john999

If you are married put your spouse on the phone and have him/her tell VA that they are afraid because you often stop breathing and then suddenly seem to be catching your breath and you make a lot of noise. That is a sure sign of OSA. If they are wanting some sort of indication you actually have OSA. The sleep study should have shown it. In active duty military they are giving the troops a device to take home and use to show if they have OSA. Cheaper than a sleep study for sure. I know that I still stop breathing for almost a minute sometimes. This is after I had surgery. I used to have the breathing episodes all night and 50 apneas an hour. I felt like walking death. The VA is really resisting service connecting OSA. John

In Florida as long as you are not a felon or have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution by a court you can own a gun. Just because you see a shrink is no reason to lose your constitutional rights. There has to be due process.

Yes, I suppose if you have very young children you need to keep guns under lock and key. I would not tell the VA a thing. What would be ideal to me if I had vey young kids is to have gun in locked box right next to the bed so I could get to it pretty fast. Kids will get to your guns if there is any way possible. I used to take out my old man's pistol and sneak out at night and blast things. I was older but dumber. You need to make it kid proof until they are older. A gun that is under lock and key is not much good at 2am when someone is trying to get through your window. However, a child three years old is too young to have any ability to get hold of a loaded gun. If gun is not loaded what good is it? These are questions you need to think about. If no young children in the house then to hell with gunlocks. You need that loaded gun where you can just reach and get it, and use it if you have to use it.

I think you could get reimbursed once you prove via medical evidence that your eating disorder is the factor that made you pass out and bust your teeth. You need a medical doctor who treats you anorexia to say this I think. Have you had fainting spells before? Once you get the opinion from your doctor that it was the anorexia that caused you to fall then I think you can get the rest service connected and reimbursed. You know you have to connect all the dots yourself via the medical evidence. Example: You are SC for eating disorder. Due to eating disorder your blood pressure dropped and you fainted. Because you fainted due to anorexia you smacked your face. Your injuries are due, therefore, to your SC condition. If there is such a thing as "fainting disorder" you want to get that SC'ed because it is likely to happen again. Have you been to "Slip and Falls" clinic? I went because due to my feet and medications I take I have fallen in the past. They did some tests on me and found I had abnormal gait. Anyway, you just have to prove all the factors of your tooth damage are service connected as secondary to anorexia. I think I would put in a claim at Fee Base for the dental damage. I did it while waiting for TDIU. I spent money on my teeth. I got reimbursed. I used claim for unauthorized expense. This is what fee base told me to do. John

Once you get your rating you might try Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation which I got recently. Doctors at the VA have done this operation. They implant a device in your chest, throat and side that tightens up your throat muscles and moves your tongue out of the way about once every two seconds once you fall asleep. It improved my apnea by at least 60%. Go to Inspire Medical on the internet to see. I am not selling anything. I could not stand the Cpap because I needed high pressure. Every mask I got leaked, made noise and left red raw marks on my face. John

If you have been TDIU since 2005 you should be P&T. I got TDIU and appealed the denial of Chapter 35. I got P&T within a year. I also got a good IME to say I was P&T. I was taking no chances. P&T comes with many benefits and is worth the effort. I got complete property tax exemption, ChampVA and my wife got opportunity to go to school. John

I got a mental health IME that cost me around $300. The doctor used to work for the VA. She hit the ball so far out of the park it has not come down yet and that was 12 years ago. I asked Bash for an IMO for something some years ago about my DMII. He quoted me a price of $3000. I made a counter offer and he dropped it to $2000. I got along without him, but he got back to me fast and I was impressed except for the fee. Now if that fee was going to make the difference between 30% and 100% it would be cheap. John

I made an appointment with a private cardiologist. I think he will want to do a heart cath. Do I have to be knocked out for that? I have had two operations in the last six months where I was knocked out. I am getting a little bit scared of going under too often. However, my mother and father both died from heart disease and my sister has already had two heart attacks. My poor brother has CLL. I believe in preventive medical, so if justified I will do what has to be done. John

Many of these dentists should be wearing a mask and holding a gun. I had one the VA picked for me. She wanted to crown every tooth in my head. She claimed she did deep root planning and scaling when all it was was just a regular cleaning. Damn crook and I told the VA. They are changing me.

It could work but you need medical opinion to say that the primary condition caused the secondary condition in some way. Some are easy like the many secondary conditions related to diabetes. Some are harder where their is less agreement among medical opinion on secondary conditions. For instance, if you have PTSD and claim your sleep apnea is secondary to the PTSD. The best secondary opinion I ever got was from the VA itself. They used to be able to have their doctors do this for you. They had a computer application or document that delivered the best secondary nexus you could wish for, but it was too good. The VA nixed that idea in a hurry. John

If you disagree the a C&P exam the best thing to do is to get your own opinion from a doctor you choose. By the time you get the C&P exam you are usually just a short step from a rating. I was examined by a NPRN for my heart as secondary to DMII. She did not do an exam. She just made wild guesses about my condition. I knew I was going to get screwed. I got some real testing done and appealed the 0% rating I got. On appeal I got 60% due to exams I got and testing I got. I went from 30% to 70% TDIU P&T based on a couple of IME's. I also appealed a rating based on biased C&P exam. It went to the BVA and three years later I got another inept exam from the VA, but that is when I got my own IME's.

ChampVA is better than the care I get at my VA hospital. My wife will get medicare pretty soon and then she will get all her medical care with no co-pays or dedutibles for about a little over $100 bucks a month. ChampVA coordinates with Medicare very well. I have to pay for my medigap policy. I am sure it will cost me $2000 a year. I don't think getting serious care at the VA may be such a good idea. Over the last ten years they have told me I had a stroke, heart attack and that I moved to Maine. All these things are wrong. They have made some really bad mistakes with diagnosing and treating me. I would not cry because I was not able to use the VA for treatment if I had an alternative. Going to doctors and hospitals is dangerous enough. A doctor was direct cause of me getting severe staff infection. It is so common I failed in my lawsuit. The doctors get off scot free when they infect you due to unclean conditions in their office or in hospital. John

I would not let the VA fix an ingrown toenail, so no worries about me letting them cut me open. I had two surgeries in the last 6 months. I am sure the doctors did EKG's on me and I was cleared for surgery no problem. I was not on the cutting board for 8 hours but I was out with a breathing tube down my throat. The heart issue started when the VA did a CT scan on my left leg and found some calcification in the arteries. Since I have DMII I pushed the issue and filed for artery disease. Somehow that got classified as CAD down the road. Heart disease does run in my family so I let it ride, but I spoke to a cardiologist anyway. He said the tests the VA gave me were pretty useless and only the wire into the groin procedure could really tell if I had blockage. That has risks all its own so I declined. John

My VA has me as having had a heart attack and yet I have never seen a cardiologist. Try and see a neurosurgeon at the VA or even an orthopod and suddenly every one is out to lunch. I am glad I have private insurance. I cannot remember seeing a specialist for any of my 8 SC conditions even the ones that may kill me. I had cataracts done on Medicare. Foot surgery done at private hospital on my dime. I am asking for CT scan with contrast for my neck and my PCP says it is going to be hard to get the VA to do it. I can't get MRI due to implant in my chest. My neck and feet and lower back all have nerve issues and all I get is pain killers. I actually want to know what is wrong with me. Maybe I should forget about the VA then, right? John

I had Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation surgery. It is being done at the VA in some places. It is expensive so maybe the VA will drag their feet. John

I had Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation therapy surgery. The VA is doing it at my VA hospital now. Mine was not done by the VA. I was the first person in the Southeast to get it done on commercial basis. I think my OSA is about 60-70% improved. I could not tolerate the cpap and it did not even work for me with lots of pressure. Go to Inspire Medical on the Net and read about it. It is expensive so your VA may not want to do it. John

I went to the VA today for regular visit. They did ECG on me. On the result it said I had inferior infarct. I never have had a heart attack that I know of. I think the VA has mixed up my records again. Once they told me I had a stroke which was untrue. I am going to go to a real cardiologist to get this thing checked. I don't really think there is anything wrong with my heart, but it there is I am going to get a new rating since I am RVN vet. The VA has come up with some really weird findings in the past. I trust them zero percent. John

You are eligible if you have to wait more than 30 days. Since it takes months to see specialists at the VA you should be eligible. How far from VA do you live. Call that McDonald guy. He got on my VA's azz and I got referral for another dentist. I have many issues with my medical care at the VA. I mention then one at a time so feeble minds will not be overcome.

So far no card. I am using fee base already but no card. Well, typical.

Hey, I complained to the new Secretary and I got a call from my local VA. I complained about the fee base dentist they sent me to who made a mess out of a simple crown and tooth cleaning. I am going to change dentists with VA help. Maybe emailing this guy actually works. Get it while it lasts. John

Those in receipt of DIC should get survivor benefits equal to SSA survivor benefits. A spouse should not get 30% of what her 100% housebound vet gets. Spouse should not be reduced to poverty when her/his vets dies. Tell McDonald to increase vet compensation by 50% minimum. The benefit has not kept up with true cost of living. Median household income in USA is over 50K. 100% vet gets less that 40k and wife often stays home to care for him/her. Everyone in family of disabled vets loses income either by taking early SSA or losing ability to give to IRA/401-K. My brother was able to continue working and built up 400K in his 401-K while I was not able to contribute.

Caregiver programs should be for all vets who need it. I know it is just about the money. The VA is waiting for us RVN and vets from previous wars to die. That WWP is the biggest scam in the media. The CEO gets $300,000 a year plus healthy expense account I bet. Many days my wife has to do shopping alone because I can't walk due to pain in my feet. She has eye trouble so sometimes we go places together. I am her eyes and she is my feet. We could use extra money for caregiver since we both need it.

Get an IME/IMO to overrule the C&P exam. This is the only way I ever got a decent rating for a MH condition. Many of the quacks are just anti-veteran and believe they are doing God's work when they try to sever or low ball compensation. They are like trained dogs. The VA likes them because low balls and denials help lower compensation costs which is all they care about.

Assume you are going to have to wait at least a year and then assume you will have to file appeals. This will take years unless you get 100% P&T the first time you file and no other conditions emerge for the rest of your life. If you are 22 years old and are discharged with 100% disability you probably have paid a serious price. Back when I first filed the assumption was a two year wait and a low ball rating. You could pretty much bet you would be appealing for many years especially with agent orange cases and PTSD not being recognized for years after the war. Maybe burn pits or some other as yet unknown disability factor will emerge from OIF/OEF 20 years from now when those vets start getting sick. John

The VA pays a certain amount for travel. Unless you are saving a good bit of that money for a new car you will find that your travel money is draining you. You are not just being paid for gas. You are being paid for depreciation on your auto. If you have to drive 40,000 miles over 10 years to go to the VA for care I hope you save all that travel pay to replace your old truck. I am, of course, inside the 40 mile limit. I do not, however, want to drive through horrible traffic 45 miles round trip to get pool therapy for 30 minutes or some counseling etc. All those things are within 5 miles of my house, but I have to pay for them. Fortunately, I can pay for them. If I could drive interstate all the way without facing horrendous traffic jam I would not mind a 45 mile round trip for "outstanding" care. I don't get "outstanding" care, and one appointment at the VA usually takes an entire morning or afternoon. The VA swore they were going to build a facility a few miles from my house. They were offered the old Ft. Homer Hesterly National Guard facility. They were outbid by a local religious group. Our US government sold a US facility to a religious group because they could offer a large chunk of money and because they had clout. We vets have no clout. None of the VSO's stood up for us. They are too busy supporting the current system because it benefits them.