john999

Yes, the stressor verification is the thing. PTSD DX and stressor verification. Now the only other thing would be the IMO's just to make sure you get the maxium rating. Waiting is hell if you are out of work, but if you are then you file for SSD. The social worker says you have short and long term goals estabished. What the heck does that mean? She is describing a vet with very severe symptoms, but the vet has estabished short and long term goals....huh. Treatment goals????

Carlie I bet you did not even get a c&p exam in 1978. How much retro would it be if you win your CUE? I sure would go for it. You have nothing to lose.

If you are already SC for MDD then it does not matter about any stressors. I thougth you were trying for a PTSD claim when you used the word "stressor".

I was rated 0% for CAD. I appealed and got 60%. It is worth appealing the HBP rating.

SQMDAE You are a combat vet, right. I think that if you have a current DX of PTSD you will win your claim. The question is what your rating will be. However, our Commander Bob was denied PTSD claim after losing a leg in RVN, so no matter what don't get discouraged. Bob is fighting and will win this thing. They know you guys are waiting and they are hoping you will just give up and go away. Many do that.

Not a stressor for PTSD! I think if you signed a contract for the school you could have voided your enlistment, maybe. The military only promises the school, and not that you will work the MOS. The needs of the service.

The issue you bring up is beyond the scope of Hadit. Hire a lawyer. We have to deal with the regs as they are, and not as we might wish them to be. If the VA is discriminating you have to file a case with the EEOC and go forward. You will be dead and in your grave before you ever resolve it. The VA will fight your lawyer tooth and nail because it is an issue that opens up the VA to masses of vets getting dental care. That has to come from congress.

If you file within one year of discharge you can often get SC'ed without showing long history of treatment.

Yeah, congressional inquiry will just hold things up for a few more months. Unless you congressman is your brother-in-law forget about it.

They prescribe either methadone or morphine for long acting pain relief. I have had both. Methadone is much better than the morphine. Methadone is a powerful narcotic. Be careful. It will turn your colon to concrete.

I think the VA will blame everything on your current weight unless you have SMR's that show problems in-service. A friend of mine who was in Vietnam with me and has DMII is having a hard time getting the VA to SC his CAD because they say it is because he is fat. He has severe congestive heart disease and DMII and the VA says it is just because he is fat. That is their mentality. He got the DMII SC'ed but not the secondary heart condition.

Does the VA know about your 2006 back injury?

Sometimes back pain could be the result of prostate cancer. That is a little far fetched but possible.

Sqmdae The way it worked for me was I would get these ratings and SOC's. The SOC contains the clues to getting a higher rating. I would address the SOC with a private doctor and rebut them. I did not get the rating I wanted the first time. Each appeal got me closer to the goal. Most don't get the rating they deserve the first time. You need the full court press to get there. PTSD and all mental claims are subjective. Your just surround them with evidence until there is no way for the VA to go but to grant you what you are after. Berta says this often. If you get service connected the first time you are in the ball park, and all things are possible. I started at 10%. Now I am 90% IU. What a long, strange trip it has been.

I use the ST Pete VARO. There is none worse, but everyone feels their VARO stinks. If you have the evidence you can win anywhere. It ain't easy but my long term plan for victory is use your local VAMC. Get all your evidence together. Get IMO's if you need them. Hand deliver your evidence to the VARO. Check on the VARO every few weeks to see if there is something missing. Wait.....the hard part. Evidence and persistence is what wins claims. Also, you can't assume the VA is not going to make gross errors in your claim that have to be fought. If you have the perfect claim don't assume your money is in the bank.

Can you take disability retirement. That helps with IU.

Yes, they do rate it separately from the feet. They rate each limb. I got PN in all four limbs. All I got was the pin prick test on my hands and feet. They call it the glove/stocking type PN. They ask you to point your big toe up or down. It is really a pathtic exam to determine a disability. You should have an EMG, but the C&P doctors don't require it. They can crank out 15 exams a day for PN using the pin prick method.

Now the court says we have a constitutional right to due process regarding our compensation as a property right.

I use the busiest VAMC in the nation. Their dental facility is tiny. It is like breaking into Fort Knox. I am IU, but I only get one dental exam every two years and cleanings. If I have a dental emergency I get treatment pretty fast. However, cost is the VA's main concern. Try and get an implant. I was denied an implant at the VA. I used a private dentist. Two private dentists said the implant was medically necessary if I wanted to keep the opposing tooth. The VA is just cheap. They would fight expanded coverage to all disabled vets based on the cost. They have no other medical leg to stand on to deny coverage since they tell me every time I go get my teeth cleaned about all the possible complications of gum disease that can kill me. With the VA is is always about money. I rate the VA's dental service as piss poor. They are cheap and they ration care.

When you get medicare Part A and B your ChampVA will be secondary. The good part is that ChampVA usually pays everything that medicare does not pay. That goes for most private insurance as well. My wife had a 36,000 dollar medical bill and between BC and ChampVA she (I) paid nothing.

The DAV is providing a name, but are they going to actually pay the lawyer? The lawyers usually take a percentage of your retro. I would check out the lawyer. I would want to get the best lawyer I could get even if he gets some of the retro. Knowing the DAV there may be something they are not telling you like this lawyer is the son in law of the DAV commander or something. I think that usually when you pay for something you get a better product than when it is charity work. You notice not many lawyers do SSD work for free. I did a wrongful death claim against a nursing home. The lawyer did get 40% of the award, but he and his staff did a great job of just pounding the hell out of the insurance company. My claim was not an afterthought. It was my lawyer's business that puts food on his table. He was motivated.

I think Pete is on to something.

I was reading the comments and many of them dispute the military definition of stressors, and the way the VA uses stressor verification to weed out vets who have the DX, but don't have the verifiable stressor that the VA will accept. Acutally, there are very few comments from vets. I bet this is because so few know about this proposed rule change, and about their ability to comment. They also probably believe their comments will be ignored.

An inferred claim for IU would be valid if the VA knew via SSD records or other records in the VA's possession that the vet could not work due to his SC disability. That is right out of the VBM.

Do you have documentation of being shot at? That would be a PTSD stressor. Yes, it is the long term affects of narcotics on your emotional state that will depress you. The king of morphine you get will turn the normal human colon into concrete. I don't take it any more even though it would be better than oxycodone.