john999

I would go to the VARO and give them another request in writing for a Personal DRO Hearing. Get a copy. As Pete has said you are entitled to a personal hearing at any time with someone at the VA regarding your claim. At my VARO it is taking about a year to get a hearing with a DRO. Your other path is to go to the BVA. That takes two years and if you want a hearing at the BVA that probably takes another year. The thing I believe is that talking to a human being that can rate you is your best bet unless your evidence is just so good that it is bullet proof. I don't believe that kind of evidence exists because you can't make the VA read it. Ask Berta! I know in at least one of my claims the VA did not read or understand the evidence if they did read it.

You have to request a personal hearing with the DRO. The DRO Review often results in a rubber stamp denial.

If you have combat awards the VA will concede your stressors. You don't have to prove that such and such event happened on a certain date. Usually, if you don't have combat awards then you have a greater burden to verify stressors.

Get a second opinion from a non VA doctor.

I think if you had high glucose readings on active duty or within one year of discharge you would be on more solid groud. I think that if you have DMII five years after discharge it will be hard to get it SC'ed unless you can show you were exposed to AO.

I am not sure you should tell the VA that you prostituted yourself at some point. If they do not know that you did illegal things then they don't need to know. Do you have a criminal record now? You can't deny that. You have plenty documentation regarding the sexual harassment. You need a shrink's diagnosis that links the sexual harassment to the PTSD/MST. You need to tell the VA enough to get a rating for PTSD/MST but nothing more. If you use or used illegal drugs you don't need to tell them this if they don't know already. Don't spill your guts to the VA if you are looking for a rating. I used illegal drugs in Vietnam to self medicate my severe anxiety. The VA used that against me by saying I was a personality disorder. It took lots of medical reports to get over that hump. This is just my opinion about telling the VA you ever did anything illegal. I could be wrong. If I am wrong I don't mind being corrected.

You have combat awards for middle east tours?

Find a lawyer who does VA law. Those guys can find things in your records that you might never even grasp. You should get your personnel records as well. These older MST/PTSD claims that are not combat related need a lot of work. Sledge here was a combat PTSD victim. He did not have combat awards so he was denied over and over. He hired a lawyer and got 100%. You can win these things, but you need help. Some are strong enough to go throuh this process on their own , but many need help especailly with a MST. You need a strong advocate not some half ass VSO. If you don't like what the lawyer says you can file anyway.

If you are going to have surgery I would worry more about what the surgery will do to you than about being re-evaluated by the VA. To get the 100% temp will probably mean a nice wait. I had my shoulder scoped 5 years ago. It is no better. It still hurts. Unless it is unbearable I suggest every alternative before you do it. It worked for Tiger Woods but he was 30 years old and got the very best PT. He would out for a year. If you are going to have to have a knee replacement one day because of deterioration of the knee I would put if off as long as possible. You will have a long recovery probably with lots of PT. Are you up for that? Get your knee evaluated by a private orthopod for a second opinion. Did you do PT already? If they scope you knee they will do something I bet. I would not trust the VA to treat my dog, if I had one.

What claim is going to be the money claim? I think I would file the NOD and then combine all the other claims including the CUE. The quicker you get a denial on the CUE the quicker you can file an appeal. If we are talking a lot of retro then your VARO probably won't approve the CUE. If your CUE is strong hire a lawyer to to forward to the BVA and beyond. I filed two claims including a CUE. The new claims were granted the CUE was denied. You will get a VCAA letter on the new claims,but not on the CUE, unless they don't know what they are doing. There are some here who can do CUE's but I suggest getting professional help. How far back does your CUE go in time?

There is a law that you can only get one full disability pension from the US government at the same time. I get a federal disability retirement and SSD. 60% of my SSD is deducted from my disability pension. If not for VA compensation I would really be straped for income. I guess a VA pension and SSD/SSI is handled the same way to an exent. However with the feds when you reach regular retirement age (62) you can get your full pension and SSA benefits. You would not believe how small my pension from the feds is for 30 years of service. It is about 13,000 a year and taxable. They count the years you were under disability retirement towards your pension but you only get 30% of your high three. If you start working for the feds when you are 20 and invest the maximum in the 401-K you might do alright in 40 years if the market does not crash when you retire. People think a federal pension is solid gold. What a laugh. I made around 50,000 a year as a fed, and I am supposed to live on 2000 a month as a retiree. Who can accept a 50% pay cut? I spend just as much in retirement as I did as an employee.

Boondoc Oxycontin has a bad reputation due to abuse, but we vets don't abuse it. I think the other factor is cost. Morphine and methadone are cheap. The VA's care is always driven by cost. They believe the oath they took as doctors is to do things as cheaply as possible. The private pain doctors in my state are just scared to death to prescribe adequate pain meds. It has gotten to the point that they require urine tests every thirty days. They would much rather do expensive procedures than relieve pain. I have good private insurance so every pain doctor wants to inject me and do this or that procedure to rake in thousands of dollars. Never mind that it does not help me.

I wish I could get oxycontin from the VA. I get oxycodone but I have to take 6-8 pills a day. No matter how good the day starts out by the end of the day I will be hurting. The oxycontin is time release oxycodone that is good for 8 hours. What the heck is the difference. The VA prescribes that damn morphine and methadone. I can't stand that stuff. I am aware that I will probably need this stuff for the rest of my life. Why worry about addiction.

You know they farm the actual determination out to the state. I don't understand tha, but it is the state of Florida office of disability determination that granted mine. They are quite dumb. They give you a list of self-report questions that ask questions about your ability to work and take care of yourself. They ask if you can wipe your own butt.

Bob The VA denying your PTSD claim is so absurd it should be on the front page of the local newspaper to humiliate the local VARO. That is the worst denial I ever heard about for PTSD. If getting your leg blown off is not an event that creates extream fear of death I don't know what is? It happened in the combat zone on a combat mission. Regardless of who put the minefield there that should be slam/dunk for a stressor. The VA did not read your claim. That is pretty obvious.

If the VA would just concede PTSD as presumptive for vets who served in a combat zone. They don't even do that now.

I take oxycodone and vicodin. I drive but I am always aware that I am somewhat impaired. I am extra careful about everything. I do notice that the pain meds have increased my anxiety about being away from home because I am afraid the pain will get worse and I will have to really dope myself to function. This is no fun. I want to go on a vacation but I am afraid of my pain getting out of control due to extra stress. When the pain really starts to pound you it is very difficult to consider weaning yourself off meds. If I could take a pill that would just relieve the pain and leave my brain intact that would be great, but I have not found that drug. I have been on and off pain meds for 10 years. The pain does greatly limit what I can do compared to what I used to do.

The war widow's pension is so limited that if you get any SSA benefits you probably get too much to get the widow's pension. It is for indigent widows of war vets, and I do mean indigent. If you have any income at all you probably get too much for war widow's pension anyway.

The VA threw away one of my claims for compensation for Fee Base. The VA actually admitted it. They said that one of their employees got mad and threw my claim in the trash because he did not want to work it. There is something called unauthorized expense. I had dental work done while my IU claim was waiting to be granted. I asked for reimbursement for the cost of the dental work. I got the money but it took 6 months due to this employee who threw my claim away. Nothing happened to him. I was persistent as hell or I would have never known. How often does this go on?

I know I had an EMG and cardio tests done at the VA. They made a mess out of it. I sure would not bet my life on VA health care. They just don't use their staff or medical hardware correctly. Some go to the VA for serious surgery because they don't want to pay co-pays. That is really foolish if you want to keep living.

No PTSD screen for WWII, Korean, RVN vets. There was no PTSD diagnosis until 1980 I think. I got SC'ed for a "nervous condition".

You know I see active duty guys at my VAMC all the time. There is MacDill AFB just about 15 miles away, but they come to the VAMC for treatment or to private doctors. Active military see my private psychologist. He gets the spill over since MacDill has only one shrink. MacDill is home of Central Command. Why are active duty coming to the VA for treatment? I can't go to MacDill for a thing except the base exchance.

DOD Dear Commander Bob Thanks very much for your service. Now don't bother us anymore. Here is a Ph. What else do you want from us? We gave you a chance to serve your country. Many don't have the opportunity to have their leg blown off. Consider yourself lucky. Yours Truly Richard Nixon (Tricky Dick) Veterans Administration Mr. Commander Bob Why do you keep asking for things. Didn't we give you a prosthetic leg. What else do you want? You Vietnam vets are so ungrateful. We refer you to the DOD. Yours truly VA Secretary

Bob We must be brothers separated at birth. I have a claim dating back to 1973 that was mishandled. I am CUEing it via my lawyer. The VA did not really mishandle it. They rigged it for me to lose. They just excluded all the evidence in the record that supported a higher rating. What did your original claim look like? Mine was two pages, no appeal rights, no discussion, no reasons and basis. Just my in-service medical records and an opinion from a VA doctor that spoke to me once. My doctor's records were excluded. I trusted them to be fair....duh. I did not know really understand this til years later when I got my C-file.

They lost your appeal and would never have found it if you had not inquired is my take on it. It was sitting somewhere gathering dust. Was this appeal at the VARO or was it supposed to be certified and go to the BVA? What kind of appeal was it? Four years??? That is just what we were talking about with due process being violated. That is a violation of due process.