I got SSD and then I got TDIU. If you get SSD there will be a 60% offset to your FERS disability, but no effect on your TDIU. I worked for the post office for 20 years until I had to retire due to SC conditions. I would take the TDIU and then if you do get 100% someday your IU will be moot, but you have gotten 100% benefits in the meantime. When you hit your regular retirement age the SSD offset goes away. Then you will have your full post office retirement, SSD and TDIU. That should be enough to pay your bills. You will, in fact, be much better off than your fellow postal workers who worked until regular retirement since you will have TDIU which is tax free. I did not know it at the time, but I make much more money retired than I did as a worker, and I don't pay tax on any of it. I think TDIU is a more secure rating than 100% because the only way to reduce you is if you are dumb enough to go back to work. If you are so disabled that you had to take retirement from the post office then you probably can't do much of any work anyway.

4.16b is just not in the vocabulary of most VA employees and most VSO's. Larry is our exception being a Hadit graduate. I know a vet who was on SSD for about ten years and yet had a rating from the VA of 50% for the condition that put him on SSD. No one at the VA ever told him to file for IU. He never even heard of it until I found out about it and told him to file. He put in his TDIU form and got 70% and got his IU. Then because he was confined to his house pretty much he put in for housebound and the VA raised his rating to 100% and granted housebound. The VA knew these facts about him but never told him to apply for benefits he deserved. It is just about saving a buck at the vet's expense. They create all this smoke to hide our eligibility for benefits from us.

My advice is not to wait to file TDIU. File it as soon as possible. File everything now because you will have months to wait for the VA to look at it. You want to protect your effective date.

If you are serious about inferred claims you often have to prove it should have been inferred. This is a long term project. For instance, you have evidence that shows the VA should have inferred IU 20 years ago. Now you have to go through appeals to prove what is obvious. This is what lawyers were invented for...the big money.

The standard for SSD is that you have been disabled for at least 6 months and will be disabled for at least one year. When SSD means disabled they mean you can't do a damn thing. Being 100% and housebound should do it for you.

Let's face it. The VA's system is designed to CYA. My care has been poor or just almost adequate. The don't manage my DMII or pain worth a damn. The VA and the postal service have a lot in common. The VA loses vets like the post office loses letters. The VA owes us the best possible care. If we don't have a claim for the best care then who does besides Warren Buffet? They need to screen for homocidal tendencies if they keep up their standard of present care. The murder scene will be the pharmacy when they tell some vet "We can't fill your script and you doctor has gone home. Come back next week. Just because you have to drive 100 miles and wait 5 hours don't get mad".....bang!

Did you apply for TDIU? You say you asked for a hearing in front of the BVA? I had a hearing 7 months ago. I waited about 6 months for the hearing after a DRO with my lawyer present. If you are going to be disabled for at least one year I would apply for SSDI. Is your file still at the VARO. If it is I would ask for a personal hearing. You sure sound like you are a lot more disabled than 20%. Have you considered getting a lawyer? I would be asking for permanent disability. All the King's horese and all the King's men can't put old Humpty back together again. What the heck kind of work are you going to be able to do after all these surgeries even if they are successful?

I called the medical director's office today to meet him/her to discuss the care I am getting for my chronic pain disorder. I was told by the staff that I could not meet the director, and that I had to write a letter. Of course, I believe this is a lie, but I wrote the letter anyway. I can talk to my congressman face to face, but not the medical director of the VAMC in my town? I was shuffled off to the patient advocate's office. I found out I had been dropped through the cracks, and that I did not have an appointment with the pain clinic until September. I would have been out of medications by then and pissed off. The care I am getting is inadequate and inconsistent. I am going to stay on their backs until I get better care. I believe as a vet I am entitled to better care than getting a new doctor every month, and being lectured about the moral hazard of narcotic meds. I think we older vets are getting the shaft. A 50 million dollar trauma center is being built at my hospital for OIF/OEF vets, and I can't even get proper treatment for pain that would cost them a few bucks. Every vet deserves the best care, but I resent being sent to the back of the bus. The role of the patient advocate is to take the heat off the people with actual responsibility for our care, so they can take a long lunch and go home early to beat the traffic.