john999

You should be able to go to the records dept of the VAMC where you got the C&P exam and get a copy. It should not slow down the process unless there has been change Catch 22.

If you pursue the CUE get a lawyer.

What you would probably get is 30%,50%,70% or 100% depending on symptoms. You won't get 80% for PTSD. It usually jumps up 20 points at a time. You could even start at 10% like I did for a mental condition.

Did you get a copy of the C&P exams? That will tell you where the VA is going most probably. Just respond to information requests and ask via IRIS about the status of your claim.

I took it once and got lost driving home from the store. It is a drug for bi-polar mania. It is used for off the books reasons just like neurontin. It is actually an anti-convulsant. If the VA is giving you this drug because of headaches and PTSD it is because it is cheap.

You are getting some very bad advice from your VA friend. I think you can get mroe than 10% especially if your bladder is affected. Our friend Rentalguy or TestVet can advise you more on this.

Why not hire a lawyer? They are available to us now. The fees come out of your retro if you win something. However, if you feel you can do it on your own then you don't need a VSO except as someone to present your claim at a hearing.

In order to get 100% schedular you have to meet the criteria. It is not valid for the VA to deny 100% if you meet the criteria. It has nothing to do with the money or if you need benefits or not. What you need is medical evidence that meets the 100% standard.

Are you retiring because you feel you can't work or is it because of what the VA doctors said?

I get sick of almost always being accused of being a drug addict when I state that the current pain medication is not getting it. If you want or need something stronger you must be an addict according to many in the pain management business. I have heard this at the VA and from private doctors who are just scared to death of the DEA. It seems like there are just two kinds of pain doctors: the ones who will give you anything for cash money and the ones who think aspirin is too strong. They all like to do expensive procedures like nerve blocks.

I already spent my $250. My wife wanted a new lazy boy chair to watch the Redsox play. What can I say? It cost more than $250, but it keeps her happy.

Caveman In Florida you have to be permanently and totally disabled to get the maximum state benefits. I am TDIU P&T and I got the maximum state benefits in Florida. All you really get is a the exemption from property tax and cheap plates for your car. If you are on SSD and are totally disabled you can get the tax exemption from what I have read in Florida anyway.

If you get Chapter 35 benefits then you are P&T. Does spouse get ChampVA?

The VA did not send me an employment questionaire so I made an affirmative statement over the phone to the VA and they accepted that as equivalent to my questionaire. I quizzed them about this via IRIS and the VA called me and told me that they had my statement that I had not worked since 2001 and that was enough to affirm my TDIU status. I think the only good reason to go for 100% vs TDIU is some kind of A&A. Once you get P&T you don't really want to mess with that if it means that you lose it when you get 100% schedular. P&T lets you sleep at night. Even when you get P&T it is still important to stay in treatment. These creeps can wait until your 19th year at 100% and then call you in for an exam and try and reduce you. If you read the criteria for 100% for a mental condition you are talking about a major disability.

If you can avoid narcotic pain meds then all the better. Even if you take narcotics as prescribed you will build a tolerance and you will have to take more of the same drug or go to a more potent pain killer. The VA pain clinics are very inadequate. I am on the opiate program. I can only get that morphine, methadone or percoset. The only drug I can tolerate is percoset. There must be more alternatives than just these three or four drugs. The VA focuses on cost. If it is a good, but expensive drug with fewer side effects forget it. You will get the cheap stuff. It is take it or leave it. The VA will kill you to save a buck.

Never send originals!

Larry If those crummy bastards owe you anything then file. The VA takes advantage of so many people they need to pay for anything they might owe. If you are 100% you should file for housebound. If I were 100% for a single condition I would file yesterday for housebound. I am 90% for a number of conditions so it would be a little harder, but I have considered it. If there is anything in your records that indicate you were unemployable before you got the award you might run it by a good Vet lawyer to see if you have a CUE based on an inferred claim the VA ignored. I read in the VBM that if the VA knows you are unemployabled due to a SC condition they have an obligation to adjudicate a TDIU claim. They never do it, but they have the legal obligation. The VA cheats veterans on effective dates all the time.

She probably got probation. I am guessing she did restitution and probably got community service. I do hope she got fired! She should be sitting in jail for about 5 years.

The VA does edit those DRO transcripts. My DRO agreed at my hearing that I was low balled in my original claim. My lawyer was there as a witness. That statement by the DRO did not appear in the transcript. It would not matter anyway because the VA was not going to grant a CUE that would cost them a few hundred thousand dollars at a regional DRO Hearing. They kick that kind of stuff upstairs to someone with a higher paygrade so they can evade responsibility.

I think you did the right thing.

Yes, pack the congress memmbers up with 100 lbs on their back and send them to hump the hills in Afghanistan and most would be begging for more help. Oh, and by the way I expect to hear that as the numbers of troops increase in Afghanistan (the heart of the opium trade) young men and women will be coming home with drug habits. The military will react by throwing them out on BCD's and turning their backs on them.

Larry I would say that unless you are going for housebound, A&A or if the conditions are possibly fatal then once you get P&T just forget about it. If you want to pursue these claims I think it is OK. I don't think the VA will take away your 100%. If you are not going to benefit financially there is really no point. If you had AO diabetes or something like that I would pursue it.

Xanax is addictive. If you stop taking it suddenly you can have convulsions. When you get off it reduce it very slowly. Same thing with valium. I stopped taking klonpin suddenly not thinking about it and I had symptoms. I felt intense anxiety. Much more than usual and could not sleep.

I remember pointing out to the VA that they had dianosed me with schizophrenia which is the mental disorder with the worst prognosis. They said that had nothing to do with my rating. Only my present symptoms were important for rating purposes. I had a letter from the Vet Center saying "PTSD, Severe and Chronic" that meant nothing to these people. It was the letter from my private shrink that said I was unemployable due to a mental disorder (bi-polar) that got me TDIU. The magic words are what counts.

My experience with the VBA has been bizzare. I still can't follow their logic on my claims and neither can my long time private doctor. It is like you shove good evidence (which is key) into the VA sausage machine and anything can come out the other end. I recently got rated 60% for a vascular problem and I don't know how they came up with that rating. I don't care because it does not affect my compensation rate, but it is not logical.