Brandy

Hello Bob, Just like you, I have not been here at hadit for a while. I am very sorry to hear about your additional health issues. You were such a big help to me in working on my husband's claim. I had forwarded you information on the decision from the VA and I just wanted to mention that we did not complete the below mentioned form for Housebound Status and we did not request to be considered for it, but the VA awarded it to my husband. As you may remember this was a complete surprise to all of us. They awarded this but denied some obvious SC disabilities. "VA Form 21-2680, Examination for Housebound Status or Permanent Need for Regular Aid and Attendance, should be completed in response to the examination request." If I can help you with anything please don't hesitate to contact me. Brenda

Time, What if the VA facility that the veteran has been going to for years document a medical condition (HBP)that is not SC. Then the veteran claims this condition as secondary to his diabetes that is SC and the VA denies SC. The medical records from the VA shows that they are treating the veteran for diabetes and HBP, going back 15 years. Wouldn't this be a informal claim? Brandy

Stillhere, My husband has an ejection fraction of 39. The C&P doctor had all of his medical records stating this. He is a diabetic with several secondary conditions caused by is diabetes. Basically he was tested for all of the same things that you listed here. He had a below knee amputation on his right leg in 1998 and he has PVD. So he also cannot walk very far because his left leg causes too much pain. When he went for his exam for his heart condition they put him on a treadmill! He had not been on a treadmill for a stress test since he lost his leg and he has had multiple stress tests. They would always just give him the medication for the test. He ended up getting rated 100% for his heart condition. He almost fell off the treadmill because of leg pain. After the test, I requested the results and the doctor's notes and noticed that the primary doctor stated under stress test, he put the word "No". As if to say do not put him on a treadmill. They did anyway. We did not say anything at the time of the exam for fear they might try and say that he refused to take a test. My husband was really worried he might have a heart attack during the test and he has no faith at all in the VA doctor's knowing what to do if he did. I agree with everyone who mentioned taking your EF medical records and possibly a note from your doctor stating that you cannot take a stress test at this time. Brandy

John, In my husband's claim we actually stated that we felt that he should get a retro payment dating back to when he was initially given SSDI, which was 1997. We did not put in a claim to the VA until Dec.2005. They did not award him any retro. However, I do believe the local VA that he has been going to since he got out of the service was aware that he was on disability and not working. They awarded my husband 100% P&T scheduler. They did not grant the TDIU and said the point was "moot" since he was granted 100%. Do you think he could win this retro if we file a NOD? Jangrin, Just wanted to say hello. It's been a while since we have talked. I think with all of your husband's medical issues, he should have been given the 100% also. Thanks, Brandy

It took a little more than 13 months from claim to decision.

Cavman Congradulations to you and your family. I hope you stay around here at hadit. Brandy

I wanted to say thank you all for your wonderful comments. 1968: I don't know if you had an opportunity to read any of my postings regarding my husband's claim, but he was already service connected for his DMI since he was discharged from service. His DMI caused multiple secondary conditions over the last several years. He had to have a below knee amputation and developed CAD and has had hypertension that is still out of control. Along with severe PVD and PN of his extremities and he is in stage 4 chronic kidney failure. We submitted over 650 pages of private doctor and hospital records. We did not have any IMO's, no letter's from his doctor's, just medical records and our own letter's that we submitted explaining what we were claiming and how the conditions were related to his DMI. We also asked our local congressman for assistance in expediting a decision due to our financial situation. Tbird: Thank you, it really does feel like a miracle and that is just what we are doing... getting our financial situation in order. That's why I have not been around hadit too much lately. I have been checking in every now and then. Jangrin: I know that your husband's claim is similar to my husband's. I really hope that you get a decision soon on your claim. I mentioned in my first posting some special thanks to everyone, but I would also like to thank John999, Jangrin and Pete. You also gave me some good advise to some questions I had. Again, thanks to all at hadit. :)

We received a decision on my husband's claim for multiple secondary conditions due to his SC DMI. He received 100% P&T. We are very happy that we finally got the decision after a little over a year since initial claim. They approved some disabilities and denied some others. Overall we are happy with this first claim and will be able to get things straightened out financially. But we do see a few discrepancies that we will NOD. I just wanted to say thank you to all at Hadit. This site has been informative and very important in helping me to understand the VA system. I want to give a special thanks to sixthscents. I filed the initial claim before finding Hadit and after finding this site I received help from sixthscents in responding to the VA's VCAA notice and he helped me clarify what we were claiming using VA terminology. People like sixthscents and other's on this site that go out of their way to help other veterans are wonderful and caring people and I hope that I can help other veterans with my knowledge of the conditions that I have researched and claimed for my husband. Again, thank you all and I will continue to be a part of this site and hope that I may be able to help another veteran. Brandy

Berta, Thanks for the response. My husband was already receiving direct deposits from the VA for his DMI, so I guess they would do the same for this claim. I called a second time to the 800# to make sure I got the same answer about the claim being in authorization. The second time the lady was very rude. I was trying to find out how many authorizations (signatures) it needed. But she just said wait for a letter! So I don't know if they need three signatures or not. I was curious about if it was over 25k also. I would think so since we filed the claim in Dec. 05. I hate to keep calling them, but I would like to find out if it needs three signatures. I read somewhere on a posting that Vike said if the claim needs three signatures it would delay the letter by a couple of weeks. Brandy

Romad, We were just told that our claim was at the authorization team. I see that you were told the same thing on 1/24/07. Did they already award your retro and then you got the letter? Or have you only received the letter so far. Just curious because we were told that we should get a letter in 7-10 days also. Just wondered when and if the payment would be direct deposited or if we would receive a check and when. Glad to hear your claim was approved for all but the IU. I agree with Berta of what your next step is to get approval for IU. Thanks, Brandy

Jangrin, I'm sorry to hear about more C&P exams for your husband. They had all of your husband's VA records and if other exams were needed they should have ordered them when the other's were scheduled. Our claim is exactly where yours was before you received these two letters. The VA told us last week that our claim was ready to be rated and I can only hope that a decision will be made. I don't know what I would do if they came back and ask for another exam. They had my husband go to six exams. As you know he has DMI since the service and we have claimed several secondary conditions to this service connected disease. I have had our local congressman involved since October trying to get them to at least make a decision on his amputation and defer the rest, due to our hardship situation. I know the congressman's office has been trying to get them to make a partial decision because I specifically ask when I call the 800#. They told me that the congressional liaison there at the VA has tried to walk our file over to a rater for the amputation to get it rated right away. The problem was at that time the c-file was not there, it was at the examiners office. I was told that he must have taken the temp file that they keep there when the c-file is out. So I let the congressman's office know this and once the file was returned to a rater I ask them again to walk the file over and make a partial decision. As of now we have not heard anything and I am the same as you, fed up and tired of waiting. We sent them over 650 pages of medical evidence besides their own VA records. Since all of your records were from the VA and not private doctors, I don't understand why they are asking for more exams. When my husband went to his eye and renal exam, the doctor's read the records from the VA local clinic for his eyes and the renal doctor said he was impressed by the amount of information and what we provided to them from my husband's kidney doctor. Each of them based their exam on the records because they were not very old. The other doctor's however, did not care that recent medical records were provided. They made my husband do a stress test on a treadmill. He has a below knee amputation of his right leg and PVD and PN in his left. He could barely hold on to the rails. He only lasted 4 minutes on it. When I got the records from the exam, I seen where the doctor that requested the exam specifically checked "NO" next to "Treadmill". But they put him on it anyway. He almost fell off a couple of times. Well, again I am sorry for the news you received. Have you talked to your local congressman's or senators office? Maybe they can help if you tell them how old your claim is. I think that your claim is older than ours. We were told that our claim was sent to the "Tiger Team and is ready to rate". I guess we will see what happens. The VA has told us that they do not like to make partial decisions and this is one of the reasons we got the local congressman involved. I know they can make partial decisions and do it all the time. A partial decision may hurt us right now, but we need at least some decision because of our situation. Even though right now all we can do is wait, this only makes me more angry and ready to fight. When we receive a decision I am sure we will have to NOD some things and I have other claims as well. I will, in the end, WIN this battle with them because there's no stopping me now. The longer they make us wait the more I will learn about their regs and throw them right back at them. I have learned so much from this board and one particular member that has helped me so much with the process because I still have so much to learn. Take a break for a couple of weeks and then please stick around the board and keep fighting! Brandy -------------------------------

Jangrin, I submitted a claim for multiple secondary conditions to my husband's DMI. Since I have received two VCAA notices. The first one was about 20 pages long. The second notice was a little more precise of the evidence and particular conditions that they needed clarification or more information on. One of their questions even said to provide more information on a particular condition and then later in the letter actually said something like: "It seems or are you claiming this condition is secondary to your service connected other condition?" With this statement they actually told me that the second conditon they had already deemed was service connected because it was one of the new conditions we claimed! I guess my point is that they were asking specific questions about my claims that they were trying to understand. I think sometimes it depends on which office you are dealing with. So far, whoever is handling our claim seems to be doing things by the "book", in supplying us with the notices with info on what they still need to decide our claim, etc. Brandy

My husband recently had several C&P exams. I requested copies of the exam from the VAMC. When I followed up on why I had not received them, I was told that two people had my request. I received one letter referring me to our local VA clinic to get the records, which did not make any sense because I was told by the VAMC that did the exam that all exam records were sent to the main VAMC and that is where I should request them. Then I received another letter that included part of the records requested. Then we went to our local clinic and requested all of the other exam records and they printed them right there for us. But my question is does the VA C&P examiner's have one person that puts all of the information together and puts together a summary to be submitted to the VARO along with the exams? If so, they did not give us a copy of this. I just think something is strange here. It did seem that there was one PN that seemed to be the one coordinating the exams. My husband had a total of six exams. Two of the exam notes did not include a "least as likely" or similar statement as if the report was only read by radiology or someone and did not have the medical credentials to put together a summary to include the least as not or not as likely statement. I was told by calling the 800# that they cannot make a decision without the c-file and that the C&P doc still had my husband's file. It has been about 3-weeks since his last exam. Not sure what's going on. sbrewer, I am a little stunned by the answer you got from your SO. I thought that all veterans had a right to request copies of their exams or their c-file. Of course, if you have pending claims it may not be a good idea to request your c-file as it may slow down a decision on your claim(s). I would like to know the answer to your question as well. WHY WOULD THE EXAMINER ASK THAT YOUR EXAM NOT BE RELEASED TO YOU??? AND, WHY??? ALSO, IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE EXAMS, IS ONE EXAMINER RESPONSIBLE FOR SUMMARIZING ALL OF THE EXAMS INTO ONE FOR SUBMISSION TO THE VARO??? Brandy

Tbird, I'm not using this, but I checked it out. Looks interesting. Spam Arrest also provides you with disposable email sub-addresses, which allow you to receive messages from unknown senders and automated systems without exposing your real email address. This part is nice to keep out future spam emails When you signup for Spam Arrest, you will receive a new @spamarrest.com email address. You can also protect your existing email accounts by forwarding them to your Spam Arrest email address, or by having Spam Arrest periodically poll them. I don't like this part because your emails would be going through their server or possibly they are farming this out using someone elses servers?? Then only your approved emails would be forwarded to you. Spam Arrest uses Challenge/Response technology to keep the spam out. Emails from unknown senders will receive an auto-reply message asking them to verify themselves. Just my opinion, but most people don't like responding to this type of auto reply system. I think they believe it may be some type of spammer trying to confirm their email address is good. When the sender clicks the link in the email, they are taken to a webpage where they are "challenged" to type in a word that is hidden within a graphic or a sound file (for visually-impaired users). Here again, I think fear from users and too much work just to send an email Emails from unauthorized senders are held in your "unverified" folder for seven days. You can access these emails at any time by logging into the the Spam Arrest website, and can manually approve any senders from whom you wish to receive email. This would cause additional work for user or server administrators to clean out. Admin's would need to know who should be approved and who should not before deletion. In your case for hadit, it may be the answer for new registrations for verifing email addresses for you up front so that you can go ahead with the account.

Leroy, That's great news. It's so very nice to see a new posting under success stories. We see so few. Happy New Year to you and your family! :P