john999

I went to two doctors recently. One an orthopedist wanted to operate on my neck. The other a neurosurgeon did not want to do any surgery. Who do you believe? When it comes to surgery I would get multiple opinions because doctors have big boat payments and ex-wives.

Berta If VA makes a decision and then sends the decision along with the appeal rights to the wrong address and you miss the one year time limit to file a NOD is that grounds for a CUE do you think? My lawyer has the evidence that VA did send my decision and appeal rights to the wrong address and never notified me of my decision or appeal rights. This is part of the CUE I filed 9 years ago. This aspect of the CUE was never raised in my lawyer's argument. He is raising it now, but it may be too late. This was my initial SC claim back in 1972. I lost my CUE on the fact all my positive evidence was not before the rater at federal court. You talk about a kangaroo court. Just because it is a federal court does not mean they are right or just. Before the Civil War the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said that slaves and black people, in general, were just livestock and could never be considered citizens. Even the Supremes are wrong often as not. John

I would get a SECOP on that operation if I were you. I had a very minor operation done by a podiatrist and got a severe staff infection and almost lost my foot. I have used Fee Base on occasion and have had bad luck with it. Doctors who accept it tend to be greedy or hungry. I had an eye exam and dental done Fee Base. Both were poor because one cut corners and the other wanted to do stuff that was unnecessary just for a payday. Reminds me of the worker's compensation doctor I had who wanted to operate on me every time I saw him. John

Did you ever get a second opinion from private doctors? The VA told me I had had a heart attack and it proved to be false positive on the EKG. I went to real cardiologist on the outside and had a stress test. I would not take the VA's word for anything without an second private opinion. For your claim you need an IME/IMO that explains how, why and when your HTN caused the enlarged heart. Was your high blood under control since your were DX'ed with it? To be DX'ed with enlarged heart at 40 is pretty shocking. My 80 year old neighbor got that DX. This is what I hate about the VA. Unless you explain your disability to them and connect all the dots they deny the claim even if it is obvious. You have to hire a doctor to explain it to them. John

I see 100% or TDIU. It sounds like a classic case of PTSD that was not treated early and the result is disaster for the vet and his family. I would also consider filing for SSDI. If I did not get TDIU or 100% I would appeal and get an IME/IMO. When were you in the service? John

The care I have gotten via Fee Base from the VA has been so poor I use my own dentists, podiatrists, eye doctors etc. I just use the VA for med checks and to show up to show them I am still alive and still disabled and taking pills like a good boy. I agree with Jbasser that all outpatient stuff should be sent to private sector doctors so we don't have to miles and miles to blood work. It is dumb and expensive to operate a health care system the way the VA does it. It is more about providing jobs for VA employees than for helping vets. The VA shafts most private doctors by low reimbursement rates. My dentist won't sign up due to not being reimbursed fully for doing work. This is an underhand way to throw a monkey wrench into the effort to let vets go to their own doctors. John

Lithium is a potentially toxic mineral that must be closely monitored via blood work. If the levels get too high or too low you can be in trouble if you have mania. Lithium is a treatment for mania mainly. Are you manic at times? I was once put on Depakote and I got so lost I did not even know how to get home. The difference between MDD and bipolar 11 is pretty arbitrary. You must have had at least one manic episode. I was once DX'ed with Bipolar 11 and then the VA changed it couple more times. If you have ever seen a person who is really manic you will know if you are. If you are crazy and they don't know what else they will say schizophrenia. These DX'es are arbitrary especially the way the VA uses them. John

When you file a secondary claim in almost all situations you need a medical opinion that states that your secondary condition is direct or indirect result of the primary disability. Your doctor needs to explain the relationship between the primary established disability and the secondary disability you are claiming. For instance, you have Diabetes presumptive to AO exposure established. You develop a kidney condition that you believe is a result of your diabetes. You need a doctor to say your kidney condition with a DX is secondary to the DMII. This is just an example. Another example, you knees begin to really hurt you and you have an established injury to your ankles or ankle. Your doctor must make the case that your knee problem is a result of the SC ankle disability. The VA will not connect the dots for you. Even in slam/dunk cases like diabetes and foot neuropathy the doctor must state the obvious. I know because I was denied at first for PN secondary to DMII. I had the evidence and the VA denied it based on some idiot C&P exam. I won on appeal. The VA's job is to protect the treasury and your job is to get the money. They will play dirty. John

I think the way to avoid getting called in for a C&P exam is to get continual treatment for your disability at the VA. You don't have to take the pills they give you. You don't have to follow their recommendations for surgery, weight loss, PT or anything else. Just show up and show yourself and your disability and make sure they know you have not improved. For a vet who gets a 100% rating for PTSD (for example) if you do not get continual treatment this gives the VA the idea that you may have improved. You can get treatment outside the VA system, but how well will your doctor document your disability? I get treatment outside the VA for most of my disabilities, but I also show ups for treatments at the VA. When I hit the 20 year mark they won't see me anymore unless there is some reason that benefits me. I have about six years to go on the P&T. I will do my best to show up at the VA until then and complain about everything. At this point I would not even let them clean my teeth. If it is invasive I am not using the VA.

My VA pain doctor is recommending Oxycontin for me. I have been on morphine, methadone, fentanyl patch and large doses of oxycodone. VA shrink prescribed clonazepam for me for anxiety and then other VA doctors scream about me O.D.'ing. I have been on this stuff for ten years. I do want off the clonazepam but cannot sleep without it. My problem is PAIN. Chronic pain drives all my other SC disabilities. If I could effectively deal with the pain I think my other conditions might improve or at least not get worse. Chronic pain drove me out of my job 15 years ago. John

How about getting a lawyer to represent you. I use the VARO in St. Pete as well and they are prim AZZholes for sure. There are lawyers in the Tampa/St. Pete and many in Florida who do VA claims. The thing is that this will off load the stress you are feeling right now. This is why I will not move from current address until I hit 20 year mark on my P&T rating. I trust the VA not at all. If your claim is in the appeal stage the lawyer can pick it up right away. When you are sick it is too much to fight the VA and deal with cancer. The lawyer gets 20% of your retro when and if you win. That is better than 100% of nothing. John

If you were denied Chapter 35 benefits you can appeal that right away. It will take the VA at least a year to review your claim for Chapter 35 and by that time you may have met criteria for P&T. I would not wait five years to apply for P&T. When I was denied Chapter 35 (P&T) I appealed right away. I also went out and got an IME to bolster my claim. P&T is really worthwhile to you and your family. Make that your first goal. If you did not get everything you asked for then file the NOD. If you don't you lose any chance at getting an EED realistically. The NOD is the most powerful tool you have. It opens the door for all normal appeals. A CUE is very much abby-normal with rules from Mars.

I have been on Clonazepam for years. It has been hard for me to get off it. The thing is that if you stop suddenly you can have convulsions. It is not like kicking an opiate. It is more dangerous to go cold turkey. That expression "cold turkey" is because you get chills and cramps when kicking opiates suddenly not to mention insomnia and vomiting. It is a lot of fun. What I really hate is the not being able to sleep for days on end. All the benzos are addictive. Bet they did not tell you when you started taking them. Like Pete says you can sometimes substitute one for another and it makes it easier. I have used trazadone to help me sleep while cutting back on the benzos. I used Ambien as well but that is addictive and causes rebound insomnia when you stop taking it after a few weeks. Almost all sleep medications stop working after a few weeks because of tolerance. I remember stopping valium suddenly some years ago and I had horrible anxiety for a week. I really did not put two and two together for a while. I see that the media is up in arms about new higher power hydrocodone that is being abused by drug addicts. We who have chronic pain will suffer for this. In the VA the code for use of opiates is the same as for drug abuse. I get letters wanting access to my private medical files for payment for treatment of drug abuse. I have never been treated for drug abuse, but what the heck I am a vet who takes opiates so I must be an addict and possible drug dealer. I wear cast iron jock strap when I get around the VA since I get kicked in the yarbels so often. John

Just be sure to appeal on time if denied or low balled. John

I already have P&T and "S" so I was not really stressed by this decision. What it was was that before about 1990 the VA did not have to list or even mention any or all of the evidence of record in their decisions. They just left out my entire private doctor's report that said I was 100%. The VA probably did this to many thousands of RVN vets and other vets right up until 1990. Then they sent my appeal rights and rating letter to the wrong address. I was just 22 years old and living in the slums to afford to pay my rent while going to college on G. I. Bill. I did move around a lot and the USPS will only forward mail for a year. I got a rating of ten percent and because I believed at the time that the VA had considered my doctor's report and low balled me anyway I just shrugged my shoulders and went on about my business. I just thought this was the way the VA did things. In those days all the care you got from the VA was for your SC disability. I was not going near the VA for a mental health claim after they locked me up first time around and kept me for three weeks. I never had a VSO or anything like that. My claim was based on an in-patient stay in 1972. I don't even remember filing a claim. My private psychologist encouraged me to try college and since it did provide me some income I went. However, if I had filed an NOD I might have had a chance at a higher rating if they even read my doctor's report. My Doc was frustrated because he wrote a good report on a VA form that is not longer in use just for private medical opinions. Also, the VA changed certain rules right in the middle of my claim that set me back. I suffered from ignorance of the VA system. Since that time I have won a CUE claim on my "S" award. My lawyer is still trying to come up with another attack. He invested 8 years in this thing as well. The part about them sending my appeal rights to the correct address and returning them as "addressee unknown". How can you know your rights to file an appeal if you never get them? This was not an issue in original CUE since we did not even know the VA did this. I don't stay awake worrying about it. I got lucky with some investments I made years ago so money is not the object although I would not mind half a million in retro pay. What I do know is the technicalities in VA claims are more important than the substance. Human beings are not deciding your claim. Adding machines and cash registers make the decisions. I know I got screwed from a moral perspective but that is a big club membership for vets of my generation. I do think that in my day you had to be stark raving mad to get 100% on a mental health claim. One guy I know took PCP and the Navy discharged him as being psychotic and the VA agreed and he has received 100% for almost 50 years. In fact it ruined his life. He just sat and got stoned for the rest of his days. John

After more than 8 years of appeals I lost my CUE appeal at the Federal Court yesterday. My lawyer did stick by me all those years. Perhaps if he knew more at the time he would have told me we would lose eventually. It was a long shot, but I learned a lot. I did learn that regardless of the reason if you do not file a NOD within one year of a decision no matter how bad it is, or how flawed you will lose 95% of the time. Even if the VA sends your decision to Outer Mongolia and you never get your appeal rights you will lose if you don't appeal in a timely way. For all you vets and spouses out there if you get a decision and it is not all you want file an appeal on time. John

VA once used my IME from a dentist to deny my mental health increase claim. I had a dental claim and a mental health claim going at the same time and they got the IME's mixed up and used the wrong IME's in both cases. They could not recognize the difference between a dentist and a psychiatrist. After you file your claim you must somehow stay on top of it or the VA may totally screw it up. Just filing it correctly is notenough. After I filed the claim I would ask to view my C-File even if it slows in down a pace. Your DRO hearing may have morphed into a BVA claim while you slept. It happened to me. Add 3-4 years t o to your claim. John

Hey, the Tampa VA refused to do implants for me. I spent 17 thousand dollars out of my own pocket. I then made a claim with the VA Fee Base Office for the 17 grand. I have yet to hear anything back from them . The Tampa dental clinic at the VA is a joke. The most incompetent dentist I ever saw. They could not even do a crown or filing correctly. The crown they did failed as did the filing. Then I got fee base and they sent me to a crooked dentist who wanted to crown every tooth in my head. Now I just go to my regular private dentist and I eat the cost. I would not risk some infection or horrible pain just to save a buck. It is like going to a dental college and getting a dentist in training to experiment on your one and only set of teeth. I got dental insurance and I am not sure about that since the dentists still see it as an opportunity to run up the costs. If you find a good dentist stick with him/her. Many of these dental clinics are just big business and see gold in your mouth. Sad but true. John

I do think the fact they sent your C&P to the same doctor who mishandled the first C&P exam is the basis for an appeal. The thing is I think you should get an IME/IMO. You can go round and round with VA C&P exams. I appealed a claim based on a biased exam and two years later I got an even worse exam from the VA. Then I wised up and hired my own doctor. I would never trust the VA alone to give a good exam. John

I used an attorney from the day I filed my first NOD back in 2005. My attorney was at all my hearings up to the federal court. We both thought it was a slam dunk. How wrong we were. RSG, your CUE is really strong it seems to me. The VA clearly made a gross error in your case. It is the kind of glaring error that qualifies as a CUE. In my case they made a gross error, but the system allowed them to cover their butts. I think that even if you get initial low ball staged ratings you will get a good pay day. If your lawyer does not want to fight you can pay him off and fight for a higher staged rating.

I have a CUE claim that is at the federal court right now. It originated in 1972 when the VA did not include my private doctor's report in the rating decision. My doctor said I was 100% disabled in 197,2 and the VA said I was just 10% disabled. I failed to file my NOD on time due to the fact the VA sent my decision and appeal rights to the wrong address. The CAVC relied on the rules before 1990 that assumed that all evidence in the record was carefully considered by the VA before they made a decision. Well, of course, the VA did not consider my private doctor's records even though he treated me for six months prior to the VA decision. I saw a VA shrink exactly one time for about 10 minutes as an in-patient All my doctor's records, DX and Prognosis were right in the file, but the VA never even mentioned them in their decision. I lost at the VARO, BVA and Court of vet Appeals. I have been fighting this CUE since 2006 and it has been on appeal constantly. My CUE is not as tight as yours RSG . Right is right, however. When it is completely obvious and clear that the VA never even looked at my private doctors records and statements you would think someone would use common sense, but that is not how it works. I had tons of in-patient and out-patient SMR's to justify a higher rating than 10%. I spent two months in a military hospital. I had six months of out-patient treatment while in the Army in 1971. Those records disappeared as did 80% of my medical records. I did not even get a discharge physical. The Army just made one up via doctors I never even saw. I was taking anti-psychotic meds when they Army suddenly decided to kick me out as a Personality Disorder. I never got copies of my records until I filed a claim within a year of discharge. If I had not have done that I would have gotten nothing I am sure. The VA then used the logic of the original 10% rating to deny me increases for 20 years until I got lucky at a C&P exam and got a 30% rating. Eventually, after I started posting on Hadit I got 70% in 2001 and then TDIU P&T retro to 2001 back in 2003 I think. Since then the VA has increased my ratings by 80% including housebound. All my wins were due to Hadit and IME doctors. I was so dumb and trusting. Why I trusted the VA to be fair I don't know? However, congrats on your CUE win and beware the staged rating you may get for the years after 1969. Your lawyer should fight for a higher rating following the CUE. It benefits him in the retro department for you to get a higher rating for those years between 1969 and now. Were you in treatment the last 40 years. I was and am in treatment since 1972. Until I knew how to get a good IMO/IME it did not help with a rating. Even if you just show up once every two months for a mental health med check stay in the VA system. This will help you keep that 100% rating. John

If you had a psychotic break while in service it should be service connected especially after three years of being active. Your main problem might be that you did not file a claim within one year of discharge since schizophrenia is considered a chronic illness. I would file that claim ASAP. What do your medical records say? The army screwed you and should have treated your psychosis and given you a medical discharge.

I used to help a friend with his rental property. He had to evict renters on a monthly basis. They would destroy his property and do all kinds of stuff I would not dream of doing to someone else's property. I think it is a pain to be a landlord even if you live a mile away. If you give the renters a break they take it for weakness and stop paying on time. I remember these tenants who just vanished for two months and did not pay rent. He evicted them legally and we piled their belongings on the curb. They showed up all mad and angry and cussing us. Where were they for two months? After that I knew I would never rent out my property even if I had property to rent. I think if you are a passive rental manager it is ok, but once you start being active then SSD would not like it. It is like the stock market. If someone manages your money and you have income and capital gains no problems. If you were a stock broker yourself .....problem. John

I had a C&P exam cancelled by the VA. Before I could get another exam scheduled they had already denied my claim. I raised hell with them about this and the VA rolled over pretty quick and gave me a C&P and I got my award. The VA is capable of enormous screw-ups.

I used the hot stuff on my back and it seemed fine. That night hours later it started to burn like hell. I had to get up at 2am and wash it off the best I could. A podiatrist told me to rub it on my feet. That is one of the worst ideas in the world. That is like rubbing it on your private parts. The herb Turmeric is supposed to be good for inflammation. Pretty cheap. If you have herniated disc in your neck or back most of this stuff is not really going to help that much at least not in my case. Some live with herniated discs and experience little pain and others are incapacitated. Why? John