john999

What gets me about the VA telling vets to seek care through the VA is that the system is almost inaccessable to many vets due to lack of facilites, lack of doctors and a antique drug formulary. Just getting to my hospital means a major trek and awful difficulty finding parking. My foot is all bandaged up, and I somehow have to get from parking to the actual hospital where I limp with aide of walker or hijack a wheelchair. My hospital has the valet parking but often the lots are full when you get there so I end up taking the shuttle bus. This is no problem for a healthy person who can walk with ease, but for any vet who has mobility problems it is hell. I have often seem elderly vets struggle to get on the bus. Nearaly every other vet has a cane or a walker. I only go to the VA to get drugs. If I could find a could pain doctor who would prescribe for me I would probably not darken the doors of the VA. The VA wants to own the care of all veterans, but this is an illusion if you don't have actual access.

Yes, you have to ask for a Personal Hearing with a DRO. This is your best bet before you go off to the BVA to wait for 2-3 years. If you have good evidence you can win your claim at the VARO.

I don't think you PCP is going to force you of your wheelchair. Yes, a DRO hearing is where you go to plead your case with a rep or lawyer. Have you thought about hiring a lawyer. If you have a good claim for 100% there will be retro. This is how the lawyer gets paid. If your symtoms are what you describe you can't work and spport yourself. You should at least get TDIU. In your condition I would try and find a lawyer to represent me. What pre-existing condition do you have? CFS and Fibro is enough to put anyone down and those are SC according to what you tell us.

Reconsiderations require new evidence as far as I know. You don't want to just send your claim back to the same people who denied the first time without some powerful new evidence. I do not think there is a magic pill that speeds up the VA claims process. I have found the DRO process to be pretty successful, but it also helps to have new evidence in that case as well. Just imagine you are a lawyer trying to win your clients case. You don't just go in and argue the same facts. You get new facts or new cases as presendent to show the court made an error when they convicted your client. You want to really bury the VA in positive evidence since that is what wins claims.

Ask for a DRO Hearing. Go to the Hearing in bed that has to be wheeled into the hearing room. That should convince them. SSA should send you for an exam. Be sure you have family member wheel you into this exam. You can use this exam result for VA purpose. I would try and scrape together the money to see a doctor and have him say that you are unemployable due to your CFS and fibro. You really need medical evidence that you are unemployable. Voc rehab could also help. Don't go to the VA unless you are in a wheelchair and never go alone.

The main thing is to get the back service connected. You can work on the percentage in time. If you get even 10% that opens the door to many other potential secondary claims. Depression and chronic pain disorder for instance. Work on service connection first and then worry about percentage and potential retro next. Service connection is the lever that you can use to pry open all doors at the VA. I started at 10% 40 years ago and now I am TDIU for the last 9 years. It all started with a 10% rating which I am working on right now to have a retro increase.

Papa That was funny. Do you think a private doctor would insult a patient like that (unless that was your private doctor)? Only at the VA where they believe that patients are dumb and poor. This is because they assume we are all some kind of second class citizens who are charity cases. Don't they read the motto of the VA about their mission of serving those who have borne the burden of battle etc.? A friend of mine from Vietnam is obese. That is because his leg was destroyed in service and he has not been able to walk for years. If you are so disabled you can't exercise it is hard to not gain weight. Since I developed foot problems and back and shoulder problems I too am not the skinny kid I once was.

In my state of Florida, for instance, a psychiatrist and psychologist have the same weight in court and in state matters. However, I believe the VA gives more weight to a MD psychiatrist than to a clinical psychologist. This bias has no basis in fact but the VA seems to lean towards MD's every time even when they are not experts.

I know the VA will try and blame every problem you have on obesity.

You have a lawyer which puts you ahead of 95% of other vets facing a hearing.

I wonder if I win my claim for a CUE for 100% schedular benefit if I would also be entitled to consideration to housebound benefits that would be retro to the date of the 100% award? I think I should be getting housebound now due to severity of my disabilites, but I am only 90%. If I win my CUE my lawyer is asking for 100% schedular back to 1971. I have read that when a vet is awarded 100% he has an inferred claim for HB even if he does not get the award.

50% is just a short hop to 70% and that means possible TDIU if you can't work. It is a big deal. I went from 10% to 30% to 70% to TDIU. That is the way it usually goes. You get there in steps. If you get 50% when you are 40 years old you can be pretty sure by the time you are 50 you will be worse like 70%. I found that most disabilites get worse with age.

I would be frank with my private doctors. Tell them you are trying for an increase in compensation so they know how to write reports or make notes. Since you are already SC'ed you want to just show that your condition is worse. The private doctors need to say this. You can never count on VARO putting dots together because they don't know how neither are the qualified. They just match medical information conclusions with regulations governing disability % ratings. If you meet the criteria you get the increase.

I would ask for a DRO Hearing before I go off to the BVA for a two or three year wait and the possibility of a remand. Now you are looking at 5 years and you may be back where you started at the VARO.

One bad panic attack and you know the meaning of fear and disability. When they hit you out of the blue more than once a day you probably should be 100%. It puts you in a permanent crouch waiting for the next attack.

Yes, I must hang on so my wife can get DIC. I will go to my grave happy knowing she is collecting from the great satan (VA). For someone who collects from the government I sure do hate them. The better I get to know the government types the more I despise them for their apathy and heartlessness.

Bob The infection is getting better, but I don't think I am ready for sky diving yet. I have a dime sized hole in my foot that is about half an inch deep. Every day I go get it repacked with gauze. There is nothing quite like having someone push gauze into an open wound that is raw and red. I fear being bed ridden above all else. My wife would care for me, but I would rather go to join my ancestors than live like that for the rest of my days. If I was in bad shape I would really appreciate a doctor giving me versed and a hearty dose of morphine to ease me out of this world. Quality over quantity, but I am not ready to go just yet. I have watche three family members die in hospital or nursing homes. If I have the option I don't want to go like that. See, I must be depressed thinking about these things after being laid up for two weeks.

You have to look at the GAF in context of overall picture of emotional/mental functioning. A GAF of 60 usually means a moderate level of functioning. That means a rating of about 30% if it is for SC condition. This is not hard and fast rule. If you have severe panic or major depression a GAF of 60 is not appropriate. If you don't leave the house due to panic disorder then your GAF is way out of line. Do you have a private shrink. I trust the VA not at all.

What Bob is trying to say is that organizing vets is like herding cats. Half of the vets are too apathetic to even vote. 25% think the VA is great and 25% think the VA is the tool of the devil. I am on the devil's side. Vets should have marched on DC and burned it down during and after Vietnam. They should have turned the guns around on leaders who wasted them in war without end. Nothing much happened as an army was left to die. I have little faith in veteran's doing anything in an organized way to help themselves. Hadit is about the best thing vet groups have to offer.

I also advise an IMO. You may get another c&p exam and it could be worse. I did as a result of an appeal of a biased exam. The next exam was even worse. The IMO's did the trick. The c&p was done by a resident. My IMO was done by a MD with 30 years experience.

Hollywood I got SC'ed in 1971. The VA has called me every name in the book over the years. They have accused me of fraud. They denied my Vietnam service. They said I was a sociopath. Then excluded evidence and included false evidence. They misrepresented and twisted my own positive evidence until my own doctor did not recognize what he had written on my behalf. I spent three weeks in the VA nuthouse in 1972, and the VA never asked if I was employed, but just assumed I was so they could ignore obvious IU claim. You just have to stay the course and batter down the doors to the vault. I hate them just as bad as you do. We all hate the VBA pretty much I think. As you know it was worse a few decades ago. Remember the 70's when the only people who used the VA were the destitute and the drunks.

One hint: Don't mention alcoholism or drug addiction at a c&p exam. Don't mention police records, fights, problems with authority, school problems or family problems. These are all things the VA uses to label you as a PD.

You could I think but remember state unemployment benefits state that you declare under oath that you are able and ready to work. That is why you don't want to apply for unemployment while asking for IU. You might get away with it, but you must lie at some point I think.

Hollywood I agree with everything you say except you must attend the C&P exam. If the exam is bogus then you get your own doctors to refute it. If you skip the exam the VA will deny your claim. That is a given.

The real reason they keep the AO registry is for purpose of using us as living lab rats to see our death and morbidity rates over time. However, I would get the exam regardless. We are still used as cannon fodder even forty years later. Doctors write reports to medical journals using this data so they can advance their careers while we drop down and die.