john999

I filed a CUE claim for an EED back to my original claim because the VA had evidence that I was unemployable, but never made an inferred claim of IU. I am IU now, and I was IU then. The IU evidence was in my private doctor's report. The VA just ignored it. If they had considered the medical report they would have had to consider IU, so they just excluded that evidence from the rating. How do you like those bastards. The VA is also supposed to consider all the evidence before they make a rating. Even when the evidence is right in front of their eyes they refuse to infer ratings or disabilites. If you expect them to put 2 and 2 together to make 4 you will be waiting forever.

Right, the VA is pussyfooting around the main killers of AO vets. They are playing games to try and exclude as many vets as possible while throwing a bone to the AO vet community. They won't make cancer and heart disease presumptive. They pick this cancer, and that heart problem knowing that every day they can stall means another dead vet with no service connection and no DIC. They pretend this thing is scientific when it just involves the VA's checkbook.

Yes, I think you can make a DIC claim. What you need is a medical opinion that heart and DMII were present and contributed to his death. What was the cause of death? You will have to fight for this. Berta knows and I think she is still fighting for some benefits.

IU is a ball and chain when you are young. If there is any chance of being rehabilitated when you are a young person then I would try that. It would be OK to get IU and then go through some kind of rehab with the idea that when you finish and are able to work. The trouble is that you have to give up the government check, and that is hard to do if you come to depend on it. If I had gotten 100% when I first got out of the army I am sure I would have lost it when I went back to school. The school thing is a gamble, but the 100% is a sure thing. They put you in a bad place. I don't think the VA encourages you to help yourself. To them you are either unemployable or you are employable. It took me years to really become employable with no thanks to the VA.

VA employees believe veterans are dumb. They are shocked when they find out different.

If he won't write you an a medical report get another doctor. There are tons of them out there who are willing to inject you. It is the biggest money making scam in the world. There is no proof at all that these injections work. I had plenty and they did not work for me.

You told the DRO that "You do have sex". That hurts a inferred claim for loss of use of a creative organ. Now being on Zoloft you want your shrink to say that you are totally unable to have conventional sex. Don't say you have pain when you have sex. Your nexus letter should say you are unable to get an erection and climax period. Do you take viagra? This would show that you have been DX'ed with the problem. It is only about 90 dollars a month extra.

Berta Any you are right that there will be a flood of new claims from AO vets for heart disease, and DIC claims from spouses. The VA Secretary must have had a senior moment when he granted heart disease as presumptive for AO. I am glad he did. This just shows how expensive war can be that 40 years down the line a whole new group of vets will not be filing compensation claims for the DOD's negligence in spraying a herbicide that had dioxin in it on and around human beings. I can't believe that somebody did not know this stuff was poison. I bet DOW knew! I wonder who they paid off in government to keep their mouth shut? John999

See a neurologist in my opinion. They will give you a decent EMG and prescribe the most current(and expensive) drugs for neuropathic pain. PN is a disease of the nerves, so who better than a neurologist?

Here is an unusual lost benefit I got. When I had filed for IU between the time I got IU and the time I filed for it I had some expensive dental work. When I got IU on appeal I requested payment for the dental work I got from a private dentist. After much paperwork and struggle I got paid about 60% of what I spent. The VA really made it hard. I applied to fee base under "unauthorized expenses". If I had been awarded IU without appeal maybe I would not have gotten the money for the dental work because I would have used the VA instead of a private dentist. If you are iu or 100% the VA is supposed to take care of all your medical needs. They never do, but they are supposed to do it.

The longer you wait to file a claim after service the harder it gets in most cases except if there is a presumption like AO claims. If you don't have evidence in your SMR's it gets even harder. The VA is great at saying " vets SMR's are silent on this issue". The VA is an adversarial system. You have to prove by medical evidence that your disability is connected to your service.

Did you have any symptoms in service? Is there anything in your SMR's to suggest you had health problems?

It only took you over 25 years to get your 100%. Gee, that is somewhere in the middle range for long waits. I started in 1971 with 10% and got IU in 2002. Do you get the feeling they were hoping you would die before you got to 100%?

Berta If this law passes get out of the way at the local VARO. They will be swamped with claims for DMII and ischemic heart disease not to mention all the cancers and secondary conditions to DMII down the road. Pandora's Box may be open and that is the continuing cost of military adventures and war. What would this add to the number of vets considered presumptive for AO exposure?

There are doctors at the VA who are hostile to vets collecting compensation. I think I have met many of them. Some of the doctors simply don't like vets and I find many foreign doctors feel this way. The feeling is mutual. They come from countries where the streets of the cities are filled with beggers and they put us in that category.

VMO You really posted an indictment of the VA. They are guilty as charged in your post. They are waiting for us to die off as a cohort of vets. The quicker we die the quicker they can get us off the books unless there is a DIC claim. I think it is about the money. Sick Vietnam vets are way down on the priority list under corrupt Afghan war lords for funding. Most of the population were not even alive when we were in Vietnam.

Billy2 I think that note from your doctor is weak, but the association between CAD and DMII is stong in the literature. A decent IMO doctor should be able to write a good letter for you. The doctor needs to make the link between CAD and the DMII. Now that ischemic heart disease is presumptive for AO that may be enough to get you service connected on its own. The link between PTSD and CAD is also in the literature, but I don't think it is as obvious as between DMII and CAD. The VA's adding ischemic heart disease to the list for AO could mean a lot to you. It might mean a earlier effective date as well. The VA putting ischemic heart disease on the AO list could open up the flood gates.

They may have your husband mixed up with another vet. Where do you get treatment? You said Brandon. It that as in Brandon, Florida? If you use the Tampa VAMC I can tell you they have repeatedly mixed up my records with other vets. They stopped a dental procedure once because the records said I had had a stroke. It was another vet's records. Did you get a letter from the VARO saying you had been reducded? This sounds like a VA screw-up and not an actual reduction. If they are going to reduce a 100% P&T vet there is a process they have to go through. They can't just reduce you. My Team at the VAMC still gets me, and another vet with the same first and last name mixed up. I get calls for appointments for him. They don't even check our SSA or claim numbers.

Let me ask this question: In what ways are arteriosclerotic heart disease and ischemic heart disease different and alike? I am 60% for arteriosclerotic heart disease as secondary to DMII. Did I do all that work for nothing since ischemic heart disease is now presumptive on its own? When I had the stress test at the VA they wrote up "ischemia" in the report. It sounded awful at the time and others here at hadit said to get more tests. I did and got 60% for (7005).

Billy2 I think it is a lot easier to show that your CAD is secondary to DMII than to PTSD. The link between CAD and DMII is strong. The only test that really can tell for sure about your CAD is the heart cath which is invasive. Do you have symptoms? I got SC'ed for CAD secondary to DMII and it was a struggle. I had a C&P done by a PA at the VA which basically said I was fine. I appealed and got some more tests and got a rating of 60% for CAD. How could something like that happen you ask yourself? Incredibly poor C&P exam and poor overall care at the VA. I have never seen a cardiologist at the VA even given that I have a 60% rating for CAD. I had tests but the results were contradictory. One test said ischemia and the other test said AOK. What the hell.

Yes, the VA gives us drugs so we don't have to buy them on the street. First, they addict us and then they become our suppliers. You know if you have been taking opiates for a few years you are addicted at least physically. If you were to have any problems due to the VA induced addiction the VA would then throw you to the wolves. Many of the PTSD drugs are addictive even non-opiates. Lyrica is addictive for instance. Anyone with chronic pain is in a world of bad alternatives. I have been taking opiates so long they don't even work anymore unless the VA starts prescribing heroin.

Berta I bet a lot of RVN vets will be getting stress tests and echocardiograms. Most are reaching the age where these problems begin to happen. I never thought I would live long enough to see the VA make any kind of heart disease presumptive for AO. Perhaps given this decision all kinds of heart disease will be made presumptive because as you say it is sort of a moot point. What causes a heart to stop beating? Usually it is some blockage. They accepted DMII and now a form of heart disease. Every RVN vet should tell their spouses to be sure to file for DIC no matter what they die from given this decision. An autopsy will probably find a blockage in the heart which would be a contributing factor to death.

I think if it affects both limbs then you would get the bilateral factor. If you don't get it then you should appeal on the grounds that the sciatica affects both limbs. You might even be eligible for SMC if there is loss of use of either or both legs to some extent, but that is something others could comment on.

Explain ischemic heart disease as opposed to other types of heart disease? If the VA were to admit that "heart disease" was presumptive for AO that would open the gates for those of us that are left. Does anyone even know how many RVN vets are left? There were 3 million I think. Supposedly I am connected for CAD via DMII via AO. What is the difference between ischemic and CAD? If I die from brain cancer, or something not presumptive I am really going to be disappointed.

I have the high arch problem. I just assumed everyone's feet hurt all the time when walking or running. As you get older and put on some weight the high arch problems can get much worse. More pressure on the structures in your feet as you age. I don't think their is a very good medical fix for these kinds of problems. If doctors operate on your feet to solve one problem they often create another just as bad.