john999

Where do you draw the line? Many of those in the VAMC are there due to dumb things they did like bike wrecks and alcohol abuse. Some of that risky behavior may be due to PTSD, so it is hard to know where to say "NO". One idiot here in Tampa ran down a woman on Bayshore on his bike and killed her and crippled himself. I don't know who pays this guys bills. He was a warrent officer speeding about 100 miles an hour.

Hulk Hogan's son caused the brain death of a Marine Vet. It was negligent reckless driving. The Marine is in a VA hospital in my town being cared for by the taxpayers for the rest of his life. He was not on active duty. He did not have his seat belt on and was ejected, and Hogan's son was drag racing. This vet is taking a bed away from some guy hurt in Iraq or even a vet who was hurt in Vietnam. Hogan's family does not want to pay for the care of this vet, and the vet's family does not or cannot pay. Who should pay for this?

Take the letter from the VA service center to the debt management center and ask that you be given the forms to appeal this debt. Any debt can be appealed. Have they taken any money out of your checks yet?

I think this may be a useless discussion because the people in power don't give a damn what we veterans think about the VA. Veterans need to get out in the street to make an impression on lawmakers. Otherwise, we are just charity cases.

I remember my exact date because it was the day the postal inspectors walked me out of the Post Office and told me not to come back, heh, heh. Please don't throw me into that briar patch!

Purple I think they don't know what is wrong with you. Did they mention your gall bladder? I really think they just threw that diagnosis at you because they did not know what was wrong with you. That is not good because these things can go bad in a hurry. My wife had pain one night and the next day she was in surgery. She was in severe pain. I thought it was just food poisoning, but I got her to the hospital pronto and they knew better. They should have kept you there until they had a really good idea of what was wrong with you.

Purple For God's sake don't go to the VA ER if you have Diverticulitus. That thing can rupture and fill your gut with poison and you may die. Get to a real hospital. My wife just got over that problem. It was a close thing. If the guts busts open all the waste products will stream into your body cavity and you get dangerously ill. Did you have a CT scan? My wife started off with a pain in her gut and ended up a week in the hospital after surgery and she was lucky because it did not rupture. If it breaks open you will be in the hospital for weeks. The VA is playing with your life. Do you have any other insurance?

I think having a long term relationship with a shrink is the key to really getting help with any of the severe emotional problems. It takes a long time to develop trust after having the buzz saw of the military mental health system run over you. I was so paranoid when I got out of the Army I did not even trust myself. I sure did not trust the VA. I saw a private psychologist for many years. Group was really good for me, but we did not have 20 people in the group and their were rules we lived by. I had such a warped image of myself that I ran everything I heard from others through that filter. I had been abused so much as a child and young person I could not stand for anyone to say anything good about me. I would call them a liar, and it made me suspicious when people were kind to me. Abuse I understood. A pill won't undo that kind of personality warping due to abuse. It takes trust and slow steps.

Thanks for the advice. You know if you have the risk factors it is a good idea to get yourself checked. My father died at 43 from a heart attack. No symptoms just a sudden heart attack and sudden death. He was a WWII vet and he had the vices of that generation (smoking, and stressful years in service). They knew nothing about cholesterol or the other risk factors. I think if I had been a smoker I would probably be dead by now. I just want to live 2 more years so I can get DIC for my wife. The VA C&P exam I had said my heart was perfect. Brother, those people cannot be trusted as far as you can throw them. I think they did not want to find any heart problems. They did find vascular artery disease. That should be secondary to DMII unless they invent some alternative cause. All these things were found by accident. I had a lump on my leg and got a CT scan and they discovered some blockages in my leg arteries. Otherwise I would know nothing. The stress test was my idea. This shows to me that the VA just does not look for problems until you keel over. Where is the prevention?

I think the VA is so broken they should just grant all claims. If the Vet has the service and their is no evidence to deny the claim it should be granted. So many vets are short changed that I think all claims should be granted. It is like AO presumptive conditions. The VA can't sort out the good claims from the bad claims so give the Vet the benefit of the doubt.

I took the result of my stress echo test to a private cardiologist. He advised me to go ahead an get the chemical stress test. If both tests indicate a problem then a hear catherization is the next logical step. He said that if your tests show a problem and you don't have symptoms it is even more dangerous than if you have symptoms because you can have an unexpected problem with no warning (I.E. a heart attack). If the chemical stress test results show a problem I will let this cardiologist take over my care for the heart. I am not going to fool around with the VA. If you have more than three of the main risk factors he told me to keep an eye on my heart. I have more than three risk factors.

Jim Strickland has posted a Veterans Guide to Filing a Claim on VAwatchdog. He is a funny guy. He is a veteran with an attitude. I was telling him about the need for a guide for DIC.

I bet most of the C&P exams that are done at the VA skip, or do incomplete exams according to their own worksheets. I know my heart exam was incomplete because the PA that did the exam skipped the stress test part of the exam. That is a good way to attack a decision if the C&P doctor did not do an adequate exam according to the worksheet. The psychiatric exams are a joke in my experience. How does an examiner follow the worksheet if the exam only lasts ten minutes?

I am going to see a private cardiologist this Friday with result from my treadmill stress test and echocariogram. I am going to see what he says. I am not going to let the VA do any invasive things on me. If need be I will go into the hopiptal near my home and get a cath done or whatever the cardiologist recommends. The cardiologist I am seeing is well respected guy here in Tampa. I will follow his advice. I would get a second opinion, regardless, because I know doctors can be wrong.

When I got my AO exam it was comprehensive. The thing is only about 20% of vets even use the VA. I don't really blame them, but it is good to use the system to document things. The more you use the VA the more service connected things will be "discovered" over time. If you are a Vietnam vet and get diagnosed with DMII you can be pretty sure that you are going to have complications, and you want every one of these complications to be documented and service connected. That is the only reason I go to the VA. The care is not that bad, but I could get just as good care closer to home. However, I get everything into the VA records system. This is how I got my chronic pain syndrome service connected by going to the VA. One thing leads to another and if one ball drops you have five more in the air.

I got the AO registry information letter today. According to the review only about 20% of Vietnam vets have had the AO registry exam. A lot of these guys who have not taken the exam are going to get some AO disease and die and leave their spouses high and dry. The spouses will then spend years trying to get DIC.

Like Larry says you should get your VA shrink to say that your depression is a result of your chronic pain and immobility due to the SC back condition. If you get even 50% that will bump you up to between 70-100%. I would file for TDIU while I am at it so you get the earliest effective date. If you are going to ask for an increase also ask for TDIU at the same time. I had 30% when I asked for TDIU. It took over a year, but they paid me back to the time I filed for TDIU.

A doctor's statement saying that you are unemployable soley due to your service connected disabilities is the Gold Standard for getting TDIU from the VA. You say you were terminated due to your SC disbilities. Did you file for disability retirement? Did you file for SSD? The fact you were terminated for your hearing loss from your government employment may not be enough to show that you can't do any kind of work. That is why a doctor's statement is needed. The VA plays games with all of us. You need to get them in a corner where they have to grant TDIU because you have overwhelming evidence that you are unemployable due soley to your SC conditions.

They probably did not even read your claim. Persistence is the key when they do these kinds of idiotic denials. Everything they told you is BS. Appeal to the DRO right away. Did you get disability retirement from the government? I was a federal employee and retired on disability. You should apply for SSD also.

I always take my wife and some representative. I took a lawyer last time. This takes the heat off you if someone else can present your evidence for you. Even if it is a VSO unless they are retarded they can read what you have written or hand in your evidence for you. DRO hearings are very low key. They just listen to your evidence and ask a few questions. They don't give you the Third Degree or confront you. They know better from past experience I am sure. They don't want fingers around their necks.

I don't think ADD is a personality disorder because they treat it with medications. It is a medical condition. I bet it is often confused with a PD because the person is hyperactive and gets into trouble because they can't concentrate and get bored easily.

What they are telling me is the next step is heart catherization if the stress test looks bad. I don't know because I have no symptoms, but my father died suddenly when he was quit young from a heart attack and he had no symptoms before he suddenly died. I don't want that to happen to me. My heart was beating almost 140 beats a minute, and I had no pain but I just gave out before they could get a better look at how my heart was functioning. If they kill me I will let you know.

I am going next week to the VA to get a chemical stress test over a two day period. My PCP seems to be pretty good. She told me from my other stress test that I probably have a blockage in part of my heart artery. I have no pain or discomfort, but I am not waiting until I do. I am going to a private cardiologist anyway this week. I want to document all this in my VA medical records.

I am going to get a back brace. My back hurts when I sit down, but not when I stand or walk. I am hoping the brace will let me cut down on the narcotics I use. I do exercise but it makes the pain worse. I can do situps all day but it does not help my back.

If you are a combat vet the VA is supposed to accept your statements about injuries sustained in combat. In reality I bet they do not do this at all. If you hurt your back in combat and come to the VA ten years later and tell them you want to file a claim on your back and there is nothing in your records about it then good luch because you will need it.