john999

The thing about TDIU is that is is compensation for what you have lost. You might be a person who wants to work until the day they die, but because of your illness/ or injury in service you are unable to do this. You get money for your loss of employability not as a disability pension.

I went to the Tampa VAMC today to get my percoset prescription refilled. My doctor called in sick. I asked the people in my "team" what I could do. They just shrugged. I wanted to hit them with my cane. I tried to call the VA to get a appointment when I got home after trying to talk to the pharmacist and ER and getting nowhere. I was not even able to get an appointment scheduled to get my script. I told them I would be going into withdrawl. They just shrugged and I really wanted to hit them with my cane. If you depend on the VAMC for anything that is really crucial you are in deep shit. They just cannot do anything right. The people in the ER where just the most unhelpful people I have ever come into contact with at the VA. They don't give a shit and that was obvious. My "team" turned away a sick vet in a wheelchair because he did not have an appointment. He was homeless and they just blew him off. What a disgusting place. I go to the VAMC because I am entitled to care, but what a cesspool it is, and how little they care about their patients. I would not let them operate on my pet rock. I would complain but what good would it do and who would I complain to when I can't even get an appointment because the appointment line is too busy. The patient advocate is an idiot. I came pretty close to getting myself arrested. To be treated like trash I don't need.

The best way to restructure the DVA is with a bulldozer.

My lawyer is Karl Kazmierczak. He has a website Kazmierczaklaw.com. I got him from Watchdog. Yoggie My denial was a complete distortion of the facts. They just don't want to pay. Why pay if you can delay it, and then dump the responsibility on someone up the chain? You don't get fired for denying a claim.

If have been Totally disabled for over 5 years the VA has a much harder time reducing you. They cannot reduce you ,legally, based on a single exam. They have to consider your entire record. That does not mean they may not try to reduce you, but probably not.

Rockhound Two years is the time it will probably take to get a hearing at the BVA. I am not counting chickens before they hatch. Me and my lawyer have looked at the facts of the case. He is working for free until the claim is won. Lawyers almost never do that unless they think they can win. They are not emotionally involved with a vet's claim. They are thinking of a payday. I just hope I live long enough to collect, but I will take it all the way. The DRO said I should have gotten a higher rating based on the evidence the VA did not consider, but he was probably overruled by someone who said "We are not going to pay this vet a couple of hundred thousand bucks and admit a 30 year old mistake, regardless of the evidence". So it is kicked down the road to the BVA because the lower level guys don't want to make a decision to grant.

My lawyer called and said we are going forward with my CUE to the BVA. He says he is confident we will win. I guess he is talking about him and his tapeworm,ha,ha. We both agree that it was just the VARO not wanting to admit a mistake that will cost 100,000 dollars plus. He says the VA did not even address the issue we were bringing up in the CUE. They denied an issue we did not even raise and made up the rest. Now I have something to look forward to even if it takes two years.

You can look under the rating schedules for cardi-vascular diseases and it will have it somewhere and how it is rated. I don't know if it is rated as a separate disease or part of another disease syndrome.

Appeal and ask for a DRO Hearing. I just got a 60% rating for a DMII secondary condition and all I did was appeal.

One thing to consider is that other govenment agencies offer heath care benefits. If you are hurt on the job the DOL is supposed to provide medical treatment for your illness or injury as long as you suffer from it. However, finding a doctor who will accept the DOL's workers compensation insurance is very hard. Medicade provides benefits for really poor people, but many doctors won't accept medicade because it pays too little. This could happen if the DVA gives us a health care card. If they do not do a good job of paying for services or are too cheap no doctors will accept it,and we will be worse off. It needs to be as good as ChampVA, medicare or Tricare.

It sounds pretty good. You may have wanted the doctor to say he had reviewed all your service medical records and your current medical records. Do you have a copy of your SMR's? If you don't the VA may throw it up in your face that your doctor could not have reviewed them. However, I think the letter is pretty good since he did say he had reviewed your medical records. If you are asking for TDIU you know you may have a fight on your hands just because if you can walk they tend to believe you can work.

Do you have other insurance to get a second pap test to make sure it is not a false positive? The VA told me I had severe ischemia based on a stress test, and then I had another test and they said "not". You should definitely have another test to verify the first test in my humble opinion.

If he is at the BVA then,yes, he can send the records. Too bad he had not filed an earlier claim that was denied based on not having treatment records because that would be possible CUE since the VA should have had those records. You say TB. Does he have TB now or is this for damage due to TB or some current problem related to having TB? It is possible that this could mean a lot of retro.

I got my heart diseasse rating bumped up from 0% to 60% just by appealing it to the DRO. I got a few extra tests and a C&P exam along the way. However, it was just sitting in front of the DRO that got me the major increase, so sometimes you just need to keep appealing. It did not involve any retro or an increase so it was an easy decision for the DRO. I did it for the purpose of DIC. Now if I drop dead from any sort of cardiovascular condition the VA will have a hard time denying a direct SC death for DIC. I think the only higher rating for heart disease of my type is 100%. I got this for myself without a VSO.

Military justice is a contradiction in terms. You are supposed to have a jury of your peers under the UCMJ. Now if you are a PFC are there going to be other PFC's on the jury? No, there are going to be senior NCO's. You are dead!

I had a very high quality IMO by a shrink who used to work for the VA. She said I had PTSD among other things. The VA accepted this in their decision. I did not provide a stressor letter. It was just a small part of all the co-morbid conditions that she addressed and the VA accepted. If it is in your rating decision then it is accepted, and I don't think they can get out of it. A really good IMO can turn things around 180 degrees, and is worth the money. If they know VA speak it makes all the difference.

Skunk They have become real bastards about upgrading discharges. If you are past the 15 year mark they won't do it without getting a lawyer, and putting on the full court press. I think they are afraid you will ask for money or a pension. They turned me down on a medical discharge as well citing the 15 year mark. I got upgraded to honorable when I first got out after getting the bum's rush when I got back from Vietnam. The DOD are cheap bastards.

Does medicare and blue cross pay for chiropractors? I did not think they paid for this stuff. They pay for podiatrist and many of these guys are crooks.

I would say if your CUE involves lots of retro the DRO will probably pass it up the line. Before I go to the BVA with this thing I would hire a lawyer since CUE's revolve around legal issues. Just give it your best shot. Your DRO probably does not want to be the one that grants a claim that means many thousands of dollars in retro. Why not just pass it off to the BVA and pass the responsibility on as well? I just had the same experience with the DRO admitting in the hearing that the orginal rating was too low and then reversing himself when he made the decision and denying the CUE. It was the fact of a few hundred thousand dollars in retro that gagged him. The thing is to not make any mistakes they can use to kill your CUE on legal grounds.

My shrink is already working in a office the size of a small bathroom. If the VA cuts their budget by 10% he will have to work standing up in a closet. There is a flood of new cases coming to the VA from two wars and they talk about cutting the budget?

My Great, Great Grandfather was a confederate soldier from Georgia. The lost his hearing during the civil war. I don't believe he ever got anything. He went deaf, and because of this he was removed from combat duty except during the Battle of Atlanta. Going deaf probably saved his life. He went to the rear and became a cobbler. He was in Columbus, GA when the Battle of Atlanta started. He and his comrades started walking, but it took so long to get there the battle was over and Sherman was on his way to the sea. He told my Grandmother about eating whatever they could scronge, and never asking what was in the pot. my Great Uncle was gassed in WWI. I don't think he got compensation, but he had PTSD the rest of his life.

Danang I don't know but I doubt it.

Skunk No matter what the decision keep fighting for more.

That's it, Rich. That is what they think, but they are wrong. I get madder every time I think about it. What does legal mean to the VA? You know they laugh at that concept, but we can jam it up their butts. At some point in the process you get to a court.

I realized that since I hired a lawyer for my CUE claim the VA has been trying to do an end run around my lawyer. The refused to send him a copy of my C-File. They don't send him updates on the claim. Now they send me the SSOC and they have not sent him one yet. I guess they think they can drive a wedge between us, or believe I will not let him run things. It is pissing me off because I want them to deal with my lawyer. That is why I hired him. I am sick of having to copy things and then send it to him. The VA is sneaky. I think the ST. Pete RO really is not used to dealing with lawyers and they don't like it. They think they can continue to get aways with the same old BS they have like with the DAV. I hope my lawyer sticks my claim right up their rectums. I don't believe they even understand the basics of a CUE. They have probably never granted one.