john999

I think you should go for treatment at the VA for all your problems. You should ask for a referral to both the pain clinic and psychiatry. You probably have chronic pain and that goes hand in hand with depression. Don't miss your appointments! You want to go to the VA and build a record of treatment. This will make it easier to get increases. You want to document continual treatment for all service connected injuries, or potential SC conditions. This is going to be a life long battle because many conditions get worse as you get older. When your PCP nurse asks you if you have pain don't down play the intensity of pain. What kind of pain meds are you getting now? If you have a condition the VA expects you to take medications or at least accept them.

What kind of discharge did you get? Did you entrance physical mention foot problems? Were you treated for foot problems in service?

Larry Ask how many VSO's have ever read the VBM? Can you imagine a victim of sexual assult going to a VSO and the VSO just giving them a blank stare.

How long has it been since you were assulted and discharged? It will require some kind of documentation. You need a psychiatrist or couselor to help you deal with this.

Quint It could be that since I live in Florida there are many older vets in the area that use the VA. People think of Florida as beaches and orange trees, but it is really poverty and service workers. Travel 50 milies north and west from Miami and you find poverty. I live in Tampa. Travel east towards Polk County and you find poverty and hordes of trailor parks. These are the people that use my VA. Half the state of Michigan moved to Florida when the auto industry started to collapse. They wanted sand in their shoes. They got food stamps. It is sort of like the "Grapes of Wrath". It is good that younger vets use the VA. If we have a larger constituency then they can demand better services. Vets must vote like the older people represented by AARP. I don't think younger vets vote. As the Vietnam era vets leave this world the younger vets are going to face cutbacks unless they become very active politically.

You don't even want to mention PTSD prior to service or Vietnam. If it was me I wound not mention PTSD prior Vietnam. You need a stressor. Did you ever get shot at on one of those poles?

Chronic pain syndrome is considered a psychological disorder. I am SC for it. All I get for it is free dope. This helps me stay out of jail because I don't have to buy drugs on the street. You will have access to the VA's marvelous pain clinic. It is a great clinic as long as you don't go there for pain relief. I have a choice of percoset, morphine or methadone. I have tried all three. You get a gallon of laxatives also since you will need them if you take the morphine or methadone. If you don't think a human being can turn into concrete just take the VA's long acting morphine. Your gut will hurt for a couple of hours, and then you turn into cement. You might even get some pain relief.

You know the vast majority of vets using the VAMC are Vietnam Era vets. The young guys don't use it. Just the sick, old and poor mostly. On entering the VAMC you get the Last Rights, a cane and a walker and the address of the closest VA cemetary.

The VA called me about a claim telling me that if I did not have any new evidence they would go ahead and process my claim as in "award". I told them I had no more evidence since the evidence was plain. A few weeks later I got the award.

I know you don't want to depend on benefit of the doubt. You want there to be no doubt. You want to just put so much evidence on your side the scale hits the ground. The only time the VA has mentioned benefit of doubt is when they deny me.

The VA has their thumb on the scale.

They may be looking for survivor guilt. I knew a guy who was very badly wounded in Nam. We were both back from Nam at Ft Lenardwood. He wanted to go back to Nam. I think he wanted to die with his buddies. He looked sick and was skin and bones, and yet, he wanted to go back to Nam in the infantry. I don't think he could have physically done it. He looked like he weighed 110 pounds.

Get a colonoscopy as well. It could save your life regardless of any claims.

Consider that the Korean War is almost totally forgotten. Vietnam is forgotten except as a negative as in " This war in Afghanistan is turning into another Vietnam". The Gulf War was such a total and quick victory. The vets were forgotten almost as fast as they returned home, except when they got sick years later.

Allan What do you think a AO vet should do if he is already SC'ed for CAD as secondary to DMII? Would a stand along claim for CAD due directly to AO exposure be something worth doing, or is it not necessary? What I have found is that many of my so-called NSC conditions have become SC'ed over the years as a result of AO and DMII.

I think it is called blaming the victim. I never thought of myself as a victim by being sent to Vietnam, but I did not know those who were supposed to care for me would treat me like a leper. I hear people say they were spat on by hippies. It was the VA that spat on me.

If we get a cola then everyone on SSA and all the other federal programs will get a cola. I don't think we will get a cola.

Pretty interesting, Hoppy, I have thought for quite a while that the VA is steering people to file for PTSD when they have well documented other types of service connected emotional disorders. If you have evidence of panic disorder, for instace, why do you need to file for PTSD? PTSD requires a lot of rigamarole. The same with depression. If you have a DX of depression in your SMR's you don't need to try and prove a PTSD claim. The military and VA are focused on PTSD and TBI as of 2009. They want to fit every vet with a mental health issue into that mold.

Yes, when the VA practically accuses you of blowing yourself up on purpose it does motivate you to really go at them. They bring it on themselves by their disgraceful treatment of vets, especially our generation. I would get everything I could get from them. My DX'es amounted to name calling. The idea that a vet who has lived through hell might be anxious or depressed because his mommy was mean to him is the kind of thing the VA tries to sell.

Bob When you get your rating appeal decision on the PTSD expect it to be full of mistakes, misinterpretations of what you have sent them, or said, and perhaps downright lies. Was there anything in your SMR's, or early VA records about anxiety or depression? You are right that the VA did not even recognize PTSD as a disorder for a decade after Vietnam. I am wondering how you might get an EED for anxiety or depression. I don't imagine anyone who loses a leg at 19 or 20 is jumping for joy. About the only way to get an EED for PTSD back to 1968 is to file a CUE claim. For this you need to comb your SMR's and C-file for any indication of emotional problems that were mentioned in your medical retirement. For this I think you need someone who has expert knowledge of CUE. Was there a formal, informal or inferred claim for anxiety, depression, or what would become PTSD? You need all your SMR's and C-File. Otherwise, the VA grants claims when you file them even if your records were plastered with medical issues 40 years ago. They don't go back to the time you were hurt. They go back maybe one year from the time you file the claim. A really good lawyer might find some issue that should have been inferred, or some informal claim that was never adjudicated. If you have a current DX of PTSD this is a no-brainer for a PTSD claim retro to the date you filed.

If you appealed the original 50% rating then the 100% rating should be retro to the date you got 50%. When you say you re-opened your claim do you mean you appealed it? When you re-open a claim for an increase on a previous final decision that is very different than appealing a decision that is not final. Did you submit any new evidence between 2008 and 2009 for a PTSD increase?

Larry I am thinking that when the VA got your SSDI letter for the same condition you are SC for that may have established an informal claim for benefits with an earlier effective date. If the VA knows you are getting SSDI for a SC condition that should be an inferred, or informal claim for IU. The VA resists that idea because I am sure there are many vets who have been on SSDI for years before they finally claim, or are awarded IU or 100%. This would mean a very large retro liability. When I asked for an EED for IU I based it on my SSDI date. The VA did not grant the EED for the SSDI date. They granted the EED because of the fact I was hospitalized at a VA hospital on the very same date as my SSDI date. That was the official reason for granting the EED, but I think they did not want to admit the EED for the SSDI. What I think about Berta's sitution is that if the VA can delay Berta's claim for benefits given all she knows, and given the evidence she has submitted what do they do with claims from vets who are fairly ignorant of the process? No wonder vets give up!

I always get the SOC along with the rating decision. It is basically the rating decision word for word. However, it does lock them into their position and gives you the strong hints as to what you need to knock them down. Now if you can just get them to read your rebuttal and any new evidence.

You might get something for residuals of pnuemonia whatever those might be. You could have COPD, but chronic pnuemonia I don't think so, because you would be dead already.

Great, now just take a few weeks off and go on vacation or something. You can start to plan your life post decision after you get back. I would put any retro in the bank for emergencies.