john999

Like Larry says appeal this denial. For all you know the VA did not even look at your records. They may have just got out the "Denied" stamp. Are they saying you can't prove your condition is chronic via proof of ongoing medical treatments through the years?

I read about this in my newspaper today. This AO heart connection may have legs. I am surprised that it seems to be getting serious press.

I have never heard of lawyers attending a C&P exam. I would be shocked if the doctor would go along with that.

If alcoholism can be a symptom of PTSD or depression why cannot food addiction be secondary if the doctor says so? With the VA anything is possible.

There is a pretty close relationship between cataracts and DMII as well. These VA doctors examine you, and never tell you that you might have a SC condition due to AO. They don't even know about the connections, and if they did know they probably would keep their mouths shut. Doctors in the private sector know absolutely nothing about agent orange and possible related diseases. You tell them that you DMII is due to AO and they just look blankly at you.

If the VA made heart disease SC this would mean that almost every spouse would get DIC. You have to die of something, and it is usually heart disease or cancer. That would mean almost 2.5 million spouses would get DIC if they out live their husbands. I can see the VA bean counters turning green as we speak. How many Vietnam vets have even had the AO Registry exam? How many of them know which diseases are presumptive for AO? How many of their spouses even know that DIC exists? When I was in the American Legion most of the spouses knew noting about benefits they were possibly entitled to get. I can see the VA delaying this as long as possible to avoid paying compensation, but the DIC they may get stuck paying due to Nehmer.

Larry They say that even people who have the intestional by-pass can find a way to over eat if they really want to do it. We all know by now that being really obese is a big health hazard. You go to a nursing home and you don't see many 90 year olds that are 300 lbs.

Wholesale Their are prostitute doctors who will do anything for a dollar. I met quite a few filing a worker's compensation claim years ago. The VA has their whores as well. They will attempt to lead a vet down the garden path with leading questions all designed to come up with a personality diagnosis because they know that means no compensation. They start out asking about your childhood. Did you like school? Did you get along with your teachers? Did you ever get in trouble? Did you get along with your parents? Did you ever run away from home? Did you ever take a drink of alcohol as a teenager? Did you ever smoke or experiment with pot? Were you ever suspended from school or skip classes? These questions are all designed to get you to admit to something every kid probably did once or twice. That is all it takes for them to label you a PD. Every teen probably had a few fights or problems with their parents. This is grist for the VA's PD mill, so they can say your MH problems are pre-existing or you are a sociopath. After all this talk of taking care of our "Heros" the VA is still doing it. The military will kick you out for anything if they think you might cost them a buck. That is after you have been to the combat zone. When they had the draft army they would just wear you out and then throw you away. You could have a heart condition and be blind as a bat and still get orders for Vietnam.

You know I was filing for presumptive DMII and the process was halted because the VA said they did not have my DD214. I had been SC'ed since 1971, and they tell me they do not have my DD214. I used the G.I. Bill; I got a VA loan; I got VA life insurance. How in the world did I suddenly have no DD214?

Just remember getting treated for PTSD and filing a claim for PTSD are not the same thing at all.

They better hurry up and make the link so we can get Heart conditions and AO exposure SC'ed or we will all be dead. You know the WWII vets are going to be gone in a few years and us RVN era vets are the next big lump in the python. When all the WWII vets are gone we are next. You can bet the VA does not want to link heart disease and AO exposure because that will mean many more claims and many more DIC claims.

I agree that once you file the NOD get a lawyer. They take the case on contingency. You can judge your chances by how eager they are to take it. Otherwise, you can fight it out on your own. NOD is the first step in appeals as you know and the most important step.

I don't think I would want the VA doing a lapband on me. They might leave a monkey wrench and a bucket of grease inside your gut by mistake.

The MMPI compares your answers with people who have the diagnosis of a mental disorder or PD. The thing is that there is a scale that shows if a person is either knowingly, or unknowingly tending to inflate their score on one scale or not. Some people with low self image might say bad things about themselves and look like a anti-social person, but that is shown to be inflated using another scale. If an expert gives the test they can interpret it with some acuracy. If a dumb VA doctor with a hidden agenda to deny compensation interprets it you will look like Charles Manson. I am not kidding.

Yes, most honest vets don't know that the VA will use one sentence from your entire medical history to try and deny compensation. If you tell them you have PTSD they will say you have no proof. However, if you tell them you were abused as a child they will use that as proof to deny a PTSD claim. You have to prove your military PTSD, but the VA takes you at your word if you tell them of any childhood problems. If you tell them you experimented with drugs as a teenager you get a personality disorder diagnosis, regardless of what happend in the military. I told them I got kicked out of school for three days for getting into a fight in junior high and they said I had anti-social personality. They were asking leading questions, and I was young and did not know they were laying a trap. I have never been in any kind of trouble with the law, and have a college degree, but there it is from the VA. It took a few IMO's to kill that anti-social PD VA creation. They just put that on you with no real proof, and it stays with you like a stain.

Now I see! He is saying you have a personality disorder. That is the kiss of death to a compensation claim since PD's are not compensable. You can still get compensation for the PTSD with a personality disorder. You probably are going to need some medical opinion of your own from a private doctor to overturn this PD thing. Alcohol abuse is very often a symptom of PTSD. What your doctor should say is that you have PTSD and some of the symptoms of this are alcoholism and the OCD.

For Fox News to feature a guy who calls on the Taliban to kill a captured soldier is really beyound belief. Even Jane Fonda did not do that.

It makes sense to me that if VA knew he was on SSD in 1981 for a SC condition this should have triggered some kind of IU claim at least. I see it as being a claim where VA should have inferred IU from their knowledge that he was unemployable. If the VA did not know he was on SSD for SC condition then no CUE.

If you claimed PN in your original claim you should have the earlier effective date and not the date of the claim. If you had an existing diagnosis of PN in your records prior to the exam date you should have gotten EED. The VA plays this game a lot with DMII and secondary conditions. I think I would appeal that.

The VA is so arrogant and lawless that even if you send them something certified mail they will claim that you cannot prove that the actual papers were sent to them just that they signed for something. This seems absurd. When they send you a letter to show up for a C&P exam or VCAA letter you never get it certified. They just dump it in the mail, and if you get it ok, and if you don't get it then too bad. Fee base claimed they did not have a claim I filed for dental work a few years ago. I kept at them and they finally admitted that the employee doing the claim had thrown it away on purpose. Can you believe that? I got paid but it took 6 months. The VA said they were going to discipline the employee....he probably promoted.

You should also get SMC since you are way over 100% schedular.

You ask the Board for Correction of Military Records to grant these medals. It is not easy matter. You probably should get a lawyer to so this for you. I tried on my own and they just shot me down. They are brutal.

Unless it was a dishonorable discharge she probably is entitled to VA benefits, but the VA has to make a determination about that. Has she ever attempted to have her discharge upgraded? Has she attempted to go to the VA for treatment? That will trigger a determination as to if she is entitled to VA benefits. It is not black and white. The felony that happened outside of the military does not affect her VA benefits as long as she is not in prison.

I don't think not having a C&P is a CUE but I don't know how the VA can determine current level of disability without some evidence. It has not been long enough to even know if she will get the exam or not. The VA probably will examine her via a C&P if she has evidence of an injury in her SMR's. Has she been treated since she got out of the service?

My thoughts on the fact the VA never addressed your buddy letters is that the VA has an obligation to examine all the evidence a vet has to decide a claim. I had spouse letters and letters from my brother and the VA did address them when I filed for IU back in 2001. That is not what decided the claim but it was and is evidence.