john999

All my decision envelopes are white with a window. What matters is what is in the envelope. If what you get as a rating replaces most of your lost income you are doing great. You don't live high on the hog on IU or 100%, but it is stable income. You know what is coming in every month. You can make a budget. Did you get SSD as well. If you are IU you should file for SSDI.

If Axis one is PTSD and it is severe then I don't think the PD will matter that much, but her saying those things about you is wrong if not true. In the future don't talk about anything you have done that is illegal,criminal or deviant. All of us are weird in some way, but the VA does not need to know that. If you have a behavior problem that is against the law get help from a private doctor if possible. You don't want the VA knowing about this stuff. Get help by all means but not from the VA.

I would keep track of my rating date for the 80%. If TDIU is pending I would get that in the bag and then file a NOD and ask for an EED based on the date you filed for an increase. I would also ask that my TDIU be back dated to the earliest effective date you got 80% and were known to be unemployable. If the VA has any evidence that you are unemployable due to your SC condition that is an inferred claim. Have you submitted the official IU form to the VA? You need to do that.

She is saying you are a person without a conscience. Google sociopath. I think she is saying you are a sexual sociopath. That is not good for her to be saying that if it is not true.

You know pain doctors outside the VA usually want to do procedures. They don't want to just prescribe pills. There is no money in that. The basics of pain management are drugs that deal with pain. What the doctors need to do is to invent a drug that really blocks pain without turning the patient into a drug addict. If you take pain meds exactly as prescribed you will become dependent. You will become habituated, and you will need more to get the same pain killing effect. The only way to deal with it that I know of is to wean youself down to a level of drugs that will do the job, and when your tolerance starts to go up again start to gradually cut down again. Opiates have been around for about 4000 years because they work. They are not evil except in the mind of our government and DEA. My state of Florida is trying their best to turn every chronic pain victim into a criminal thus victimizing them again. My private pain mangagement doctor just fired me because I did not want any more nerve blocks. When the pain guy finds out you don't want procedures done on you he does not want you around because he is losing money by just seeing you.

I would be just a little bit careful about what I tell those SOB's at the VA. Sexual sadims?? Trouble over lawsuits for sexual harrassment? You don't want to tell them that kind of stuff. Assultive behavior? That is what lead to the anti-social personality disorder DX. If they don't have a record of anti-social behavior don't tell them. You can be honest, but not about use of illegal drugs, or criminal record if they don't know already.

I know the feeling of wanting to just go for the neck of some C&P doctor who is trying to screw you to the wall, but all you get for that is a trip to the city or county jail. You have to fight fire with fire. In this case that means you fight VA medical evidence with your own medical report. If you resort to violence you will get your ass beaten by VA police. You will probably be banned from the VAMC. The VARO will go out of their way to crush your claim. There are many severely mentally disabled vets who may resort to violence. It has happened at my VAMC. The VA police enjoy tasing them, spraying them and beating them. I know some of us fantasize about doing violent things to the VA, but then you lose. They are a multi billion dollar government agnecy, and you are a lone individual. You will be branded an anti-social nut, and they will come out smelling like roses. The government has all the weapons of mass destruction, and what do you as an indvidual have? You have to use your brains when fighting the Beast.

I saw a PA for my cardio exam. It was a farce. I appealed it and went from 0% to 60%. The PA should have gone to jail for that exam.

SQMDAE Have you ever been in jail? Are you a drug addict or alcoholic. Have you had trouble with the law? Where do they get the anti-social personality disorder? That is the same thing as saying you are a sociopath. Most sociopaths are either in prison, legal profession or congress.

Pete I think they get away with the lies because congress and the Prez are focused on getting bills through and pleasing special interests. Veterans do not speak with one voice. They do not send lobbyist to congress with bags of money. They don't vote as a block. Vets are like hearding cats. The NRA gets what they want because they are focused and have bags of money. Most congressmen are on their payroll. If vets could put the politicians on their payroll we might get something done. The traditional VSO's are useless. We need a PAC that can buy these congressmen. The banks do it. The Drug Companies do it. Wall Street does it. Why can't we?

When you have an IMO who tells you that your nexus will be hard to prove that is a bad sign. You want a strong statement of support, and not a luke warm report. If she does like Carlie says to do then it might be OK. "What would a reasonalbe person think" has nothing to do with the VA. The "benefit of doubt" is what you are supposed to have in the VA system. There are no reasonable minds inside the VA. She has to do a medical report and not just "notes". It has to conform to what Carlie says. Understand that the people who rate you have no medical or legal training. The weight of medical evidence is what wins a claim. You might need to save up and get Dr. Bash to do your report.

You need a private medical opinion to rebutt this. The VA does this kind of stuff all the time. Your doctor should rebutt the VA's C&P issue by issue. Your doctor has to make the nexus. About the only thing you can do when you get your rating is get the new medical opinion, and ask for a reconsideration, or file an NOD, and go the appeals route. VA C&P exam I got said the examiner could not determine if I was IU because I was unemployed. What do you do with something like that? You appeal! It is a horrible system, but that is what we have. All the VARO's are bad at least part of the time. Don't concede that your employment caused or aggravated any of your conditions.

Hmmmm.....if the VA had a duty to inform you of your appeal rights and did not do that is that a CUE? I am not basing my CUE on that issue, but I wonder. My decision does not even say I a have the right to any sort of review or increase if my problems get worse. It is a bare bones couple of pages as far as what is in my C-File. I know in a lot of governmental legal claims and cases if you are not informed of appeal rights they may throw out the decision. I don't know if that is the case with VA claims. I did not get a C&P exam, but that is probably no big deal. My rating was based entirely on my SMR's and in-patient hospital records at the VA.

I have had experience with ILS. In my case is was a joke. You might be able to get a computer out of it. It is really just a pretend sort of program. The letter from Voc Rehab saying you don't qualify is good evidence for IU. I did that also before I got IU. I was still working for the post office and looking for a way out, but voc rehab had nothing to offer me due to my age and disabilites.

Potential recruits should know what they are getting into, and I don't believe for one second that recruiters tell them the "Oh, by the way, when you get hurt the VA is going to deny your claim and run you around for 10 years". Hey if they brought back the draft the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be over in 6 months because people would riot when they got yanked out of college to go hump a rucksack in Afghanistan. No upper middle class family would sit by while junior or little miss was pulled out of dental school and sent to the Triangle of Death. I am very patriotic. I think everyone should have to serve. The best way to change it is for everyone to have to suffer it.

Considering the VSO track record you are not losing much.

You know in my 1973 claim I did not get appeal rights. The claim was two pages long.

If you can prove that you are unemployable due to SC condition the VA will probably bump you up to 60-70% and award IU. This is there way of getting around awarding someone with a 30% rating who is unemployable IU. I know because I filed for IU when I waw 30% and they bumped me up to 70% and eventually granged IU after a long fight. It would not hurt to apply for SSD. If you are going to go this route be prepared for a long wait without money coming in the door. If you are not IU you will probably end up going back to work due to the economic stress of being broke for what could be years. Even with the wind at your back it will probably take a year to 18 months to get your IU. Get ready to pawn your watch and chain. Are you getting unemployement insurance now? For most having to file for IU is a great hardship unless you are sitting on a pile of cash or have some other source of income besides your job.

Vietnam vets who get the AO exam may get results showing they have AO presumptive conditions, but that does not establish a claim according to the VA. So you get the AO exam and it shows DMII. You still have to file a claim. That sounds absurd but it is true. You will notice at C&P exams they try not to stray from the actual conditon except if offers an alternative NSC reason for your disability.

Yes, we should just stand outside recruiting stations and give the poor saps who are going inside an idea of what will happen to them if they get hurt. I am sure the high schools would not allow us to speak to students without a court order. The Beast has to be fed, and the HS grads are its food. If you tell the truth you will be branded as radical. You had better know the law for your city and state because the cops will be down on you. Print up some handbills with your story on it as a warning. The main thing would be tresspass law. Are the recruiting stations on private property? I don't know if it would do any good because most of the recruits are driven to join up out of economic want. They come from places with no economic opportunity. What opportunity does a HS graduate have in American today? Also, no 19 year old ever thinks it will be him/her that gets disabled. They live in the present. As long as the Beast gets fresh meat it will just continue to feed.

Your company going bankrupt will not help your IU. If you mention it then it will hurt your IU chances since the VA will say you are not working because you were laid off due to your company's going out of business. As Berta says, you need medical evidence of IU.

Dr. King's conscience is soothed by money. That is the God that many in the professions kneel down and worship. The Golden Calf. The moneychangers are in the medical temple.

Ten thousand dollar life insurance is a joke. The VA treats us like dogs. When dogs get mad they bite. The congress is just crapping on us. That is where the money comes from, but who knows where it goes. This is not a D,R, or I issue. It is a veteran issue. We are all in the same boat. You know after Vietnam the government types were afraid these disgruntled vets would turn the guns around, but it passed. They say every dog has his day.

I agree with what Pete is saying. Without your own medical evidence to rebutt the QTC the VA will accept those facts. The system is &^^%$$^ but that is the system we have. What is happening to you has happened to most here. I have C&P exams where I thought they must have been talking about another veteran besides me. That is always a possiblity. You win by being persistent and having medical evidence. It may take years but you will win.

I live too close to the VAMC to get milage even though it takes an hour to get there due to no parking and traffic on I-275. I just hate going there for any reason. I have to go Tuedays for the semi-annual drug screen to see if I am a drug dealer.