john999

parrothead Did you ever try and get your heart disease SC'ed as secondary to the DMII? I did that and got a 60% rating for CAD. I got secondary ratings for PN as well. There are many secondary conditions due to DMII that are almost definite. You still need a medical statement. I started with having a CT scan of my legs and that showed blockages. From there it ended up with CAD because I got more testing including echo stress test. I was already sc'ed for DMII due to AO. Many vision problems are related to DMII including cataracts.

Paul Wow, a vet here recently won a huge retro award on a claim that was still open way back from the 70's. I believe he filed it as a CUE, but the VA treated it like a claim that was still open. He had the facts in black and white about how the VA blew it . It is a good idea to get the TDIU and then continue the fight to get the big retro. It is a lot easier to sleep at night knowing you have a decent check coming in every month. I think if Ken Carpenter has confidence in your claim you are going to be in for a big payday.

The hyperlipodemia sort of reminds me of alcoholism in the sense that a vet may suffer from alcoholism and that is not a disability. However, illness due to alcoholism could be service connected. So having high cholesterol readings in service (I mean really high readings) could possibly be the cause of genuine disabilites that could be SC'ed. You know 20 years ago the optimum level for total cholesterol was 240. A person was not considered to have hyperliopdemia unless they had total readings above 300. That has all changed. Now if you have a level of 240 that is considered high. Optimum levels are below 200. I can see a claim for heart disease due to high cholesterol going off the rim if you smoke as well. That is a deadly combination and smoking diseases are not SC'ed. I can see the VA really fighting back hard against vets who have high cholesterol readings in service and then have a heart attack 20 years later. How can you say that is service connected? But I see where a vet could be discharged for alcoholism and then 20 years later have his liver fail and that could be SC'ed, so I guess anything is possible.

I did not get my employability questionaire for TDIU on time this year. I sent a form I downloaded of the VA website. Everyone on IU should watch for this form and take some action if they don't get it on time. They lost my form twice last year. If you have moved and the form does not catch up with you the VA may cut off your IU benefits if for some reason they don't have your address.

The VA is going to lump the depression and chronic pain together. You will get one rating for a mental health disorder depending which is worse.

hurryup You have a good lawyer. The thing I see is that if you have a claim with a potential retro back to 1973 your DRO may not have the guts to grant such a claim. He will palm it off on the BVA. He does not want to be the guy who grants a vet a few hundred thousand dollars in retro. This is exactly what happened with my claim that went to the DRO with my lawyer. We were asking for money back to 1971. My claim seemed pretty plain to me and my lawyer, but the DRO must have gotten the word that no way in hell were they going to grant such a claim. I bet the DRO ran my claim by someone higher up and they put the kabosh on it. Now I am waiting for my BVA hearing.

There is no way to tell how long you will have to wait for a decision because your claim is at the rating board. It could be more than a few months. Just check on your claim every few weeks to see if anything is missing.

Jerrbilly I don't think I would want to bet that the VA is going to SC you for heart disease ten years from now because you have high cholesterol from meds for a SC condition. Too many other factors are in play including your own genetics, weight, blood pressure etc. I would be taking a drug to reduce the high cholesterol now. My brother has been living with hyperlipidemia for 20 years. At what point can you say that high cholesterol is going to do him in from a heart attack?

A year of retro is a nice sum of money. I would go for it if it will not stress you out too much. If you are not risking anything get that money!

I think it depends on your age. If you are under 40 then trying to do the voc rehab is a good thing. If you are over 50 I would go for IU every time. There is terrible discrimination against those over 50 and if you are disabled also then jobs are scarce. I encourage any vet who believes he can keep working and being productive to do it. Get your claim shaped up so that when the day comes when you can't do it you can pull the pin and get your IU or 100% without reinventing the wheel.

If you are trying to get a MH issue service connected you need a medical doctor or clinical pyschologist. The people at the Vet Centers are usually couselors or social workers. Their opinions don't hold much weight.

I would get a lawyer do determine if you have a good CUE. You are going to end up at the BVA or even the Veterans Court. I say that because you may have a potential big retro. The VA will fight this like crazy. They will stall and do whatever to kill a big retro due to a CUE. I know this from my own experience. CUE claims revolve around legal issues. There is no benefit of doubt or judgement. It is a straight legalistic claim. If you raise some issue involving judgement your claim goes out the window. You are walking in a minefield. If you don't know how to file a CUE get a lawyer.

The VA is desparately looking for a quick fix to the PTSD problem. They look ahead and see hundreds of thousands of potential PTSD claims coming at them as long as we are fighting the war on terror. They are blinking like hell. It is about getting Uncle Sam off cheap.

I don't think the VA even opens your file unless they are on a fishing expedition to find something to deny your claim. They just look at what you send them on a specific claim.

Change at the VA will happen from grassroots action by veterans. No one is going to do that job for us. Nobody cares but us. Your neighbors don't care. Your congressman doesn't care. Society doesn't care. Vets need to take it in their hands if they really want change. That is what I think. How to do that I leave to the vet community.

I think your hubby should go to the VA for his service connected problems. You want that documentation in the record. You don't need to go for all medical needs, but it is good to document treatment with the VA for SC conditions, especially if you want an increase.

I think we need clarification before we hit the panic button on rule change. To change the time limit for an normal NOD from a year to 60 days is a vast change. I don't think this would get by without more comment from VSO's. Even DAV would know this would be a game changer.

My private clinical psychologist is really good at helping PTSD people. We had a group in the early days and at least three of us had the Vietnam PTSD syndrome. We focused on present day problems. We did not dwell on the bad stuff unless someone wanted to talk about it. When people feel safe is when they open up and reveal the feelings that are driving them.

If the VA is garnishing his SS check it is because he owes them money. When the VA tries to take money from you there are appeals you can make. He may have been overpaid, or he may have medical bills he is not paying. I get SSDI and TDIU and have for 8 years. There is no conflict. Just remember TDIU is for service connected issues only. SSDI is for any disability that keeps you from working.

You need to get a copy of the exam to see what the doctor said. You don't want to piss off your C&P doctor. Even if they do a half-ass exam wait until you get the report and then take off on them. Many times you actually have to wait for a decision and go the whole nine yards. Do you have your own doctor to write a report for you? The C&P doctor is not there to help you. He is just there to do an exam.

I think you should just send in a letter asking for P&T status. Send in some evidence that you are permanently disabled. You are making a claim for benefits, so it is really a new claim. Point to the fact that your condition has not changed in two years.

I would get an independent medical opinion to document your true level of disability. If you are trying to establish service connection for the first time there are examples of the kinds of letters you want from your doctor here on Hadit. Do you have a copy of your service medical records? You should also have copies of your VA medical records to show to your own doctor. I would never want to depend only on a VA examination for a rating. They will probably low ball you or deny it. How long have you been out of the service? If it has been less than a year that will be good.

If time limits have not come and gone then I would file a NOD for the Chapter 35 benefit denial. That is what I did when I got TDIU but was denied Chapter 35. I was on SSD and I also got a doctor to write a report saying why the VA was wrong in saying I might improve. You should have medical evidence that says your condition is permanent and will not improve. This way the Chapter 35 bennies will be retro to your TDIU grant.

No, I don't think they can be denied because IHD is presumptive. Just like DMII can't be denied because the AO vet is obese.

The claims system is preverse and will never be any damn good. All claims that are credible should just be granted, so vets don't have to wait ten years to get the correct rating. Delay and deny until you die. They have already done that with thousands of agent orange victims. They are waiting until the last RVN vet dies and then they will emerge with a report saying he should have been sc'ed for AO. DIC pays half of what 100% pays so they save money.