john999

Getting the transcript of your DRO Hearing is not going to speed up or slow down your claim. You want it on the record. The VA has a sneaky way of editing your hearing notes. My last DRO transcript was edited to erase the statement where the DRO agreed with my lawyer that my original rating was too low.

Chronic pain disorder is considered an emotional disorder and will not be rated separately from depression. The kinds of things you might want to use to describe your pain disorder is sleep disturbance, inability to enjoy life, preoccupation with pain, panic disorder. inability to maintain a social life etc. It should be more than not being able to play tennis or do sports. If you have chronic pain you probably have depression as well. They go hand in hand.

If you get a good lawyer by the time you claim gets to the BVA or beyond it will be in good shape and not contain fatal errors. If you have a claim that is complicated and/or is going to result in mega retro pay then a lawyer is your best bet unless you can do it yourself. When you hire a lawyer who knows the VA you have a second pair of eyes to look at your claim objectively.

Purple If you have medicare I would rely on that instead of trying to fight with the VA over Fee Base. Unless you are far from a VAMC the VA won't provide for fee base.

If you tell the VA that you have PTSD now because of something that happened after service that is going to be a difficult mountain to climb. You have to focus on what happened in the military even if it happened 40 years ago.

If you want SC for PTSD from military I would forget about mentioning PTSD from civilian job. Don't even bring it up. Don't use any records that discuss civilian PTSD. The VA will try and say that your PTSD is due to civilian occupation, so just forget that part.

I had bronchitus so bad some years ago I was in bed for days. You need to take care of it because you can end up in the hospital with them pumping oxygen into your lungs. Ny fever got so high I was delirius for a while. It goes from bad to very bad in a hurry if your lungs start to fill up.

Yes, they will yank that tooth and tell you that you will never miss it. This is usually a lie. Any time you lose a tooth you are apt to lose more soon.

Pete Your DRO was on that CUE for the HB you should have gotten years ago, am I right. Then it is no wonder you got the quick denial. They planned to deny it all along. I think the VARO probably denies 99% of CUE claims just on principal. They just don't have the guts to approve a CUE because it would mean admitting a mistake and a big payday for the vet. They just hope you will give up and not pursue it to the BVA.

If you can't work anymore when that day comes be sure to get TDIU. Since most pensions are not worth a damn anymore and SSA is not enough the TDIU is the best bet you can have for retirement. I lost a bunch of money I had invested over the years, but because I have the TDIU I don't have to cash out these investments and ear the loss. TDIU comes with a cola. It is better than any regular retirement being tax free. We earned it!

If you can work you will do better to collect the 90%. When it comes time that you cannot work anymore put in for disability retirement. It is easy to get and then put in for TDIU and SSDI at the same time. I was a postal worker who got disability retirement and then TDIU and SSDI. If I could have kept working I would have, but I am actually better off with the TDIU than I would have been with just the postal retirement. There are other federal employees who have actually worked the full thirty years and then gotten TDIU. What you need for TDIU is just proof that you can no longer work due to your SC disabilites.

If the military kills its members through negligence they should get sued. The thing is that they do it so often they would be broke if it were allowed. The Marine with the skin cancer is a case that is a shame and disgrace.

All the VA has to do delay your claim is to deny your claim, and force you to go to the DRO, and then on to the BVA if they want to play hardball. That will take a good three years right there. My CUE took 18 months to finally get to a DRO who denied it, and now it is going to the BVA which will take at least two years for a hearing with my lawyer. I have waited 37 years for justice so if I wait another two or three years so what ( if I live that long). The biggest weapon the VA has is dragging their feet in hopes the vet will die. The same with DIC. If they can drag it out long enough the spouse may die, especially if the spouse is elderly. It is the same with A&A for a surviving spouse who is in a nursing home. The VA just drags the award out and the spouse dies. They want us to die so they don't have to take care of us. Keep it in mind when you let the VA operate on you. They kill us with delays and negligence.

If you don't want the VA to charge you for some SC conditions you often have to fight with them. I am SC'ed for DMII and vascular and heart disease, and yet my insurance gets charged when I got for blood work and twice yearly exams. How can my SC conditions be treated without exams, but the VA fights me and charges my insurance for some of these conditions. When I get up the enegy to fight the VA over this I will do it.

There are presumptive illnesses for Vietnam vets such as diabetes II, but you have to file a claim. If you shot a weapon the lawyer might be taking about tintinitus, but that is not automatic. There are no automatic claims in the VA system. Also, you can get less than 20% for DMII.

You know getting a colonoscopy is not like getting a flu shot. If it is done by some resident it can go very wrong. If you get a colonoscopy you want it done by someone who does lots of them. Your gut can be punctured and you can die from infection if it is done by some clown.

If you get rated TDIU P&T then I don't think the VA is going to want to send you to school or anything else. However, if you are not P&T then I think the VA would have every reason to try to get you rehabilitated, so they can reduce that TDIU rating. If you could become rehabilitated by school or training and make a decent living then both you and the VA would benefit. It also depends on your age. If you are 60 years old and rated TDIU the idea of being rehabilitated does not make much sense. If you are 30 years old it makes a lot of sense. You should have a good idea about your future ability to work given training or school. If you have some really debilitating illness or injury you probably don't want to bang your head against the wall with vocational rehabilitation if your chances of every being able to work are nil. There are those of us here who can never work again at any age, or given any training. There are some who might be able to work again given the right circumstances. Figure out which one you are.

Don't let the C&P doctor lead you back to your childhood or teen years. Your position should be that I was fine before the events that caused my PTSD. You had a normal and happy life before the military, and now as a result of events in the military you have PTSD. Everything about your childhood, school, job, marriage was ok before the military. After the events it turned to shit.

I got an increase for a heart problem from 0% to 60% and I did not get another C&P exam. I got a lot of tests between the 0% rating and the 60% rating. I got the 60% rating based on my appeal of the 0% rating. This was the result of a DRO Hearing. I have gotten SC'ed for conditions without ever getting a C&P exam. It was based on my medical evidence via the VA's medical records. If you have good evidence in your VA medical records you can sometimes get and increase or SC without a C&P exam. It does not happen all the time but it is possible. I think for mental conditions they almost always want an initial C&P exam but on appeal you can get an increase without another C&P.

That is a big load off your mind even when you know you are going to get it eventually. You are probably better off now than most people still working and hoping they don't get laid off in the next year. TDIU and SSDI are not big money but it is a certain thing that your check comes in every month. You can make plans.

The VA does not take away TDIU even if you are 90 years old.

I agree 100% with your rating of St. Pete. I have never gotten a decision I could understand in 37 years.

I got my C-File and found an error that was made 37 years ago. It could mean some big money for me when I get to the BVA with my lawyer. It happens every day.

I agree with John and Berta. You have to have a nexus letter from a doctor to make the secondary connection. Without the medical nexus from a doctor they will deny it regardless of what your records say. They won't even read them.

I have read that that proposal is DOA in the Congress. No congressman is going to vote for this if he has vets in his district. It is not going to happen.