john999

When you go for your C&P exam do not downplay your symptoms. You must let it all hang out if you want a correct rating. Like Phil says the VA can't lock you up unless you tell them you have a plan to hurt yourself or others.

Yes,I bet those hearing and knee exams will be swift. When the hearing doctor says "Good Morning" say " Yes, I do a lot of snoring".....Oh,oh Good Morning is what you said. You have to keep a straight face.

You might consult with a Elder Care Lawyer. Those who cannot afford to pay for a nursing home get medicade. My grandmother was on medicade for 5 years in a nursing home. We kept her close so we could check on her frequently. She was a double amputee and she was just old. I tried to get her A&A but the nursing home would have got that anyway. Medicade has a "look-back" period to see if money or property has been transferred. The person going on medicade has to be broke. When it is a couple there are different rules to protect the spouse. They can't force an elderly couple to sell their house so one can go to a nursing home. If the couple has an IRA then that is when you need the Elder Care lawyer. If your father needs to be in a nursing home and you can show he is a danger to himself or others I think you can make the VA find a spot for him. There was no waiting list when they sent him to Vietnam. John

My knowledge and possible expertise just comes from making every mistake possible during the last 44 years in the Army and the VA. As a young soldier you don't realize the military is going to try and minimize anything that happens to you and the VA is going to go along with that. If you knew they were both adversaries from the start then you could try and make sure they can't steam roll you. I did not realize that every time I saw a military medical doctor I was facing the enemy. Same with the VA in the early days. I remember when I was in a military psychiatric ward the main doctor said he could get me out of the army. I am pretty sure he meant a general discharge for some behavior disorder. He was not really going to do me any favors.

Is the VA the only medical care you get? If you can't work try and get SSD so you can get medicare. I would try and get some other medical than the VA so you have a choice.

Jon Your talking about your TBI's and exploding ordinance reminded me of one time in Vietnam when I was standing on top of a bunker watching some soldiers fool around with a 50 gallon drum out in the wire about 75 yards from where I was at. I did not pay them that much attention after a while when I felt impact of an explosion and a big chuck of shrapnel went by my head at a 1000 miles an hour. You can get rocked and killed by your own idiots as well as the enemy. Children love to make things go bang. These cretins were setting up a foo gas bomb and set it off without a warning. I almost became a head shorter. So many friendly fire things happened like that I lost count. You don't get PH for those. You just get dead. John

Jon The IME route is the way I went from 30% to 70% TDIU. Without good IME's I would still be sitting at 30% even though I had SSD and all sorts of proof from Vet Center and VA Voc. Rehab. The VARO had decided that since I had been 30% for about ten years that was all I would ever get. I had enough proof for 100%, but I went for TDIU since I was pretty sure I could get it. However, I had to fight for that as well. To get a high rating for MH issues you have to demonstrate that you are off your rocker. Unless you are psychotic this is hard to do. I can't turn anxiety and depression on and off like a TV. PTSD and a lot of other MH problems show up in your life style. Not being able to hold a job, relationship problems etc. If the exam doctor wants you to hallucinate on demand or break down in tears I can't do it.

I have never heard of a vet at an exam as being described as "attractive". You must have rung her chimes. I never had a C&P that lasted longer than 20 minutes in my life, and I am SC for about ten different conditions. I think you will get 30% or maybe 50%. Next time you get an exam I would try and nix anything to do with life before the military. If the exam doctor wants they can hang you with once sentence about your childhood. You are lucky she did not ask about teenage drinking or fighting. You would have gotten a personality disorder added to your DX. I think the PTSD DX has become the hardest claim to win at the VA. That doctor covered everything from soup to nuts. John

You don't have to take them. I would accept them but if they make you sick throw them away. The VA has the crazy idea that unless you are not on meds for a condition you must be getting better. Now when you have been 100% for 20 years you can just tell them to go to hell.

Did the VA use your VA medical records in your 30% decision? Your C&P exam doctor does not make your rating. The VARO does. Did the VARO consider your VA medical records.

I had discharge review board and got my discharge upgraded from General to Honorable. This was during Vietnam War and I think the review boards were composed of both civilian and military. You can beat almost anything besides AWOL because you can't argue with it. How long were you gone on AWOL? Like JT2 says you need to get on this appeal fast before time passes. I think you can appeal a discharge up to three years after discharge and then it goes to the Board for Correction of Military Records. I did not find them friendly at all. I needed a lawyer for that but I waited way too long.

Ice You were very fortunate in your doctor. Many would have said your condition was pre-existing and left it at that. You had a physical injury. I was thinking more in terms of those claiming PTSD or TBI. You don't want to say your father beat you, or you hit your head in football practice. The VA can twist this around to say your PTSD was pre-existing as was your TBI. Being honest and upstanding is good in church, but not at a VA C&P exam. You are in a game with the real devil when you file a claim for benefits with the VA. You give the VA a string to pull on and they will usually pull it. I had a C&P exam in the 1980's where the exam doctor asked me if I ever argued with my mother? Did I ever get into a fight at school, and did I ever skip school. I said truthfully that I had done all three. I got a DX of sociopathic personality disorder. I was no criminal or sociopath, but the doctor twisted things to look as bad as possible because he had an outcome in mind. The outcome was to reduce benefits to vets. It did not work, but VA still drags up that exam at times.

You might consider hiring a VA lawyer and go for TDIU. Also file for SSDI and if you get denied then hire a SSDI lawyer. You can offload some of the stress for all this.

I don't see the use of an informal conference before a DRO Hearing. The DRO Hearing is pretty informal except they tape it. You want present witnesses and evidence at the DRO. The DRO can horse trade especially if you have some kind of representative with you. You can ask for a Hearing regarding your claim at any time.

Some of these conditions the VA will combine. They will combine all the mental health disorders including the sleep problems unless you have OSA. The hearing conditions will be combined. The TBI, Knee and scars are stand alone issues I think. Make sure they don't try and combine the TBI with PTSD and give you one rating for both. If you are tying to get 100% or TDIU then I would pursue the PTSD and TBI the hardest. The other things will get you an odd 10% or 20% but the PTSD and TBI are probably going to get you the most. How bad was the TBI? Did you have a penetrating head wound? it is all a guess until you have your C&P exams which will give you an idea of what you may get. John

My congressman was Sam Gibbons for many years. This guy was a WWII hero. He jumped behind the lines during D-Day. I think he thought I was a wimp because I was a Vietnam vet. He never helped me. My senator's office just ignored my complaints about the incredibly poor decision I got on one of my claims for an increase. I learned here on Hadit that I needed IME's and how to document my disability and push the percentage. All those congressmen and senators over the years did squat for me. The VSO's were pretty worthless as well. They just took what I gave them and filed my paperwork. No strategy session and no discussion of goals or my work situation. I was at 70% and DAV was telling me not to appeal. I was out of work and on SSD. Fortunately, I fired the DAV and just filed for TDIU and did my own appeals. The IME's are what got me TDIU. No help at all from VA or DAV or congress critters. John

I would not worry about percentage on my rotator cuff surgery. I would worry about getting the best doctor in my area to do it right. If the doctor screws it up you will end up back in surgery or living with a permanent and painful disability. Workers compensation paid me about 60 thousand dollars all told for my shoulder. It was not worth it. My shoulder is weak even though I have done PT on it many times. The surgery made it worse. Sometimes it is possible for PT to heal a torn R.C. if it is not too bad. I tore both of mine and PT and time healed one. John

Yes, if you want to go for an increase down the line. The VA feeds on medical documentation. When you go for treatment at the VA you create tons of documentation. Just never say you feel better. Forget the positive, promote the negative and always say something hurts. If you are getting treatment from the VA for a MH issue you also want to accept whatever pills they give you. You don't have to take them, but don't reject them. You are doing this for the long term. My wife has PTSD from a car wreck. She almost died. She is nervous as hell in a car. She insists on driving sometimes and I pray. John

The VA should send you a letter with the date and time for a C&P exam. This calling on the phone three days before an exam is probably not legal. What if you are on vacation? You miss the exam? When I contact my VARO I use certified mail. The contact us by a phone call or regular mail and if the call or mail does not arrive your claim gets denied. There is such a double standard of us and the VA. If VA says they sent you a letter then the get benefit of any doubt. If you send them evidence and they lose it then you must prove you sent it. We are shit on the VA's shoe. I remember about 2 years ago the VA sent my opiate medications to the wrong address. They swore that I, in person, came into the pharmacy and put in a change of address. I asked them to produce the document I filled out to change my address. They could not, of course, but I was responsible for getting my drugs 10 days late after I went to the VA and it straight. It was all on me and nobody at the VA got in trouble for sending narcotics to the wrong address and losing them. I am the one they wanted to kick out of the opiate program. The VA is a semi-criminal organization. John

NO, it won't screw anything up since depression is part of PTSD. PTSD is an anxiety disorder with depression as often secondary symptom. Substance abuse is also frequently secondary. I would say you hit a homerun. She must have accepted your stressor. I went to a C&P exam with a dx of schizophrenia and came out with a bipolar dx. Hey, I got an increase. As long as the exam doctor says your MH issues are service connected that is the ball game except for the percentage of disability. Now the VARO has the final say on the rating. One of my best friends in Nam got 30% for PTSD. He filed a couple of years ago. I am pretty sure if he appeals he will get 70% since he is on SSD. I filed 40 years ago and I got a DX of schizophrenia(10%) and a personality disorder. Things have changed a lot in these decades. My strongest advice is to never, ever miss a C&P exam.

I was rated 10% in 1973. Due to many circumstances I did not file an appeal. I can tell you I regret it. The VA was very hostile to vets with MH claims in those days. Perhaps I felt I was lucky to get even 10%. I did not understand the system at all. I do not even remember filing the claim. I did not have a VSO as far as I know. If I did they never contacted me. With the evidence I had if the VA had even looked at it I should have gotten a much higher rating. Years later I am trying to CUE that evil low ball rating. I am losing so far. The moral is to appeal every rating if it is not what you think you deserve. Once your claim becomes final you are pretty well screwed.

Is he a Vietnam vet?

Can I ask if you are shooting for 100% benefit? If so then you need a strategy. 10% here and 20% there won't get you there. Are you able to work?

You need an IME/IMO! You will never get anywhere with the VA. Since you do have a rating for PTSD you can get an IME to say you are much worse than just 30%. This is the way the VA often does it. You have to work your way up to 70%-100%.

If you give blood for bloodwork at the VA then their are very strict rules about what they can do with your blood and records. If you sign some release for some organization to use your DNA or genetic code you better read the fine print. HIPPA protects you when you give blood. If VA sells your blood product or uses it for experimentation without your consent they violate HIPPA. The law says you must give consent when the VA or any medical body uses your medical records or uses you for study or experimentation. Years ago the government used poor black men who were infected with STD's to see how they turned out with, and without medical care. They men were never told they had STD. This is a gross example of what can happen when medical science goes wild and government looks the other way.