john999

I don't care if the VA monitors this site. I doubt they do it. They don't give a damn about vets. They are too busy drinking coffee and dreaming about when they can retire. What we should realize is that the VA could care less about the vet community. They only care about pensions and their weekends. I believe they have a certain unstated quota on the number of claims they will approve. Only when that number gets out of whack do they get concerned. It is really going to get out of whack soon, but that only means they will make it harder to get SC'ed by inventing new regs. They don't need to spy on us. They screw vets by doing like they are doing with the IHD AO regs. They can stall and wait til we die. Why spy when they kill us by the thousands through neglect?

You know every RVN vet will die from some kind of heart failure eventually. The VA might as well just give every widown DIC. Instead they will try to narrow what IHD is as per AO exposure. I am 60% for athro secondary to DMII. I doubt the VA is going to SC me as IHD. They are probably looking at a million cases of some kind of heart disease for RVN vets. I was a youngster, but many RVN vets are well into their 60's or even 70's when heart problems get more serious. You know they want us to die before we get SC'ed for IHD. Then our widows have to stuggle with DIC and the VA knows many will quit. I bet they have stats on that.

Getting treatment for depression is important. If the VA won't do it like you want get it from private source. If you are disabled and in pain is it easy to get depressed.

I don't think anyone knows why some get gout and some don't. You know your diet is important factor, but only a doctor knows about meds causing it.

I think the only other way is to get the IMO. The doctor has to review all your SMR's and say so in his report. It is not a slam/dunk. He should do a complete medical history and justify your sleep apnea DX, and show how it started in service. He needs to nail it.

The VA realizes the astronomical costs they have incurred from making AO heart disease presumptive and are trying to find a way out of this liability. Heart disease is going to kill every one of us Nam vets if we don't die from some other disease like AO cancer. Every time a vet dies from a NSC condition a bell rings in the VA HQ.

If the rating office called you that is very unusual. They don't usually do that unless they want to find out if you are sending more evidence, or ready to rate with what you have already sent. Was it the VAMC or the VARO that called? RO could care less if you are alive or dead.

Remember that all doctors get paid the big bucks for doing procedures. Every pain doctor makes their money not on giving you pills, but doing injections and implanting devices in your body. Injections have many less risk factors than implanting some device near your spine. I have the miserable back pain as well. I take percoset and suffer, but I know it can get worse. You don't want to make is worse by letting the doctors finance their boat on your back. If the VA is going to do it you are just a teaching tool for future millionaire pain doctors. Get a second opinion.

If there is coersion involved it could be MST I think. Sex between lower rank and higher rank is ripe for sexual harrassment issue. Where there is power or rank difference there is possibility of harrassment, and the military knows this full well.

This is a little off topic but when the VA says your high blood pressure is "essential" what does that mean? Is that the same as idiopathic?

Best advice I heard was just never give up!

Topmax had no effect on me. You can't tell how a drug is going to effect you until you take it. Many of the mood stabilizers are anti-seizure meds. They are used off label for depression and mania and PTSD. The doctors just throw them at you. I know topomax can hurt your eyes in some cases. I have taken many of these drugs and I still hurt and feel depressed about it.

I would get a lawyer now that VARO has denied your CUE. Don't give up. They denied my CUE but I hired a lawyer and went to the BVA. If they deny me I go to court. If a good VA lawyer says you don't have a shot then you can decide. They want you to quit.

Elavel and prozac together is a little much since both are potent anti-depressants. Some of the older type anti-depressants can really knock you on your ass. Do not take Mirtazapine is you don't want to be on the couch for three days. I took one 30mg tab and I could not think straight for three days.

$250 would not pay my heating bill for one month. That pays 10% of my home insurance bill. That money is a disgrace. That is supposed to make up for no cola for the next few years? My familiy health insurance went up 12% a month. If I were living only on my SSA and pension now I would be starving.

I think it is good enough, but there are a couple of sentences that are week. If the doctor leaves the VA the possibility of alternative nexus that is a string the VA can pull.

The vet's records are lost so the VA says they can't make a correct determination of his ptsd rate. If he has any records of combat from WWII why should he not get benefit of doubt? I bet thousands of older vets have died while the VA played these games.

My piss test was cancelled because I was transferred to ambulatory pain clinic. Now I have to get an appointment there before my pain meds run out, and no one answers the phone. I find out that just because one person in the clinic calls in sick the whole clinic comes to a halt. How can a 50 billion dollar medical system be brought to its knees because employees don't show up for work? My advice is stay away from VA pain clinics. When you need them they won't be there for you. Pity those with chronic pain who can't find private or VA doctors to help them. Private doctors are too scared of DEA and VA staff is too dysfunctional. Health care reform is needed and start by fixing the damn VA. Billions of bucks spent and no one answers the phone or returns calls. Damn what a system! Depending on the VA for crucial medications in an invitation to the morgue.

AO exam is no big deal. They should be looking for possible AO problems.

The military will get around this in the future by kicking PTSD vets out as personality disorders, so they don't have to pay the 50%. This is what the army did in my day to all those with emotional disorders to avoid disability pensions.

Oh, yeah, those drugs will show up in you system. Everything shows up. I am going Monday for my piss test. I consult with opiod clinic guy and get the oxycodone. They say oxycodone is most abused prescription drug, but good old va gives it to me.

You need a medical statement that you are unemployable due only to your sc condition. The VA means any employment above poverty line. If you can do sedentary work you won't get IU. Have you applied for SSD? I would apply for an increase and IU. You need medical evidence that you can't work.

Cues are for final unappealed decisions. CUE is your last ditch. They are hardest to win.

I would not hurl 20-30 disability claims at the VA and expect fast results. It is better to make the claims that are most serious and can get you to IU or 100%. One claim that gets you IU is better than getting twenty 10% claims.

You will need a medical report and/or statement saying you are so disabled by your PTSD that you are unemployable. Even if you get a rating of 70% for PTSD unless there is something in your records to say you can't work you don't get IU.