john999

If you have service connected DMII, CAD and neuropathy can there be any doubt that OSA is going to aggravate those conditions. I would like to know if depression, anxiety , DMII, CAD and neuropathy could lead to OSA and hypertension. DMII does lead to weight gain and weight gain leads to OSA, but getting a doctor to say that is hard. It is as if OSA just popped out of the sky. I was DX-ed with OSA and hypertension after my DMII DX. I know there are interconnections between all these problems. I want to file for OSA and HB but is there any basis or any doctor who can make such a case for them to be secondary to DMII? Have disease, money and will travel of IMO. John

Adderall is an amphetamine. I don't think your VA doctor will give it to you. I took it but it was prescribed from another doctor. The VA had a fit since I am in the pain management program. What your friend is taking is what used to be called a "speedball" that is mixing speed with a narcotic. The problem I had with the Adderall was that I was taking oxycodone and Fentanyl plus I have sleep apnea. I was out of it, but while the Adderall helped me wake up it made me angry and I just could not control my temper. I did not care about that but my wife sure did. I know there are better pain meds out there than that damn Morphine SR, but the VA just won't prescribe them. OxyContin is better but the VA is so afraid of people abusing it or selling it that unless you have cancer they don't want to prescribe it even though it was invented for those with intractable chronic pain like me and you and your friend. If you have a opiate pain contract with the VA I think they will object. Since I have sleep apnea the VA objects to everything I take. They think I should just gut it out. Speaking of guts it takes a lot of guts to tell a person who is feeling hopeless from depression due to chronic pain to gut it out and live with it. John

You need to get some real doctors. The combo of OSA and COPD is a bad one especially if you have HBP or CAD or anything like that such as enlarged heart. The least of your worries is getting extra disability. You need to worry about your life. I am sort of in the same boat with DMII and CAD, HBP and OSA. I am surprised I wake up every day. I would like to get the OSA and HBP service connected but I don't think I have the strength to go through it. John

Get the IMO! The IMO is the most important factor to you getting 100% or TDIU. I had three doctors who helped me by writing IMO/IME's when I got P&T back in 2002. They resided in Tampa Florida, but since then two have retired. This is the problem with being an old timer. I would not trust a VA doctor as far as I could throw the Empire State Building. I had evidence fro Voc. Rehab., A Vet Center and I was already on SSDI for the SC condition. I still believe the IMO's were what tilted me over the TDIU hump. I had an ex-VA doctor write me an IMO. The VA never gave me anything I did not have to fight tooth and nail to get. No gifts from the heartless bastards. John

I am already 60% for CAD secondary to DMII. I have NSC sleep apnea and HBP. I feel doomed and all I am concerned about is making sure my spouse gets DIC and there is no way in the world for VA to slip out of that obligation. I am already P&T for 15 years so I know she can get DIC, but she is woefully ignorant of VA tactics and rules. I want there to be no doubt that AO killed me. If I don't die from the OSA the other AO things will get me. Maybe I should study up on how to get the OSA service connected because I don't think I will wake up one morning. The high blood/DM11/heart disease combo is not helping me to live to be 90 years old. If you combine OSA, HBP and all my service connected issues I am dead man walking and I want the *&^^% VA to pay for it. John

All part of DEA's war on drugs for the last almost 50 years. If alcohol prohibition had lasted 50 years Al Capone would have become Prez. of the United States except for his brain rot from VD. If you fight a war for 50 years and the only result is 2.5 million people incarcerated and 20 million more lose their civil rights is that "Victory". The capitalists that run Amerika believe that drug takers won't work hard like good alcoholics until their livers fail. The real fear of drugs is the fear that population would rather get high than work for minimum wage. The failed Drug War has produced millions of jobs including all those prisons and guards and cops who fill their days locking up people with tiny bags of cocaine or heroin instead of offering them some sort of decent life. Once you become addicted you have a disease that is hard to cure, but it does not good to lock people up since people have been using opiates for 5000 years and many consider it a wonder substance. Having had an operation I am grateful morphine exists.

When do you think they will make HBP presumptive to AO? Should I file now under AO rubric?

If insomnia is related to depression or anxiety then you may have a case. I have OSA and insomnia. Every day when I wake up I am surprised. I would make an appointment with a VA shrink and complain about insomnia. It is probably not directly related just to OSA. Do you have PTSD diagnosis or any other mental health DX. The VA will treat your insomnia as a symptom unless it is organic IMO.

Does anyone think we will soon actually have a choice between care at the VAMC or via the private medical system? If Trump is going to make good on his other promises what about us? I hope I don't get deported before I can get care via the private system. I am a citizen but my mother was not a citizen. Maybe they will send me back to Ireland where she was born and had her citizenship. I am hoping they do so I can say hell-o to all my cousins. Plus except for IRA and UDF paramilitaries it is safer than here. John

If you are getting opiate pain meds from the VA I bet they would say you violated your pain management contract. I think if THC shows up in a urine test it will mean trouble for you. I was getting an legal amphetamine for my sleep apnea and they wanted to kick me out of pain clinic program.

You know if not for mention of my Vietnam service on my DD-214 I have no proof I was there except for a buddy statement. I have the standard Vietnam service medals but many non-Vietnam vets get them also somehow. For them to not acknowledge your terms of service worries me. What if it was shown that the water supply where you were stationed in Germany was contaminated? I would fight this because they are saying you never extended in Vietnam or service in Germany? Do you have any medals or ribbons for the Germany service? If you were not in Vietnam or Germany where were you? Maybe you were on Mars on a special CIA mission according to the military. These bastards at ARBMR are anti-veteran. They are just too lazy to correct your records because it might cost them a dime. The military did lose all my medical records for basic and AIT and for my last duty station. The personnel records are there.

You must be totally disabled for six months before SSDI even accepts a claim. Did your injury get aggravated at work? I got worker's compensation for about 18 months before the VA rolled over and granted TDIU. Strangely enough, I got SSDI in 3 months but I had already been out of work for six months by that time. The SSA has strange ways of deciding if you are disabled or not. You can be in a pay status but not working and you may still be considered disabled. I was in that category so I was only in non-pay status for about 3 months I think but those were a long 3 months. My WC and SSDI kicked in within a month of each other and my SSDI was put on hold for a while since I was getting OWCP. If you can file for WC do it. It all gets very complicated when you get VA and WC at the same time so be careful. I had a disability insurance policy that kicked in and that was the best investment I ever made in my life. For young vets who can I advise them to buy a disability insurance plan before they become disabled. Of course, nobody actually does that except the rare few. I did it way back in the 80's before I became disabled except for 10% from the VA and that hurt me even then. John

When did you make your PTSD claim? That is probably when you will get your benefit date. However, if the VA knew you had PTSD and did not assist you in getting your claim they have that duty. I don't know if it applies in this example, but I would try and get it. I had Agent Orange Registry exam in 2000 and doctor said I had three AO conditions. It meant nothing until I filed claims. I got no retro back to 2000 date.

My brother has leukemia that is dormant right now, but he needs very regular and extensive bloodwork done by hematologist that specializes in his type of blood cancer. He had regular A&B and they pay no trouble. I wonder if an advantage plan would be so ready to pay? He also has insurance from his former employer as a retirement benefit. It costs him an arm and a leg in the figurative sense. If he was not getting the special care maybe he would be losing the leg and are in real sense. I do understand why non-millionaires want medicare advantage plans, but will the time you spend with "gate keeper" delay treatment and cost you your life? My mother had Humana Medicare advantage plan. The first time she got really sick she died at HMO approved hospital. Her care was so poor I sued them including HMO approved nursing home and won $500,000. This was not the way I wanted to get $500,000. I don't know if advantage plan vs regular Medicare would have made a difference but her care was awful. I got into regular wars with hospital staff for hiding things about her care from me such as fact gangrene had set in her foot and they just put bandage on it.

Do you have SMC "S"? If not then file for those claims. They sound pretty serious to me. I don't know how old you are but imagine those injuries when you are 70 years old. Will you be able to walk? Any disability that may affect your life in the years to come should be claimed IMO. I have had TDIU for 15 years. During that time I have made 8 claims and no blow back at all. I am getting about $450 a month extra due to my claims after TDIU including P&T which I had to claim an appeal to get. I had to file a claim to get housebound even though I had statutory right to it. VA called CUE on themselves and granted housebound for me. You must claim it or you get nothing. With a backlog of thousands of new claims I don't think they have manpower to re-examine every claimant who makes a claim for increase.

Storm I got 70% for schizophrenia, bipolar, PTSD and a bunch of other things. The VA just would not concede a 100% rating, but I got TDIU and since then I got about 80% of other individual combined ratings. So I got TDIU P&T in 2002 and then SMC "S" in 2008. It took me thirty years to go from 10% to 30% to 70% to TDIU to P&T and a few more years to get "S".

That dysthymic disorder DX is the VA trying to get out of PTSD dx IMO. Did you get compensated for it? When I want for first rating in 1972 the VA said I had schizophrenia that was only mildly related to Vietnam service etc. What they were saying was when I enlisted three years earlier I was schizophrenic, but fine military doctors just missed it up until I came home from Vietnam and started to have classic PTSD symptoms. There was no such DX as PTSD in those days so they just said "vet has anti-social PD and schizophrenia" give him 10%. I do remember VA gave me MMPI and were so alarmed by results the doctor who gave the test did not want to see me again. I told him all I saw were pools of blood when they gave me Ink Blot test. They actually used to do that back in the day. From that day back in 1972 I knew I was at war with VARO and VA system in general and that they were taking no prisoners. To keep my compensation low they were willing to destroy my reputation and standing when I went to try and get federal job. My DD-214 had a spin code that said I was a sociopath. This goes over big with perspective employers if they look at dd-214. I got all that changed but even after I got discharge upgrade to full honorable the spin code remained identifying me as nut job with non -existent criminal tendencies. This was the grossest kind of libel and slander. I should have sued them but I did not know enough and someone else did it for me.

That dysthymic disorder DX is the VA trying to get out of PTSD dx IMO. Did you get compensated for it? When I want for first rating in 1972 the VA said I had schizophrenia that was only mildly related to Vietnam service etc. What they were saying was when I enlisted three years earlier I was schizophrenic, but fine military doctors just missed it up until I came home from Vietnam and started to have classic PTSD symptoms. There was no such DX as PTSD in those days so they just said "vet has anti-social PD and schizophrenia" give him 10%. I do remember VA gave me MMPI and were so alarmed by results the doctor who gave the test did not want to see me again. I told him all I saw were pools of blood when they gave me Ink Blot test. They actually used to do that back in the day. From that day back in 1972 I knew I was at war with VARO and VA system in general and that they were taking no prisoners. To keep my compensation low they were willing to destroy my reputation and standing when I went to try and get federal job. My DD-214 had a spin code that said I was a sociopath. This goes over big with perspective employers if they look at dd-214. I got all that changed but even after I got discharge upgrade to full honorable the spin code remained identifying me as nut job with non -existent criminal tendencies. This was the grossest kind of libel and slander. I should have sued them but I did not know enough and someone else did it for me.

Are you P&T yet and what about Housebound? Don't stop fighting until you get those benefits. With good IME's you can do it. I got P&T within one year of appeal for denial of Chapter 35. We have something called "Channel 8 on your side" here in Tampa. They have gone to bat for vets and gotten immediate solutions to problems that would have taken years. The VA can jump you right to the head of the line if they feel the heat from media. They can solve all problems in minutes it they want to do it. They must feel flames at their feet to act swiftly. John

Hammy Army pay in 1969 was so small you needed a microscope to see it. I know if you were in combat zone you got an extra 50 bucks a month I think. Flight pay was a little extra. I don't know if any of the airborne guys actually got jump pay in Nam? As a PFC in Nam in 1970 I got about $250 a month including combat pay. I think as a spec. five, I might have gotten $500 a month or less. I don't remember. It was a great incentive to do your 2-3 years and haul azz if you still had one. I do know the Army lost all my medical records from basic and AIT. They also lost them for the time I was back in the states except the ones that condemned me. John

You know I got my mental IMO done for $300 and she took insurance. My doctor was an ex-VA employee. She wrote a devastating IME. The VA quoted it word for word in their rating decision letter to me. I won, of course. Back about 10 years ago I had three IMO doctors, but they have retired now or won't take new patients because they can't get paid. None of them charged more than a couple of hundred bucks. I had two IMO doctors for OWCP and three for VA. I had one VA doctor from Russia who helped me greatly to get SC'ed for AO secondary conditions. Now no VA doctor will life a finger and would &^%$ me in a New York minute. Just recently the bastards cut off my pain meds due to them being lost by VA/UPS. They blamed me and all swore on stacks of bibles I got the drugs when I never did get them. I filed police report and nothing happened. They finally sent me pain meds ten days late after making go through minor withdrawal. I know what serious drug withdrawal is like. I will be picking up my pills from now on. I was a fool to trust the VA pharmacy, my pain doctor and the UPS. John

I am not making a political statement pro or con for Dems or Republicans. I just happen to think our government lies to us about 90% of the time. I was listening to the "talking heads" on Sunday talk shows. I have heard one after another "expert and politician" tell bald face lies. The ones that are not lying are evading questions the people have a right to know. This is not Thomas Jefferson's democracy. It is not even a democracy. The VA executives should be looking at RICO investigations IMO. I am saying our government is beyond being corrupt with a small "c". It is corrupt with a capital "C". Our grandchildren will pay in blood for this IMO. You know the majority of private medical insurance programs do not cover outpatient mental health visits. They find ways (even Blue Cross) to get out of paying the providers. There are going to be a lot more shootings and killings and crimes by insane people in the future. Probably 25% to 50% of those locked up in maximum prisons are mentally ill because the States does not know what else to do with them. I watched a unique Netflix series called "Occupied" from Norway. This show may be pointing towards the future. I don't think I am jumping to conclusions. The conclusions are right in our faces. I have NO solutions. I am just citizen with a passport, but where to go? I get a check from the VA and the worst medical care I have ever gotten outside the Army in 1969. I am not predicting a zombie Apocalypse. This is a slow rotting Apocalypse that we won't feel but our descendants will feel it. I am not a preacher so I will shut up now. I am not making a personal attacks on any individuals here at Hadit and if my post is too political then expunge it. I am expressing what I have come to believe.

The Army knew this new shooter was completely insane. This is why they kicked him out on a general discharge so they would not have to pay benefits. The VA must have known he was insane. He went to the FBI in Alaska and told them what he planned to do more or less and they decided he was not a threat. He believed the CIA was controlling him. He was having visions and hearing voices. Now to cover their neglect and total incompetence the forces of law and order are going to fit this guy up with a death sentence when he is clearly insane by any standard of judgement except Florida Court System and Federal Court System which does not even recognize paranoid schizophrenia as a legal insanity defense. Nobody in those systems can demonstrate that they are innocent by reason of insanity because of the legal definition of insanity. The guy is obviously guilty and he is obviously severely mentally ill. He fell through the cracks which must be a mile wide. This killer needs to be put away no doubt, but in an institution for criminally insane. This may not be a popular position I am taking but this guy is not a terrorist even if FBI tries to make him one to cover their incompetence and stupidity. An insane person was able to buy a gun and ship it on a plane with ammo and then get off the airplane and load his weapon and start shooting. What is wrong with this picture? I believe in 2nd Amendment rights. I have CC license in Florida and own guns. How does a guy like this get a gun when I found it pretty hard to get a shotgun from Walmart. It took days and a background check to buy a cheap shotgun, I don't even have a speeding ticket. I believe this guy had been committed to a mental institution. The news says he has some mental health issues. Well, yes since he is completely out of his mind and dangerous to himself and just about any human on the planet.

Congrats on the CUE win. I won one myself and lost one as well. I know how hard it can be unless the CUE is just in black and white and no person with I.Q. above 60 would not recognize it. My advice is never, ever skip a C&P exam even if you are dying. Especially, if you are dying try and die at the C&P exam. At least your survivor will probably get DIC.