john999

Talk to your command pronto. You should not be deployed to a combat zone again with a 70% rating for PTSD. Go see your congressman or whatever you have to do. You don't just want to go along with this. Why are you even in the Reserves with a 80% rating?

File for the depression and for any other injury or illness he sustained in service. Do you have a copy of his service medical records that document these injuries and illnesses? That is all you need since he is being seen for these problems at the VA. File claims for all these conditions. Like Bob says file an NOD for the denial of the back injury. I say when in doubt file the claim. They will never do anything until you file a claim.

If you have PN you should have gotten 10% at the very least. I got 10% in all four limbs.

Sunfish Is the claimant being treated for depression? You need a current diagnosis and it is very good to have a record of treatment for the problem. Same goes for the back injury. If you have a record of being diagnosed or treated for any injury in service it is important to get continuing treatment for it to get compensation. If you get treatment for all these problems at the VA you have a record of treatment right there for the VA to see.

You need to find out the status of your claim. You usually have one year to appeal to the BVA via a Form 9 after a decision from the DRO or any other decision maker at the VA. I got a DRO Review and it was negative on an issue, and then I asked for a Personal Hearing with the DRO. This all took more than a year. I did not go to the BVA, but I exceeded the one year time limit from my first DRO decision and yet I still got a hearing at the VARO and a decision. When a claim gets to the DRO it seems the time factor gets lost as well as some evidence. The rule, however, as I understand it is one year from the time of a decision to go to the BVA.

Hoppy How did your pain resolve? My back pain seems to get worse every day. I keep wondering what I can do and why it hurts so much. I get discouraged because it seems to be constant, and does not respond to non-surgical things like shots, pills, and the PT I have done so far. I take lots of pain meds and that just makes me feel worse. I am disgusted with my pain doctor who just gave me a brace to wear. I am so drugged up most of the time I cannot think that straight about my options. My back does not look that bad on an MRI but the never ending soreness makes me afraid to take car trips or do anything that might aggravate it. The trouble is that just sitting in a chair aggravates it after a while. Riding a bike makes it hurt worse. I guess soaking in a pool would be OK but I cannot do that 24/7. Do you get what I am saying about facing a seemingly endless pain cycle?

Were you injured at work or was a VA injury aggravted from your work? If so then it is probably compensable via workers compensation.

Sometimes you get a false positive on these tests. It takes more tests to confirm results. We are pulling for you and your wife, Skunk.

MikeE You need to either file for disability or forego filing for these disability claims. You cannot say you are able to work to one entity and then claim you are totally disabled from another. To get SSD you have to be unable to work for at least one year. Inform all of these agencies that give you money about the others before you take their money or you are going to end up losing it all and owing big bucks to the government. I would not take another dime from unemployment. Don't trust what those idiots at the 800 number tell you. They have already got you in a jam. If you are getting the NSC pension that means you are totally disabled. If you get SSD that is going to count against the pension. You need to inform VA of any changes in your income be it SSI or SSD. What you did when you took the NSC pension and took unemployment is considered fraud. You need to go get this fixed and claim you just did not know that it was wrong to do. You need to go to them before they come to you.

All my closest friends from Nam are either dead or dying from AO. It gives me sorrow to think how funny and alive they were when I knew them thirty-seven years ago.

When you actually apply for IU even with a high disability rating the VA may throw in all the stops to disapprove IU because they know once you get IU they will be paying forever, and at some point they will be paying DIC and chapter 35.

One way to go in the backdoor on this issue is to apply for housebound. If you are, indeed, houseboung the VA will have to award 100% if they award HB. A friend of mine did it this way. He proved he was housebound and then the VA bumped him up to 100% from 70% IU.

To get unemployment insurance you have to certify that you are able and willing to work. That does not work if you are collecting a NSC pension for disability. It is fraud in the eyes of the law. That is like collecting workers compensation and unemployment insurance.

Rich You can add to your DRO hearing record when you get your award letter from SSA. I would tell the DRO that I am on SSD for PTSD. You can tell him that as soon as you get your award you will send him a copy of the letter. If you can win in front of a SSD judge you can beat the VA. You have the ammunition. No matter what the VA does in their next move you will win this claim in the end. It is hard to believe that you win SSD before VA PTSD claim, but many of us here were approved for SSD before we got TDIU or 100% from the VA. The standard for disability from SSD is much higher than VA, but the VA just makes you wait. I got 70% from VA and they stalled for a year on TDIU. Then they stalled for another year on P&T. Time is their weapon.

Why is it that mental injuries are not held in the same esteem as physical injuries? If your injury is combat related why not a purple heart? Does s guy with TBI get a PH? Does there have to be blood? If I fall off a bunker during a rocket attack and break my back do I get a PH? If I die from AO exposure maybe DOW should give me an award like barrel of AO with an X through it. Guys were awarded PH's for getting a scratch, but someone with acute combat fatigue that turns into PTSD gets nothing but shame. Mental or emotional disabilites or injuries are still regarded as being a lessor injury.

Get the IU. That is a lot more than 500 dollars a month. Your SSI issues are the same as you SC issues. If the VA knows you are on SSI they should have considered you for IU as soon as you were rated. Your rating of 30% does not make sense in light of fact you are on SSI for mental issues. The VA has cheated you out of tons of money over the years. Let your lawyer work on this for you. If he can't do a CUE then he can get IU for you with your evidence and history.

With a 80% rating how has the National Guard not sought to discharge you on medical reasons? The Guard is something I don't understand. Would they attempt to send you back to a combat zone given your condition? I don't think being in Voc Rehab should bar you from getting TDIU. When you complete Voc Rehab and get a job and hold it then you will lose TDIU, but then you don't need it. If you are not able to complete Voc Rehab that is just proof you can't work. Do you think you are going to be able to go to school full time and deal with your disabilities? I don't want to discourage a young man from trying to help himself. Being TDIU for fifty or sixty years is a long time.

Da Nang Can you imagine going to the VA three times a week for therapy? 200 miles round trip means your whole day is shot. Just having to spend three hours out there is enough for me. I have to go Monday for a visit with PCP. That means about 4 hours of the day shot just to get some pills.

If you are rated IU you give up opportunity to get housebound. I sometimes think that it is best to get the rating and see where the chips fly. If you are rated 100% for PTSD then the VA is supposed to also consider you for HB which is another 300 some odd dollars a month. There are pros and cons to a schedular rating, and the same goes for TDIU. To me it is the same rating since no one I know with a 100% rating for PTSD or any mental disorder works, and part of that rating is not being able to work. I think they should make every TDIU vet 100% schedular. The VA used to make vets who could not work 100% schedular. Work is the main criteria they use to determine higher levels of disability for any emotional disorder. Also if you are not able to work and you are 100% schedular if the VA reduces you to 70% they are supposed to consider you for TDIU. If you are housebound then go for the 100% schedular since you deserve it. If you are housebound then by definition you are also 100%.

Skunk is already on SSI which is SSD for people who don't have enough quarters to get SSD as I understand it. I would like to ask Skunk what was the reason he got on SSI, and does he have the records for that? If he went on SSI for mental issue then that is good evidence of IU and it gives a date as well. Does the VA know Skunk is on SSI? That would be an inferred claim for IU right there if I am understanding the nature of SSI correctly.

The way it works for federal workers compensation is that if you have say a 30% SC condition for your knee and you injure you knee again at work you can get workers compensation and keep the 30%. If, however, you get raised up to say 50% on the knee after the work related injury then you can't get both the increase from the VA and keep all the WC compensation. I was totally disabled for a mental condition due to having my SC mental condition aggravated by my job. I then put in for TDIU and I had to make a choice between WC and VA TDIU when TDIU was granted. It was the same injury, but TDIU is a lot more permanent that workers compensation where they send you to hostile second opinions once a year for the rest of your life. Still if you are hurt on the job anywhere you should file for workers compensation. That what it is there for union or no union.

If you are hurt or aggravate a pre-existing back injur on the job you can usually file for workers compensation if you can't work. If it is a service connected injury you may have to choose between the workers compensation and VA compensation at some point. The employer should provide "reasonable accommdation" but the word "reasonable" has been dissected to the utmost degree by employment lawyers on labor and management sides. ADA has holes in it so wide you could drive a truck through them. I know because I been there.

The Army used to encourage soldiers to skip the discharge physical saying it would hold up their actual discharge date. I did not get a discharge physical and I bet most guys ETSing from Vietnam did not get one either. So thousands of vets were conned out of a discharge physical that might have turned up many compensable conditions.

I live only 15 miles from the VAMC but because of awful parking siutation it takes me an hour to get to the hospital. I get nothing in way of travel pay. This is one big reason I use the VA only for basics if possible. The kind of care I need for chronic conditions such as doing PT is just too much trouble considering the time and expense of getting to the damn hospital. No clinics near me. The place is just good for pills.

Dave I would NOD it based on them not considering your evidence. How the heck can you tell if they reviewed your evidence if they do not even list it? Some at the VA say that if it is in your C-File then the VA considered it, but that seems like bs to me. If the decision does not list or mention your evidence at all they must have ignored it or never even looked at it. What other logical conclusion can you have. You know I have a CUE based on this very point. The VA has been pulling this stunt for years not listing all evidence they don't like.