john999

You remember the file "Jacob's Ladder"? That was based on facts from the Vietnam war where our fearless leaders wanted to use chemicals to produce super warriors. I understand it was a disaster. Of course, they did give LSD to soldiers without their knowledge. Back in 1971 an Army dentist tried to transplant one of my wisdom teeth into the place where he had extracted a back molar. It was a mess and bled for about a week. My face swoll up like a baseball. Since that time I know of no regular dentist that do tooth transplants on a regular basis. This was forty years ago.

If your back injury is SC and the doctor will say that your chronic pain disorder is secondary to the back injury you should be able to win this claim. You might get 30% for the depression and chronic pain. You might get 10%. If I got 10% I would sure appeal it. A GAF of 60 is about right for a 30% rating. You have to go for a C&P exam probably. These guys are usually much less giving than a treating NP. For a depression claim I think they will want you to go for a C&P with a shrink.

I am rated 60% for CAD by the VA. I have never seen a VA cardiologist. My C&P was done by a PA. I have seen a private cardiologist on my own dime. I believe the VA thinks that the PCP can DX and treat all illnesses from PTSD to heart disease. I don't know if the VA will low ball IHD due to AO. I do know they low ball all most every other injury or disease. The heart cath is really the only way to know for sure about the extent of heart disease. The cath has risks of its own. I don't want the VA running a wire into my heart. I will pay to have the best heart surgeon in my city to do it. I don't want a first year resident putting a hole in my aorta by mistake.

I bet if you keep going to the VA for treatment you can find something to claim as a disability. Chemical exposure is going to be an issue for all vets eventually I think. In my day it was AO and now maybe burnpits, jet fuel, and who knows what else. If you have your SMR's I bet there is something in there that you can get 10% for someway.

Every vet should have it explained to them when they are discharged that the best way to protect yourself against denials of future disability claims is to continue treatment at the local VAMC until the day you die. Of course, for the older vets this was never encouraged or explained. If you did not have a SC disability you could not even get treatment unless you were very poor or chronic alcoholic maybe. When you are 22 years old you don't think about future illness and disability. The VA fails these young vets by not making the strongest efforts to get them into the system and to keep them there. This is how you show continuity of symptoms in a way it is hard for VA to deny. If you see you own doctor and he keeps records for thirty years that will do as well. What if you just see a private doctor and he retires? What happens to all those records? I bet they were lost in past years before HIPPA. I was hopitalized during my leave from Vietnam. I tried to get the records some years back but found they were destroyed after ten years.

I was rated 70% and denied IU. I went back to my doctor and got her to write another IMO disputing the VA's lame brain decision. It took a few extra months, but I got TDIU. You take the decision to the doctor and get him to rebutt the VA's denial word for word. Getting a good lawyer is not a bad idea especially if the lawyer has contacts in the medical profession he can refer you to to get a good IMO. The VA always goes for the alternative NSC explanation of why a vet can't work. You can't rely on VA doctor's for this. There are no slam/dunks in the VBA.

I notice that when I have to do something I can rise to the event. It is the days when I don't have something to do that drag on me. My project now is to get all my music CD's copied to an external hard drive so I can access music without hunting for CD's. I am not a computer whiz and I have a space problem, but this gives me something to worry about besides my pains. Something to do every day that gets us out of our holes is good.

David I agree with what Carlie is say, and I would say that when you go to the VA complain your head off. That is how you get treatment and how you document problems. If you have medicare and the VA is not helping get the thing checked out. Don't wait while VA puts you on hold. The headaches could be from some other problem, or it could be from the TBI. I would not depend on a PCP at the VA to make that determination. You do get SSDI and medicare don't you?

I would file. If you are still having pain 20 years later I would want to get that SC'ed. How long have you been rated 100%? It is something to think about for sure. Others will have opinions I am sure. If all this is well documented it should not be so hard to get it SC. However, over 20 years have passed so you probably need to show continuity of symptoms or treatment. If you banged your head 20 years ago and never complained or got treated for the aches and pains it makes it more difficult. There are pros and cons to this. Of course, they can look at your overall disability picture when you reopen your claim.

My lawyer thinks they may grant my CUE, but word it in such a way that it won't help other vets who want to bring CUE's based on evidence being ignored or excluded from a decision. This is so common that it would be a green light for others to file. I wish others would file and win when VA excludes evidence they don't like to deny or low ball a claim. How many of us have had decisions where evidence is neither listed or referred to in a decision? Probably all of us. If you get the decision you want you don't care, but if low balled or denied it means months or years on appeals.

It would be good except I can't walk that great. Everything about the VA health system for preventive care is a pain in the ass because it takes an hour to get to the hospital. A simple appointment wrecks me. Traffic, no parking, waiting around yuck. I tried to get PT as fee base but I live too close. They are just worthless for me except pills and documentation. I do need excercise, but no help from VA. They could buy me a gym membership via that program for quality of life.

How about diabetes? I think you need some tests on your heart for sure. If you have those problems with your legs then you could have the same problems in your heart and brain. You should do the full court press to get these conditions SC'ed any way you can do it.

Next stop SSD and TDIU if you can't work. If you are working it is hard to get to 70% for mental health conditions. That 50% is a big foot in the door.

The thing is the VA doctor has about 15-20 minutes for each patient. If they take up too much time on any one patient it gets their boss angry because you can imagine patients waiting two hours for an appointment. They complain, and if they are smart they put it in writing and send it up the chain. If you could see my VAMC in Tampa in January with standing room only you see why they rush you. I go there dodging wheelchairs and scooters. It is for the quick or the dead.

Be very careful about getting surgery to correct the TMJ. It can go very wrong from what my private dentist tells me. I know a vet who is on 100% for chronic pain from a botched TMJ operation. I have had TMJ for 40 years. Now I just manually put my jaw back in place when if slips out. I did have pain and popping for years but got no treatment. Now it does not hurt anymore probably because the joint is just shot and does really hold my jaw in place so I have to be careful eating chewie food.

Wings I will be shocked it if win. Being an old dog I have to see it before I believe it.

The doctor doing your exam is not really going to read your C-File. He might glance at your SMR's if they are available. Nobody has read my c-file except me in forty years. First off my c-file is a mess and nobody could make heads or tails of it. It is not in chronological order and is also full of redundant copies. Your is probably the same and most is illegible. This is part of pretend exams they do to justify letting some PA do an exam and trump your MD.

Hey, my lawyer emailed me and said my claim is not waiting on a docket, but is being decided by the judges. He said they sent me the docket letter in error. He called them up to find out why I got that letter since he got one as well about the docket. It did seem crazy to have a hearing and then go on the docket. He also told me not to contact the VA on my own. I had asked them to send my lawyer a transcript of the hearing. I stepped on his lawyer toes. You know after dealing with the VA for forty years I find it hard to trust anyone with my claim. However, I hired a lawyer and that is who I should listen to and let him do the fighting. He says I will get a decision soon. Let's hope he is right.

Now if you find yourself unable to work in the future you have enough for IU with that 70% rating. I would make sure I keep going to the VA for treatment and complain every time you go.

That is their way of telling that you are just a pest. We vets are the reason they have jobs, but you get the disrespect for free. If they can't even copy and staple pages without screwing it up just multiply that by a factor of 10 as the claim makes its way upwards and onwards. One little mistake in your file and your claim sits for months or years. I know this because the dumb shits held my claim up while waiting for a DD214 that was already in my c-file, but they were too lazy to look. I never would have know if I did not ask why my claim had no action. I supplied them with the certified copy of the DD214 or I might still be waiting.

Yes, when I consider that it only took me about 2 years to go from 30% to IU P&T I would quote Dirty Harry "Do you feel lucky?". Yes, I do in that sense. However, a 10% rating when I could not work for years leaves me bitter, and contributed to my future total disability I think.

Pete If you married a 16 year old that would either resurrect you or kill you. I feel the same way about making the VA pay for the next half century at least. Carlie I asked for the transcript of the hearing. Questions were not that important since it was all in the brief. We say they made a CUE by excluding evidence that would have resulted in a different decision. That is clear from the record. If that is not a CUE then I guess we lose.

If you claim chronic pain disorder and depression you will get one rating for both. Welcome to the club! If you go to the VA pain clinic you will probably get oxycodone, morphine or methadone. Eat lots of fiber because you will need it. Morphine will turn your colon into concrete.

Carlie I don't even know what the judge's name was since he only did in-take. There was no real hearing per say. My lawyer handed him the brief and asked me a couple of questions on the record. The judge who was a large black man did not ask me a single question. I guess if you consider a 15 minute meeting a hearing then I got a hearing. I have the letter from BVA but it does not say who will be deciding my clailm or who did the hearing. The guy who did the hearing may not be the guys who make the decision. Does the guy who does your hearing make a decison or does he just do in-take and hand it off to the board to wait in a pile for years and years? Do they role dice like a floating crap game to see who makes a decision at the BVA? I was left with a sinking feeling after the "hearing". This process does not impress me. I sent my claims to the BVA before but this is the first so-called hearing I ever got. I don't think my lawyer should have even asked for a hearing. It was all in his brief except for what we brought up concerning no appeal rights with the original decision. Who knows about that since the BVA guy had a C-file three times as large as mine.

O.K. I am going to start living right, so I can outlive the process, so that I can finally get the proper rating after 40 years. I'm gonna live right, do right, so I can die right. I would say that a traveling board via the BVA is a waste of time. My board did not last 20 minutes. I waited about 8 months for the hearing, and now I go on the docket for 2-3 more years. I will just check every 6 months to see where my claim is at the BVA. Talk about a dysfunctional system designed to delay and starve out vets this has got to be it. Lucky I am not waiting on this to pay bills. If you use all the tools in the appeals process including DRO, BVA, I bet you are looking at five years, or longer. That is unacceptable for a reasonable mind. How many vets die along the way?