john999

You must have 20 years in at a specific rating for that rating to be protected. However, if you are P&T due to TDIU and you have a secondary condition that will get you HB or some higher level of SMC I would not hesitate to file. For secondary conditions you almost always need a medical opinion explaining the secondary condition and how it is secondary to the primary condition. I have DMII. I also have/cataracts. These conditions are often related but not unless you have a doctor to say so and rule out other causes. I have been p&t since 2001. I have filed about 8 claims since then and many were secondary to DMII. If you are TDIU the only way they can actually reduce you is if you go back to work full time. That is about the only way they can say you are improved enough to reduce your TDIU. TDIU is a case specific type rating. John

I think a little grease does help. A $25 contribution is not going to put you over the top at the VA via your congressman, but they do know who contributes and who does not. I get letters begging for contributions every election from my congresswoman. Hey, she does not need my $25, but multiply that by 10,000 and you are talking real money and they know this. I agree with Talon and USMC-Vet. We should not have to bribe political people to get them to represent us. I doubt my $25 really puts me at the top of the list except on moral ground. I am a supporter. Regarding the incestuous relationship between the VA and most of the VSO's it is a scandal. I called VFW to ask about help with my treatment at the VAMC. He told me I need to get a years worth of treatment records and then maybe we can do something. Now I made a few emails and phone calls and I think the situation is fixed for now. Why could he not do that for me? I am a life member. John

I don't think they will try and reduce your rating of 50%. You are able to work 8 hours a day so that puts the kabash on a higher rating I think. However, from what I read you are like many of us in that your quality of life sucks. This is a big issue to me, but not to the VA. If you were to lose your job and not be able to find another one due to your PTSD you would be in line for 70%-100% because the fact you can still work means you are bumping up against the 50% ceiling. Stay in therapy because the day you find it impossible to continue to work you want all your ducks in a row. Being able to work is really the dividing line for higher ratings for MH issues. A guy loses an arm, eye, or leg and he gets a set rating even if he becomes a millionaire. If you have a mental health issue it mostly all revolves around your ability to work. That is my experience over 40 years of dealing with the VA. Why did you get the C&P exam? John

I talked back and forth to Stretch many times. He knew where it was at as vet and fellow VA Foo Fighter. He was not 70 years old. He will be missed. John

Hey, since bunkers were overrun with rats ( snakes like to eat rats) I did catch a big snake in my bunker one night in Nam. I took in back to company area in a bag. I let it go in Officer land. I used to catch snakes of all kinds as a kid in Florida. I was not afraid of them. I did not like those rats at all. John

Did you get treatment for all these issues after service on a continual basis or were there large treatment gaps? This may be a problem for you with the back thing. If you had filed within one year of discharge I bet you would have gotten SC for the back. The Gulf War syndrome issues are so strange for most Gulf War vets I think you need expert help. So many Gulf War vets have health issues they should just make it presumptive for any of the symptoms that are well known, but they will wait until 90% of you guys are dead. John

The vets that are eligible to us that clinic should be at their congressman's door. DAV, VFW and all the rest should be breaking down congressman's door. If they are not then they are part of the problem. Vets' have to take action on this kind of stuff. On a personal level, a smart vet will make a small contribution to their sitting congressman. This way when you go to complain you can say "I supported Congressman X with a MONEY contribution. I have a citizen and veteran's right to have my problems with the VA addressed. You vets need to go in person to your congressman's office and get an appointment to talk to someone. My congressman is OK with vet issues. The fact that I support her with money contribution does give me a small moral foot up when I want to talk about problems with a federal agency. The big guys get special treatment on all their issues because they give large amounts to the senators and congressmen. We vets can't afford to pony up $5000 to hand our congressman, but we can pony up $25 dollars and get on the list of supporters. Congress controls appropriations to the VA. Congress is the answer. Put pressure on these self-serving bastards. Republican or Democrat means nothing. Money is the mother's milk of politics. VA is a political institution. John

OPM is actually the easiest to get because under FERS it usually pays the least and is all taxable. After your SSDI and FEHB is compensated for you probably just have chump change left until you hit age 62 and then you get your OPM without the SSDI offset. I had about 20 years in when I applied for OPM. I had to eat the SSDI offset for ten years. My check would be around $350 after I paid for my family FEHB. Now I get around $750. Not much for 30 years of service including all COLA's. When my wife gets Medicare I will suspend the family FEHB since she gets ChampVA. One day I may actually get $1000 a month in cash for my 30 years. FERS was the ruination of Civil Service employment. You can thank Ronald Ray-gun for that one. 1983-84 was the time period when CSRS was destroyed for new hires. I got hired in 1985. John

If you have TDIU then the only way they can really take it away is if you demonstrate you can work 40 hours a week for at least minimum wage. Just because you can do well in school does not mean you can maintain employment. However, if your goal is to have a career then you don't want to file for TDIU or head that way IMO. If you are a young guy I don't think you want to get TDIU P&T or 100% P&T. Why is the VA wasting time and money on a guy who will never work? I do know that vets with PTSD, depression etc. can do good for a while and then relapse. I did that myself. I was in graduate school and had a depression. That was the end of my graduate school. The same goes for work. You can do well for a while and then have a depressive episode and get yourself fired. If you can keep your rating at 70% and then finish school and try working in your career if you wash out due to your MH disability it would be much easier to get TDIU if you still have a higher rating. John

You need a IME that will state that what happened to you while in military service aggravated a pre-existing problem. If you just claim MST you must be able to really prove it I think because the waiver you signed shows you were a victim of sexual abuse as a child. Now you must separate that from what happened to you in-service. The VA will probably claim you had a pre-existing disorder and normal service just resulted in your problems. I think victims of sexual abuse often get re-victimized later in life. What evidence do you have that you were sexually abused during your military service? Do you have a police report or psychiatric records? I think you will need it. This is what the VA will ask for I bet. What kind of discharge did you get? John

All he needs is some documentation that he was in Vietnam. His DD214 should have that documented. If he has a DX for CAD/IHD and set foot in Vietnam then he should be able to get connected. John

I have used choice program to get dental and vision care. Pretty awful care I must say. John

Evidence is the key for winning VA claims. An IME/IMO is evidence. What you want to do is to get all your SMR's, personnel records and anything if you have a C-File and bring that with you to show to you IME doctor. That way he can say he reviewed those records. So let's say your IME reviews your SMR's and sees in them something that indicates MH issue. This is one way to create a nexus that you control instead of letting the VA create an alternative reality for you. It is a step by step process to connect in-service issues to a current disability. The main thing is not to mskr a really bad mistake to give the VA a way to subscribe all your symptoms to NSC reasons. It can be tricky because they are looking for loopholes to screw you IMO. They sure tried to screw me over and over again. I used IME's to defeat these attempts. I would not trust the VA as far as I can throw them when it comes to compensation issues. John

You did not wait too long to file your claims. I would start calling and writing today about the retro. John

MST is the great white shark gliding under the calm waters of the military. Many are torn apart by those they trust, and by those who are supposed to have integrity. I think it is worse in All Volunteer military. In draft army we were rushed through basic and AIT so fast and shipped out we did not have time to be molested. I did hear of gang rapes and such stuff of drunken WAC's. I never got even close to female military before I was in Vietnam and not even then or after. If I had a daughter I would never advise her to go into the military for anything. Same goes for a son. You really get American class system kicked into you teeth in the good old army. Officers are superior beings and enlisted are sort of subhuman. Who cares what happens to subhuman? John

Just remember when you talk to VA shrinks or doctors don't talk about your childhood except in the most rosy terms. Everything was great up until the military. Now since military all is crap. Your problems began in the military, and have been dogging you ever since. Anything you say can and will be used either for you or against you. Perfect honesty is great but not at the VA. If they or you can't prove it then it did not happen. They will damn you with your own words if you are not careful. You know since I got out of the Army in 1971 I have been in some kind of mental health therapy. I never let them forget that. If not for therapy from private psychologist I would be dead, in jail or a street person since they cannot just commit people to mental institutions and throw away the key like they used to do. Pour your heart out to private doctors, not to VA doctors. They have a conflict of interest as do you. John

I have had the best luck with claims at the DRO level. Once it gets to BVA, God only knows where it will end up. I had a traveling Board BVA some years ago on a CUE claim. The judge just took our information and the thing was over in 20 minutes. I had a lawyer do my brief. We lost. We appealed to Court of Vet Appeals. It was remanded back to BVA. We went back to Court. We lost. We went to federal court. The would not hear us. Now my lawyer and me are trying a new but related approach. This took 8 years. I started at the RO and went all the way to Federal Court. Once you leave the BVA it is war. Of course, it is war within the VA but benefit of doubt vanishes. Try to get your claim settled at the lowest possible level is my advice. John

The way to counter a bad c&p exam is wait until you get a copy and hire a IME doctor of your own. You should not trust the VA to give you the correct rating using just their hired guns. The doctor you see at your exam does not determine you rating but they are very important. You need to see the copy of the exam after it is done. This is not always easy. John

Don't talk about your childhood or anything that happened before the military. Don't talk about alcohol or drug abuse. If you have been in car crashes or situations that might cause ptsd after service just don't bring it up at all. You were fine before the military and now you are messed up due to you military service and only your military service. This is the safe way. If you bring up other stuff to the VA it will come back and bite you. If you were molested as a child don't talk about it. If you were robbed and beaten after service don't talk about it. They will use it against you when you go for that MH rating. If you were ever suspended from school or arrested don't talk about it or mention it. If they cannot prove it then to the VA it is just your mouth that will sink you. John

If you did not appeal within the one year time frame then the odds are against you. I found this out after an 8 year appeal all the way to federal court. The VA sent my decision notice to the wrong address and it was returned to sender addressee unknown. How can I file an appeal when I don't even know my appeal rights? I am still working on this via a lawyer. If in doubt I would file the CUE. What have you got to lose. If you believe you have a shadow of a chance hire a lawyer. These VSO's are not up to the job. If records existed that you had kidney disease in service and VA did not produce them you might be able to have a shot at a EED. I would not give up just because lazy and dumb POA does not want to make the effort. John

I just talked to one of my pain doctors at the VA and he said cervical surgery is not for pain management. It is to protect the spinal cord so you don't end up in a wheelchair. So surgery is a no, no and they frown on the narcotics. I have been on morphine, methadone, fentanyl patch and oxycodone over the years. The morphine plugged me up so bad it took a jackhammer to have a bowel movement. I would not take that stuff because it also hurt my guts. Now they just don't know what to do with me. I have sleep apnea and my VA shrink prescribes clonazepam for anxiety. None of the doctors are coordinating their care for me. They all disagree with my treatment plan. They are ten years behind the curve, but private pain doctors often want to do procedures because that is where the money is at. I have lost much confidence in the medical boys. If a boat payment is due you will get a surgery or one of those shots in your neck or back. John

You know when I first got out of the Army in 1971 there was no DX for PTSD. I was having problems before I got out, and constantly after I got out of the Army. I filed a claim for a mental disorder and the VA service connected me for schizophrenia. Now I don't have schizophrenia. I might have had some weird symptoms, but what I actually have is something called dissociative disorder which can be a symptoms of PTSD. I was fortunate to get any service connection due to the fact I filed within one year and spent two weeks in VA rubber room in 1972. Some years later at a C&P exam they tried to come up with PD diagnosis to sever my SC but it had been 15 years or I am sure they would have done it based on an exam of leading questions all heading towards a PD diagnosis. I leaned never to admit any drug use, trouble at home, trouble in school, fistfight in 1st grade, argument with parents etc. They used everything from my past to try and screw me. Now I admit nothing and just keep it on military issues to explain anxiety, depression, sleep issues, etc. The VA denied my first claim for TDIU because one of my IME/IMO's mentioned my chronic pain and use of opiates to treat the pain. VA tried to say that the reason I could not work was my use of opiates and not 30 year history of mental health and AO issues. I got more IME's and beat that, but what if I had been penniless and not able to afford the IME's? It took three IME's to get me to P&T and I was 70% at that time. John

That means to me that for those of us being treated for pain with opiates it will get that much harder to get our meds. It is ok to take a vet off opiates if there is a alternative to replace the opiates. What alternative is there? Yoga? Anyone who has severe chronic pain knows that all the deep breathing and yoga will not served to ease your pain quickly. If the VA prescribed opiates for me for ten years I am sure my brain chemistry has changed. Now the VA's idea of tapering is to just tell you to take less of your pain meds and give you thirty days to do it and then then cut you off. I know this because I have had that experience before years ago. Fact is there is no alternative to opiates for pain. If your pain was not chronic then something could have been done years ago to cure it. The word "Chronic" means long term and usual. I just got off the phone with the pain management people at the VA. There is a huge grey area in treatment of pain. There are about a million private pain doctors out there who just want to drain the insurance of people with chronic pain. When you deal with the VA it is like turning an aircraft carrier. It takes a wide, slow turn I think in their thinking. John

I recently got a bill from the VA saying I was being treated for "drug abuse" when I am being treated for chronic pain. It seems the VA considers treatment with opiates and drug abuse as the same thing. So now the VA has treated me with opiates for over ten years and they say it was all a mistake. However, they have no other plan for treating my chronic pain.

The VA is afraid transition to medicare-like program is coming and they will lose their useless jobs. VA a is wonderful welfare program for politicians, contractors, doctors, nurses and all that staff that never looks up when you stand in front of them. VA system is a fraud. There is no "system" in the VA. Just battles between little empires within the VA health care system. All this new construction could be used to actually treat veterans instead of creating jobs for non-vets who are parasites on us. The VA is sort of like WWP. The staff make money while the vets get crumbs. Anyone who joins the military and does not expect to get screwed by the military and VA is a fool. I was a young fool. Now I am an old fool. Maybe the army is better than prison? John