john999

The VA is against opiates now and benzo's like Valium , Clonazepam and Xanax. The VA has created their own Frankenstein monster over the last 15 years. They began prescribing drugs like Morphine Sulfate, Methadone and the lessor ones like oxycodone and hydrocodone for years to treat chronic pain. Now HQ has taken it out of the hands of their front line doctors and decided that they made a big mistake since a small minority of vets abuse or misuse their medications. The fix is to deny all vets pain medications whenever possible. "Let them eat cake", or let them buy heroin and take the risks themselves as long as our hands are clean. " is their new motto. Was there ever an organization outside of George Orwell's "1984" where the official mission is so opposed to the secret mission? The official mission of the VA is to give vets the best medical care available, and the real mission is to save money and save face at the cost of veteran health.

When I was denied Chapter 35 I appealed it. I gathered evidence to show my disability was permanent. I was seeing a VA shrink at the time and my private shrink as well. It took a year for the appeal and by that time I had gathered 3 medical opinions saying my disability was permanent. I got P&T back to the day I got TDIU which was the same day I was awarded 70% originally. I just appealed and appealed everything including dates and percentages. Now I am 90% TDIU P&T plus 60% SMC S. I got this by steadily appealing over the years every dumb decision the VA made. I filed two CUE's and won one and lost one at the federal court level. If I had of appealed the first decision I got in 1973 I probably would have had 100% by the time I was 25 instead of 51 years old when I was not fit for anything. The worst mistake I ever made was not sending in a NOD on my initial claim. 100% was sitting there right in front of me, but I was too dumb to appeal the low ball rating I got (10%) and I could not even work at a car wash I was so disabled.

The medical community in their warped wisdom is saying now that even patients who have had surgery should only have a five day supply of pain meds. If this is new nationwide policy we are all screwed. The VA has had me on pain meds for 10 years. They screw up my pain meds every month. The pharmacist told me that whatever I do don't let them cut off my pain meds by making some mistake because you will never get pain meds again from the VA. The pharmacy guy told me that the VAMC in Tampa is screwing up vets on their pain meds every month just because of the system. He told me to start calling and using secure email at least 5-6 days before refill date to make sure I get my refill close to "on time" . They were five days late last month. I think either they are totally incompetent or the VA is purposely driving us out of the opiate pain management system. Just the paperwork to get my pain meds makes it almost impossible for me to get them on time. If the do cut me off I will deal with it. If I have to find some pain doctor in private sector I will do that if I have to do that. Things are really bad for those in chronic pain in Florida because the DEA has these doctors scared to death. One of my old worker's compensation doctors got 15 years in prison for prescribing pain meds.

You need an IME/IMO!

Commander Bob got his foot blown off in Vietnam and the VA denied his PTSD claim the first time. He prevailed in the end. The VA said he never complained about PTSD while he was in the Army. He went straight from Nam to the hospital to ETS. When did he have time? They call it "Post" TSD which means after. There are WW11 vets who have PTSD and are still dealing with it. The VA just wants to save money off your back. Since you are a smart guy and came to hadit you will win in the end. Pity the poor dumb azzes who take the denial and just go away.

Any time you ask for "More" it is like the scene in Oliver Twist where he asks for more gruel as he is starving and hungry. All hell breaks loose. Any time you appeal a VA decision it might not go so well for you, but if I had a solid claim I would go ahead. If my claim were iffy I would just hold off until I had solid evidence. If you got 100% rating what would it mean in dollars for you? That is the only question that counts.

A vet tried to fly his ultralight airplane onto the White House grounds to deliver some news to the Prez. He will be spending 4 months in jail and lucky to be alive. He lost his job at the USPS, of course. I bet he got workers compensation or disability retirement for being a nut.

Changes at the VA must come from the top and after 70 years of abuse since WW11 how likely is that in my life time? 50 years from now maybe they will fix it but unless there is another world war I doubt it. My grandmother got cheated out of A&A as did my mother who was a WWII spouse. Both times the VA said they could not find the records of my grandfather who served before WW1 and my father's recods that were "burned up" in the fire at St. Louis. I found my grandfather's records in a special archive for pre-WWI vets. I have the most intact record of my father's service just from his letters from France and Germany in 1944-45.

I think in most cases chasing cue's is a hobby for those who already have 100% rating. The only cue I ever won was the Bradley v Peake "S" claim I filed and all I did was ask for "S" since I was entitled by law to it. The VA called CUE on themselves.

I think they are looking for physical manifestations of damage to your brain or nervous system with a bunch of tests. If you had a TBI it might show up on their radar. They will probably check your reflexes. I have had down and dirty tests and lots of times they are looking for the lack of a response you should have or some nerve that is not firing etc. If they want to talk about PTSD they send you to a shrink. A lot of head/brain/nerve conditions don't show up on MRI's or other testing. It is experienced subjectively. How can you tell if a vet's foot is really numb? I guess you could jab him with a sharp needle if you want to risk a punch in the mouth. My father -in-law had a terrible TBI but it happened in WWII. They had no idea what was wrong with him except he got blown up with a bunch of other Marines. He lived but was crazy for the rest of his life.

The word "Undebatable" can blow about 90% of CUE claims out of the water. What is an undebatable error? Alex says it is an error that the human eye can see from the moon. Before 1990 the VA did not even have to list the evidence they used to determine their decisions. It is impossible to show that they did or did not consider evidence in your record that was used to make a rating decision before 1990. That screws about 80% of Vietnam vets and it screwed me. Reasonable minds are supposed to determine what is "undebatable". First, there are no reasonable minds at the VA or BVA or Court of Vet. Affairs. There are only regulations. Who determines which facts "Manifestly change the outcome of a rating decision"? The VA, of course. If the VA simply ignores an IMO/IME is that enough to be an undebatable error or to manifestly change the outcome of a decision? Well, that is up to a group of judges most of whom were not even born when you were in rice paddies of Vietnam, mountains of Korea or sands of Gulf War. How many of these judges were veterans and if they were vets? The deck is stacked but it is the only one we have for now. The VA deals off the bottom and you just have to play them.

Do all the above and then start over and do it again! There is no way to fix anything at the VA except to be a thorn in their side. Just keep bothering them until it is easier to deal with you than to brush you off. The VA is not there to serve vets. It is there to give jobs to people and to point to and for politicians to say "Look what we are doing for our veterans". It is a waste. Just get your maximum money and get out down the road.

After all these years I think the VA just does not give a &^%$ about your claims or medical conditions. Everything they do is to make things more easy on themselves or to save money. It is an endurance contest. Either you crack or they eventually submit your evidence and claims and one day you get paid. It does seem like it is on purpose and maybe it is to discourage vets from filing. It took me eight years to go from VARO to Federal Court on a CUE claim. I don't advise that unless you are very young and already have 100% P&T.

The thing is that the facts and evidence of each and every claim is unique to a great extent. If not then the VA would just grant all claims and be done with it. However, they believe that they are protecting the US Mint, by denying most claims and torturing most vets and spouses for years. There just is no standard answer to fit all claims but there are methods that work in general and Berta and many others have quoted them until they are blue in the face. I learned basic good techniques for doing claims with the VA here at Hadit but I had to do my own research and organize my own team of advocate doctors. I shopped for doctors just the way the VA does when they drag up some foot doctor to do your heart exam. I got good doctors however. The words IME/IMO are magic is you use the concept. This is war. You , the vet, against a vicious and uncaring system that has killed millions of people over the years.

I just sent in a letter to the VARO and asked for "S" when I got an extra 60% and quoted Bradley vs Peake. Then I got "S" plus 2 years backpay and they called it a CUE because they are so negligent that they don't check your rating for possible SMC until you bring it up. You get the money for being Housebound but don't expect the VA to consider you housebound unless you are actually bedridden. They still expect you to make it to your C&P exams and appointments even if you die getting there. Muhammed does not go to the mountain, but mountain (vet) must go to Muhammed be he housebound or not.

Who did your sleep study? I would not trust the VA at all. If you have decent insurance I would get private sleep doctor with the best credentials to do another study. Did you have these symptoms in the service or within one year of discharge? You probably have OSA because I was DX'ed at one point with "Profound OSA" with about 50 incidents an hour and desaturation down to about 70%. My doctor thought I was going to die. Now I take oxygen at night which has helped and had Inspire Implant which I am not so sure about these days. The excessive daytime fatigue is awful . I take Provigil but it drives my blood pressure up. I can either be a zombie or die from a stroke I guess. If you can tolerate generic of Provigil (Modafinil) that really helps with daytime fatigue. I was even taking an amphetamine legally for a while. The VA objected, of course. They said they would cut off my pain meds if I took doctor proscribed mild amphetamine so I could stay awake to visit the VA without killing myself by having an accident. I pointed out this contradiction but the VA doctor just looked at me with the " Do you want me to lose my job" stare. Why seek and kill ISIS terrorists in Syria when the VA is killing vets from neglect right here at taxpayer expense.

Smear your eyes with onions so you can start crying immediately. What you have to do is when examiner asks first question just burst into tears and cry for one hour. You will get your 100%. What war were you in? If Vietnam just moan " Damn Gooks" between sobs. If Iraq or Afghanistan just moan " Damn Ragheads" between crying fits, tears and snot dripping from nose, eyes, mouth and ears if possible. If you crap yourself or wet your pants all the better. You only have one hour. If you attack the doctor you end up in jail. If you collapse into sobbing pile of goo then you have a better shot than trying to explain your symptoms in one hour. Otherwise study VA list of required symptoms for DX of 100% PTSD and try to portray all 30 or 40 all at once. I do not think it is possible to evaluate a patient's degree of PTSD or even if he/she has PTSD in one hour unless you are like WWI shell shock vets who could not stop shaking 24/7 or who hid under their beds every time they heard a sound above a whisper. My post seems insane but no more insane than VA C&P exam. John

If a vet is rated as permanently and totally disabled for 20 years does that rating become untouchable at that point? I send in my employment questionnaire twice a year and I am 66. I trust the VA about as far as I can throw my VRO. If you are totally disabled due to being unemployable what does that mean in terms of rating protection? I fear that one day in the future some politician will say that those that were TDIU and are now 70 years old are unemployable due to their age and not solely their disability. There are many in congress who want to renege on medicare and SSA and local, state and federal pensions. I hear them raving about budgets while they vote tax cuts to billionaires. The little guys and the needy are the first to get crushed when someone has to take one for the team. My retirement plan for my wife and myself works as long as I am p&t. If I were to get cut back to my actual 90% rating instead of TDIU then our plan begins to fall apart. John

The main thing above all is to get this back injury service connected. If you are young now and you have spine trouble due to arthritis just think what it may be like in 40 years.? I can tell what it may be like. You may end up having constant back pain that can only be corrected by surgery. This is the worst option of all since there is a whole category of "Failed Back Surgery" diagnosis. Get any and all problems you believe occurred in service connected to your service. No injury or illness is too small because these things loom large in your later years. I had foot and knee problems in Basic and AIT. I did complain and low and behold all my medical records from that time vanished. Now if I were to file on these conditions I would lose because there is no record of any medical treatment or complaints in my file. This was way back in 1969. About half of my medical records are missing. I know you got a full copy of your military records at ETS. Most of us older vets did not get a copy nor were we offered a copy. Now look at us! I have arthritis so bad in my knees, back and hips I can hardly get in and out of my car after driving for half an hour. I know it was probably from forced marches carrying all that junk on my back but how can I prove it after all these years.

Robert Well, if SSDI is sending you to "their " specialist I would say that the cards are probably stacked against you. You do want to have the worst day of your life so whatever facilitates that outcome is called for because the state of Florida as you might guess thinks you are a faker, liar, scammer and such. Perhaps Dr. Bash can recommend a friendly specialist in your area of disability to exactly offset the SSDI's so-called specialist. I have no idea what a SSDI occupational specialist is trained in besides concluding that all people can work. I would be on the lookout for my own occupational specialist to dispute their findings. If the SSD wants you to self-evaluate your abilities I would advise you to say you have no abilities and can barely wipe your own butt. John

Have you had surgery on your feet for the PF? If I know the VA I think they will grant 10% per foot unless you have had surgery and walk with braces. I have neuropathy in both feet and I only got 10% per foot. I have PF as well and my feet are just no good anymore. To get over 10% I think you will have had to have a failed surgery and be at least partially unable to walk without braces. I swear if you have really bad PF it is almost better to have your feet cut off and have bionic feet. You would be able to walk a lot better. That sounds crazy but anyone who has had severe and chronic foot pain might feel that way. Do you have very flat feet or very high arches. The VA will say part of your problem is genetic/constitutional like telling me I have Charcot joint.

It seems there was always a barrack thief that got a beating. I remember one guy who got caught stealing underwear???? He got beat black and blue. I was in Basic with a bunch of guys from Chicago. These guys just beat the crap out of each other all the time. I thought that if I could just survive fights in basic and AIT the rest would be easy. Then I was replacement FNG in Nam and got silent treatment for weeks until I was accepted as not being a CID snitch. It is really unpleasant to have people all get quite when you walk up because they believe you are CID. I was just a private trying to survive that nasty country. I think when I started getting high with other guys I was accepted. Drugs saved my life. John

The VA is just scared to death of the DEA and of bad news when a vet dies from an overdose. I called " 8 on your side" which is local media that investigates our horrible local government in Tampabay and such. They blew me off and told me to call my congressman. I am seeing her on Tuesday but expect nothing. If she does not know that our care at the VA is substandard by now she has been living in a galaxcy far, far away. Everyone except the VA knows the VA is failing in its mission to vets. If I could buy my way out of the system I would do it, but I am not going to just let them get rid of 100% vet, and care for some guy who got kicked out for being a drunk with a general discharge. All I really want is free pills, testing and just a way to document my continued disability. Going to the VA is the easiest way to do this I have found. A few more years and I won't be needing the VA for anything.