john999

I live in Tampa but was told I had to be off opiates to use the pain program. I was pressured hard to reduce my opiates, and chose to withdraw from crummy Fentanyl Patches that did not work anyway. This seems to have relieved my doctor's mind, but they won't be happy until I am unhappy. If you have back or neck trouble and don't respond to injections the other real options are dope or surgery. I am not doing surgery on my back or neck until I can't walk or can't hold a cup of coffee. No way in hell would I let VA cut on my back or neck, nor would I allow injections since I had RF Ablation and steroid injections by private doctors and it hurt! These private pain doctors wanted me to come back for more while VA could care less as long as you don't die when they are standing over you with a knife in their hand. My trust issues with VA point towards paranoia, severe, chronic and poor prognosis. I just don't trust the VA at all about anything. John

Navy04 If you have a DX of OSA in service you should be able to get it service connected. If not it gets harder. The military has a way of not making conclusive diagnosis even when they have every reason to DX a soldier with the problem. Even if a sleep study is inconclusive due to problems with the study there should be some DX of sleep apnea based on symptoms and history. What exactly do your SMR's say about your sleep issues

If you are getting opiate medications the VA will share this information with state and federal drug enforcement agencies. They will inquire without your knowledge to see if you are in the state's data base for getting prescriptions for opiates outside the VA. The VA shares information with federal worker's compensation as to your disability and the nature and DX of your disabilities. I think you can assume that your medical information is pretty open to many eyes.

My nurse at the VA has had terrific back and neck surgery. She can't even life ten pounds, but she has a job full time as VA nurse. I mean this woman is in bad shape. I never saw scars like that on anyone's back who was not in a wheelchair. If she can get and keep a job as a RN I bet you could work in an office maybe. If you are P&T I would be real careful about starting a business. P&T means you are permanently and totally disabled. How old are you? If you are over 50 then forget about it. Losing your SSDI and 100% from the VA would be pretty bad at any age over 40 because age discrimination exists. You now have a pension for life. I know being P&T is crummy, but the alternatives to having that rating in place are all around us on the streets of any big city. I talked to an electrician today about a job he was going to do for me. He can't even afford health insurance. If you have medicare and spouse has ChampVa you are better off than 80% of other Americans. Now if I were 25 years old and had a life time of being p&t before me I probably would try to rehab myself, but I would not believe much the VA told me about the job market. If you got rehabbed into a job that requires a license and certificate (like a RN) I would go for that. You want something you can step into like CPA or RN where there is demand. I have two college degrees and I could not get hired as dog catcher because I did not have special technical skills with a BS behind it.

It means you stopped breathing and your oxygen saturation level dropped. Mine drops to 71% at times and I have had surgery for the OSA. I know that I stop breathing for up to a minute. This drives up your blood pressure and is not good. Do you use the Cpap? I had Inspire implant and I still have problems. I am going to get the device adjusted. I may end up wearing a Cpap again but I sure hope not. I had high pressure and it was very uncomfortable. I just could not stand it. I weigh about 245 now which is too much but due to disabilities I don't get much exercise. My cardiologist says exercise is 10% and 90% is what you eat as far as weight gain which is directly related to OSA and all the other risk factors for DMII and CAD. It is easy for VA to tell vets to lose 50 lbs, but hard as heck to do it. John

If you are already 100% a reason to even OSA service connected is that it gets you closer to SMC Housebound which is an extra $300 a month or there abouts. If I had OSA in the service and I had any evidence to prove it I would file for it now before the VA decides to make it harder to get. There are many in congress who feel that many diseases that vets have are just due to age and being fat. If they had their way half of the AO presumptives would be wiped out. Get it while you can. I am going to drill my doctors on any sort of connection between AO, DMII, CAD and OSA. If I can come up with something I will file for the OSA since I am suffering from it and it aggravates the CAD for sure. John

If you earned income is below the poverty line then officially you should not have trouble with the VA or SSDI. However, it may rattle the monster's cage and they may take a look at you. If you earn $100 more than poverty level you may have trouble. You get a pension from FedEx, SSDI and 100% from the VA. Do you need the money, or just something to do to feel useful. I would carefully read the criteria for 100% for PTSD. It says total occupational and social impairment. If you have been 100% for over 20 years you can do anything you want. I do know that VA shares information with IRS, SSA and every one else in town including the DEA. John

Ratings depend on symptoms and on if you have to have bedrest etc. and how often and for how long. I got a little stenosis in my neck and, yet, it hurts like hell. The MRI shows mild stenosis, but it sure isn't mild to me. I am thinking about surgery to fix it because it is disabling to me in many ways "If" that is what is causing the pain at the base of my neck and shooting into my shoulder. The thing with pain is you don't always know where it is coming from, whereas, certain symptoms such as numbness in your arm they know where that is probably coming from. You can have referred pain. The quacks at the VA think the pain in my feet might be coming from my lower back. I don't believe it and I sure would not let them operate on my back to find out. This is why the doctors will hold off on surgery until you have certain symptoms that point directly to the disc in your neck or back. John

I would suggest to wait until you see the decision in writing. I have been told many things by judges and DRO's, but when the actual decision comes out it is different. I hope it is a positive outcome.

I went to a good local private cardiologist today. He says what the VA came up with is probably a false positive. However, since I have risk factors I am getting another stress test. He says only if something shows up would he go for the heart cath. I just happen to have 4 out of five risk factors mostly due to AO exposure one way or the other. I already get 60% SC for the heart from VA. I am not really sure how I got that except CT scan showed calcification of arteries in my left leg, and from there we got to CAD. Hey, it got me "S" so even if it is false positive I am not going to argue with the All Knowing VA. I tell you the VA is wrong often just due to piss poor care and unprofessionalism. If they told me I had a brain tumor and without immediate surgery I would die I would not believe them. I would get a second opinion. The VA was opened up to all vets without adequate funding. They have been running to catch up ever since. Now we all get substandard care. John

Oh, even if I were to come down with malaria 45 years after Nam it would be presumption based? That is interesting. I live in Florida so who knows. Every year people get some sort of insect borne disease which is mild for some and kills others. I forget the name of it. Florida used to be really infested with malaria, yellow fever and all that stuff. DDT did the trick and killed half the bird population as well before they stopped using it. Did we use DDT in Nam? That stuff cannot be good for humans either I think. I guess I was just lucky in Nam because I sure got bit by the bloodsuckers. Those carnivorous rats in the bunkers were the worst since not only did they bite, but attacked snakes. I caught about a 6 foot snake in my bunker and put it in a bag. I carried it back to company area and let it loose near officer quarters. I think it was just a rat snake of some sort. I used to catch snakes in Florida as a teenager both poisonous and non-poisonous. I was dumb as hell, but pinning the head of a diamond back rattle snake and putting it in a pillow case is a thrill I felt all the way down to my toes. John

I have been feeling crummy lately. I am going to see a cardiologist/internal med. guy close by. The VA is worthless to me. They tell me something is wrong with my heart and that's it. No tests, no follow-up etc. I got problems from various injuries and illness, but if I keep using the VA I will be dead. That is how I feel about it. I tell them about insomnia, foot trouble and neck pain and they have nothing for me. All the worry about is me OD'ing on pain meds. No options. VA Healthcare System? What system? John

No matter what big bosses may say to the public there is always ongoing attempts to reduce costs. That is the heart and soul of the VA to reduce costs to minimum tolerated by the public and vets. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are pretty much over so you can expect the worst until people start getting blow up again and their is a flood of wounded coming back to the states.

Maybe the local herb killed the malaria bugs. I used enough of it. John

As a Vietnam vet I wonder with all the bites I got from the little blood suckers that I never got malaria. I mean I was on the edge of a vast rubber plantation and it was wet. I never took the pills they gave us and nobody was there to make sure we took them. I don't think anyone took the anti-malaria pills that I knew. John

You can appeal that denial of Chapter 35 and I would do it if I were you. By the time they review your records for the appeal a year will have gone by with no improvement. That is basis for P&T. Also file for SSDI which will help get you P&T.

I had/ and have dissociative disorder back in 1971 when I got out of the Army. These VA shrinks would not listen to me, and said this guy has schizophrenia. I bet if you had seen a shrink back in the day they would either have said you had a personality disorder or bipolar or schizophrenia. They were in the dark about PTSD. I am glad you seem to have gotten decent C&P. One thing is that the exam mentions mental health problems in your family history and before, during and after military, but that is just for the bipolar. You can certainly have PTSD superimposed on bipolar disorder and it would aggravate an existing disorder anyway. If you get 70% and even if you don't I would file for TDIU if you cannot work. They use the date you file as the date for TDIU. I filed for TDIU when I was just 30% and that was the date they used when I got 70%. The range of symptoms of dissociative disorder can hardly be separated from those of PTSD except for the depersonalization and derealization symptoms which are so weird old time shrinks at the VA thought they were hallucinations which they are not. John

I think that the best thing going to see a doctor at the VA can do for you is to document possible SC conditions. Get the PCP or some specialist to say your condition is service connected in some way. Then file for it. As far as treatment goes it is a joke. VA wants me off pain meds, but refuses any other treatment. I beg for PT....denied. I ask about tests for my neck and feet. My PCP says she will put in referrals but holds out little hope that I will actually get them. What kind of joint is this? VA nurse tells me in private to go see her private neurosurgeon because VA is useless. John

I never heard of reducing taxable income by the amount of disability compensation you get. I get my disability retirement taxed, and my SSDI taxed because I make too much money from other sources that are taxable. I used to be in less than 5% taxable rate but not this year.

If the vet got 10% going back to 1975 the back condition surely got worse over time. Bad backs usually get worse. I wonder about what the vet's back looks like now?

All the construction unless it is going to house totally disabled vets who are very sick or injured is a waste. There will never be enough construction to have the facilities to treat 25 million vets. It is dumb to try when their is an existing health care system side by side to the VA. Make every hospital a VA hospital as far as vets are concerned. Make all M.D.'s VA doctors with regard to treating vets. There would be no shortages or waits. It took me 5 days to get an appointment with a cardiologist in private practice. It will probably take me five months at the VA. This is dumb except they know those vets with insurance will just go get the best care outside the VA. John

I was told by a friend that he dug up drums of AO in Okinawa and took them to be destroyed. He now has Parkinson's.

I got the card yesterday. I will call them on Monday. I doubt it will do much good. All I need them for is pain meds and if they cut me off on those I will them elsewhere. Treatment at the VA raises more issues than solves them. It is supposed to be a "system" yet all parts work against each other. No departments work under one primary doctor who can make things happen. Your PCP can beg to have you seen by this or that specialist but they may deny it. The pharmacy is another matter. I do not live 40 miles from the VA, however, I think I am about to be denied some testing based just on availability and cost. John

Letting vets get private care is the first step in abolishing the entire VA health care system and they know it and fear it. Jobs,jobs, jobs. John

I also need a colonoscopy. I had an endoscopy about 6 months ago. The VA has really messed up my records in the past. There is another guy with my name on my Alpha Team at the Tampa VA. They get our records mixed up even with different SSA numbers. I will also ask my cardiologist if my DX for CAD could cause my OSA. I think indirectly my OSA is caused by my AO induced PN for sure since I have gained weight because I can hardly walk some days and I sit around a lot more than I did before the PN. I am also SC'ed for CAD and I am not even sure I have it. I don't argue because that is how I got "S". With the OSA I just really want to be cured which is why I had the Inspire surgery and implant. John