john999

Just remember when dealing with secondary conditions you almost always need a doctor's opinion to link the conditions. There are a few conditions that are secondary to things like DMII that are almost slam/dunks but you still need an opinion. Cataracts are an almost 100% sure thing as a secondary condition for DMII, but I would not feel comfortable unless I had a medical opinion linking them. The VA will not connect the dots. This is because the guy who rates your claim has no special knowledge in medical or legal issues. He is just a jumped up clerk.

I think the rating you get based on a VA C&P exam is a crap shoot. It is subjective and differs so much from one VARO to another I am astounded at times. I always mentioned suicidal ideation and the VA told me that unless I had a "plan" then that would not justify anthing beyound 30%. At my VARO unless you tell them you are going home and blow your brains out they just shrug it off. If you go to the VA ER and tell them you are going to kill yourself they still quiz you about your intent before they will admit you. I remember one time when I was paranoid I told the C&P doctor I believed people were plotting to kill me I got 10% confirmed, and I had a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. A few years later I went for an exam and got 30% for being bi-polar. This is when I realized that if I just kept at it I would get a decent rating by chance. I enhanced my chances by getting private medical opinions and getting a DRO hearing. I filed in the 70's when unless you were chewing the carpet you got 10%.

Husker Do you have an IMO to support a higher rating, or any private medical reports or records? This is usually how you really win these claims and get much higher ratings.

The thing is there is always an appeals process for just about anything decided at the VA. Even if you owe money you can often appeal your way out of it, especially if it is there mistake. The VA was dinging me for a few hundred dollars and I appealed my way out from these bloodhounds. They gave that minor debt a lot more attention than any claim I ever filed. I know that if the VA decided I owed them a bunch of money I would certainly be upset and wanting to wring some necks. The VA makes so many mistakes against the vet, but if they think you owe them then it is blood and thunder.

Mcafee Try and get a lawyer to take your claim. Since you need to file your CUE at the BVA it is important to get the wording right and to get the fine legal points down pat. These CUE claims are hard enough to understand without the BVA throwing it out due to some "pleading error". If there is retro involved you should be able to get some legal eagle to take the case if it has any chance of being a winner. 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing. The lawyers charge 20% of the retro.

I agree with Pete to try and get this claim back to the VARO and get a personal hearing. You can get more done with a personal hearing than waiting ten years for the BVA to do something. It does not always work that way, but if you have good evidence just having someone look you in the eye and consider your claim can work wonders. The way the VA works is that you have to get in front of a human being to get anything done.

Have you applied for SSD and tried to get medicare? You need options besides the VA. Are you 100% disabled vet? The VA's pain management formulary is bare bones. If you can't take morphine or methadone you are just about out of luck. Having an allergy to opiates makes it hard because the VA is a rigid organization where the cost factor is king.

Being a sociopath should be a good qualification for being in law enforcement. You get to beat,kick and shoot people within the law, and if you go beyound the law your bosses protect you and may pin medals on your chest.

If you are eligible to have an attorney I would get one for the hearing. I am from Tampa and I don't know any VSO's worth their salt. You can always get one to go with you to the DRO, but have you claim organized and ready to win on your own. As Berta says, it is evidence that wins claims not some VSO. Don't let them talk you out of an appeal if you don't get what you want. You don't need a VSO for a DRO hearing. These hearings usually last 15 minutes. Get your spouse to go with you.

You should get in the VA pain management program. You don't have to take the dope they give you but you need to complain about the pain and rate it high on the pain scale. If the disability is causing you mental or emotional grief you need to see a shrink and get help with the depression. You need to imbed yourself into the VA health care system for life.

FeWolf Were you in SF? You can find information and support from SF associations. They also were being someone else at a different place with few records, but these guys know how to find things out because they have to protect themselves. I would google this and start tracking people down. Just having records of getting combat pay won't prove a PTSD claim.

These programs seem all aimed at the OIF/OEF vets. Where is the outreach for older vets? I don't see it when I go to the VAMC.

If the VA does not list evidence, or refer to it in any way in their decision how can you, or they prove, that they did or did not consider the evidence. This seems like such a basic flaw in due process.

If all evidence in a claim is not considered or at least referenced how can you have due process?

You need to get your own private doctor to review your wife's medical records and to examine her to rebut what the VA has decided. The way to fight a VA medical opinion is to get your own opinion from a board certified specialist. When you appeal you include this new medical opinion. If you are claiming that the original disability caused your wife to fall and make her condition worse that needs to be backed up by a doctor's opinion. The VA will never just accept such a claim without a medical opinion that would explain how the original injury led to the aggravation. What proof do they have that she was "impaired"? Are they saying the accident was due to her being drunk or high on drugs? You know that anything said to any VA doctor or examiner will be used against you. If you say you had one beer they interpret that as your being falling down drunk.

Send in your evidence if you have it. You know there is a balance of evidence and you want to weigh it in your favor. I don't believe in holding back evidence. If you are denied you can get new evidence in form of IMO that reviews the reasons for the denial and rebuts them.

Did you have other discipline problems to justify a PD discharge? Usually, the vet had gotten into some kind of trouble and then because the military is looking to avoid the expense of court martial more discipline they offer a discharge. I don't think I ever heard of a person being discharge just because someone says they have a PD, unless their is a deficiency in work or discipline problem or the person is obviously mentally ill and the military wants to avoid paying a medical pension.

I think you can track people through the SF associations. If you pursue it and just explain your situation the SF association people will route you to someone who knows it all. These guys must have had the same sorts of problems because I was looking for a guy who said he served three tours in Vietnam as SF and they said he was a fake. I went through many levels of insiders who were willing to talk to me. I was surprised but the SF people are jealous of their reputations and the retirees keep in touch with what is happening, and the can reach out to other people if they want to help. It was explained to me that even if they were SOG they could be traced informally through the SF buddy system.

I got a call from my VAMC for a guy with my last name. They send us a letter and call also. I wish they did that with C&P exams.

Be sure they check you for cataracts and other DMII related eyes diseases. As you probably know eye problems and DmII go together. I already have cataracts and I am going to a real eye doctor to get evaluated. The VA said I had the cataracts but pooh, poohed it as nothing serious. Right, just wait til I am blind and call them back.

Rock As far as the CUE going back to 1974 I think you have a hard fight ahead of you. I don't believe the VA regs say the doctor must have a clear and unmistakable reason to change a military diagnosis. That type of language has a specific meaning for the VA, and similar language is not the same thing. These are two separate systems. I do think that if you have a schizophrenic diagnosis in service, and now have schizophrenia you have a chance of getting service connection, but not the CUE because it is a question of judgement between the military doctors and the VA doctor. Even if you had one VA doctor saying PD and your doctor saying Schizophrenia I don't think that in itself is a CUE. That is a matter of medical judgement. If the VA ignored completely your SMR's, or did not consider evidence from your shrink then I think that would be a CUE because that is evidence and they must consider all evidence in a claim.The CUE, as I understand it, can be separated from the evaluation of the evidence. Why not try and just get current SC for schizophrenia and let the CUE wait for a while? The CUE is technical, and not based on what we consider reasonable evaluation of facts. It is like that on purpose to narrow it down so that 99% of vets don't have a shot. I think what Hoppy is telling is practical as opposed to something that is a longshot and it going to bog down and waste your time if you only pursue it and not a current SC claim for schizophrenia.

If you have any proof of being a combat vet the VA more than likely will accept your version of events regarding injuries sustained in combat. If you had that many heat strokes you did well to get the heck out of the service before it killed you. I know that heat was deadly in Vietnam. There were more heat injuries than enemy injuries.

Call and ask what the decision was. Why not? All they can say is that they don't know or can't tell you. The letter is the main thing since that is official.

So, Allen and Berta, if the VA does not address all the evidence is that a CUE according to M-21? Allen, your first post says the VA must address all the evidence in a claim. I see you are quoting the M-21. This is the rater's bible from what I understand.

I am just reading this thread and from my own experience you can refuse a C&P exam. However, you lose your claim. A friend of mine believed that he did not need a C&P the VA ordered. He called and told them this and they agreed to cancel his exam and go with what he had in his record. He lost. Then he went back and got a C&P exam and he won. We both got the message. The VA wants control of the rating process.